>> rose: welcome to our program, tonight john lasseter of pixar joins us for a conversation about the world of animation. >> in 199-- 1996 at this table, you asked a question of him about apple, and he dodged it gracefully, right. the tape shut off, we were done. microphones were taken off. we were getting up and we were leaving the table. turned back to you and he said this. he said, i know how to save apple, but they just are not listing to me yet, and he walked out. and i was like oh, steve,

that's interesting. >> rose: i know. >> but he told that to you in this room, just as we were exiting, when the cameras were off. and it gave me chills. >> rose: john lasseter for the hour next. funding for charlie rose was provided by the following: captioning sponsored by rose communications

. >> from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> this is the part where we blow up. >> not today. >> hey, buzz, you're flying. >> this isn't flying, this is falling with style.

to infinite and beyond! >> rose: john lasseter is here, he is a two time academy award-winning directoring eversees all films and associated projects are for walt disney and pixar animation studios. he's also chief creative officer at pixar which he could founded in the 1980 i, the company created some of the most successful animated shows in history including "toy story"s, cars, and up. >> the it was written that the key to pixar that what it seeks to enact in corporate policy and wt is strifes to dramatize in its art sprang from a common purpose in a single clarion call, you'veot a friend in me. here's a look at some memorable pixar films over the years. >> this is an intergalactic emergency. i need to commandeer your ves told sector 12. who is in charge here? >> our master who wilgo and who will stay?

>> this is ludicrous. >> hey, bozo, you got a brain in there? take that. oh no. get down. what's gotten into you, sheriff. >> you are the one that decided to climb into this -- >> the claw t moves. >> i have been chosen. farewell my friends. i go on to a better place. >> i got you. >> oh, great .

>> wall- wall-e. wall-e. eva.

eva. eve-a. >> good afternoon, my name is russell. and i am a wilderness explorer in tribe 54, are you in need of any assistance today, sir. >> no. >> i could help you cross the street. >> no. >> i could help you cross your yard. >> no. >> i could help you cross your porch. >> no. >> well, i got to help you cross something. >> no, i'm doing fine. >> hey, i know you, you're that feller from car atee demotration. >> i never properly introduced myself. -- fin, british intelligence. >> who are you with, fbi, cia. >> let's just say i'm aaa affiliated. >> the studio' latest movie is call kd "brave" and here is the trailer.

>> i saw something that day, something i'll not forget. >> it stands 12 feet tall, with razor sharp claws. -- for the weapons of fall enwarriors. >> chop, the leg clean off. >> that's my favorite part. >> in accordance with our laws, the first born of each of the gat leaders must prove their worth. meredith stop, a lady enjoys elegance. >> i present my only son, he

took out a whole armada single-handedly. with one arm, he was stealing the-- steering the ship. i want to -- >> but are you willing to pay the price your freedom will cost. >> careful what you wish for my mother would say. >> was's the worst that can happen? >> no more fighting. >> show a little decorum. >> feast your eyes. >> if you have the chance to change your fate, would you?

>> rose: i am pleased to have john lasseter back at this table, welcome. >> thank you, it's so good to be back. >> rose: 25 years. that. >> rose: i had lunch today with george lucas. he sold pixar. >> uh-huh. >> rose: to steve jobs. >> in february of 1986 rdz now did steve know something that george didn't know or was it just something that george just did not have time and didn't want to focus on >> at the time, we give at pixar, we give george complete credit for kind of getting xar stted. what was amazing was in 1979 george lucas red ed-- to come and to develop four projects at the time were thought of as completely nutty. digital film editing, digital sound editing for film, digital compositing of imag, and computer animation. they thoht, people thoht he was nuts to invest the ney in that. 1979 through when steve jobs bought bought the lucasfilm

computer division, they developed those four things. but-- but what george was not interested in at the time in having a computer company, the hardware and software company within his filmmaking organization of lucasfilm. and he sold us to steve jobs who had recently left apple. and what was so amazing about george is that most people would think oh, if i sold a division of my company and it went on to become a big success, they would kind-- would kind of feel like it is a reflection on them, not george. he is so proud of us. we still are vy,ery close to lucasfilm. we do all of our post production with them, he's like our godfather. >> rose: and still going strong. >> yeah. >> rose: so what did steve bring to this? >> steve jobs was amazing. he really saw something in all of us as people. he bought-- we were 40

people at the time. at the time we were hardware and softwarecompany. now he bought us in 1986 for $10 million, 5 million to lucasfilm, 5 million as seed money. over the next nine years, we proceeded to lose money every single quarr, every single month. nine years. he would sit there, patiently writing checks out of his own pocketbook to the tune of a total of $50 million of his own personal money he invested in the compy before he started making money. but he saw the vision of us turning from a computer company into an animation studio with "toy story". and he really guided us to come, become pixar animation studios, the company that we are. nobody else on the planet would have that kind of dedication to us over the long itas unbelievable. and he drove us, it didn't

take much because we all believed in the same thing, that quality is the best business plan. everything, he always said john, the way people feel about our brand, pixar, is the same as he felt about apple. it's like a bank accoun we have the opportunity to put deposits in the bank account the way people feel about our company, by doing a great product, something they really love. or we can do withdrawals, putting something out there that we know is not good enough and still putting our name on to i and if you do too many withdrawals you are bankrupt. and heaid we've got to make every single thing we do has to be great. again and again and again. and we put so much effort into all of our films. every story has to be great. every film has to be great. every product that comes out with our name on it had to be great. >> but was that, everybody asked it a thousand times since his death, was that genius or was that something

else that demand for perfection. >> i believe it's genius. i have never met someone who was so thoughtful with the direction of the future and so brave, you know, and risky, in choosing things. i mean he invested $50 million of his own personal moy in the concept of computer animation. he saw the future that we saw in this. and believed in us. and to me his guidance, his wisdom from the small things, you know, in running our company to the big things of guiding, you know, where we were going, was pure genius, and i loved-- i loved having him watch the films with us in the early stages and gives us story notes. because there were so, so thought. i mean they were always kind of like i hadn't thought of that.

but that's true, you know. he didn't say-- he didn't give me many comments but when de, it was like oh, yeah, that-- that's pretty good, steve, you know. >> rose: how did he see himself? >> he was very humble. steve, you know, steve was, made sure that he was just a member of our team. he did not like to be revered as, you know, a. >> rose: a walking, talking god. >> he did not. he just came n he was very modest. but he was-- he was so good at marketing. he was so far ead of everybody when it came to our movies. he left the technology to ed, he left the create tough me, but then he took and he made sure that all of our films were clever marketing.

d in trying to te it to another level. because the movies were unique. he wanted the mketing to show that. and not be reduced to something feeling like it was, i've seen that before. becaushe knew that our fis were unique. >> here is steve on this program in 1996 promoting pixar. here he is. >> since snow white was released in 1928 which was the first animated feature lm ever, 60 years ago, every major studio has tried to break into this business.e]oé disney was the only studi that had ever made a feature animated film thats with a blockbuster, a hundred million dollars or more in domestic box office. and last december pixar became the second studio in history to do that. so it's a very, very regard i fewed ability-- rarefied ability to make these products and i think pixar is really able to do this quite well.

>> go ahead. >> rose: no, you go ahead, tell me. >> there is a story i wanted to tell you about that inrview. i was sitting right next to him. >> right, exactly. >> in 1996 at this table. you asked a question of him about apple. and he dodged it gracefully. >> rose: right. >> right? the tape sh off. we were done. microphones were taken off. we were getting up and we were leaving the table. and he turned back t you. and he said this. he said, i know how to save apple, but they just e not listening to me yet. and he walked out. and i was le oh, steve, that's interesting. but he told that to you in this room, just as we were exiting, when the camas were off. and it gave me chills. and it's interesting now looking back to what, of cose, when he went back to apple,the-- before he made the final decision, he came

to see me privately at pixar and he asked my permission. i was so touched. because pixar meant so much to him. he asked permission of ed too. and i was so touched by that. he says if you don't want me to do it, i won't. but he said, the reason why i am going back is i think the world is a better place with apple in it. and they're not going to survive. and i was like steve, you have my permission. and he went back. and it's so interesting to see, of course, like the rest is history what he did at that company. and all the amazing products he gave us. but i just-- it's interesting. on this show is when i first heard head been thinking about it. it was fascinating. >> because i pushed him a little bit and he was still recoiling from it too, he did gracefully did avoid it but, and the relationship, some of those things.

>>h-huh. >> there is also this. he paid what, how much did he pay for it? >> he paid for pixar $10 million, 5 went to lucasfilm, 5 the start-up capital. >> and how much is it worth today. >> we, almost six years ago we sold, pixar was sold to disn for 7.4 billion. >> rose: $7.4 billion. and when it was, steve jobs became the single biggest stockholder. >> of disney. >> rose: so you lost a huge friend. >> he was like a brother to me. he was so, he and i were so close. and such, i got to go, i always said, i got to go to work with dad i would go down and visit him at apple and he would take me in with johnny and show me, he would like look around, take off a black silk thing and there was the first ipod. and then it was the first

iphone. then it was the first i pad, and it was just these amazing products. and he would always ask my opinion, you know, of the products and the design and so on. we went and saw the first, you know, interface of the os 10 that looked so beautiful, the interface. i always got such an inspiration from him. and then you know, having him be at pixar all the time and showing him the early versions of all the movies that we were doing and getting his-- his, you know, getting his input. he told me once, we were, when i was work on "toy story", he said john, you know at apple, you watch the life span of a product i make at apple, it's three five years. five years is really like a doorstop. he said if you do your b right, with these animated films, what you do can last forever.

and it was so like did -- -- ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪. >> animation has, if you do your job right making these stories really great, that you can watch again and again. they do last generations in the home. people le these characters. and steve saw that. he saw that potential, that animation has. and he alws had me to aim

high. my first meeting with steve was soon after pixar was purchased. i was just a lowly kind of animator. i was the only animator working at the studio. the animation department was only four pple out of four. it was mostly hardware and software. and we wanted to do a new short film showing off our new technology. and it was starring this little toy called, it was a little tin toy called tinny. and so i had to pitch the story to him. i pitched the whole story to him and he looked at me and said, and it is the only thing he's ever asked of me. he said john, just make us great. and tin toy went on to win the academy award for best animated short film it was the first oscar ever given to computer animation. and he was you very, very proud of that film. >> rose: do i assume from

your experience that 90% of your love forfilm is about animation. >> uh-huh, 100 percent of my love. >> i mean i love film. i love going see films. but i grew up in a family in southern california, whittier, california where my mother was an a teacher. >> rose: is that richard nixon's hometown. >> it sure is. i was going thigh school through water gait and stuff, that was verynteresting. and i, and my mother was an art teacher and i was surround by the arts. and i drew all the time and we have fantastic art departments departments in my junior high andigh school. and when i was a freshman in high school i read i book on how walt disney made animated films. and it dawned on me, wait a minute, people actually make cartoons for a living? that's what i want to do. and i was so blessed to be in this family because my mom always thought the arts was a noble profession. and so i went to, after graduating high school i

went to, in the very first year of the character animation program at the california institute of the arts. and it was this amazing program that taught the disney style of animation where they brought all these great disney animators and artists out of retirement to be our teachers. we didn't really think about it at the time, but we were so lucky because they just taught for a few short years to get the program going. my fellow students in the first two years at the call arts character animation program were tim burton, brad bird, john musskerr, so be o it's all these leaders of the industry now. you know that we were all together. and being taught by these great artist and i realized at the time. and then when i went to work for the disney studio can i was men forred byiolie johnson and frank thomas and woolie, and these great disney animators, the nine olmen. they were right at the end of their careers when they were retiring. and i realized that they at the time loong back, they were handing the torch off

to us. they wanted to keep this art form, that they had developed with walt disney going to the next generation. and they looked at us, as the leaders. and i didn't think about that until looking back, you ow, when i was older. >> do you have some sense in your own brain in the same way that steve could constantly look at something and think not what it was today but what it can can be tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow? and if you do, what is that? what is animation in 20 years? >> one of the things that i have always, you know, and steve and i have always loved is the new technology t is so inspiring to us, and keep pushing it. but what we never forget is the fundamental basics of what a movie is. and that is the story and the characters, and so when you look ahead to where it is going, it's really the technolo, as we develop it at pixar, is always driven

by the nds of the story. now when you look at "toy story", our first feature film t was at the infancy of the medium. and there are certain things we could not do at that time. that's why choosing the subject matter of toys, made of plastic, was perfect for computer animation of the day which kind of made everything look like plastic anyway. the things we stayed away from were the human characters. if you watch "to story", they are really kind of stylized but also, we don't show them that often. now, the human character is something that we're making films with. because the art form and the technology has advanced that far. but 's constantly driving the technology because of what the stories need. every major development, it's like the furse needed for the main character in monsters incorporated, sully, the underwater world of finding themo, human force the first time we used in the incredibles, you know,

on and on and on. we keep developing the technology. cars 2, tremendous advantage in the technology of the amount of detail in the scene. the real world out there, when you photograph it on a camera, there is some of detail and that's what we are used to. that is what tells us aan audience this is a believable world. and that level of complexity is so challenging to produce with a computer and we have made these huge strides with cars 2. when you wch cars 2 it is 20 times more detailed than any pixar film, it's fantastic. so where we're going in the future really depends on the ideas that our directors come up with. >> rose: but it's micking it more real and more real and more real andore real. >> more believable, believable. i like to use the word believable becau i never want to produce a world that the people think really exists. i like to take a step back,

use those photo realistic tools in our ability to make it look real, tack a step back, produce a world the audience knows does not exist, and then make it look as believable as possible so the audience goes i know that's not real but boy it sure looks real. and it's part of, i think, the entertainment of pixar fills. and that's what we pioneered. that is what i fell in love with when i first saw the beginnings of computer animation. it's this ability to create a dimensional, believable world that you can move the camera in and around objects, anyou can get this level of texture and lighting and shadow and reflection and stuff, that on one level looks real but then do it in a way that, wait a minute, cars don't talk like that. toys don't talk like that. fi underwater don't talk like that you know, it's like i know it doesn't exist, but boy, that looks re. >> rose: here's what intrigues me. you know how to tell stories. >> uh-huh.

>> rose: you have this remarkable ability to see the story. you have interest, none, or not much,r not ough, to take some actors and put them on the set, put them on location and tell a story, just for once. >> live action, no. i love animation. i love animation. it's what, you know,-- . >> rose: you came here to do. >> it's what i think i was put on this earth to do. i just love animation. i love the way it can entertain an audience of all agesment and i believe so strongly in that, that we can make these films play for adults. for teenagers, for young adul without ks, as well as children and families. and that's what i love to do. and i think animation is a great medium. i am so inspired by the films of walt disney, you know, of the way the films

entertain me and how now watch them on the big screen, and they're timeless. bambi, dumb bo, my favorite movie of all time. i mean i challenge any parent to watch dumb bo an not-- dumbo a get all weepy when dum goes to see his mom who has been taken from him just because she was trying to protect them am and they didn'tee each other but they can only touch their trunks. -- you know, i mean it's just phenomenal. and it's dumbo. ♪ ♪ baby don't you cry ♪ ♪ baby mine dry your eyes ♪. >> lift your head ♪ ♪ close to my heart ♪ never to part ♪ baby of mine ♪. >> it's, there is a power to the heart of these films.

and it's why i do what i do. you know, in our films. and i-- that's what makes pixar films so unique out there is that not only is it beautiful, and they are really funny and they're unique and unusual, but the all have heart. they make you feel emotional about-- you love these characters. you get weepy. you know, i'm so proud of the first ten minutes of "up" that most remarkable, you know, storytelling, about ten minutes, no words, about an entire lifete ofthis couple together. and it's just, i get-- i still look at it and i get weepy, you know. i get emotional when in finding themo when marlin is saying good-bye to dory who has no long-term memory and she knows that and she realizes, if you leave i won't remember y. you know, the power of these,

these films is when woody in "toy story" 2 is deciding do i go to this museum where i can live forever, but i will never be loved again, or i go home and be loved and may not last another day. you know, that's whathese films are about to us. that is what we start with. as we develop these films is where is the heart of these films going to come from it's what we call the foundation of the story. you can't add that later. you start with that. and every one of our films starts that way and then we add on to it, you know. and it's just-- . >> rose: it starts with what. >> it starts with where is the emotion of the sry going to come from. the emotion comes from the growth of the main character, what does the main character learn. how does he change through this. and how they chge sets up what we call the theme or the lesson or the story, you know, the basic underlying

story of this film, you know. and it is amazing how you n-- you can, we work on that first and foremost. exact something that informs, everything goes on the story. everything in our stories i about the main character's journey. if it doesn't support that main character journey it is not necessary in the film. and everything, from not just the story but t developmt of the characters, the personalities, the way the environments look. the character designs, the lighting, the coloring, the music, everything there is to support this story and the emotion of these stories. and then of course we lay on to that really funny character, the humor in the pixar characters comes from the personality of the characters in certain situations. it's not just a funny line that anybody couldsay. it comes from, from, you know, the personality of the characters. i always encouraged the

directors and the story tellers at pixar and at disney, let's tell the story visually. there was ininding themo-- there was a thing where doori an marlin got a clue that where his son was, and originally it was, it was sydney and they thought it was the name of awhile, they didn't know it was the name of a place. tand was just a word. i kept going can we find a way to tell this point, the story point, this drive, it drives the middle part of the story visually. and so we came up with the idea that it is the mask of the guy who took nemo that fell off the boat and goes down there and it has the address, which was sydney, sydney, australia, on this mask. and so the mask bame a visual representation of that place that they needed to go. and it's what they were able

to follow. and you remember that more than just the words. >> what do these markings mean. >> come here. >> he can't read human. >> we have to find a fish that can read this, look, shark. >> hey, guys, guys. >> that's mine. >> dori, give me. >> oh w. >> are you okay. >> i'm so sorry. >> you really hurt me there, am i bleeding. >> e -- >>out,out. >> dori, are youdzlf;x'?ç+a;q;, that's good. >> and so i am always striving to tell our stories visually. >> you have lost none of your passion. >> no. i love-- i love what i do. i love the artists, you know. it's-- i just think back, we make movies for the kind of vies we like to watch. and i just think back to me as a kid but also as a parent, take my son and my

wife to movies. and just being so, you know, entertained. and that is what i want to do, u know, that is what i give. you know, everybody has their own kind of sense of acmplishment, you know, some opening weekend box officer winning academy awards. to me it is being in an audience anonymously an watching people watch my movies. and seeing how we are entertaining people. the first true experience i ever had of that was about five days after "t story" came out. took four years for me to make "toy story". all of us at pex ar. and i was fine with my family. we were-- flying with my family, changing planes at the dallas fort worth airport. i got off the plane and theres with a little boy, about four years old with his mother. and he was holding a woody the cowboy doll. and it is the first time hi seen one of my characters outside of pixar. and i was so stunned. pie boy, dad, look, look, look. the look on his face.

he couldn't wa to show his father he was getng off the plane his toy. and i realized at that moment that that character that i, with the help at evybody at pixar created over four years, noonger belonged to me it belonged to him. and i, to be honest t is so, it's so much in my memory the look on that little boy's face. i think about that little boy every single day, working at pixar. that's why we do what we do. you know, recently i was in an airport and saw a family and a little boy was, had his lightning mcqueen rolling suitcase. and he didn't want-- no one in his family, you know, he was slow and stuff and they wanted to help. and he had to roll it. it was his suitcase. and it just, it touches me so deeply to see these things. and that's why we do what we do. >> rose: is the audience changing? >> the audience is getting smarter.

it's interesting the thing i've seen in the audience is there-- they're able to-- you know, read things quicker. the pacing of films is kind of sped up over time. but we have always aimed-- we always aim high for the audience. so often when folks make, the studios or people make films for children or family films, theyind of dumb it down and we dot opposite. we believe kids extremely smart. and they will be there. so we always make the films very smart w very smart stories because we want to engage, entertain the audices, sorry, the adults in the audience as well as the kids in a very deep way. and so we always aim high with our stories. so wve always tried to tell very smart stories. >> tell me about brave. >> brave, so excited about brave. it's a complete depar te

for pixar in the sense that it, pixar's first kind of period film, you might say. it's so hard to do this in a computer animation because with a film set in medieval scotland like brave, every object which we have to create, has a sense of history to it. so it's so hard for the computer to do. the computer like its things to be perfectly, you know, perfect. like the bloomberg building, you know. it likes doing things like that. whereas in medieval ottland it's so challenging. it's pick all-- pixar's first female lead character as well t is so exciting. this has got such adventure to it and magic. and also,ou know, i'm so proud of recently cars come out. it just came out on home video. and it was a real labor of love for myself too because my father was a parts nager at a chevrolet manager at whittier, california, ani grew up loving cars. and it is really kind of the

merger of the two sidesf my family, my two loves which is my mom with the art and animation and my dad with cars. and so you know, i'm really proud of them. >> rose: and if the criti don't see it, does it bother you, because you have such an emotion connection to it? >> of course, you know, it does bother me. i don't make the movies for the critics. i do make it for the audience. and they, you know, and the audiences just love all of our films, you know. and we have had, been very lucky with critical reviews in most of our films but some of our films, they just haven't really liked us much as otherilms. and that's okay. i respect their opinions. but we don't make them for critics, we do make them for the auence. >> are you-- you have to-- someone said to me and i don't quite know what they meant, that john lasseter has to give him approval to every creative thing that comes out of disney. that it has to come through you, at some point.

>> disney animation jus just-- disfee animation, i'm chief creative officer of walt disney animation studios. >> rose: so anything that comes out of disney animation you have to say -- >> uh-huh. >> rose: one of the things -- >> i've seen t and it's okayz. >> one of the things that's interesting, it has been about six years since disney bought pixar. and in the beginning there was some discussion as to whether or not disney should keep the disney animation studios, which was at the time wasn't producing successful film and just stick with pixar as the only animation studio. and i really felt strongly that the world would be a better place with this classic disney entertainment, you know n it. because when i think about the feeling i got as i kid and even as an adult from watching the films of walt disney, it's a type of entertainment you don't get anywhere else it is this kind of magic there.

the music, the story, the beauty of it. it kind of takes you away. they are timeless. and i feel like that's what i want to do, you know, bring that back to the walt disney an passion studio. and i think with "tangled" the most recent film we made, i'm so proud of that. because you look at that film. everyo loves that film. it was so popular. but you look at that film, and what studio made that? there's no question it was disney. and th's, and it's very different than pixar. and what's great about both studios are film-maker driventudios. and each group of filmmakers are so passionate about the heritage of each studio, pixar, we were the rels, you know, steve jobs, we did something no one had done before. it's a studio of pioneers. we'r constantly breaking new ground. and just doing something different up in the san francisco ea, away from llywood. and there is sething really special about that heritage.

the walt disney studios, it's still the same studio that walt disney started in 1923,t's never stopped making animation. and so many of the directors and animators are there because of that, they love to be a part of this heritage. and i tell them, i said our, the name on these films is going to be walt disney, not the company, the man we have got to make these films to be, to be worthy of that name. to be great, as great as his films. and that is a tall order. but that's worth shooting for because it's a type of entertainment you can only find with disney films, or going to disneyland or one of their parks. there is a feeling you get. and i love that feeling.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ . >> rose: do they have a universal appeal, every nation, every country country, every part of the world. >> absolutely,oth pixar and disney, and really that is one of the reasons why i like to tell our stories visually. because. >> rose: language is no barrier. >> they are done in up to 48 languages. and i want people no matter which country to come in, the lights dim, i want them to be taken away in our story, and make it feel like it was made for them. regardless of where they are from. and that's-- . >> rose: so each disney animation from pixar or disney an mation has, how

many different languages. >> yeah t depends, every film is slightly different but between 42 and 48 languages that it's dubbed in. and disney has phenomenal organization to do that. i get to hear, it is so great to hear the choices of the voices in all these different languages. they get great actors, great medians doing the voices. >> rose: now when great actors do voices, what does that add to it? does it add recognition or does it add simply something else. >> when we cast a voice. >> rose: you marry a voice tow a character. >> yes. the most important thing we do is we want, we want that voiceo create a character that is so believable to the audience, i don't want people watching our films go oh, isn't that tom hanks. >> yh. >> isn't that tim allen. that takeshem out of the movie. i don't want that i want them to be so, fall in love with this character. and later go oh, who did that voi, oh, that's

so-and-so, oh, that's interesting. you know, because it's about-- so first tng we do is we ll take scenes from different films, you know, the actor has done that matches with the character we wanto do. and we putt, we don't look at the video, we listen it up against drawings of our character. to see if those voices popoff the screen, become the animator in me comes out to where i want to animate. i want to animate this character. and then we'll do what i call pixar non sequitur theatre which we then cut the different characters that we're interested in casting from different movies all together it doest make any sense but we're listening to how their voices sound together. and then we go out and start asking the ackers if they want to be in one of our films. and that's nice is now that pixar has the reputation, they're very excited to to be a part of-- sometimes they say no. but most of the time they are very excited to be a part of this. and on cars 2 recently.

i got to work with sir michael cain and that was unbelievable, you know. he came prepared to work. >> the ultimate. >> i think one of the greate, the greest to me personally is the director was working with paul newman in cars as the doc headso character. and he loved cars. >> he loved cars. he loved racing. he was so passionate about it. he and i became great friends and we would talk. we would-- we would sit in the recording studio and i would just have the tape rolling. and i just wanted to hear his voice and talk, passionately about racing. and i kept going back and rewriting the scenes, you know, we did, because of the inspiration from how he talked about it and so that is correct really is him, really is him. he became so passionate about this movie. and what no one, no one could see was that it was his last film. and i'm so proud to be a part of that.

a chance to get to know. >> yeah. >> is there any sense that, are you fully comfortable with the place that animation had, you know, in our world? >> well, what's interesting is that i believe animation is as good as any film made. in the industry, though, it's always still kind of in a separate category. and i don't quite understand that. because you know, these films they do las forever, you know. these films. and they mean so much to the audience. and i had, when i made "t story" the first film i would do interviews. and i had many journalists say okay, now you've done this, do you want to make a real movie. i go, well, i did make a real movie. well, you know what i mean, no, what do you mean. and so i-- i just-- i have this passion. and i'm very, very honored

to have had up and stoy tory 3 both nominated for best picture. there is only one other animated film, beauty and the beast that did that before that. so we were-- i think it's-- people are -- >> so you live for the day it wins best picture. >> i don't live for that day. i live for the day that i see another child at an airport holding-- . >> rose: come on.'s more about g and what theseilms mean to audiences than the awards. now the awards are great. >> rose: i don't mean at ward per se but i mean in a sense, the coming of-- this is some final sense that everybody understands where we belong in this great spectrum of entertainment. we belong where everything else is. we tell stories. we tell stoes with differenkinds can of elements. >> uh-huh. >> rose: but we tell stories and we show emotion. we want you to feel. we want toyou experience. >> uh-huh. >> re: we want to you laugh, but we really want

you to feel the depth of someone's loss, someone's hope, yes? >> yeah, and and those feelings are for everybody in the audience, from grandparents to young adults to college students to kids, to everybody. and that's what were dedicated to doing. you know, i feel so strongly, you know, that-- and it's why it doesn't have a more is because it is really hard work. it's really hard. we, you know, we work for, on average four year os on a film. we work. >> why does it-- take me through the process. >> yeah. >> rose: from idea. does it begin with a story or does it begin with a character. >> it begins with a story idea, sto notion. what i look for first and foremost is where is the emotion going toe in this story. and then what i look for next is the setting, underwater, cars, toys.

>> rose: tell me what you mean by where is the emotion. >> okay. when we look at a story, i always look for the possibility of the emotion the audience is going to feel and where that comes from is in the growth of the main character. what does the main character learn. and so that is the first thing i kind of look for. and cuently that's like a stoy story was a buddy picture, inspired by one of the great films of all time, the defiant one. >> right. >> and i loved midnight run and the original odd couple, are just, you know, tse are such blliant films. and they each have great potential, you know, for the heart because by nature of a buddy picture the characters growremendously. they start out opposites, and through their experience where they are stuck together, they get to the point where they don't want to be a part. and i say okay, i look at that and i go there is

potential for emotion in that. then we start developing the story, we come up with an outline then we go to a treatment. the treatment once we work and rework that, we then go to a script. we'll do a few versions of the script. and interesting, andrew stanton who is my creative partner, one of my creative partners at pixar, always coined the phrase, be wrong as fast as you can. it's true. every time you take a step to the next phase, first draft of the script is not good. >> right. >> but it's okay. we-- we have -- >> we get there faster. >> as fast as you go. and so now live actio filmmaking, once you get to a script, after they have an approved script they will go out and shoot the covere, at location or on sets. and they shoot all, many different takes of a scene, many different angles of a scene. and all that coverage is then taken into t editing room for post production. we cannot affordnanimation it's so expensive to produce.

we can't do the coverage. so therefore what we do is edit the movie before we start production. after the script we go into story boarding. and we will make a version of the movie using the still story board drawing. and we will put our own voices to it, scratch voices. we'll put temporary music for other soundtrack, temporary sound effects and we can sit back in our theatre and watch these story reels. and we will revise these story reels probably four to six times before we ever send any sequence into animationproduction. and i being chief creative officer, i'm the one that approves things that go into production. and i will nev let a story wheel go into production without it working great, whether it's funny, emotional, action packed, whatever. i want it to be great in the story reels because it's a way that you can predict how the story is work. and i could show you early versions of the pixar films, when they're terrible.

every pixar film has the worst motion picture ever made at one time or another. people don't believe that but it's true. but we don't give up on the films. we kind of rk and rework these story reels. and then we go into production. we then do the stagi with the camera work, then we go, we record the dialogue with the actor. we'll do the animation. meanwhile, all the things that have been modelled that's in the set and the characters have to be coloured. you know, with texture like the wood texture here. and then it's brought together and it's lit. we dot final rendering and then do all the sound work afterwords. so it's a lengthy -- >> and it takes four years. >> it takes four years. it's handmade. everybody assumes that the computer does a lot more than it really does. but these are handmade films with really talented artists, technical and artistic using computers as the tools. >> so when we come ba to talk again where will we be in terms of this. just simply as you said

earlier have more ability to be believable? >> we-- what is the word you use. >> yes, i-- i used real and you said no i don't like real. >> not realistic, it's believable. the liefable world. i always say you have to three things. you have to tell a compelling story that keeps people on the edge of their seat where they can't wait to see what hpens next. populate that sty with really memorable and appealing characters which is so impoant. put those stories and characters in a believableable world. wrand we will be in the future it's hard to say because it's all about the stories. what are the stories w are going to tell. and it's going to take us into places. we have, we have a prequel to monsters incorporated how sully and mike met at college, and thishole new set of monsters that run like anything you've ever seen. the next film we are doing, bob peterson and pet directing which has dinosaurs in t and it is a pixar take on dinosaurs. pete doctor from monsters

incorporated and up, is doing a new film that takes place inside a girl's mind. and it is about her emotions as characters. and that is unlike anything you've ever seen. so it is just, it's hard to describe but i promise you, pixar and disney animation is going to show you things you have never thought of. they are goi to move you. and it's going to open up these new worlds to you, you know. >> rose: i can't wait, thank you john lasseter. >> thank you, charlie rose, some of. -- so much.