Whow, sounds like a wonderful book, Jim. I'm sure as hell going to buy that book, if its available here!! Lasseter looks so innocent in that picture there, gehe..

Oddly enough, I returned to Disney in the fall of 83 after a ten year absence. Wish I had known Dr. Catmull was roaming the lot. I would have loved to have met him. Who knew that in another ten years I would wind up at Pixar?

I'm not surprised by Disney's reaction to Lasseter's new ideas. The company was so closed to technology, I had to bring my own computer to work.

Now, Catmull and Lasseter run the place. Who could have known?

Jim, thank you for the really kind and comprehensive review! If you (or anyone) has questions about the book, i'm happy to respond. Cheers.

michael rubin

Well, you can't say Disney was closed off to technology - especially in 1983, the year after Disney released TRON. Two years after that, The Black Cauldron[/i] utilized the brand-new APT process and the first CGI work in a Disney film (The Great Mouse Detective[/i] wrongly receives that distinction).

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner saw the numbers for Tron[/i] and The Last Starfighter[/i], and Katzenberg told John Lasseter there was no future in CGI animated features. Lasseter left for LucasFilm, the rest is history.

hey ernest,  i'm not entirely sure you get it. Disney WAS closed off to technology. Sure, they dabbled here and there --> Tron was outsourced entirely, for instance. As for what films were "first" is a grey area, there are so many fine definitions: first to use 2D, or 3D, or to use the computer to aid the hand drawing or actually putting the computer output in the frame, and so on.

And as for that thought about Katzenberg telling Lasseter there was no future... i don't recall Lasseter telling me that story... and my impression (albeit just a hunch) is that Lasseter was relatively junior there when he left... i don't think JK would have had too much to say directly to him (as if they "took a meeting" and Lasseter was told something); The experiences of the Disney company in those early years -- wrought with odd politics and history -- left an environment that was animator unfriendly, and not experimental. Those were the kinds of traits that left Lasseter cold and open to the advances of Catmull. Yes, the rest is history. But I would wager a guess that you don't know much about it.

"Tron was outsourced entirely, for instance."

Of course the computer animation was "outsourced". Disney was a hand-drawn shop, and few houses were capable of producing what was needed for TRON. But give Ron Miller and Disney some credit for taking the leap and the gamble in the first place.

"And as for that thought about Katzenberg telling Lasseter there was no future... i don't recall Lasseter telling me that story..."

It's in James Stewart's DisneyWar. Have you read it?

"...and my impression (albeit just a hunch) is that Lasseter was relatively junior there when he left..."

Junior, Senior, Freshman -- the point is Lasseter left Disney after Katzenberg told him bluntly there was no future in computer animated features. Lasseter was passionate about the medium, Katzenberg wouldn't even broach the subject with Eisner because (if James Stewart is correct) of the perceived failure of TRON.

"The experiences of the Disney company in those early years -- wrought with odd politics and history -- left an environment that was animator unfriendly, and not experimental."

I'm not sure what early years you are referring to. If you mean 1980-1984, when Disney was making TRON, Lasseter and Keane collaborated on a computer animation test based on Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are", a combination of CG modeling and character animation. Disney produced Tim Burton's experimental shorts not to mention "The Black Cauldron", which also used computer-generated images. It was after Eisner and Katzenberg came to Disney that Katzenberg let it be known to young John Lasseter that there was no future for cgi animated features. Lasseter wanted to make "The Brave Little Toaster" as an all-computer animated feature, Katzenberg shot the idea down.

"Yes, the rest is history. But I would wager a guess that you don't know much about it."

This statement is so rude and needlessly antagonistic, I'll let it stand for itself.

I'll admit to being a little rude and needlessly antagonistic. I found your initial entry brimming with conceit and pomp ("and the rest is history...") Please, i think you set the tone here. I spent almost four years in long discussions with Catmull and Lasseter and Alvy Ray Smith and others, such that while some of the facts you repeat from whatever sources you have are likely true (although trust me: just cause you read it in a book doesn't make it true), they certainly don't paint the full picture, nor relay the actual experiences of the folks living this history.

I appreciate you are likely an expert on the inner monologues of Katzenberg or Lasseter, and that a conversation they may very well have had was causal for kicking important things into gear. I'm certain if things are as you say, then those conversations were contributing factors to a range of interesting things going on at Disney in that era, and also at Lucasfilm. But since much of this history isn't well known, and my serious work to explore the facts resulted in the only work covering this from the non-Disney side ("Droidmaker"), which it also appears you haven't read, I think my (admittedly rude) quip that "the rest is history, but ... you wouldn't know much about it," wasn't really that far from the mark.

If you don't like my book, that's fair. I did the best I could researching this topic. I don't know anything about you nor how much effort you put into learning about such things, verifying what you hear, and thinking about these events. You are correct I just assume you don't know your history here. I apologize for the presumption.

"But since much of this history isn't well known, and my serious work to explore the facts resulted in the only work covering this from the non-Disney side ("Droidmaker"), which it also appears you haven't read, I think my (admittedly rude) quip that "the rest is history, but ... you wouldn't know much about it," wasn't really that far from the mark."

I am intrigued with the subject matter of your book and I am looking forward to purchasing it. As an ardent, life-long student of the moving image and character animation in particular, a history of computer animation in the 80's would be an essential work in my library.

"I don't know anything about you nor how much effort you put into learning about such things, verifying what you hear, and thinking about these events. You are correct I just assume you don't know your history here. I apologize for the presumption."

I don't claim to be an expert on anything. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. I look forward to reading your book and discussing it with you, in discourse characterized by mutual respect.

One of my biggest frustrations in telecommuting for Yahoo! is this: I miss a lot of amazing speakers. A lot. Technologists, entrepreneurs, social scientists, Nobel-prize winners (no lie!) have come through Yahoo's campus since I started work more than