Animated News points out that Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss reviews Cars and also interviews John Lasseter.
The article says…
It’s Mater who teaches Lightning the truth of any Lasseter film: friendship is family. “To Lightning,” he says, “Mater represents pure friendship. Like a dog: ‘I’ll be by your side forever.’” (Mater was the inspiration of Ranft, whose story-tweaking genius infused every Pixar movie. Tragically, he died last August, when the car he was in missed a turn on that beautiful winding road, California’s Pacific Coast Highway.)
Richard says that Cars is an instant classic, however that is not the most interesting part of the article. I have highlighted in bold an interesting piece.
As the new hydra-head of animation, Lasseter may have an uphill journey: not just keeping Pixar on track (Brad Bird’s Ratatouille, about a gourmet rodent in Paris, is next, probably followed by Toy Story 3), but also in steering the Mousemobile back to speed. In 1994, when The Lion King capped a series of animation hits, Disney’s bright future seemed as sure a bet as Pixar’s does now. Then Toy Story came out, and computer animation took over. Before buying Pixar, a desperate Disney had scuttled its traditional animation unit. Lasseter may restore that. “Of all studios that should be doing 2-D animation, it should be Disney,” he says. “We haven’t said anything publicly, but I can guarantee you that we’re thinking about it. Because I believe in it.”
The 2 page article is very interesting and a very good read. Check it out here.
Last modified: May 15, 2006