company.
It's when we actually
defined who we were.
From that we learned
the important thing is not the idea,
the important thing is the people.
It's how they work together,
who they are,
that matters more than anything else.
Our business depends
upon collaboration,
and it depends upon
unplanned collaboration.
And so we were just too spread out,
and the groups were, you know,
developing their own styles.
We were growing into several
divisions, instead of one company,
and so the goal was pure and simple.
We want to put everybody
under one roof,
and we want to encourage
unplanned collaborations.
With Pixar's facilities
bursting at the seams,
Steve set his sights on
20 acres in Emeryville, California,
where he envisioned a state-of-the-art
animation facility,
a home for the best artists
and scientists
to create and play under one roof.
Welcome, ladies
and gentlemen,
to the first annual
Pixar International Air Show!
The building itself
has helped so much,
because Pixar is its people.
And we maintain the same philosophy
of "an office is an empty canvas,"
and it's so fun.
One of the things that we wanted
to do with this studio
is to grow it so that
we could be eventually
releasing one movie every year.
So that means we have to have
a bunch of overlapping productions.
And so that gave the opportunity
to where, some of my close colleagues,
give them a chance
to direct their own films.
The second animator, after me,
who was ever hired at Pixar
was Andrew Stanton.
And then Pete Docter
was soon after that.
And I knew right away that these guys
are good enough
to make their own films.
John chose Pete Docter
to direct the next feature film at Pixar,
a decision that did not come
without doubts.
I was not
convinced that
he could hold up this weight
without John.
He hadn't done it before.
He hadn't been an
associate director before,
he hadn't been the number two,
he hadn't been a co-director before.
It was really throwing him
into the lion's den.
My biggest challenge
was that I was
following in the footsteps
of John Lasseter.
To come in and say,
"Okay, now I'm gonna direct this,"
it was a tough act to follow.
Pete had this
fundamental idea
that when children say,
"'There's a monster in the closet,"
they're actually telling the truth.
The rest of it was all over the map.
There were too many
possibilities.
Monsters, it could be anything,
anything in the world.
So, it was almost too much freedom.
We knew we wanted fur.
We had no idea how to do it.
And that was, of course,
one of the more difficult things to do.
Take that!
Welcome to the Himalayas!
These people think differently
than normal people.
They're strange. In the best way.
When we thought
of Billy Crystal,
we thought,
"Wow, this is gonna be great. "
Of course, he just added his
own unique spin to it.
Mike was an appealing,
odd little guy who I thought
was a combination
of Mr. Toad and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Think romantical thoughts.
You and me
Me and you
Both of us together!
And the way he moves and his face
and stuff like that.
And then, when I decided on a voice,
it just all seemed to work.
Scary feet, scary feet, scary feet. Oh!
The kid's awake! Okay, scary feet,
scary feet, scary feet, scary feet, scar...
Kid's asleep!
The whole little guy
was one of my favorite characters
that I've ever played.
Twins! And a bunk bed!
Ooh, I thought I had you there.
What shocked me about the movie
was the size of it.
I was astounded by the
chase and the door sequence.
When you see the millions
of doors moving,
and they're all individually done,
that just blew me away.
Hold on!
It was a wild ride,
because it was such a complex movie,
and it didn't find its center
for a very long time.
And then when it did,
its center was so good,
people went nuts for it.
The last shot of
Monsters, Incorporated animation
is now officially final!
Pete emerged as
a remarkably