John Lasseter

Early life

Lasseter was born on January 12, 1957, in Los Angeles, and grew up in the suburb of Whittier. His mother, Jewell Mae (née Risley; 1918–2005), was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School, and his father, Paul Eual Lasseter (1924–2011), was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership.

Lasseter is a fraternal twin; his sister Johanna Lasseter-Curtis, who became a baker based in the Lake Tahoe area, is six minutes older.

His mother's profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation. He often drew cartoons during services at the Church of Christ church his family regularly attended. As a child, Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television. While in high school, he read The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas. The book covered the history of Disney animation and explored the making of Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, which made Lasseter realize he wanted to do animation himself. When he saw a screening of Disney's 1963 film The Sword in the Stone at the Wardman Theater, he knew early in his youth that he wanted to become an animator. He then read Preston Blair's book about animation, and made flipbooks based on Blair's walk cycles. One of his friends had a Super 8 camera that shot single frames, which was used to shoot some of his earlier animation efforts.

Lasseter heard of a new character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts (often abbreviated as 'CalArts') and decided to follow his dream of becoming an animator. His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation, and, after graduating from Whittier High School in 1975, he enrolled as the second student (Jerry Rees was the first) in the CalArts Character Animation program created by Disney animators Jack Hannah and T. Hee. Lasseter was taught by three members of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—and his classmates included future animators and directors like Brad Bird, John Musker, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, and Chris Buck. During his time there, he produced two animated shorts—Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980)—which each won the student Academy Award for Animation.

While at CalArts, Lasseter first started working for the Walt Disney Company at Disneyland in Anaheim during summer breaks and got a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper, where he learned the basics of comedy and comic timing to entertain captive audiences on the ride.

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. In the fall of 1979, Disney animator Mel Shaw told the Los Angeles Times that "John's got an instinctive feel for character and movement and shows every indication of blossoming here at our studios ... In time, he'll make a fine contribution." At that same time, Lasseter worked on a sequence titled "The Emperor and the Nightingale" (based on The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen) for a Disney project called Musicana. Musicana was never released but eventually led to the development of Fantasia 2000 (1999).

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. But it was not until shortly after, when he was invited by his friends Jerry Rees and Bill Kroyer, while working on Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), to come and see the first light cycle sequences for an upcoming film entitled Tron (1982), featuring state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery (CGI), that he saw the huge potential of this new technology in animation. Up to that time, the studio had used a multiplane camera to add depth to its animation. Lasseter realized that computers could be used to make films with three-dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add a new level of visually stunning depth that had not been possible before. He knew adding dimension to animation had been a longtime dream of animators, going back to Walt Disney.

Later, he and Glen Keane talked about how great it would be to make an animated feature where the background was computer-generated, and then showed Keane the book The Brave Little Toaster by Thomas Disch, which he thought would be a good candidate for the film. Keane agreed, but first, they decided to do a short test film to see how it worked out and chose Where the Wild Things Are, a decision based on the fact that Disney had considered producing a feature based on the works of Maurice Sendak. Satisfied with the result, Lasseter, Keane and executive Thomas L. Wilhite went on with the project, especially Lasseter who dedicated himself to it, while Keane eventually went on to work with The Great Mouse Detective (1986).

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, Lasseter visited a computer graphics conference in November 1983 at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, where he met and talked to Catmull again. Catmull inquired about The Brave Little Toaster, which Lasseter explained had been shelved. From his experience at Lucasfilm, Catmull assumed Lasseter was simply between projects since Hollywood studios have traditionally laid off employees when they lack enough productions to keep them busy. Still devastated at being forced out of the only company he had ever wanted to work for, Lasseter could not find the strength to tell Catmull that he had been fired.

Catmull later telephoned Smith that day and mentioned that Lasseter was not working at Disney. Smith told Catmull to put down the phone and hire Lasseter right away. Lasseter agreed instantly to work freelance with Catmull and his colleagues and joined them for a week of December 1983 on a project that resulted in their first computer-animated short: The Adventures of André & Wally B., meant to prove it was possible to do character animation on a computer. After his work on the Where the Wild Things Are-test, Lasseter assumed hand-drawn characters in a CGI environment was the only way, but Catmull insisted it could be done, it was just that nobody had given it an attempt before. Because Catmull was not allowed to hire animators, he was given the title "Interface Designer"; "Nobody knew what that was but they didn't question it in budget meetings". Lasseter spent a lot of time at Lucasfilm in the San Francisco Bay Area in the spring of 1984, where he worked together closely with Catmull and his team of computer science researchers. Lasseter learned how to use some of their software, and in turn, he taught the computer scientists about filmmaking, animation, and art. The short turned out to be more revolutionary than Lasseter first had visualized before he came to Lucasfilm. His original idea had been to create only the backgrounds on computers, but in the final short everything was computer-animated, including the characters.

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. He soon learned that funding had fallen through and called Catmull with the bad news. Catmull called back with a job offer, and Lasseter joined Lucasfilm as a full-time employee in October 1984 and moved to the Bay Area. After that, he worked with ILM on the special effects on Young Sherlock Holmes, 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. Lasseter and Catmull's collaboration, which has since lasted over thirty years, would ultimately result in Toy Story (1995), which was the first-ever computer-animated feature film. Additionally, Lasseter was involved in the creation of THX's robot mascot Tex. Tex made his first appearance in 1996 with the original theatrical release of Independence Day. Since then, Tex has appeared in some THX trailers.

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. Lasseter was also named principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he helped design attractions for Disney Parks. He oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios' films and associated projects as executive producer. He reported directly to Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, bypassing Disney's studio and theme park executives. He also received green-light power on films with Roy E. Disney's consent.

In December 2006, Lasseter announced that Disney Animation would start producing animated shorts – 2D, CGI, or a combination of both – that would be released theatrically. Lasseter said he sees this medium as an excellent way to train and discover new talent in the company as well as a testing ground for new techniques and ideas.

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). He personally met Miyazaki during his first trip to Japan in 1987, and saw early drawings for My Neighbor Totoro (1988). After Lasseter became a successful director and producer at Pixar, he went on to serve as executive producer on several of Miyazaki's films for their release in the United States, and oversaw the translation and dubbing of their English language soundtracks. In addition, the forest spirit Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro makes an appearance as a plush toy in Toy Story 3 (2010).

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." Lasseter went on in the memo to emphasize his commitment to fixing his missteps and his hope to return to working with them in the new year.

In June 2018, Disney and Lasseter announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year, taking a consulting role until then.

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." An investigation conducted prior to his hiring found that no previous claims of sexual assault, propositioning or harassment had been filed against Lasseter, and "[...] there were no findings of secret settlements by Disney or Lasseter to any parties asking for a settlement." In his role at Skydance, Lasseter serves as producer on all feature films, such as Apple's Luck, and executive producer on all series, along with Skydance Media CEO David Ellison.

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. They married in 1988, and have four sons together in addition to Nancy's son from a previous relationship, born between 1979 or 1980 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 2 miles (3.2 km) 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

Reception

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