Overlooked and Legendary

When many think of the greatest and most legendary directors in film history, we think of names like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg,  or Quentin Tarantino. However, there is a great director that many seem to overlook. He had a vision that many seemed to think would fail or be too risky but he was determined to make it happen and did. This man is John Lasseter, the director of the first ever fully CGI motion picture, Toy Story. 

Lasseter began his career at Lucasfilm and contributed to many of their computer generated special effects in movies such as The Young Sherlock Holmes. The more he experimented with this technology, the more he began to realize the potential of making a film purely from computers. It was not until Steve Jobs bought the computer animation division of Lucasfilm and renamed it Pixar Animation Studios when Lasseter finally had the opportunity to make is dream a reality. Jobs believed in Lasseter's vision and hired him as director of their short films. Lasseter's short films then won multiple awards and recognition from many big film companies. One of these companies was Disney, who later signed a three movie deal with Pixar studios. Jobs then decided to give Lasseter's dream a shot, making their first partnership with Disney a legendary one.

Toy Story was released on Thanksgiving of 1995 and became a huge blockbuster success. According to boxofficemojo.com, the movie accumulated over $300 million dollars at the worldwide box office, making it the most successful animated film of that time period. Pixar had revolutionized the way animated films could be created and inspired many other companies to create movies similarly to generate the same success. Lasseter, however, realized that the content means more than the software and intended to create a great story to keep the audience from just looking at pretty graphics. The unique story tied with the high quality of computer graphics technology makes this film and its director truly legendary!