John Lasseter's Quotes

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?

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.'

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.

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've got Disney blood running through my veins.

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.

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.

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

I believe in research you cannot do enough research; believability comes out of what's real.

I do what I do because of Walt Disney - his films and his theme park and his characters and his joy in entertaining.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.