Art Streiber/WIRED It's all small world after all!
In addition to the classic Peter Pan character Tinkerbell, Wired's November 2014 issue features some of Walt Disney Animation's favorite recent characters, including Big Hero 6's Baymax, Fred, Go Go Tomago and Hiro; Bolt's Bolt, Mittens and Rhino; Frozen's, Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven; Get a Horse!'s Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse; Paperman's George and Meg; The Princess and the Frog's Prince Naveen, Ray and Tiana; Tangled's Flynn, Pascal and Rapunzel; Winnie the Pooh's Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger and Winnie the Pooh; and Wreck-It Ralph's, Fix-It Felix, Jr., Vanellope von Schweetz and Wreck-It Ralph.
Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios president Ed Catmull and chief creative officer John Lassete pose with the 30+ characters for the cover and discuss how they revived the company's animation unit.
In 2006, Disney CEO Bob Iger put Catmull and Lasseter in charge of the company's animation arm, which hadn't produced a hit movie in several years. "There was so much pressure on us to close these doors," says Lasseter, who directed Toy Story, A Bug's Life and Cars. "Ed and I absolutely could not do that."
Instead, they rescued Walt Disney Animation Studios by deciding to run it separately from Pixar.
Lasseter had been fired in 1984, and when he returned 22 years later, he learned that the problems he experienced as a young animator were still prevalent. As he tells it, the creative staff wanted to make masterpieces, but studio executives had little interest in the dying art form. "None of them grew up wanting to create animation. None of them," Lasseter explains. "Those are the people we let go."
Together, they created a work environment that fostered creativity and encouraged all employees to pitch their ideas—not just animators. "It's an odd thing to say, but I just had this belief that this place was once great and it would be great again," Big Hero 6 co-director Don Hall tells Wired of the change.
With expert storytelling and masterful artwork, Lasseter and co. revamped the animation division. "The connection you make with you audience is an emotional connection," says two-time Academy Award winner Lasseter. "The audience can't be told to feel a certain way. They have to discover it themselves."