make people cry that’s that’s what I do
for a career I I make grown adults and
children cry I’m sorry I apologize now
because I’ve been working at Pixar for
over 20 years helping create those
stories and characters that yes make
people cry and also make people laugh as
well right that’s what I’ve been doing I
love I love doing this I love that
creating this experience for people but
let me just back up for a second and let
me go back to where my story really
begins which is in a toy store because
my mom and dad when I was born they
owned the largest chain of toy stores in
the San Francisco Bay Area it’s not a
bad way to grow up right it’s your
birthday mom and dad say go to the store
pick yourself something up right
probably the only bad thing is you don’t
really know who your true friends are or
who just wants to play with your
complete collection of Star Wars toys
but my mom and dad actually didn’t start
the toy stores though my grandfather and
grandmother owned and ran our family toy
stores before my parents and it doesn’t
stop there my great grandparents owned
and ran the toy stores before my parents
before my grandparents and then my
great-great-great grandfather Charlie
that guy with a cigar in his mouth he
actually hated kids and he hated toys he
owned a cigar shop in San Francisco but
everybody else in my family it’s always
been about toys about creating an
experience for people when they would
come into the stores to feel
entertaining entertained to feel
delighted to feel like they’re a kid my
grandfather up there he’s 91 years old
Marine World War two he could still beat
me up with one arm if you chose to and
then that’s my dad with a slinky and he
um he he actually he never wanted to get
into the business he’s not the Smurf up
there it’s the other guy my dad actually
when he came back from Vietnam he went
to his dad the marine its a dad I really
really want to be a Disney animator yeah
a Disney animator and my grandfather the
marine said are you kidding me
you can’t make a living as an artist
plus you need to continue running the
toy stores so my dad reluctantly decided
I’m gonna let my dream pass I’m not
gonna pursue it until I was about three
years old this is a photo of my my dad
me my grandmother my dad was very much
into hair obviously and but when I was
about three years old my dad was home
with a stomachache and to be able to
cheer him up I did the only thing I
could do which was I drew a picture for
him and of him with a stomachache you
can see the swirls in his his square
body and when my dad saw this drawing he
made a decision for me for the rest of
my life which was going to be you will
live my dreams you are going to be that
Disney animator so at 3 years old my dad
he already started my my training to do
this one day there was the normal things
like take me to see you know animated
Disney movies take me to the museum give
me art products to draw with but he
pushed it farther
my mom would drop me off at school you
know at 11 a.m. in the morning and then
my dad would pick me up at 11 a.m.
because there was the movie we needed to
see that day that was very important for
my education now his favorite movies
though were science fiction and horror
so you know taking your kid to see
poltergeist when they’re five is a
really bad idea
but all of this love that he had for
animation and art and film it rubbed off
on me by the time I was in high school I
knew I want to be a Disney animator this
is what I want to do and I had heard of
a school that was about seven hours away
from San Francisco it was in Los Angeles
and it was called Cal arts now this
school was the one that Walt Disney
started before he passed away it’s the
school where if you want to do anything
in animation this is the school you go
to
now I ended up going to school with a
lot of friends that I later worked with
but while I was at the school I made a
student film my first year and I have
this kind of you know work ethic problem
where I I have a strong work ethic and I
made a student film it was an animated
film and it got seen by a company that
had a TV show that had been on the air
for about two years at this point and in
my first year of college they offered me
a job to come in to be an animator on
The Simpsons
believe it or not I was only 19 years
old when this happened pretty crazy so I
did what was the logical thing I left
school and I wouldn’t work for The
Simpsons and I had accomplished my dad’s
dream of being an animator and then one
day I discovered how the stories were
being put together at the Simpsons you
can probably recognize back there that
that’s Conan O’Brien right the team at
the Simpsons that were writing these
stories each episode it was like a
combination between people that went to
Harvard comic strip artists comedians a
whole mixture of storytellers and every
week they put together an episode and I
fell in love with this process it made
me realize that while I love animation
and I love movies and I love design and
color and music and everything that goes
into making a movie great
the part I was really in love with was
the big picture of the whole thing the
story how to make people feel something
well this led me to at the time a very
small animation studio only made up of
about 80 people and I ended up working
on the very first CG animated film and
it was during this time that I’m
animating on Toy Story that I get the
opportunity to start working on the
stories that they were making and
through this past process I realized
that while like I said all the aspects
of making a film or a TV show are
important it all hinges upon a great
story a story about a rat that has the
dreams of being a french chef or a film
that makes you feel that at any point of
your life you can have a zest for life
again right all these great stories that
we’ve made a Pixar and Simpsons they are
great stories because they evoke
feelings they make us feel something and
I remember when I went to college that
is what they told me on the first day
they said no matter what you do whether
you’re gonna be a sculptor an animator a
filmmaker whatever you’re gonna do make
people feel something make them laugh
make them angry make them scared but
whatever you do make people feel
something and I realized how important
that was even for my family in their toy
store that when people came into the toy
store what my family was always trying
to do was make people feel something to
feel like a kid again and when I think
about great companies they do the same
thing when you go into Tiffany’s
you have a feeling right it feels unique
beautiful sophisticated and storytelling
goes beyond just the narrative the color
the typeface of the logo the visuals can
tell a story another company I think of
that makes me feel something is Tesla
when I’m in a Tesla
I don’t own a Tesla but I wish I did
but it makes me feel like there’s an
optimistic future right it leaves me
with a feeling that this aesthetically
pleasing and cool-looking car it gives
me hope about the future and I think
that’s really what we’re all trying to
go to is make people feel something
reach them with a feeling so I’ve been
you know so fortunate to work at the
Disney Company for over almost half my
life it’s a company that I love you know
I don’t want to embarrass myself but my
wife and I we we actually did take the
Disney cruise on our honeymoon so kind
of lets you know how much I like Disney
and you know why I like that company is
because every aspect of that company is
about making people feel delighted and
entertained it goes beyond a mission
statement right it goes beyond the plot
of a movie it all comes down to how do
you want make people to feel and I’m not
the only one who loves things that are
Disney and you know they say that people
who go to a Disney movie or the Disney
parks or a Disney Store or buy a Disney
toy 70% of them are gonna come back for
more and why it’s because they want to
feel that same initial experience again
but the problem is that not everybody
does this not everybody thinks about how
important is to reach people with a
feeling one feeling and our world in
looking like this mixed messages people
don’t know really what to make us feel
so they just bombard us with so much
information and I don’t want to can
doubt this to statistic but I’ll just
tell you anyway
they figured out that about four years
of your life is gonna be wasted deleting
and going through spam and irrelevant
advertising isn’t that great to know you
know even when we are putting together a
poster for one of our movies we have to
think to ourselves are we giving people
the right feeling you know when people
have an attention span of about eight
seconds they’re driving in their car
they see one of the posters for a movie
and they see a rack with a carrot what
is he what is he he’s a lover he’s a
dancer what does that mean and that was
our first poster we put out and we
realized quickly that is sending out the
wrong feeling and then we redid it with
this one
a rat who’s dying to be a chef and we
see him holding that cheese and all the
fancy knives and now we get it it’s
about creating the right feeling I also
noticed when people don’t know what kind
of feeling they want to crave for their
film or if their visual images or their
their company then we go into this we
don’t know what to do so let’s just do
what everybody else is doing
and I’m telling you it’s like okay if
it’s action alright that’s calm if it’s
a romantic comedy let’s let’s do this
and this isn’t just for films I see this
happen all the time with just regular
advertisements these are all different
ads for watches but they all blend in so
you really want to think no matter what
you do in life okay art a startup create
a company make sure that you are leaving
people with a feeling and when you know
what that feeling is that becomes your
North Star
so that every decision you make from the
logo to your website to the characters
in the movie that everything is working
towards that one goal like I mentioned
it the Disney Company it’s all about
entertainment and delighting the
audience and everybody from the guy
cleaning the sidewalks of Disney what at
Disneyland are drawing pictures of
characters on the sidewalk to the
creative executive and CEOs everything
goes back to this one
feeling so whatever you do in life
always ask yourself what do you want
people to feel what do you want to leave
with them so I’m going to show you one
clip that just came out recently it’s
very moving and I want to share with you
real quick did you look outside
yours coming down to make you feel my
love when the evening shadows and the
stars appear there is no one there to
to make you feel
go to the answer to make you feel my
love cuz in the end no one is gonna
remember what we said no one’s gonna
remember what we did but people are
always gonna remember how we made them
feel thank you [Applause]