The Pixar Story Page #8

"and you're gonna have to

"make changes in your

day-to-day routine.

"You're gonna have

to work normal hours."

This is a movie that was already

fully into production.

A lot of it was animated.

It was a bullet train heading

towards a release date.

NARRATOR:
Over a single weekend,

John and his creative team

from the first Tot Story

reworked the entire script.

John came back and pitched that story

to the animation department.

Just in that pitch,

he totally fired everyone up

and inspired everyone

to really do the impossible.

Nine months before

it's supposed to come out,

John threw the vast majority

of the movie out and started over,

which is unheard of.

NARRATOR:
With Tom Schumacher

overseeing production for Disney,

even he knew this was

beyond the studio's control.

LASSETER:
After a while, he said,

"Guys, you know better than I do

"what it's gonna take

to make this, so just go.

"You have no time to wait

for my approvals.

"Just go, go, go, go, go."

DOCTER:
There's kind of

a chemistry with us.

We just spin off each other well,

or build on top of each other.

It's always this core group of guys

keeping each other in check.

We were able to finish

each other's sentences

and take each other's ideas

and heighten them,

and someone else

would heighten it even more.

NARRATOR:
They broadened

the scope of Toy Story 2,

introducing new characters

and special effects,

rivaling those of the best

live-action epics.

The animators were pushed

to their limits.

(BUZZ LIGHTYEAR GRUNTS)

(BUZZ LIGHTYEAR SCREAMING)

(GRUNTS)

LASSETER:
The amount of footage

that was going through that studio

was staggering.

Seeing the work that's

coming out of the animators,

it's actually inspired me as a director.

Give it to a good animator,

"Okay, make this special,

make this funny,

"make this entertaining

for this moment."

Some animators have

the clear character stamps,

like Doug Sweetland.

I was thinking that Woody would be

coming outta the saloon.

Give us something like. . .boof!

LASSETER:
There's reasons for every

single movement he does,

which is hilarious.

He's not, like, looking at her.

He's kind of, like,

looking over her shoulder, like,

"Say, little missy,

seen any trouble around these parts?"

Say, little missy, you notice any

trouble around these parts?

(LAUGHS) Nary a bit!

Not with Sheriff Woody around!

Wait, wait, wait! I got it, I got it.

This is great.

Okay, the bandits got the critters

tied up in the burning barn,

and now for the best part!

"Help us! The barn's on fire!"

"I've got you, critters. No need to worry.

Woody saves the day again!"

RANFT:
You're trying to find what you

would hope the audience would feel

when they're watching this movie.

Every other department is

on board to use the environment,

the color, the lighting, the animation,

to make the strongest

possible statement

that when people are

in a theater they're gonna,

"Wow, this is something special.

"This is something that really

affected me."

Emily was just the same.

She was my whole world.

(WHEN SHE LOVED ME PLAYING)

(SINGING) When somebody

loved me...

RANDY NEWMAN:
I thought it was

a very brave thing for them to do,

to think that five-year-olds would

sit still for three minutes of montage

and a ballad and something,

you know, very sad, really.

(SINGING) And when she was sad

I was there to dry her tears

And when she was happy

So was l

When she loved me

Tim Allen and I actually saw the movie

together at the same time

when it was all done,

and we had an understanding

of what everything goes on.

But then when Jessie's song came up,

we were just 40-year-old men

crying our eyes out

over this abandoned cowgirI doll.

(SINGING) Every hour

we spent together

lives within my heart

When she loved me

LASSETER:
At that moment you know

that no one's thinking

"Well, this is just a cartoon.

"It's just a bunch of pencil drawings

on paper,

"or this is a bunch

of just computer data."

You know. No. These characters

are alive and they're real.

NARRATOR:
Tot Story 2

made its debut

in theaters on its scheduled

release date,

Thanksgiving Day, 1999,

joining that rare number of sequels

judged to be as good as

or better than the original.

LASSETER:
That was probably the

greatest sense of accomplishment

I'd ever had, and I think the studio's

ever had, in their life.

JOBS:
Everybody was so

dedicated to it and loved Tot Story

and those characters so much,

and loved the new movie so much,

that we killed ourselves to make it.

And it, you know, it took some people

a year to recover.

It was tough. It was too tough.

Toy Sfory 2 was the pivotal moment

in this company.

It's when we actually

defined who we were.

From that we learned

the important thing is not the idea,

the important thing is the people.

It's how they work together,

who they are,

that matters more than anything else.

JOBS:
Our business depends

upon collaboration,

and it depends upon

unplanned collaboration.

And so we were just too spread out,

and the groups were, you know,

developing their own styles.

We were growing into several

divisions, instead of one company,

and so the goal was pure and simple.

We want to put everybody

under one roof,

and we want to encourage

unplanned collaborations.

NARRATOR:
With Pixar's facilities

bursting at the seams,

Steve set his sights on

where he envisioned a state-of-the-art

animation facility,

a home for the best artists

and scientists

to create and play under one roof.

LASSETER:
Welcome, ladies

and gentlemen,

to the first annual

Pixar lnternational Air Show!

LASSETER:
The building itself

has helped so much,

because Pixar is its people.

And we maintain the same philosophy

of "an office is an empty canvas,"

and it's so fun.

One of the things that we wanted

to do with this studio

is to grow it so that

we could be eventually

releasing one movie every year.

So that means we have to have

a bunch of overlapping productions.

And so that gave the opportunity

to where, some of my close colleagues,

give them a chance

to direct their own films.

The second animator, after me,

who was ever hired at Pixar

was Andrew Stanton.

And then Pete Docter

was soon after that.

And I knew right away that these guys

are good enough

to make their own films.

NARRATOR:
John chose Pete Docter

to direct the next feature film at Pixar,

a decision that did not come

without doubts.

SCHUMACHER:
I was not

convinced that

he could hold up this weight

without John.

He hadn't done it before.

He hadn't been an

associate director before,

he hadn't been the number two,

he hadn't been a co-director before.

It was really throwing him

into the lion's den.

DOCTER:
My biggest challenge

was that I was

following in the footsteps

of John Lasseter.

To come in and say,

"Okay, now I'm gonna direct this,"

it was a tough act to follow.

SCHUMACHER:
Pete had this

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes