It was amazing (and nerve wreaking), to get the chance to spend an hour talking to the wonderful, mind-blowingly creative Pete Docter!
I have come to greatly admire Pete’s work over the years, having studied many of his scenes. Like most of the early crew at pixar, he seems to have an innate understanding of entertainment, timing and appeal. He started at Pixar at the age of 21, just one day after his college graduation, the tenth employee the company hired, and its third animator. Coming from a musical family some of Pete early assignments at Pixar where (as well as animation) sound recording and orchestra scoring, however he was assigned roles in writing at an early stage too!As a director, animator, screenwriter, producer and voice actor, Pete as worked, to one degree or another on all your favourite Pixar Movies. He has been nominated for six Oscars (one win thus far for Up — Best Animated Feature), three Annie Awards (winning two), a BAFTA Children’s Film Award (which he won), and a Hochi Film Award (which he won). He is currently directing Inside Out, set for release on June 19 this year. His early short films, Palm Springs, Winter, and Next Door which which he done before joining Pixar still hold up today and are truly beautiful in their simplicity and entrainment value. Definitely worth some study.
I am tremendously grateful to Pete for making the time to talk to me, to Pixar for allowing me to share it and again to Mark Oftedal for arranging it :) I know you guys are going to love this one!
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Great interview. Particularly impressed that you asked about older animators being laid off. That’s not something most young animators think about, let alone ask.
Awesome! Thank you.
This is so Awesome. Thanks for sharing and doing this podcasts
What a great interview and set of questions! Pete as always is a great listen and carries a bag full of advice.
I especially carried out the advice to not fall into thinking “I know it all”. It’s sometimes easy to start a project with thinking it will be easy because we did similar things before – but in the end it’s always a new journey and wholesome learning experience.
Thanks for the interview – I’m off to the other ones and I feel like it will be my new favourite site!