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View Full Version : Wizards at Pixar work hard to stand out



BMan62
06-29-2007, 01:42 PM
Link will probably be deleted, but there is a nice article running on CNN online right now about the guys at Pixar.

Comparisons are being made to the early days of Disney Studios.

{Excerpt}Pixar relies on the playbook established by Lasseter's idol, Walt Disney, whose pioneering animation balanced laughs, thrills, chills and characters that audiences embraced as companions.

"We always believe in what Walt Disney said, for every laughter, there should be a tear. We work really hard to find that emotion and pathos," Lasseter said. "By the end, the characters, we know them so well, they're like friends for us. Like fellow Pixarians. They're so real to us, partly because they are us."

Pixar now is bringing Uncle Walt's storytelling philosophy home to roost at the Walt Disney Co., whose animation efforts had floundered in recent years under former boss Michael Eisner.

Tensions between Eisner and Pixar management had threatened to end Disney's distribution deal for Pixar films. Instead, after Bob Iger took over at Disney when Eisner stepped down, the two outfits patched things up, and Disney bought Pixar.

Lasseter and Pixar colleague Ed Catmull now oversee animation at both companies, aiming to change Disney's executive-driven, profit-is-king approach to cartoon creation to one in which storytellers are free to craft the best films they can.

The approach has paid off at Pixar, where huge audiences inevitably followed because the movies were simply so good.

"It's like the old Disney company," said voice star Oswalt, a lifelong animation devotee. "They would say, 'We don't make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.' That's the attitude at Pixar.
{End Excerpt}


Link:
www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/29/film.perfectpixar.ap/index.html