Pixar Boss and animation legend John Lasseter shared his stories with a full house at the Q&A hosted by IFTA last night. Producer of ‘Cars 2’ Denise Ream also attended the talk which was held in Cineworld, with film critic and journalist Paul Byrne chairing the event.
Following a rousing applause for Pixar’s latest offering ‘Cars 2’, the Animation legend spoke to the packed audience of Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) guests for an hour. Disney/Pixar's two-time Academy Award winning writer/director/producer covered topics including the upcoming 2012 Pixar release ‘Brave’, which he said is the “first Pixar film that is a true Period film.” Set in Medieval Scotland, Lasseter described it as an “extreme challenge for computer animation,” adding that creating the human figure and cloth on computer animation is “technically challenging. The computer likes things are completely geometric and in a film like that nothing is geometric.” ‘Brave’ tells the story of Scottish princess Merida who defies her parents by pursuing an interest in archery, but inadvertently jeopardizes her father’s kingdom in the process
Lasseter also revealed details of the upcoming prequel to 2001’s ‘Monsters, Inc.’ The prequel is called ‘Monsters University’ and tells the story of Sully and Mikes friendship, which began when they met at university. “We are creating a story where they met at college. They didn’t like each other in the beginning and they grow to like each other. It’s really fun. It’s just taking the whole university/college world and looking at it from the point of view of a Monster World,“ says Lasseter. It is due to be released in 2013.
Included in the capacity audience were leading animators from Ireland’s top animation production houses including the Oscar nominated Brown Bag Films and Cartoon Saloon. Photos of IFTA’s ‘In Conversation With…John Lasseter’ event are available here: ’IFTA In Conversation With…John Lasseter Gallery’.
For information about becoming a Member of IFTA visit www.ifta.ie
‘Cars 2’ is now playing in theatres throughout Ireland and is being distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
