Did he really have a bad interview with a London journalist?
Also, in ansswer to the question: 'did the implications for merchandising influence his decision to make the Cars movies? ’
In a nutshell, he doesn’t directly answer that question! Instead, he kind of gave a politician’s answer. I always thought he was a fairly forthright guy, but I’m thinking that his senior Disney position and juggling of multiple jobs is crushing that forthright honesty.
Shame.
I’d also add - why did the journalist only ask two questions? Seems a short interview! Or were a lot unpublished for some reason? Perhaps he couldn’t print all of John’s swear words relating to Cars and Cars 2 …
I would have liked to have seen a more outright answer myself, but from looking at the interview this is what I could gather. John seems to be basically saying that one of the reasons he made Cars 2 was for all the people who loved Cars (after all, there are people who do love Cars) and that that’s his same reason for making both Cars and Toy Story merchandise. It reminds me of how on the Toy Story 2 features he talked about how he wanted to make sure that sequel was as good as it could be “for that one kid holding a Woody doll at the airport”, because he believes that once a film has been made their characters (in a sense) no longer belong to them but to the whole world. How good of a sequel Cars 2 is to Toy Story 2 is a different matter entirely.
It’s at least good to see that he knows about all the Cars critics.
Lasseter in a bad mood? I didn’t think that was possible!
His roundabout way of answering also implies that he like to see people wear merchandise of characters from his movies. Whether it is the thought of his characters becoming famous enough to appear on people’s T-shirts or the thought of another $10 in Pixar’s pocket, we won’t know.
Well, for a bonus baby, John Lasseter has sure done a lot to change the entertainment world!
Both really great interviews, thanks for them!. The second one is honest and I like how he tells the truth about his first experience working for Disney. I would like to know what made the London interview so bad, and where I could read it. I have always thought that although John Lasseter is nice, and he does seem like a big kid, that he does have an undeniable strength underneath, and someone that you wouldn’t want to cross.
Well, I think that when you put work out there, and when it doesn’t critically live up to previous efforts, you should be expected to have to answer questions regarding why the film was made.
Exactly - and so far Lasseter has managed to avoid directly answering such questions. It’s attitudes like that which I would expect from politicians, and is why I dislike them so much.
Lasseter has gone down in my estimation of late - he may have been great once, but I think he’s ‘suffering’ with his extra responsibilities and elevated status within the ranks at Disney.
I agree. I have a feeling that he isn’t very thick skinned though. You wouldn’t be if your only real failure was being fired from Disney, and although being fired is probably one of the best things that had happened to him, it’s not nice at all when you’ve had that ambition for years only for it to go pearshaped. When you consider how much Cars 2 means to him, how much he loves the cars and the characters, to see it go wrong as such must be such a disappointing thing to have to deal with, and if you’re not paticularly thick skinned, then you’re going to get annoyed and upset when interviewers bring the matter up.
And I’m not suprised. He’s probably so stressed out from what he’s doing. So yes he hasn’t been performing as well as he did circa. Toy Story, but I can’t say I’m suprised with the amount of pressure he’s under. I kindof feel for him really.
. But kinda personal too.
