tonight on "nightline," get whitey. he was one of the fbi's ten most wanted, the mobster whose life became hollywood legend, living as a retiree. tonight, we have the inside story of whitey bulger and his capture. pixar dust. the magic they sprinkle on every film has made this studio into an audience favorite and a box office cinch. so, how do they do it? we will take you inside the most creative office you've ever seen. that's fantastic. and, first lady abroad. a one-on-one interview with michelle obama. she talks about what it was like to meet her hero and what advice she'll give her girls when they fall in love. >> oh, wow. >> announcer: from the global

resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," june 23rd, 2011. >> good evening, i'm bill weir. for years, he was right next to osama bin laden on the fbi's most wanted list. not only was whitey bulger charged with 19 murders, but for two decades, he was the g-man's snitch, shielded from prosecution until he disappeared. last night's arrest of the boston crime boss ends one of the most gruelling manhunts in history, and abc's david wright has the riveting details for our series, "crime and punishment." >> reporter: he was the dillinger of our day. a gangster to wiley that in boston, at least, he became almost a folk hero. only today did we find out what whitey bulger really looks like. a big difference from all those grainy photos from long lenses.

perhaps that's why the bearded bulger seemed to be smiling. captured on camera. right after the fbi finally knocked on his door. a door to a rent-controlled apartment here in santa monica, now sealed off with police tape. >> the arrest marks the end of a long and exhaustive hunt for america's most wanted man, for one of america's most wanted men. >> reporter: today, investigators hold out dozens of boxes of evidence, including more than 60 weapons. they also found $800,000 cash. bulger and his girlfriend catherine greig have lived in this biflding for 15 years. as charlie and carol gasko. barbara lived just down the hall in apartment 307 for 15 years. >> i think he was impatient and full of rage. he seemed so vie leapt. >> reporter: other neighbors described them as friendly enough, but low key. >> they seemed like they did not want to make eye contact.

>> reporter: in boston, whitey bulger is the stuff of legend. the irish mobster. he even won the massachusetts lottery a few years before his indictment. >> everybody knew who this guy. everybody knew he ran the racqurac rackets. but there was a myth. he never hurt anyone that didn't deserve it and the other myth was that he kept out the drugs out. and they were just that. a myth. >> reporter: a myth worthy of a movie. >> makes me curious to see you in this neighborhood. >> reporter: martin score say see based the jack nicholson character in "the departed" on whitey bulger. >> makes me sad this regression. >> reporter: but the real life story was even stranger than fiction. the mob sterp's younger brother, billy, for years, was the most powerful democrat in the massachusetts state house. president of the senate. >> sort of like an update of the old angels with dirty faces story of the priest and the

gangster. jimmy bulger controlled the rackets in that part of town and his brother was own of the most powerful politicians in massachusetts. >> reporter: the fact that the two brothers kept in contact, even after whitey went on the lam, would later prove an embarrassment for billy bulger. a committee put him on the hot seat. >> i know my brother stands accused of many things. serious, brutal crimes. i do still live in the hope that the worst of the charges against him will prove groundless. >> reporter: in another twist of the plot, billy bulger's first campaign manager, john conley, ended up joining the fbi. whitey bulger was his informant, a position he used to eliminate rival italian mob sterps and consolidate his own grip on power. >> he has always conquered and divide law enforcement here in boston so that they were at each

other's throats. that one element of law enforcement, namely the fbi, was perceived as protecting him and was found, you know, beyond any reasonable doubt to have protected him, to have allowed people who were willing to testify against him to be murdered. >> reporter: that fiasco was one reason bulger ranked so high on the fbi's most wanted list. yes, he's believed to have been a major drug trafficker in boston. yes, he's accused of murdering 19 people. but he also embarrassed the bureau. >> he was a killer. he was a person who turned in his competition and he was a person who put the fbi in his pocket. he played them. they didn't play him. and right now, the only thing he has in his pocket is the potential for revenge. >> reporter: bull jerel's fbi handler, john conley was eventually put in jail himself. now, bulger may be in a position to implicate other agents, as well. today in court, bulger answered questions in a thick boston accent and agreed not to

challenge his extradition. he may yet have other cards to play. i'm david wright for "nightline" in santa monica. >> just ahead, if "cars 2" is any good, it will be the staggering 12th-straight blockbuster for pixar films. how do they do it? well, we'll take a tour of their magic factory to find out. [ male announcer ] breathe, socket. just breathe. we know it's intimidating. instant torque. top speed of 100 miles an hour. that's one serious machine. but you can do this. any socket can. the volt only needs about a buck fifty worth of charge a day, and for longer trips, it can use gas. so get psyched. this is a big step up from the leafblower. chevrolet volt. the 2011 north american car of the year.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> when it comes to movies, there's not much that satisfies everyone from toddler to kojer, but with tomorrow's release of "cars 2," pixar will have another chance to prove they do it better than anyone else. after hearing their films are made on a blissful campus on the bay area, i had to go. and now you, too, can understand, what offices look like in heaven. let's start with a not so bold prediction. "cars 2" will make half a billion dollars. at least. that's just corporate cheerleading, you scoff. after all, lightning mcqueen and "nightline" are distant disney cousins. >> oh my gosh!

>> reporter: but trust me. they don't need our help. because at the tender age of 25, pixar is hollywood's most beloved brand and safest bet. >> wow! >> reporter: outside of amish country, good luck finding a kid or parent who can't identify woody and buzz, mike and sully, nemo and -- >> wall-e. >> wall-e. >> reporter: their first 11 films have earned more than $6 billion. their trophy shelf is bulging. and their headquarters should be the envip of anyone who ever sat at a desk. >> it's not an ordinary stat chew -- >> reporter: oh, that's fantastic. can i go in there? we'll show you around in a second. but to appreciate all of this, you must understand that in the beginning of the pixar story, disney is the villain. >> darkest part of my career was being fired from disney. >> reporter: as a son of an art teacher, john was a kid consumed by cartoons.

and when he finally landed a job in the magic kingdom, he was certain he could use computers to tell stories in a way that would have thrilled his hero, walt. but when he directed this test animation of "where the wild things are," his bosses just didn't get it. >> they said, no, it's too -- the only reason we'll do computer animation if it is saves money. it was just like, i couldn't believe it. it was really hard. >> reporter: but he found a kindred spirit in ed, running an animation shop for george lucas. as they began inventing a whole new art form, they attracted some of the best minds in silicon valley, including steve jobs who bought their unit and gave birth to pixar in materially days, they needed every gig they could scrounge just to build the playful desk lap that became the logo. and after a short about the secret lives of toys won an oscar, they signed a three-picture deal with a company that very much gets it

now -- disney. but vindication would only come if they could make their first feature film. >> there was no guarantee we could even make a commercial, let alone a movie. and so it attracted these real purist storytellers and pioneers and the big adventure. >> reporter: the week "toy story" opened, he got a look at the bright future. >> we were changing planes in dallas and there was a little boy standing there with his mom, waiting for his dad, and he was holding a woody the cowboy doll. five days after the movie came out. and my sons were dad, dad, look, look. so, first time i had seen a character i created in the hands of someone else. and honestly, i think of that little boy every single day that i work here at pixar. >> reporter: but it is easier to remember the kids when you are surrounded by gene yulss who never grew up. >> you either have an office or instead of a cubicle, you have the little houses, you can see. so, you can paint them up, do

them however you want. >> reporter: graffiti, fine. a battle of the bands stand? sure. want to put a speak easy behind your book case? go nuts. >> and he's got a closed circuit tv so he can see who is coming, in case you need to get back to work in a hurry. >> reporter: this environment is a vital perk for an may torps who will put in a 70-hour week timing over five seconds of film. could you be as successful if they were all working at home? >> no way. and to your point, the idea of making it a loose, casual place, if you feel too -- i have to button up, then you kind of clamp your brain off. >> reporter: and if they need to blow off steam, there's the switching pool or beach volley ball court. the spa or free cereal bar. >> granola right next to captain crunch. that's pixar right there. >> reporter: steve jobs designed this atrium to get peek to scooter out of their cool offices and mingle. >> what's really fun is to go aggress the bridges, you know? >> reporter: so ideas can cross

pollinate. >> they socialize with each other. they all have great respect for each other. >> reporter: and while they have ph.d on nasa-rivalry software, pixar's secret sauce is the ability to tell a story. take this montage from "up." without a line of dialogue, it tells us everything we need to know about the beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking marriage of carl and ellie. and it is perfect. if you watch that 4 1/2 minute sequence and don't laugh and cry, you are made of stone. would it be as powerful if they were stick figures? if it wasn't the beautiful pixar animation that's on notch top o? >> we never wanted the technology to be the thing that people were interested in. it's a story and it's the characters. like in the opening of "cars 2," there's a totally new system for creating water that is unlike anything you've ever seen. and you look at it and this is

such a massive advance for the technology. i say that people won't notice it, right? but they'll feel it. right? and they'll notice it if it wasn't there. >> reporter: is there a way i can fill out an application? >> yes. >> reporter: really? >> absolutely. >> reporter: you're not going to fire me. there's got to be a 100-year waiting list to work here. there's got to be a 100-year waiting list to work here. >> there actually is. ance? host: would foghorn leghorn make a really bad book narrator? foghorn (stammering): it was the best of times, it was the wor - i say worst of times. and by worst i'm talkin' as bad, i say, as bad as my aunt ginny's corn puddin'. that stuff'll sink you like a stne. engineer: ok that was a little... foghorn: you gettin' all this in there son? i just added that last part it's called "adlibbin..."anyway...it was, isay it was... vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

first lady michelle obama has encountered an overflowing reception in south africa, where she's on a good will tour with her daughters and other family members. one of her speeches was broadcast nationally and she had the honor of a rare audience with a man she called a hero, nelson mandela. here, now, abc's david muir with

the "nightline" interview. >> reporter: it will be an extraordinary summer scrapbook for the first lady and her daughters, 10-year-old sasha and 12-year-old malia. the summer reading comes with an audience of eager children here in south africa, and curious americans back home, seeing and hearing the obama girls as they never have before. >> too wet to go out and too cold to play ball, so we sat in the house, we did nothing at all. >> he should not be here. he should not be about. he should not be here when your mother is out. >> reporter: a careful calculation by their mother, who decide what they're witnessing here is too great to miss. you have so protected your daughters, and admirably so. but when they read "the cat in the hat," there were not only children smiling there, but so many people back home, listening to their voices. >> we cannot pick it up. there is no way at all.

>> reporte >> i'm always proud of my girls. i'm like any mother. i look at them and i think, wow, you've grown up, you are so poised and sweet. so, there's that motherly side of me. but it is still always a balance between protecting them, which is first and fore most, but giving them experiences. >> reporter: they will also leave south africa with a portrait the first lady told us even she could not have imagined bringing home. >> reporter: nelson mandela. >> ae, oh, yeah. >> reporter: what was it like in that room? >> surreal. something that i never thought would happen in my lifetime for me. i'm thinking selfishly, that i would ever have that opportunity. so, it was powerful, because his presence is powerful. >> reporter: what did you say to him? >> oh, i -- i told him, i said, i told him, you cannot imagine

how important your legacy is to who i am, to who my husband is and i just said thank you, thank you, thank you. >> reporter: i'm curious, politics aside if i could ask you personally, if you would like another four years to continue your work as first lady? >> i think there's so much more work to do. we really have just begun to lay the foundation. hard work takes time. so, yeah, i'm passionate about these issues. i want to make sure that there is a footing in them in the same way that my husband does. so, more time would be helpful. >> reporter: you like the job? >> i love the job. i do. >> reporter: and before the first lady left south africa, we showed her a list of questions we discovered from students who ran out of time to ask them. these are the questions that some of the young people had hoped to ask you downstairs. >> okay. >> reporter: what legacy do you and barack obama plan to leave behind.

but i liked this one. what advice will you give to your girls when they fall in love? >> oh, wow. >> reporter: you're about to have a teenager, right? >> oh, yeah. she's there. i would tell all young people, and women, i have girls, what i tell young women is, and i told these young people here, choose people who will lift you up. find people who will make you better. >> reporter: you said the president has made you better. >> yes. >> reporter: and you said, let's just, for the record say -- >> i can't told him that, so now it's on record, so -- >> reporter: and you made him better? >> yes, i think, of course i've made him better. >> reporter: i heard it. that's on record, too. i'm david muir for "nightline" in capetown, south africa. >> thank you, for watching abc news. we do hope you'll check in for "good morning america." they will be liveit