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The John Lasseter Interview
Every two years there is an International Animation Festival in Bristol. It lasts
for a week and from early in the morning until late at night you get the
chance to see animation, and talk to animators, from all over the world.
At last November’s Festival one of the main guests was John Lasseter. Keen
RCC fans will know that we’ve already screened four of his films The Lady
and The Lamp, Luxo Jnr, Tin Toy and KnickKnack. He gave an exclusive
interview to Rolf’s Cartoon Club Newsletter.
We began by telling him about the reactions to Tin Toy, that many mothers
had written in having viewed the film with their babies and had been
prompted to write because of the chiId’s response.
JL Well, to be honest, this is a strange thing that
I‘ve heard from other people, friends who
I’ve sent the tape to. They take it over to
some house where there are kids, and the
kids will watch it, they’II watch it like five
times in a row. And, you know, the musician
Bobby McFerrin, he did the music for Knick-
Knack and Luxo Jnr and he has two boys.
He said, “My youngest, he watched Tin Toy
ten times in a row, then, for the next week
and a half, every day he came home from
school, put the tape in and watched it again".
I love it because, you know, I don’t think of
kids when I make them, I make ’em sort of
for myself, but I can also make them for
everybody.
RCC How old were you when you knew you
really wanted to be an animator?
JL I‘ve always loved cartoons. In America
they’re on Saturday morning and I would get
up at crack of dawn. You couIdn’t get me out
of bed on a weekday but, crack of dawn
Saturday I sat down with a bowl of cereal
and watched cartoons until the sports prog-
rammes came on. Then, my mother is an art
teacher so art’s always been a part of our
family, but it wasn’t until I was in High School
that I saw a book on the art of animation, a
book on Disney I think I had that book
checked out for the entire four years of high
school and I decided, when I was in ninth
grade (thats when he was about 14 or 15)
that I wanted to be an animator I started
writing to Disney, I took art classes on
Saturday and then, by providence or what-
ever, when I graduated they were just start-
ing an animation school at Cal Arts (Califor-
nia Institute of the Arts). All the Disney
artists were there teaching the Disney style
of animation and I went through that for four
years.
RCC Which particular cartoons were your
favourites when you were a child?
JL Oh, gosh. Well, there’s Warner Brothers
...especialIy Chuck Jones...
RCC Did you identify with an animator at that
time?
JL Yeah, actually, l did. I liked the Road Runner
and there are a few specific Bugs Bunny
things that I liked. Later on when I was
isolating what Friz Freleng did, what Chuck
Jones did, what Robert McKimson did, I
realised that Chuck Jones‘s Bugs Bunny’s
were the ones I really liked.
RCC The snowman in KnickKnack has been
compared with Wile E. Coyote (a Chuck
Jones creation).
JL Well, that was a very conscious effort to go
back to that Chuck Jones style of things.
RCC Would Wile E. be your favourite Warners
character?
JL WeII...I really like Pepe Le Pew. Yes, it's one
joke with Pepe but they are so well crafted.
But it’s hard to say which one I like the best.
My favourite Disney feature is Dumbo...lt
just yanks at my heart strings. All my
favourite animated films are ones that have
a lot of heart. Dumbo is very cartoony, it’s
almost like a sixty minute short. ·
RCC You work in computer animation and most
people think of computers as time savers,
but I read an article about the making of
Tin Toy and you go without sleep, you
send out for food, you don‘t see your
family for days on end - what‘s different
about this way of making animated films
from any other way?
JL There isn’t, really. Animation is, by nature, a
frame by frame medium and...regardIess of
whether it’s with a computer or a pencil or
whatever it’s gonna be time-consuming, it
really is.
RCC Where do you go from here?
JL To do a feature film. And also what I want to
get back to doing is to combine hand drawn
character animation with computer anima-
tion. I think there’s a great world there that
could be, you know, conquered.
RCC One more question. What would be your
advice to our Club members who’ve set
their hearts on getting into animation?
JL Learn how to draw. That’s number one,
regardless of whether you work with a
computer or not. lf you know how to draw,
how to visualise an idea, that’s one of the
best things you can do. Number two, learn
the very basic animation principles. You
need to be able to draw in order to learn
those principles and with those principles
you can start working with computers. Com-
puters cannot animate for you, they cannot
make a character come to life for you, you
need to be able to do that. But, also, study
animation a lot. I mean, look at it and enjoy
it, but also look at it and figure it out - this
gag was funny - why?
RCC John Lasseter, thank you very much, and
welcome to RoIf’s Cartoon Club.
JL Well, thank you - I mean, this is something I
love, the whole idea of this sort of thing - a
Cartoon Club, it’s fantastic.
Win a signed copy of Ray Harryhausen's
Film Fantasy Scrapbook
We’ve got six copies of the book that looks at the
stories behind all Ray Harryhausen’s films, and
they’ve been signed by Ray specially for RoIf’s
Cartoon Club.
Published by Titan Books at £8.95, the book is profusely
illustrated with stills from the films and many behind the
scenes shots.
To win a copy, look closely at the photograph of the front
cover of the book. In front of Ray are five of his famous
models. All you have to do is say which films they came
from. The characters are listed on the left and there‘s a
list of films on the right.
a) Medusa 1) Jason and the Argonauts
b) Ghouls 2) Clash of the Titans
c) Skeleton 3) Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
d) Calabos 4) The Valley of Gwangi
If you think Medusa was in Jason and the Argonauts then
write a.1 and then go on to b, c and d.
Write your answers on
a postcard and send it to:
Harryhausen Competition,
RoIf’s Cartoon Club,
PO Box 60
Bristol
BS99 7HN
BUT BEWARE! YOU WILL ONLY NEED THREE FILM TITLES. ONE OF THEM IS A RED HERRING!