Pixar-Story

Watched the ‘Pixar-Story’ with friends last night. If there is a reincarnation of Walt Disney living today, the one who would come closest is John Lasseter, as far as I know.

What really annoyed me though was when they were telling us of how they kept on having to struggle with the Disney Co. John’s dream was to work at Disney studios – but as soon as he presented an idea to explore new ways of creativity, (as Walt Disney cared so passionately about), the top members of Disney not only discarded it because it wasn’t ‘cheap’ and ‘easy-to-do’ but they essentially fired John Lasseter from Disney.
So of course John Lasseter, after this blow, found other investors and snapped up other opportunities to explore this creative potential, but he kept on running into hurdles. However, no matter how down things looked, he and his excellent team and friends were pressing on.
Eventually, Disney wanted him back. They would have his new idea of Toy Story. But superiors told him that they wanted it to be edgy – aimed for adults maybe more so than children. This frustrated Lasseter and his team, but they did as they said. The storyboards they came up with were not well-recieved by anyone – Woody was obnoxious, the plot dragged on and didn’t go anywhere. When John and the team were finally given the leeway to change the story into what suited them best, they felt such a refreshment and relief that they had their freedom to make Toy Story what it was supposed to be.
Despite all the doubts that came in production, they finished Toy Story and it was a storming success.
Lasseter continued on Pixar, making A Bugs Life an incredibly successful 2nd film, (as well as a 2nd big-hit). He handed films over to fellow animation veterens who he knew could do a good job – Pete Docter (Monsters Inc.), Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) and Brad Bird (The Incredibles). A successful run of big-hits, which continues unbroken to this day.
Then more stuff started to annoy me – Michael Eisner in charge, throwing away animation desks and announcing that people ‘had lost their liking for 2D animation and only wanted to see 3D’. MORON! He wasn’t the only one, of course – in Dreamworks and other companies, the general consensus among the big money-grabbing businessmen at the top who pretended that their minds were for the creative aspect of things were all thinking the same. All the right minds in Pixar, (who LOVED 2D animation), and in Disney Studios knew that this was ludicrous – including Roy E Disney, (Walt’s nephew). They knew that people would happily pay to see a ‘good’ 2D movie. John Lasseter so wisely quotes: “I don’t know why the press started saying that nobody wants to see 2D animation. What people don’t want to see is a bad movie.”
Thankfully, John Lasseter is head of the creativity department today under the name of a new Disney head who i forget the name of, (but he’s far better than Eisner, thank goodness).

But my thoughts are this – People in the creative business who are afraid of new ideas and put money first in their lives are the ones that hold back creativity and quality. Never stick with what is safe just because it’s safe – go ahead and take some logical anarchy. Be cautious, of course, but be creative, and never stint on quality, and if more people who think like that are allowed to make their stuff we may yet see another golden age of film, television and animation.