John Lasseter
32 quotes
Biography
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the principal creative advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering, and has served as the head of animation at Skydance Animation since 2019.
"The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art."
"There is such amazing talent at Disney. My job is 100% creative, and I am very excited to creatively lead them."
"I love movies that make me cry, because they're tapping into a real emotion in me, and I always think afterwards: how did they do that?"
"Every single Pixar film, at one time or another, has been the worst movie ever put on film. But we know. We trust our process. We don't get scared and say, 'Oh, no, this film isn't working.'"
"Today, among little girls especially, princesses and the romanticised ideal they represent - finding the man of your dreams - have a limited shelf life."
"Computers don't create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist."
"My mother was a high school arts teacher, so I was always surrounded by the arts."
"Sunday, for me, is all about being home with the family with no plans."
"'Cars 2' is about a character learning to be himself. There's times in our lives where people always say, 'Well, you've gotta act differently. You should always be yourself.' That's the emotional core of the story."
"I worry about kids today not having time to build a tree house or ride a bike or go fishing. I worry that life is getting faster and faster."
"Art challenges technology, but technology inspires the art."
"I quickly realized that this medium had a lot to offer someone like me. To do Disney-quality hand-drawn cartoons, you have to be a master of two art forms. Seriously, you have to be able to draw like a Leonardo da Vinci or a Michelangelo. But also you have to know movement and timing and control that through 24 frames a second."
"I'm really proud of 'Cars.' 'Cars,' when it first came out, got probably the most mediocre reviews of a Pixar film."
"I loved animation and cartoons, even when it was not cool when you were in high school. I raced home to see the Bugs Bunny cartoons."
"I love Japan. I love the collision of the modern and ancient worlds coming together in that place. It's so high-tech and cool."
"Fortunately for me, I'm married to an amazing woman - Nancy Lasseter - who is wise enough not to let me buy every car I want. If I was single, I would be living in a very small apartment and renting a warehouse full of cool cars."
"Pixar is not about computers, it's about people."
"'Cars' was about Lightning McQueen learning to slow down and to enjoy life. The journey is the reward."
"A good part of my leadership skills is crafted from learning from experiences early in my career that were not positive experiences."
"'Bambi' is an amazing film, and when you watch it today, it's just as beautiful. It's timeless. It's just as beautiful today as it was back then."
"When you really study espionage movies, or spy movies, the beginnings are really set up to have, like, an amazing bit of action, but at the moment you're watching it, you have no idea why or what it's about."
"If you're sitting in your minivan, playing your computer animated films for your children in the back seat, is it the animation that's entertaining you as you drive and listen? No, it's the storytelling. That's why we put so much importance on story. No amount of great animation will save a bad story."
"You never hear of a live-action studio that has been making so-so films looking over at a studio that's making great movies and going, 'Oh, we see the difference - we're using a different camera.'"
"I love French auto design of the early '50s, '60s, early '70s of Citorens, Renaults, and Peugeots. They're so unique."
"The hardest thing to get is true emotion. I always believe you need to earn that with the audience. You can't just tell them, 'Ok, be sad now.'"