John Lasseter has been named Innovator of the Year by the Hollywood Reporter. His Pixar Studios is batting a thousand when it comes to box office hits. With Bolt! we’ll get to see the first film that was almost totally done under his influence at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
The torch has been passed. Over the past two decades, Lasseter has become not only the most prominent successor to the Nine Old Men, but arguably the most important figure in animation since Disney himself.
This year, he’s a key player behind two animated films: “WALL-E,” already hailed by many critics as a masterpiece, and “Bolt,” debuting Nov. 21.
One comes from the ever-inventive Pixar, the other from Disney’s decades-old animation unit. If Lasseter is now pivotal to both, that is no coincidence: His groundbreaking work has never ignored its debt to the past.
There are few men as inventive as Lasseter and even fewer whose creativity pays such respect to tradition. It is for this reason that The Hollywood Reporter has named him Innovator of the Year.
Among the many cool things about John Lasseter is his passion for Hawaiian shirts. A passion I share. The whole cover of the HR is dedicated to Lasseter in the form of a Hawaiian shirt. Also in the issue is the main article, and interview with Lasseter, and more.