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.’
Computers don’t create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.
People who get into animation tend to be kids. We don’t have to grow up. But also, animators are great observers, and there’s this childlike wonder and interest in the world, the observation of little things that happen in life.
There’s never a wrong idea. You just keep throwing stuff out and inevitably there are elements of different things that inspire a character or environment.
Your voice is worthwhile. Have faith in it.
I believe in the nobility of entertaining people and I take great, great pride that people are willing to give me two or three hours of their busy lives.
You cannot base a whole movie on just the imagery alone. It has to be the story and the characters.
If you can think about it, you can create it.
Never in the history of cinema has a medium entertained an audience. It’s what you do with the medium.
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?
I do what I do because of Walt Disney – his films and his theme park and his characters and his joy in entertaining.
Sure, they were simple desk lamps with only a minimal amount of movement, but you could immediately tell that Luxo Jr. was a baby, and that the big one was his mother. In that short little film, computer animation went from a novelty to a serious tool for filmmaking.
Pixar films are not realistic. They are believable for the worlds we are creating.
Directing is one of my favourite things to do because I love telling stories and I love working with the individual artists and it’s something that I really missed.
I believe in research you cannot do enough research; believability comes out of what’s real.
A gem of a short film has a sense of pure joy in animation that is different from anything you see in a feature film.
You need others. Too often people think that being unique means being isolated, and being a great artist means coming up with genius ideas out of nowhere. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
A good part of my leadership skills is crafted from learning from experiences early in my career that were not positive experiences.
Every technology that comes into filmmaking is first a gimmick. Think about sound with ‘The Jazz Singer’ or the first colour or surround sound – it takes a while for filmmakers to understand how to use it.
At Pixar, after every movie we have postmortum meetings where we discuss what worked and what didn’t work.