John Lasseter

Career

First years at Disney Upon graduating in 1979, Lasseter immediately obtained a job as an animator at Walt Disney Productions mostly due to his success with his student project, Lady and the Lamp. The studio had reviewed approximately 10,000 portfolios in the late 1970s in search of talent, then selected only about 150 candidates as apprentices, of which only about 45 were kept on permanently.

However, after One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), which in Lasseter's opinion was the film where Disney had reached its highest plateau, he felt that the studio had lost momentum and was often repeating itself. Between 1980 and 1981, he coincidentally came across some video tapes from one of the then new computer-graphics conferences, who showed some of the very beginnings of computer animation, primarily floating spheres and such, which he experienced as a revelation.

Lasseter and his colleagues unknowingly stepped on some of their direct superiors' toes by circumventing them in their enthusiasm to get the Where the Wild Things Are project into motion. The project was canceled while being pitched to two of Lasseter's supervisors, animation administrator Ed Hansen, and head of Disney studios, Ron W. Miller, due to lack of perceived cost benefits for the mix of traditional and computer animation. A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter was summoned by Hansen to his office. As Lasseter recalled, Hansen told him, "Well, John, your project is now complete, so your employment with the Disney Studios is now terminated." Wilhite, who was part of Disney's live-action group and therefore had no obligations to the animation studio, was able to arrange to keep Lasseter around temporarily until the Wild Things test project was complete in January 1984, but with the understanding there would be no further work for Lasseter at Disney Animation. The Brave Little Toaster would later become a 2D animated feature film directed by one of Lasseter's friends, Jerry Rees, and co-produced by Wilhite (who had, by then, left to start Hyperion Pictures), and some of the staff of Pixar would be involved in the film alongside Lasseter.

Lucasfilm and Pixar

While putting together a crew for the planned feature, Lasseter had made some contacts in the computer industry, among them Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group. After being fired, and feeling glum knowing his employment with Disney was to end shortly, Catmull inquired about The Brave Little Toaster, which Lasseter explained had been shelved. "Nobody knew what that was but they didn't question it in budget meetings".

After the short CGI film was presented at SIGGRAPH in the summer of 1984, Lasseter returned to Los Angeles with the hope of directing The Brave Little Toaster at Hyperion Pictures. where he made the first fully computer-generated photorealistic animated character, a knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. This effect was the first CGI character to be scanned and painted directly onto film using a laser. Since then, Tex has appeared in some THX trailers.

Due to George Lucas's financially crippling divorce, he was forced to sell off Lucasfilm Computer Graphics, by this time renamed the Pixar Graphics Group, founded by Smith and Catmull, with Lasseter as one of the founding employees. It was spun off as a separate corporation with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as its majority shareholder in 1986. Over the next 10 years, Pixar evolved from a computer company that did animation work on the side into an animation studio. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer. As well as Toy Story, he also personally directed A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011).

He has won two Academy Awards, for Animated Short Film (Tin Toy), as well as a Special Achievement Award (Toy Story). In 2008, he was honored with the Winsor McCay Award, the lifetime achievement award for animators.

Return to Disney

Disney announced that it would be purchasing Pixar in January 2006, and Lasseter was named the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation, the latter of which he renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios.

In June 2007, Catmull and Lasseter were given control of Disneytoon Studios, a division of Walt Disney Animation Studios housed in a separate facility in Glendale. As president and chief creative officer, respectively, they have supervised three separate studios for Disney, each with its own production pipeline: Pixar, Disney Animation, and Disneytoon. While Disney Animation and Disneytoon are located in the Los Angeles area, Pixar is located over 350 miles (563 kilometers) northwest in the Bay Area, where Catmull and Lasseter both live. Accordingly, they appointed a general manager for each studio to manage day-to-day business affairs, then established a routine of spending at least two days per week (usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays) in Southern California.

Lasseter is a close friend and admirer of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. He was introduced to Miyazaki's work in 1981, when TMS Entertainment sent a delegation of animators to the Disney studio and played a clip from Miyazaki's first feature film, The Castle of Cagliostro (1979). Lasseter was so deeply moved that in 1985 he insisted on showing that clip and other examples of Miyazaki's work after dinner to a woman he had just met (who would become his wife). His last position on the board was as first vice president.

Allegations of sexual misconduct and exit from Disney and Pixar

In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence when allegations surfaced that he had made interactions with employees that made them uncomfortable, which he apologized for and acknowledged as missteps. The alleged sexual misconduct toward multiple employees over a number of years included "grabbing, kissing, [and] making comments about physical attributes". The behavior was alleged to have been so well-known that, according to Variety, at various times, Pixar had "minders who were tasked with reining in his impulses". Lasseter addressed the allegations in a memo to staff, stating, "It's been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable. That was never my intent. Collectively, you mean the world to me, and I deeply apologize if I have let you down."

Skydance Animation On January 9, 2019, Lasseter was hired to head Skydance Animation, a new animation division of Skydance Media formed in 2017. In a statement, Lasseter said "I have spent the last year away from the industry in deep reflection, learning how my actions unintentionally made colleagues uncomfortable, which I deeply regret and apologize for. It has been humbling, but I believe it will make me a better leader." and "[...] there were no findings of secret settlements by Disney or Lasseter to any parties asking for a settlement."

Personal life

Lasseter lives in Glen Ellen, California, with his wife Nancy, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, whom he met at a computer graphics conference in San Francisco in 1985. Nancy majored in computer graphics applications, and previously worked as a computer graphics engineer at Apple Computer. born between and 1997.

The Lasseters own Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen, California. The property includes a narrow gauge railroad named the Justi Creek Railway, which is approximately long, including a train station and water tower Lasseter purchased from former Disney animator Ward Kimball. Their residence has a swimming pool with a lazy river that runs through a cave. Lasseter collects classic cars, such as a black 1952 Jaguar XK120.

On May 2, 2009, Lasseter received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University, where he delivered the commencement address.

His influences include Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Frank Capra, Hayao Miyazaki, and Preston Sturges. Lasseter's favorite film is Walt Disney's Dumbo (1941).

Filmography

Films

Shorts

TV specials Year Title ExecutiveProducer Premiered on 2009 Prep & Landing ABC 2011 Pixie Hollow Games Disney Channel Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice ABC 2013 Toy Story of Terror! 2014 Toy Story That Time Forgot

Long-form limited streaming series + Year Season Episodes Title ExecutiveProducer Network 2024 1 7 WondLa Apple TV+ 2025 2 7 3 6 Apple TV

Documentaries Year Title Role Notes 1999 The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story Himself 2001 Walt: The Man Behind the Myth Grateful Acknowledgement 2007 Fog City Mavericks Special Thanks The Pixar Story Very Special Thanks Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project Special Thanks 2009 The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story Waking Sleeping Beauty 2010 America: The Story of Us Television Docuseries Industrial, Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible Television Special 2011 These Amazing Shadows Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan 2013 Inside Pixar Television Special 2014 The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic Television Special2015 Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman 2016 Imagining Zootopia Special Thanks 2019 Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound The Imagineering Story Disney+ Original Docuseries

Music video Year Title Role Note 2005 "When I Get Where I'm Going" Himself (uncredited) Music video by Brad Paisley

Other credits Year Title Credit 1996 La Salla Special Thanks 2009 Calendar Confloption 2012 John Carter Thanks Firefly and the Coffee Machine Special Thanks 2015 Stealth Special Thanks (with Nancy Lasseter) 2017 Ventana Special Thanks 2021 The Ultimate Playlist of Noise Special Thanks (with Nancy Lasseter) 2022 Lightyear Additional Thanks

Reception Critical, public and commercial reception to films Lasseter has directed as of August 9, 2022.

Film Rotten Tomatoes Metacritic CinemaScore Budget Box office Toy Story 100% (96 reviews) 95 (26 reviews) $30 million $374.4 million A Bug's Life 92% (90 reviews) 77 (23 reviews) $120 million $363.3 million Toy Story 2 100% (171 reviews) 88 (34 reviews) $90 million $511.3 millionCars 74% (202 reviews) 73 (39 reviews) $120 million $461.9 millionCars 2 40% (220 reviews) 57 (38 reviews) $200 million $559.8 million