Edwin Catmull Quotes

When the Pixar people call, you jump at the opportunity.

When I first started working at Disney animation, I can't tell you how many people said to me, 'Oh, man, take a powder.' Nobody takes animated musicals seriously. I swear.

The Braintrust developed organically out of the rare working relationship among the five men who led and edited the production of 'Toy Story' - John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, and Joe Ranft.

A company like DreamWorks, all we do is make product. That's all we do. We don't own distribution. We are purely in the creation of content.

In Hollywood, they think drawn animation doesn't work anymore, computers are the way. They forget that the reason computers are the way is that Pixar makes good movies. So everybody tries to copy Pixar. They're relying too much on the technology and not enough on the artists.

So I've had really great assistant directors for my last seven movies.

I was in New York. Hitchcock was in California. He rang me to make a report on his progress and said, I'm having trouble. I've just sacked my second screenwriter.

Mr. Disney and his staff were constantly scouting for great stories to bring to life on film.

We're lucky enough, especially in these 'Madagascar' films, to be working with some of the best people in the industry, who are not only great actors, but great comedians and improvisers and filmmakers. And they then become a part of creating their characters.

I believe in research. Each movie at Pixar involves research with college professors or taking trips to learn as much as we can about a particular subject matter.

Oh yeah, I'm still employed at Pixar and I love it here.

As far as I know, the guys at Pixar are opposed to a Monsters, Inc. sequel.

'Toy Story' really felt like just a bunch of guys working in their garage for fun. When it came out and people liked it, it was mind-blowing.

There are lots of people that make movies. It's not just the director.

Anything Pixar does, you know, I really just am in awe of them and thrilled to be included in anything they do.

From an animation perspective, it doesn't get better than Pixar. You're working so much in the blind because the huge circle of collaborators that's required to pull off a film like this means that you are just one small arc in that large circle. The level of trust that you have to give into is significant.

I love the camaraderie that develops on film sets and ensemble casts. It's really special.

When we made 'Toy Story,' we knew, even back then, that this was going to be the ugliest film we would ever produce.

There is certainly no formula of making a successful film, but there are means to make a sensible film.

It's a strange business, and unfortunately, what we do in animation is a mystery, especially the directors.

At Pixar, I don't have to compromise at all. When I look at the finished "Toy Story 3," I don't sit and constantly think, oh, the actor was having a bad day, or oh, it rained and we couldn't use that set. The story that I wanted to tell is what is on screen, and I haven't had to compromise it one iota.

Something like Shakespeare in Love, which became such an established hit that it now seems like a foregone conclusion... but it really wasn't. The script was around for a very, very long time and had people chickening out all the time.

Pixar is the first studio that is a movie star.

If you're producing a movie you're involved in every aspect of the movie and that can be daunting and then going and doing a movie where you're just an actor for hire, and you can kind of sit back and giggle where you can see somebody sitting over there wasting time and wasting money.

The sad thing about working on a movie is that you can never see the movie.