This Week in Startups - E665: Ed Catmull (part 1) — Chatting with the co-founder of Pixar, head of Disney/Pixar

this is just part one of what i think will be one of the best interviews I do in this life time... Timestamps: 00:20-09:17: Jason introduces his guest, Ed Catmull, and starts off by asking him about his early inspirations of being an animator. 09:38-11:28: Ed shares an early model he made of his hand and explains how he wrote the programming language to make it move. 13:10-16:05: Alexander Schure, President of the New York Institute of Technology, hires Ed to start an R&D lab in Long Island, NY. 16:40-17:30: At 25 years of age, Ed says No to working on the Space Mountain ride for Disney, because it didn’t line up with his goal of making a film 17:51-22:51: Ed explains why he thinks Star Wars is the single most impactful film in the history of the motion pictures industry. 26:57-30:26: Ed describes what it was like working with George Lucas, and the birth of Pixar. 30:58-34:27: The journey of Steve Jobs, and how it changed him. 35:02-36:06: Despite the difficult times of failure at Pixar, Ed recounts how everyone stayed together and became a cohesive group of people who shared hard times, trusted each other, and had each others’ backs. 40:00-41:35: Jason and Ed talk about the history of Ed’s short films, and how Luxo was the transformational piece. 43:48-48:35: The making of Toy Story, the risks & negotiations behind it. 48:56-49:58: Jason asks Ed what the main “switch” in the Toy Story story line and when he knew it would be a great film. 50:51-53:20: After the release of Toy Story, Ed found that reviews were mostly about the story, and not about computer graphics. Pixar goes public.