John Lasseter
USAJohn Lasseter - Animator, Director, and Executive
John Alan Lasseter, born on January 12, 1957, is an American animator, director, and executive. He is currently the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, as well as the head of creative for Walt Disney Imagineering. Lasseter is also an Oscar winner.
Early Life and Education
Lasseter's father was a manager at a Chevrolet dealership, while his mother was a drawing teacher. It was thanks to her efforts that John became interested in animation from an early age. He would draw his first cartoons during church services at the Christ Church attended by his parents. In his childhood, Lasseter had a deep love for animated films and would rush home from school to watch the latest creation by Chuck Jones.
Lasseter received his higher education at Pepperdine University. This institution was also the alma mater of his parents, and following in their footsteps, John and his siblings chose to attend the same university. However, after discovering a new program at the California Institute of the Arts, Lasseter decided to leave Pepperdine and pursue his dream of working in animation. In 1975, he became the second student to enroll in the new animation course at CalArts. Lasseter was taught by three of Disney's Nine Old Men - Eric Larson, Frank Thomas, and Ollie Johnston. Brad Bird, John Musker, and Tim Burton were also his classmates.
On May 2, 2009, Lasseter received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University. In his speech, he encouraged the graduates, over five hundred of whom were present, to never let anyone kill their dreams.
Professional Career
After graduating, Lasseter joined The Walt Disney Company as a Jungle Cruise skipper at Disneyland in Anaheim. He later became an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation, but this position did not fully satisfy him. After the success of "101 Dalmatians," which marked the peak of the company's achievements, the studio began to decline, producing repetitive projects without any new ideas.
In the early 1980s, Lasseter explored videos of computer graphics conferences, which were just emerging at the time. Seeing the potential, he invited his friends Jerry Rees and Bill Kroyer, who were working on "Mickey's Christmas Carol," to watch his first computer-animated short film, a light cycle race. This marked the beginning of the work on "Tron," a groundbreaking computer graphics film. From this point on, Lasseter fully realized the rich potential of computer animation.
By this time, the studio was using multiplane cameras to add depth to their animations. Lasseter realized that computers could revolutionize animation by creating fully three-dimensional backgrounds, allowing animated characters to interact with unprecedented clarity and depth. He discussed this potential with Glen Keane, showing him the book "The Brave Little Toaster" by Thomas Disch, which he believed would be a great candidate for a test film. Keane agreed, and they used Maurice Sendak's classic children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" as a test subject, as the studio was considering adapting Sendak's works. This project marked the beginning of John's journey to success.
