John Lasseter might not be a household name on the level of Walt Disney, but he's certainly just as important in the animation world.
The man with an affinity for movie-themed Hawaiian shirts has been the chief creative officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios since Disney purchased Pixar in 2006.
No studio can match the creativity, heart, and cleverness found in all Pixar films, and it seems those principles can be traced back to Lasseter (No. 36 on the BI 100: The Creators).
"You want the movies to touch people," Lasseter said in an interview for Pixar's 30th anniversary this year. "Make 'em funny, make 'em beautiful, make 'em scary, but in the end you want that heart of the movie to be so strong."
Lasseter's and Pixar's success are linked. He cofounded the animation studio that has now made nearly $10 billion worldwide. He championed computer animation at a time when the technology was still quite infantile. He created and directed "Toy Story," which started it all (more than 250 computer-animated films have been made since). He kept asking questions that resulted in better animation all around and better Pixar films.
Take a look at how John Lasseter came to be the creative mind he is and how he helped to create the Pixar empire.
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John Lasseter was born in Hollywood, California, on January 12, 1957. At the age of five, he won his very first award — $15 from the Model Grocery Market in Whittier, California, for a crayon drawing of the Headless Horseman.
Source: Walt Disney Studios
After seeing Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" in 1963, Lasseter knew he wanted to be an animator and work for Walt Disney.
Source: Reuters
He was the second student to be accepted into the newly formed Character Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1975. Tim Burton was the third student.
Source: Vanity Fair
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