The Pixar Story

(WHISTLING)

(THUNDER CLAPPING)

(WIND HOWLING)

And make a wish. . .

But you'll be hurt. You'll be killed!

John Henry's dead!

(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING)

ELMER FUDD:
That was the wabbit.

Fifteen puppies!

To infinity and beyond!

NARRATOR:
For the last 20 years,

a group of artists and scientists

have transformed

two-dimensional drawings

into their own

three-dimensional worlds.

BOO:
Kitty!

SULLEY:
Boo!

CELIA:
Oh, Googly Bear.

SYNDROME:
It's Syndrome.

MR. INCREDIBLE:
Show time!

DORY:
Just keep swimming.

Just keep swimming. Whee!

MARLIN:
Dory!

DORY:
Gotta go faster

if you wanna win!

JESSlE:
Yee-haw!

WOODY:
(GASPS) Ride like the wind,

Bullseye!

(HORSE GALLOPING)

JOHN LASSETER:
The art challenges

technology,

technology inspires the art.

STEVE JOBS:
The best scientists

and engineers

are just as creative

as the best storytellers.

ED CATMULL:
We've got characters

that we want to come alive.

NARRATOR:
Transforming the

hand-drawn line

into a new art form was no easy task.

Over the last 20 years,

these artists faced struggles

and the risk of failure

every step of the way.

This marriage of art and science was

the combined dream of three men,

a creative scientist, Ed Catmull,

a visionary entrepreneur, Steve Jobs,

and a talented artist, John Lasseter.

Together they have

revolutionized an industry

and blazed an unprecedented record

in Hollywood history.

This is The Pixar Story.

LASSETER:
Ford's has a bullet nose.

NARRATOR:
The creative force

behind Pixar Studios

and the director

of Toy Story , John Lasseter,

helped pioneer this new art form

from an early love

of bringing drawings to life.

LASSETER:
When I was growing up,

I loved cartoons

more than anything else.

And when I was in high school,

I found this book, this old, ratty book,

called The Art of Animation.

And it was about the Disney Studios

and how they made animated films.

And it was one of those things,

that it just dawned on me,

people make cartoons for a living.

They actually get paid

to make cartoons.

And I thought,

"That's what I wanna do."

Right then, right there, it was like

I knew that's what I wanted to do.

NARRATOR:
In 1975, John applied

to CalArts,

an art college founded

by Walt Disney in 1961 .

John was accepted

into the first program

that taught Disney-style

character animation.

LASSETER:
What they were doing

is bringing out of retirement

all of these amazing Disney artists

to teach this class,

to get this program started.

It dawned on me pretty quickly

how special this was.

NARRATOR:
Among John's classmates

were future

directors Tim Burton, John Musker

and Brad Bird.

Everyone was kind of

on fire about animation.

We didn't wanna leave it

at the end of the day.

And none of us had cars,

so, we were kind of stuck there.

When the teachers went home,

we taught ourselves.

MUSKER:
It was a very collaborative

spirit at CalArts.

Everybody showed everybody their film

and everybody

was kind of their own director.

But it was totally supportive

and you'd get creative ideas

from the other people.

And we all learned as much

from each other

as we did from the instructors.

NARRATOR:
The teachers at CalArts

were none other

than Disney's legendary collaborators

from the 1930s,

known as the "Nine Old Men,"

who taught the essence

of great character animation.

FRANK THOMAS:

We call it the warmth.

We call it

the inner feelings of the character.

It all comes back to their heart,

and then how they think about it.

And all those things.

How does a character feel,

and why does he feel that way?

BlRD:
The Nine Old Men,

these guys were unbelievable masters

of this art form,

and yet every single one of them

had the attitude of a student.

NARRATCR:
As a student, John

immersed himself in everything Disney,

getting a summer job

as a sweeper in Tomorrowland.

ANNOUNCER:
Tomorrowland Station!

All out for the Magic Kingdom.

LASSETER:
Disneyland was

a fantastic place to work.

Everybody was young working there

and it was just. . .

We had a blast. It was really, really fun.

NARRATOR:
And he was soon

promoted

to a ride operator

on Disneyland Jungle Cruise,

before returning to studies at CalArts.

LASSETER:
There's a few times

in my life

I feel like I'm in the right place

at the right time.

And definitely when we were at CalArts,

that was it.

Okay, everybody. Wake up, wake up.

Come on, everybody. Wake up!

NARRATOR:
John animated

two short films at CalArts.

Lady and the Lamp

is about a lamp in a lamp store

who accidentally replaces

its broken bulb with a bottle of gin.

(SPUTTERING)

Oh, no.

(STAMMERS)

My lamps! My shop!

(SOBS)

My gin!

(HlCCUPS)

NARRATOR:
John's second

short film, Nitemare,

is about a boy who sees monsters

when he turns out the lights.

Both films received back-to-back

Student Academy Awards,

an unprecedented record

that instantly propelled John

into the animation spotlight.

JOHN DAVlDSON:
This is your

second year winning?

LASSETER:
Yeah.

ls there a knack to making an

award-winning short film for a contest,

or is this the real world,

could this film make it commercially?

I think it could make it commercially,

because I think

the knack that you're talking about

is basically entertainment.

I think that's what. . .

People pay money

to go see a film that's entertaining.

NARRATOR:
John's success

landed him his dream job

at the Walt Disney Studios.

Hello.

I'm Randy Cartwright.

-And this is Ron Miller!

-Randy, how are you?

-How are you?

-Good to see you. This is Randy.

Great way to start the film!

Well, we're off to a good start.

Here it is, April 9, 1980.

This is the past

to all you folks out there,

and we're gonna go inside

and see what it's like.

Come on. Come on!

GLEN KEANE:
Walking into

the animation building

that was built with the money from

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,

when I came in there in the '70s,

I just sensed this history around.

All of the experience

that had gone on before

was somehow impermeated

into the walls.

LASSETER:
Hi, Glen. How are you?

This is...

CARTWRlGHT:
Glen. Glen Keane.

-Thanks, John.

-LASSETER:
...Glen Keane.

He is our directing animator.

CARTWRlGHT:
Cur cameraman,

John Lasseter.

KEANE:
It was so great to meet John.

There was this immediate

sharing of information

of your passion

and excitement for animation,

and he knew a lot about the history

and the past.

NARRATOR:
As his first animation

at Disney,

John handled

the introduction of a lead character

in the 1981

teature The Fox and the Hound.

Together, John and Glen collaborated

on the climactic fight scene.

But increasing budget cutbacks

had severely limited

the multi-plane dimensional look

Walt Disney had achieved

decades earlier.

KEANE:
Animation was really at a point

where it seemed like it was

a dying art form.

All of the richness and the atmosphere

was budgeted out of our films,

and it was so frustrating.

(BUZZING)

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