If theres one thing John Lasseter is, its animated.
New footage, new movie announcements, casting news?
John Lasseter:All of the above.
Credit: Pixar
How far down the road are you going to take us?
In animation, we have three studios who are going to be showing work.
Well be showing clips from the films.
Lewis Jacobs/NBC
We definitely have a lot of surprises.
We will be making a few announcements with things.
Which titles will be the main focus?
And weve got a lot of fun stuff in there.
At the last D23 in 2011,Planeshad just been announced from Disneytoon Studios.
My little girl loves those , so Ive seen those ones a lot.
Can you explain the rationale for having three animation divisions Pixar, Walt Disney Animation, and Disneytoon Studios?
That might not make obvious sense to outsiders, but whats the reason for keeping them separate entities?
What doesnt make obvious sense?
The fact that we have three different animation studios?
Yeah, what are the different responsibilities for each?
Part of it is heritage, right?
And then theres the direct-to-DVD market, which the previous version of Disneytoon Studios concentrated on.
Is that still the main focus there?
A lot of it does have to do with heritage.
With Pixar, its still a studio of pioneers and kind of rebels.
It really feels like a big institution.
Its really an exciting place and always striving to do new things, thats its personality.
Is Walt Disney Animation then the more traditional studio?
They just love being a part of that and doing things within that.
And Disneytoon Studios is all about creating a series of sequels?
We still are doing some …
Were still doing a lot of short films.
Hand-drawn is finding its way in a very interesting way into the technology.
Theres a lot of hand-drawing that goes into the computer animated movies at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Theres a different style to the animation from that studio, too.
Could this become a lost art?
No, I dont think so.
No, I mean, it doesnt mean werenotdoing it, were still doing a lot of hand-drawn animation.
I just dont agree with you.
Big Hero 6is Walt Disney Animation Studios first team-up with Marvel.
Whats the nature of that collaboration?
Its based upon a very short series of comic books and its six comic books.
Theyre out of the Marvel universe, but more of a Japanese manga style.
Were creating something based upon that so its really a Disney Animation production.
A loose adaptation like all adaptations are.
They almost have to be.
In addition to Marvel, Lucasfilm is now a Disney company.
Pixar started out as the graphics division for George Lucas empire now youre together again.
Yeah, how about that.
That stays under the leadership of Lucasfilm.
Do you see any potentialStar Warsor Lucasfilm-related projects for Disneys animation branches?
Not really, other than Pixar has always used Skywalker Sound for all of our productions.
Theyre the best so well always continue using them and were very good friends.
And we always have been with [special effects house Industrial Light and Magic] as well.
But other than being friends we have never needed to do anything with them.
Do you get to weigh in on those at all as part of the Disney brain trust?
I dont know anything about it other than just being a fan.
I guess well wait to learn more from Disneys live-action D23 presentation on Saturday.
Meanwhile, weve got your news Friday.
Fasten your seat belts, youre going to love what we have down there.
