I separate cartooning, which is fun and wacky and soulful, from illustration, which is very well-drawn and extremely uptight to look at. There’s a difference. I’m a cartoonist.
All the old great companies were run by guys who knew what an animator meant, and guys who knew how to draw. All the companies today are run by executives.
I miss animation very passionately. Not continuously, but every once in a while I would die to do another film.
I wouldn’t leave Disney to do Disney.
You cant second-guess yourself as a filmmaker.
Wizards was my homage to Tolkien in the American idiom. I had read Tolkien, understood Tolkien, and wanted to do a sort of fantasy for American kids, and that was Wizards.
The rise of anime had to happen. If the Japanese could tell better American stories, it would go through the roof. They still tell stories which are very much oriental. I take my hat off to them.
I animated 20 years at Terry Toons. It’s important to know that animators like pizza and a raise once in a while, and you’ve got to treat them with love.
I would like to have the original ending to my Lord of the Rings instead of the one they released. In my original cut I had the victory at Helm’s Deep as the final sequence.
Live action writers will give you a structure, but who the hell is talking about structure? Animation is closer to jazz than some kind of classical stage structure.
I had the X rating on my films. Now they do as much on The Simpsons as I got an X rating for Fritz the Cat.
I am not interested in slickness for the sake of slickness.
Someone’s been mean to you! Tell me who it is, so I can punch him tastefully.
It’s curtains for you, Mighty Mouse! This gun is so futuristic that even I don’t know how it works!
My movies continue to be found and be sold because there’s something going on in them.
Painting pictures didn’t make me a lot of money. I have to eat.
Too many of Disney animators, and a lot try to emulate Disney, are trying to hit what they call quality levels. They’re boring mannerisms.
Sweetheart, I’m the biggest ripped-off cartoonist in the history of the world, and that’s all I’m going to say.
They say I’m a revolutionary, but they’re all wrong.
My good films were independent and my bad films were not.
I’m the first to admit that I can’t be as good as Tolkien, and a movie can never be as good as Tolkien.