Pixar in the news

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article about John Lasseter and Ed Catmull of Pixar, the animation studio behind the upcoming film Cars.

The article talks about Disney’s recent $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar and the synergy between Lasseter — the “creative spirit,” as the article calls him — and Catmull, whose technological wizardry helps bring Lasseter’s ideas to life.

According to the article:

“Ed and John are the Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth of animation,” said Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, in an interview. “They both possess the balance that is needed, John being the creative fountain and Ed being not only the technological genius but a managerial one as well.”

Securing the duo was important enough that both their roles were written into the merger contract, along with a note that their loss could break up the deal, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The article compares the pair to the Disney brothers, with Lasseter as Walt and Catmull as Roy.

It mentions Cars briefly:

To research this summer’s Pixar flick, “Cars,” Lasseter, Disney’s Cook, and a few Pixar folks flew to Miami to attend a NASCAR race. They hung out in the pit to study the cars, and afterward, enjoyed dinner at Joe’s Stone Crab. “Cars,” due in June, would have been Pixar’s last movie under its contract with Disney. But throughout the weekend, the Disney-Pixar agreement never came up, Cook said.

“We talked about everything,” Cook said. “We talked about cars, we talked about the trip that John took down Route 66.”

You can read the article here.

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