Cinema: The Wizard Of Pixar

John Lasseter put the joy in Toy Story and the kicks in A Bug's Life

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By the early '80s, however, Disney's animation efforts were looking tired. When Lasseter saw Disney's Tron in development in 1981, with its three-dimensional computer world, he also saw the future. But Disney seemed interested in computers only if they saved money--which they don't. Frustrated, he left to work for George Lucas' special-effects house just as Return of the Jedi came out in 1983. There he developed computer skills that created dazzling effects for movies that were mainly duds. "You'd kill yourself on effects, but no one remembered the films," says Lasseter.

It was a valuable lesson that he brought to Pixar when Jobs acquired the company in 1986. Pixar has since grown from six employees to 400, won 12 Academy Awards, including two for Lasseter himself. While justifiably proud of Pixar's RenderMan technology, which he helped develop and which has helped Hollywood create effects like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, Lasseter is a traditionally trained animator at heart (who lets the whiz kids handle the techno demands of the films). But Lasseter, who is now producing Toy Story 2 for next Thanksgiving, says he has never forgotten that "building great character is the most important thing in the movies. We know someday the technology will be far beyond Toy Story and Bug's Life. But three years after Toy Story, Buzz and Woody live on in people's minds. And that's what we want--movies that live on."

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