3 Pixar Quotes We Should Not Forget to Make the Most of Our Own Lives
There’s no place like Pixar. That’s how Ed Catmull starts off Creativity Inc. — a book that picks up the whole Pixar story, from its foundation mingled with other successful companies like Apple, Lucasfilm, and Disney to the difficulties involving the creative process while producing their films.
“Every morning, as I walk into Pixar Animation Studios […] up the stairs past sketches and paintings of the characters that have populated our fourteen films — I am struck by the unique culture that defines this place.”
Catmull, Edwin E.; Wallace, Amy. Creativity, Inc. (p. 6).
Pixar movies are full of life-changing dialogues, characters, stories, and quotes. And here are some of those quotes said by a Pixar character and how they apply to the studio’s values and history, and how can they apply to our own lives to make the most out of them.
To Infinity and Beyond! — Buzz Lightyear
Toy Story was the first Pixar movie. And a massive success. It was the motion picture that launched Pixar as a real studio dedicated to filmmaking and not selling software programs.
The famous catchphrase said by Buzz at the end of the movie doesn’t really mean anything to the story itself. But it can be interpreted in a much more powerful way when we look at something that occurred in Pixar when Disney bought it.
First, let’s move a couple of years back. Right when Pixar was under the making of Toy Story. For Ed Catmull, one of Pixar’s CEO, this has been a life-long dream. Since he was a kid, he settled a one big goal that would be his drive throughout most of his career: doing the first movie fully animated with a computer. And after tedious years, many tries in form of short films, and Pixar nearly being bankrupt, his dream was finally achieved with Toy Story.
“Now that that goal had been reached, I had what I can only describe as a hollow, lost feeling. As a manager, I felt a troubling lack of purpose. Now what?”, writes Catmull in Creativity Inc.
Now, Catmull realized, Pixar was meant for so much more. It could do better. Not only more and better movies, but also look out to build the best working environment at the studio. So, moving forward, Catmull carried this lesson and made use of this experience when Ann Le Cam, head of human resources at Disney Animation, entered his office.
She presented to Catmull a two-year plan of how they should manage the various issues to get them to a certain point of success.
“What you have done in this report is to assert that in two years we will be here,” said Catmull drawing a pyramid in a sheet. “Once you assert that, though, it’s human nature that you will focus only on making it come true. You will stop thinking about other possibilities. You will narrow your thinking and defend this plan […]”
He then showed a different approach: He drew a first line (Fig. 1) representing where would they aim to go in three months. The next one (Fig. 2) represented where they might be in three more. And the final line (Fig. 3) went straight up, passing by that two-year plan. As Catmull said to Ann: because they would “end up somewhere other than the top of the pyramid”
This is the best way to display how Pixar will not only reach infinity but will go beyond that. The pyramid story says it all. We need to reach beyond our limits and strive for more, even if we don’t see it now or don’t know how to get there from where we’re at.
Doing three-month plans, two-year plans, and even five-year plans is great. Well, not only great but extremely useful to pinpoint our journey and work for it each day. Yet, when we draw those pyramids, we must never settle for reaching the top of it, but beyond that. We need to look at “infinity and beyond”.
For Pixar is not okay to be the first studio to make an animated film via computer; they need to be the best studio to make animated movies. For Pixar is not okay to only do one movie per two years; they need to find a way to do more. And so on.
Who knows what is beyond that infinity of possibilities when we remove limits?
I’m Going to Live Every Minute of It — Joe Gardner
Soul is a movie about an African American guy whose dream is to become a jazz player. But he is not there. He is a middle school teacher. One day, Joe encounters the biggest gig of his life. But unfortunately, before having the chance to play, he dies.
Joe is convinced he cannot be happy or fulfilled until he achieves that dream, so when he reaches the Great Beyond, he refuses to accept it. Because he’s not done yet. Trying to escape from it, Joe ends up in the Great Before — a realm where souls explore personalities to find their passion before getting to Earth.
Joe meets 22, a soul who hates Earth and is not interested in finding her “spark”. Together, they accidentally end up back on Earth, where Joe ends up in a cat’s body while 22 inhabits Joe’s body. Now Joe needs to get back to his body before the big concert.
The film was co-written and co-directed by Peter Docter and was directly inspired by his experience while working on Inside Out. “Having … so much success in [that] film, I found myself wondering: Why don’t I feel like my life is all wrapped up and solved in a nice bow? Why didn’t it fix everything?”.
In Soul, Joe encounters this exact same feeling. He makes it back to his body and nails the show at the jazz club. That success he’s been after all his life… it’s there. As Docter, Joe is upset at his unchanged life even though having reached that dream.
Joe gets home. He sits at the piano. Silent. Then he reaches over various objects he and 22 collected during their adventures together. Each one is filled with moments they had enjoyed. Inspired, Joe enters the zone while playing the piano; and it’s like magic is running through his fingers, heart, and mind.
With Soul, Pixar confronts the traditional notions of success and failure. What does it mean to have a life with purpose? Is passion something that does it? What if you never reach that dream? What does being successful entail if not being passion-driven?
Soul plays with plenty of philosophical concepts — I personally consider it the deepest movie Pixar’s ever done — and we can agree or disagree with some of them. But ultimately, Soul wants the audience to understand that it’s not about winners or looser. Everyone’s life has value.
As seen in the movie, there are more and less ambitious people. Joe is a crazy passionate one. And that’s great. What’s not so great is that he believes he cannot be happy until he “gets there”. During the movie, he’ll discover that every moment of life, all those small things that happen day to day — good and bad -, every minute of it, should be lived. And by doing so, he’ll reach the best playing possible.
Deanna Marsigliese is an Animation Art Director & Illustrator at Pixar. The documentary titled Inside Pixar follows her during her daily job and the creative detours that come with it. “Inspiration is everywhere. The trick is just to look for it.”, she says while strolling over the streets of San Francisco with a notebook in hand.
In between, deadlines exist, frustration takes place and disappointments occur. But by taking a step out, looking around, watching, listening, and taking part in every day of life, by enjoying every minute of every day, Marsigliese is able to craft some of her best work.
To be ambitious is a must. To be a hard worker is a must. And we must work towards a goal, but as we get there, we can’t just be forgetting about the out world. In fact, there is from where most of our inspiration is built. Our best work comes from being able to enjoy the little things life has as we seek that personal ambition.
Keep Swimming — Dory
Finding Nemo sure is one of the most endearing movies from Pixar. Probably, thanks to Dory, a charming and lovable character whom this quote comes from.
When Marlin storms into her after losing his son Nemo to a pair of divers, Dory will become one of the pillars of the story. As they travel across the ocean in search of Nemo, the pair encounters obstacle after obstacle; three (memorable) sharks who want to improve their diet, a hungry anglerfish, a horde of jellyfish, a whale who gets its diet mixed up… Until they reach Nemo.
Dory will always see the glass half-full. Despite all the complications they endure, she’ll always find a reason to keep swimming. And after going through each one of these obstacles, we — the audience — and they — the characters — find that they’re a step closer to what they want.
In Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull writes all about Pixar’s journey; all they’ve overcome to get to where they are. Getting Toy Story on track was a bit of a nightmare. The follow-up, establishing Pixar as an animation studio to keep doing movies, was no easy job and took lots of mistakes to build the Pixar we know now. Producing every movie is full of difficulties, in every phase. One that struck happened during the making of Toy Story 2.
It was 1998 and Pixar was about to release the movie. Only the credits were remaining. But then, someone hit the wrong button and all the files disappeared. The team didn’t panic: they had backups. Or so they believed. When they realized the backup system was not working, and that the film was completely gone, then they panicked.
The fatal and rushed accident found its miracle solution in the same rushed way. Galyn Susman — supervising technical director — was working from home after the birth of his kid and had implanted a backup system to receive the files to her computer. It was rapidly taken to Pixar studios and the files were restored. But not all of the movie was there; some files were never restored.
With the deadline looming over the studio, Pixar had to adjust to this and went ahead with the missing scenes. In the end, the movie was loved by the fans and the studio as well.
When we have a plan, it’s inevitable things go sideways. The most shocking surprises that you could have never imagined, occur. A tire breaks on the way to a vital interview, a pandemic emerges and paralyzes the world… How you look at these obstacles is how you’re going to decide how to keep moving forward.
Why don’t you become Dory for once in a while and instead of seeing the glass half-empty, try and look the other way around; half-full? The only thing you must do is keep swimming. That’s how Pixar works, and that’s how they reflect it in Finding Nemo. They just kept swimming.
Whether you’re a fan or only watched a couple of Pixar movies, there’s no doubt this studio has conquered plenty of hearts throughout its filmmaking journey. From 1986 up until now, Pixar Animation Studios has made us laugh, cry, smile, and feel inspired by their different stories.
Quite a huge journey left with quite a huge list of quotes from their movies. Quotes that should not be left aside. Quotes that can make up for a dreadful day or can be a motivation for each one if you decide to stick them up on your wall (not ashamed of such a thing) and look at them every once in a while.
-Anabel Estrella
