The Pixar Story Page #3

But at the studio

there was a growing fear

that the computer was

going to make animators obsolete.

THOMAS:
I'd say 95% of the fellas

at the studio were saying,

"You'd never get me to do anything

like that, they're ruining everything!"

And I talked to John Lasseter

about the things he was doing,

I said,

"'Gee, if you get that much imagination

"and new types of movement

done on a computer,

"but not by the pencil,

you'll be ahead of the game."

The potential was there at that time,

but no one wanted to do it

except for Lasseter.

NARRATOR:
John and his story team

were given the approval

to develop a script

based on the short story,

The Brave Little Toaster.

It would mark

John's feature directorial debut,

and his own opportunity

to further explore the blending

of computer and traditional animation.

After eight months of development,

John was finally asked to present

the story to the head of the studio.

LASSETER:
They'd said,

"Okay, it's time to show

"the head of the studio at the time

Brave Little Toaster."

So we got the presentation together,

he walks in with Ed Hansen,

and he had this scowI on his face

from the beginning, no laugh,

we pitched the whole thing

and he stood up and he asked,

"Well, how much is this gonna cost?"

And I said,

"Well, it's with computer animation,

"it's gonna be, you know, no more than

the regular budget of a film."

And he went, "The only reason

to do computer animation

"is if we could do it faster or cheaper."

And he walked up and he walked out.

And it was like, "What?" You know?

And so about five minutes later

I get this call,

and Ed Hansen

calls me down to his office.

And I come down, and he said,

"Well, John,

your project is now complete,

"so your employment with

the Disney Studios is now terminated."

DON HAHN:
He got let go, he got fired,

because, honestly, the studio

didn't know what to do with him.

Even at that early day,

this Disney Studio

that he dreamed about working at,

turned out to be a really

dysfunctional place, in reality.

And he was a born director,

he was a born leader,

and his expectation and passion

excelled what the studio

was doing then.

During a lot of the early days,

artists were frightened of the computer,

because they were

under the impression

that it somehow

was gonna take their jobs away.

And we spent a lot of time

telling people,

"No, it's just a tool, it doesn't take. . .

"It doesn't do the creativity,

that's a misconception."

But there was this fear,

and it was everywhere.

ANNOUNCER:
We interrupt

this program

for an important announcement.

A state of emergency

has been declared

and the entire police force

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