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A University of Utah alumnus is sitting on top of one of the most powerful companies in Hollywood. But what can his company do to keep from being hurt by the recession?
He's the head of two major animation studios, and even he, at one time, had doubts of his animation skills.
Pixar Animation and Disney Animation Studios President Edwin Catmull said, "By the time I got ready to go to college, I came to believe I couldn't draw well enough." He added, "I now know in retrospect that I had the skills that I could have gotten there."
Catmull says tough economic times can make people revert to behavior that's worked in the past to avoid risk, which doesn't always work.
"Something will go wrong. So, your measure is not whether you avoid risk or not. It's what you do when things go wrong," he said.
Catmull says even his companies haven't grown to recession-proof status yet.
"We're always at the edge of having something disastrously go wrong. I think part of the trick is just to realize that," he said.
Since he's run Pixar, he's seen things go wrong many times. Catmull says every movie Pixar has made has had major problems, and in some cases, the company has had outright meltdowns.
"'Toy Story 2,' the core story was the same, but they retold it because it didn't work the first time. Same with ‘Ratatouille,' it was always about a rat in a kitchen, but the first time, it wasn't watchable," he explained.
The next movie is called "Up," and it's set for release in May.
"It's a 70-year-old man and a young boy who go off on a phenomenal adventure," he said.
After that, "Toy Story 3" is up for release in 2010. It includes all the stars who worked on the first two, with the exception of the late Jim Varney. But, plans still call for using the "Slinky" character.
"There will be somebody else doing the voice," Catmull said.
After that, it will release "Newt," "The Bear and the Bow" and "Cars 2." He says it's too soon to release any details on any of those movies.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
