20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Pixar
18. Before Pixar, John Lasseter Was Fired From Disney
John Lasseter now serves as Chief Creative Officer for Disney, following the success of the Pixar movies he's directed (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Cars and Cars 2). But he started his career by getting fired from his dream job at Disney.
In 1979, after graduating from the California Institute of the Arts, Lasseter landed a job at Walt Disney Feature Animation. He soon felt that Disney was becoming less and less innovative, and so came his revelation that Disney should use computers to make films where traditionally animated characters interacted with 3D backgrounds.
He pitched this idea to Disney, saying that The Brave Little Toaster would be a good candidate to start with. But the higher ups at Disney didn't see this computer animation as being cost effective. They were also angry with Lasseter for circumventing them to get the project off the ground. Immediately after a pitch meeting, animation administrator Ed Hansen told Lasseter he was fired. Disney did move forward with The Brave Little Toaster, but as a traditional 2D animated film.
So Lasseter was fired for thinking computers could be used to animate movies. Disney would later buy Lasseter's new company, Pixar, for $7.4 billion.