Chief Creative Officer for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation John Lasseter is often mentioned in the same breath as Walt Disney when it comes to people who have had the most impact on the world of animation. As one of the founding members of Pixar, Lasseter’s impact on the industry is undeniable. Lasseter’s impact on the world of shorts has also earned the filmmaker high praise from those who love short form stories.
In celebration of Pixar’s commitment to shorts, Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 hit stores on DVD on November 6, 2007. Commenting on the collection, Lasseter said, “I am really exciting about finally coming out with a collection of the Pixar short films because these have been so much a part of the history of Pixar. The early short films before Toy Story came out really shows the evolution and the focus of kind of the history of Pixar and the development of the technology, the development of me as a filmmaker and a storyteller, and then our continued dedication to creating short films after Toy Story and the coming out of, trying out of new talent and continuing the R&D research and stuff. And, for me, I love the short film because there are certain ideas that are perfect for short film that are not necessarily meant for a feature film. And it’s still worth doing.”
Lasseter hopes audiences will get a kick out of each of the films included in the collection. “I hope that they look at them and just are surprised by how funny they are. All I think except one are basically no dialogue. It’s like Chuck Jones said, ‘With great animation, you should be able to turn the sound off and still tell what’s going on.’ And I think they’re these wonderful little gems and they’re really entertaining. It shows also the ability of our filmmakers to be able to, in a very short amount of time - one and half minutes to five minutes and without dialogue - still establish really memorable characters.”
With the popularity of iPods, iPhones, and internet sites such as Youtube, a whole new avenue of distributing and viewing short films has opened up. Lasseter’s excited about these new markets for short films. “That hasn’t been there since the mid-50s and [it’s] thanks in great part to the internet,” said Lasseter. “What’s kind of nice in this day and age with phones and the iPhone and the iPods, it’s really great that a short film is perfect. It’s something you can, ‘Hey, look what I found,’ and you show it to somebody, these little nuggets. …What’s nice is having the tools out there – digital video cameras, editing systems on every laptop – and to be able to post things on the internet. So you basically have the tools to create, edit and distribute movies yourself. It just gets out there. It’s all about the creativity. And again, it’s about entertainment. The things that you go to, you look at, it’s all about which ones make you laugh. I think it’s great. It’s a very exciting time for short films.”
On the feature film front, Lasseter and company are shooting for the stars with WALL-E. “WALL-E is being written and directed by Andrew Stanton but I’m executive producing it and creatively overseeing it,” said Lasseter in response to a question regarding his hands-on involvement with the film. “It is Andrew’s film as was Ratatouille was Brad Bird’s film. But, you know, we surrounded them…in those situations we have what we call the creative brain trust, which is all the other directors, key story people. We take a look at the film every three months or so and give comments. We’re very honest with each other when it’s working and when it’s not working. It’s about making the movie the best it can be. It doesn’t matter whose idea it is. I think WALL-E is going to be really good. It’s our first foray into science fiction, which I’m excited about. It’s a love story. It’s got a lot of heart, but it’s really appealing.”
WALL-E will have a lot of heart, but very little dialogue. “It’s less dialogue with the characters but it’s really fantastic,” explained Lasseter. “The art of animation is about the acting that the character does in the story that you’re telling, whether it’s with dialogue or pantomime.”
Lasseter continued, “The movie after WALL-E is a movie called Up. It’s directed by Pete Docter who did Monsters, Inc. It’s kind of a big action adventure starring an 80-year-old man. It’s got a lot of heart in the story. It’s great. Then we have after that Toy Story 3 directed by Lee Unkrich and Lee co-directed Toy Story 2 with me.”
Fans of the Toy Story franchise will be glad to know Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are going to be reprising their roles as Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Animation fans should also be pleased to learn Disney’s going to be returning to the world of hand-drawn animation with the feature film The Princess and the Frog which is aiming for a 2009 release.
