John Lasseter Quotes (29 Quotes)


    We make the kind of movies we like to watch. I love to laugh. I love to be amazed by how beautiful it is. But I also love to be moved to tears. There's lots of heart in our films.

    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.

    A simple rule of thumb is that the more geometric something is, ... the easier it is to reproduce on a computer. The more organic something is, the more difficult it is to reproduce on computer. And so, hence, 'Toy Story' was the perfect story for our first film -- man-made world, man-made environment, flat floors. 'A Bug's Life,' there is nothing geometric about this movie.

    Animation is the one type of movie that really does play for the entire audience. Our challenge is to make stories that connect for kids and adults.

    I am so proud to be part of this company... again.


    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.

    The level of detail, the patina on the road, the peeling paint, the dirt - everything looks so real.

    The press always tends to say these companies are competitors. They are missing the point. As a fan, I want to help the industry. I would love for every studio to produce a blockbuster so we can get more talented people in the industry. Competition to us is when a family walks up to the multiplex and all those titles are up there. I want everyone to be successful.

    Walt Disney had always tried to get more dimension in his animation and when I saw these tapes, I thought, This is it! This is what Walt was waiting for! But when I looked around, nobody at the studio at the time was even halfway interested in it.

    I realized that people make cartoons for a living. It had never dawned on me that you could do this as a career.

    I have loved automobiles and the world of racing for a long time and 'Cars' is a very personal story to me. This premiere event is the perfect way to debut our film to racing and movie enthusiasts.

    You cannot base a whole movie on just the imagery alone. It has to be the story and the characters.

    I've got Disney blood running through my veins.

    I never understood why you wouldn't start designing a ride when you start making a film so two months after a film comes out you have a ride. I promise you we are not only going to make great motion pictures we are going to make great rides.

    Never in the history of cinema has a medium entertained an audience. It's what you do with the medium.

    The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.

    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.

    In dire economic times, movies are relatively inexpensive entertainment for the whole family.

    I promise you we will make films that entertain you the moment the lights go down. We're making Disney the one place you have to work (as an animator).

    He has been a tremendous influence on my career and on most animators and animation directors around the world.

    I had been working nonstop through the '90s ... and my wife Nancy said, 'Be careful, your boys may go off to college and you will have missed it.

    Soon I learned that the worse the puns and jokes, the funnier they could be, if you knew how to deliver them.

    There is such amazing talent at Disney. My job is 100% creative, and I am very excited to creatively lead them.


    Animation is the only thing I ever wanted to do in my whole life. I have no desire for live-action or anything else.

    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.

    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.'

    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.


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