Pixar Animation's chief creative officer: No matter how good the visual craftsmanship is, it's not like a good story

"No matter how much you value visual craftsmanship, no matter how impeccable the visual polish is, it is not as important as a good story." John Lasseter could not only make objects move,"he could give them souls."

Original title: Before John Lasseter opened his brain, what was a desk lamp?| This man has curiosity

. Who is he: John A. Lasseter (1957 -), chief creative officer of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, was the first to make things other than princesses and animals the protagonists in animated films. Starting with Toy Story, 15 films have been produced, with global box office exceeding US$9.3 billion.

Let the desk lamp become the protagonist of an animated movie? Nowadays, you may suddenly think of Pixar's classic small desk lamp shape and animated image. But if more than 30 years ago, someone told you that making an inanimate desk lamp suddenly move, it would not be an easy task. You may be like the old Disney animators, saying: Cartoons are the world of small animals and princesses, what the hell are table lamps and toasters! What is imagination? John Lasseter tells you with a little desk lamp.

Lasseter and his desk lamp Lasseter and his desk lamp

Starting with Toy Story, Lasseter used his imagination to participate in the production of 15 films over a period of 20 years. These 15 films have grossed more than $9.3 billion in box office worldwide, more than Marvel's films from Iron Man 1 to Avengers: Age of Ultron 2 combined. Now, he is the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, and is known as one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.

John Lasseter

John Lasseter But when he first became an animator at Disney in 1979, his life was not so easy. The small desk lamp that later became the symbol of Pixar should have belonged to Disney at the earliest. In 1983, Lasseter suggested to Disney that an animated film called "The Brave Little Toaster" be produced, telling the story of "a desk lamp, a toaster, a blanket, a radio and a vacuum cleaner was thrown into the old house in the forest by the owner, and then returned to the owner after all odds and pains." Disney, accustomed to stories of small animals and princesses, simply cannot understand why table lamps and toasters can become the protagonists of cartoons. What is even more incomprehensible is that Lasseter also proposed to combine computer animation technology and hand-drawn animation technology in this cartoon. Fortunately, there were still people who took a fancy to Lasseter's creativity and pursuit of animation technology and recruited him to his subordinates.

He was approached by Edwin Catmull, who leads a computer animation team owned by the special effects company Industrial Light and Magic that is making special effects for the "Star Wars" movie. The group was later sold to Apple founder Steve Jobs and renamed Pixar. Lasseter's first animation at Pixar was a short film "The Adventures of André and Wally B." In this short film, a robot wakes up early in the morning and yawns and stretches. Rasseter frowned and finished reading Pixar's previous storyboard for the short film."May I make a few suggestions?" Said it was a suggestion, but in fact Lasseter changed the entire mirror. He added the character of a wasp in the short film, and the whole short film turned into when the robot woke up and found the wasp parked next to his head. He was startled and then started a chase with the wasp. You may not realize how important this change is. In fact, when "Breakfast with Andre" officially met the audience, most of the audience were attracted by the chase. They didn't even notice that the short film was actually not completed. Some pictures were not colored, and the character modeling was still rough.

This is the magic of John Lasseter. "I can only make objects move, but John can give them souls." Ed Katum, who later became president of Pixar, said with emotion: "No matter how much you value visual craftsmanship, no matter how impeccable the visual polish is, it is not as important as a good story."

After "Breakfast with Andre", John Lasseter continued to animate his story, also known as "Luxo Jr." and "Tin Toy", two short films, which later won Oscar nominations and awards respectively. With these three short films, John Lasseter once again returned to Disney's attention. Jeffrey Katzenberg, then Disney's third-hand player (now the owner of DreamWorks Animation), told Lasseter in his usual arrogant tone at a meeting with Pixar: "You are the most talented of all of you, and Disney wants to work with you." You know, one of you is Steve Jobs. This way you can better understand why Jobs didn't like Disney at the time and how high Lasseter's status was.

The result of the collaboration between the three founders of Pixar-Ed Kateum, Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter

-Ed Kateum, Steve Jobs, and John Lasseter-was the 1995 "Toy Story", which not only earned more than $300 million in box office, but also sent Pixar directly to NASDAQ-which gave Pixar more say in cooperating with Disney. For Lasseter, the benefit is that there is more room for storytelling. You see, John Lasseter said, toys also have their own emotions, and they are sad when they are abandoned, so there is Toy Story in the world.

John Lasseter added, I wanted to make a movie about the relationship between father and son, and so "Finding Nemo" was born.

John Lasseter also said that there would be another monster world on the other side of the bedroom closet door, so Pixar created Monster Inc. These ideas, inspirations and stories are the most important things John Lasseter brought to Pixar, Disney and Hollywood animation in general.

Pixar's classic character Pixar's classic character watched Pixar become more and more successful because of Lasseter's story, and Disney, who once kicked him out, couldn't sit still. In 2006, Disney obediently spent $7.4 billion to bring Pixar back into its ranks.

John Lasseter now heads two different animation studios, Pixar and Disney, and oversees the production of three animated feature films and about four short films each year.

Editor: vian