By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.
Steve Jobs ArchivePixar's Early Days - A Never-Before-Seen Interview With Steve Jobs, 1996
Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Steve Jobs on Pixar: culture, Disney partnership, story-first animation
- Steve Jobs says he bought into Ed Catmull’s vision of creating the first fully computer-animated feature film, a decade-long effort that culminated in Toy Story’s release and success.
- He describes Pixar as a true studio where his job is to create the conditions for exceptional people to work together as peers, while John Lasseter directs the films.
- He argues Pixar’s distinctive strength is combining top-tier creative talent with top-tier computer graphics scientists and making Silicon Valley and Hollywood cultures effectively collaborate.
- He explains Pixar exited commercials and much work-for-hire special effects because the model offers no upside participation and has faced margin pressure, preferring opportunities where Pixar owns part of what it creates.
- He says Disney provided hard-to-obtain feature-animation know-how—especially the discipline of “editing before you make it”—and he concludes that technology can enrich visuals but cannot turn a bad story into a good one.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasJobs bought Pixar to help realize Ed Catmull’s dream of a computer-animated feature film.
He says he met Ed Catmull in 1985 at Lucasfilm’s computer division, saw the work, and “bought into” Catmull’s dream of making the first computer-animated feature film; Jobs describes supporting that dream both financially and spiritually over a 10-year effort.
Jobs frames his Pixar role as enabling great work, not making the films himself.
He emphasizes that he does not direct Pixar’s films, crediting John Lasseter as director and describing his own job as creating an environment where creative, technical, and production teams can collaborate as peers.
Pixar’s edge, as described here, is a peer culture that unites elite artists and elite technologists.
He argues Pixar is unusual in being able to recruit top creative talent and top computer graphics scientists at the same time, and says the company spent years learning to merge differing Hollywood and Silicon Valley cultures.
Pixar intentionally moved away from work-for-hire toward owning creative output.
Jobs describes commercials and special effects as “work for hire” with eroding margins and no participation in upside, and says Pixar exited the commercials business because the team’s talent was better used where Pixar could own part of what it creates.
Pixar avoided Hollywood contracts to build a culture of continuous retention through shared ownership.
He says Pixar chose a Silicon Valley-style retention model (stock options) over Hollywood-style contracts, aiming to align incentives and force management to make Pixar a place people want to stay every day rather than relying on contractual “lock-in.”
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesEd showed me what they were doing. Uh, and he shared with me his dream about making the first computer-animated feature film. And I bought into that dream, both financially and spiritually.
— Steve Jobs
What I try to do is help create the environment where all these incredible people can make films.
— Steve Jobs
Pixar is the only, only company I know where Silicon Valley and Hollywood have met, where there's actually been any offspring that have been successful.
— Steve Jobs
So this strange thing happens, which is the, the sort of the, the hierarchy of power inverts, and the CEO is actually at the bottom. So I sort of feel like I work for most of these people because, um, they're the ones that are doing all the brilliant work, you know?
— Steve Jobs
And, you know, I think people are gonna be watching Toy Story in 60 years. Um, not 'cause of the computer graphics, but because of the story, you know, about friendship.
— Steve Jobs
SPEAKERS
Steve Jobs
guestCo-founder of Apple and (in 1996) owner/CEO of Pixar, overseeing its business strategy and partnership with Disney.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
