Thursday 7 June 2012

John Lasseter Talks About The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Mind Film


Pixar and Disney Animation Chief Creative Officer, Executive Producer and general head honcho, John Lasseter, on a recent promotional tour for Pixar's next film, Brave, spoke about the studio's slate of films beyond that - specifically, Bob Peterson's The Good Dinosaur and Pete Docter's Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind!

Normally I would post small excerpts from the quote's here, to give you a flavour of what he's saying, but as this is John Lasseter, and as what he says is so interesting - it's our first real flavour of plot and inspiration for the films - I'm going to post the entirety of John's comments below:

Read what Lasseter said on Up co-director Bob Peterson's directorial debut (and my most anticipated Pixar film) The Good Dinosaur, after the jump break!

"What if the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs missed Earth and dinosaurs kept living? It’s really a great story because they are very funny dinosaurs. They are kind of cartoony but they are dinosaurs, they are not walking around with clothes on or anything like that, they still are kind of dinosaurs. We focused on mostly the plant-eaters, not the carnivores… Their society becomes more of an agrarian society, meaning farmers. They become farmers.

It’s a very funny story about a certain way of life that a young dinosaur has trouble fitting into and he ends up going on this quest. He kind of messes up and he has to put everything right by going on this quest and on that quest he meets this our character that is an outcast from his society too and so the two of them form this bond and it becomes this unique kind of story… kind of hard to describe. It’s a very special, very emotional story but it’s so quirky and nutty. That’s really the hallmark of Bob Peterson’s and Peter Sohn’s talent. Bob Peterson is truly one of the funniest people I’ve met and it’s coming through with this story. Pixar does dinosaurs, but like anything we touch… it’s unlike any other dinosaur picture you’ve seen ‘cause it doesn’t fit in your typical [idea of] what you think dinosaurs are. It’s absolutely beautiful too."

Wow, that's fantastic! This is the most we've heard about Bob's project so far, and it sounds utterly amazing. It sounds like everything I've imagined and hoped it'll be and more. Quirky and cartoony, I'm loving the barmy-ness of farmer dinosaurs - it sounds quintessentially Peterson-esque! Also, I assume this other character described is the young boy we saw in the concept art for the film a while ago (top), which seems to lend itself to a How to Train Your Dragon/Lilo and Stich type feel to it. I really can't stress how excited I am for The Good Dinosaur!


Also, Lasseter spoke about Pete Docter's (director Monsters, Inc., Up) next film, the, as of yet, untitled film set inside a young girl's mind. The incredibly original sounding project has been cloaked in mystery thus far, and, whilst we don't get as many details as we do for The Good Dinosaur, Lasseter sheds some more light on this project also:

"Pete Docter… is working on the next one. We don’t have the title for it yet, but it takes place in the mind. Pete has this way of constantly trying to figure out something that we’re all familiar with in some way… he’s constantly looking for these kinds of things. You look at people oftentimes and they do something to make you go “What are they thinking?” or it’s like how a song gets stuck in your head and you just can’t get it out. Little quirky thing alike this that we all do. Certain emotions just seem to take us over, anger or happiness, where you start giggling and laughing and you can’t stop. He thought “I want to take a look at that, explain that.” His idea is that the emotions of this little girl are the characters and it takes place in the head of this little girl, and shows how they control things that go on. It’s very, very clever and it’s truly unlike anything you’ve ever seen, yet it explains things you’ve seen."
This doesn't tell us much more than we've already heard, but if John Lasseter, the genius behind Toy Story, is so enthused about the project, then it must be something special! Plus, this is Pete Docter, probably my favourite Pixar director. Co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen (director Dug's Special Mission), Docter's Mind Film sounds fantastic too!

The Good Dinosaur is currently scheduled for release on 30th May, 2014, and Pete Docter's Mind Film is due on 19th June, 2015.

Via Slashfilm and Bleeding Cool.

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