- 3 months ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:05Our good friend, Joe Ranft, was one of the greatest story artists of all time.
00:11He was the heart and soul of Pixar.
00:15And he's a big part of why people connect so deeply with our movies.
00:21Joe unfortunately passed away towards the end of the production of Cars.
00:26And boy, do we miss him terribly.
00:38I don't know if I can be objective about myself, but I love characters.
00:47You know, they're not real, but you make them, it's an illusion that they are alive.
00:52That they've got something inside them that's motivating them and it's driving them.
01:05I'm never bored when trying to crack what's going on with a character.
01:11You know, even if they're a bug or a toy or a car or a fish, on some level they're
01:17people.
01:17All the toys are worried, so Woody goes over to the serge and says, sergeant, establish a recon post down.
01:23I really dig storyboarding.
01:26And somehow it's like, in putting pen to paper, things occur to me that wouldn't occur to me just sitting
01:32and writing.
01:33It's like, oh, oh, I can see it.
01:35I can see how this would work.
01:37And, you know, it's fun to draw and explore what's there.
01:40And it's almost like you're kind of chiseling away when you're drawing.
01:43And that's my process.
01:44It was a very deliberate style.
01:46I mean, he really was searching.
01:47You could see in his drawings how he worked to get that drawing to look as good as it could.
01:52And I liked that about him.
01:54I liked that he was good, but he was always working harder to be better.
01:59He made us all better.
02:00He was our mentor.
02:01He knew the craft, was a gentle teacher.
02:05I see.
02:06Now it's all clear.
02:07But on top of that, very funny ideas, very good draftsman, and probably one of the best story men to
02:14have ever lived, if not the best.
02:16See it?
02:17And he's like, ah!
02:18And he starts growing.
02:19Telling story with heart, with clarity.
02:22It's not about the drawing.
02:23It's about the idea.
02:25And Joe communicated in a very quirky, funny way, which, that's a gift.
02:30He was able to capture character, the situation, but his drawing was so clear, you got it like that.
02:36And you could read it from across the room.
02:38So what he had to say was always worthwhile, and how he told it was so deceivingly simple that it
02:45almost was a disservice.
02:46It made you think, well, I can do that, or anybody can do that.
02:49But over time, you realize, wow, he does something that nobody else can do.
02:54I don't want to work on a film that's really cynical, because I'm not really cynical.
02:58So I want to work on characters that make me smile, and hopefully make other people smile, you know?
03:07Or that they'll feel for, or that will surprise, surprise you, you know?
03:13I'm sure he could have become a director, I'm sure he could have done a lot more here, but I
03:19think he was happy where he was, because he could affect the movie still, and make it a great movie,
03:23sitting back where he was sitting.
03:27I like people, and I'm very curious about what makes people tick, and I'm always trying to figure out what
03:35makes me tick.
03:43I started drawing when I was younger in school, and would get in trouble for drawing inappropriate monsters on my
03:51books.
03:51Like, it's something I did, because I wasn't really great in academics.
03:56I think it was the fact that I got involved in art that I'd be able to, like, function well
04:03in school.
04:03I was in trouble in school a lot.
04:12I won an art contest in sixth grade, and it was the first kind of success I'd had, or one
04:19of the first successes I'd had at school.
04:20And I decided, I'm going to become an artist.
04:22I didn't know what type of art I wanted to do, but I was very interested in, like, monster movies
04:28and magic.
04:30I was really into, like, you know, doing silly magic tricks, which was a big hobby of mine.
04:37And I saw an animated film that was produced at the California Institute of the Arts on a TV show.
04:44And then I got a brochure for the character animation program, and it showed all these gesture drawings that all
04:49had this life in it.
04:50And, like, a little bell went off me.
04:54CalArts was great. It was a great experience for me.
04:57Just learning from masters of animation, guys who had worked at Disney, who were all, like, 70 years old when
05:04I was 18 years old.
05:06And it was together with all kinds of other people who were really good.
05:10John was one of them. Tim Burton was one of them.
05:14A teacher named Tee Hee really gave me encouragement to, like, do what I felt was good.
05:21He would say, oh, no, no, don't try, you're trying to copy someone else in class.
05:25No, do your own thing.
05:31Yo, um, oh, no, please don't.
05:35Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
05:45I ended up, after my second year, getting hired at Disney, and I actually worked on various projects, like Beauty
05:51and the Beast, and I worked on Little Mermaid.
06:14And I promised John, John, when you get your first feature film, I'm going to work on it.
06:19And that turned out to be Toy Story.
06:21Guess what? We're making a movie. Really?
06:25Yeah!
06:26Yeah!
06:29He hops down next to his bucket full of soldiers. He says, you heard him, Code Red! Repeat, we are
06:35at Code Red!
06:36This process of pitching a storyboard, you know, you get up and you act it out.
06:41So you're doing character voices, you're doing lines from the movie, you're kind of getting a feeling of it, like
06:47as if you're rehearsing it.
06:49And the ladybug comes up and says, the funnest aspect of it is playing around and goofing around with your
06:54friends.
06:54And then they go, ah, look, a bee!
06:57And then Heimlich comes running forward, I am a cute little bumblebee, here I come!
07:02Slow down, you flowers!
07:07It's really fun to do voices for characters, and what I do a lot is called scratch voice.
07:14I do temporary track voices as we're building the story and redoing and redoing the story, and then once in
07:20a while, one sticks.
07:21Oh, la mer, bon!
07:24Voila, here's clean.
07:25Look, look, it's Woody and Buzz coming up fast!
07:28The kid almost touched me. She got this close to me.
07:31Now, what did I do with that radio?
07:34Master! The plans!
07:37There's some people who just, it's not fair, but they're funny.
07:41And Joe could take a nothing line that was not supposed to be funny, or maybe you hoped secretly it
07:48was, but it actually wasn't, and he could make it funny.
07:50Justice is my sword, and truth shall be back forever!
07:53Bob are all gone!
07:55Baby wants pie!
07:57The dust aggravates my condition.
08:02Oh, hi.
08:04I'm here for the audition for the part of Buzz Lightyear, and I want to be a hero, so let's
08:10go to infinity and beyond.
08:17Joe was the funniest person I've ever met.
08:20I can easily say that.
08:22Let's go down with the one and the only funnics, the clowns!
08:36Shimmy, shimmy, shake that booty, shake it, baby, shake it till we turn around and drop it, drop it, shake
08:42it, don't wanna stop it.
08:43Any time you're with him, you're just laughing and having a great time.
08:47I'm Lightning McQueen.
08:48And I use Rusty's Medicaid point.
08:50And I use Rusty's ending.
08:51Surprised?
08:52Nothing soothes the best he can.
08:54Surprised.
08:55Surprised.
08:56Joe's sense of humor was character-based.
09:00He became a character.
09:10It's all about personal grooming, Craig.
09:13It's a hair gel, and what you want to do is work it up in the front.
09:16So you've got business up front and party in the back.
09:20Business up front and party in the back.
09:22There you go.
09:27The greatest character he ever had started with a pair of fake clothes.
09:34As soon as he put them in his mouth, he became this unbelievable character.
09:41Bob, what kind of pie do you like?
09:45I like any kind of pie.
09:47How about you?
09:48I like mooshu pork.
09:52I thought you were gonna say you like pie.
09:54Well, if they made mooshu pie, I'd be in heaven.
10:05They always interview guys like this after a tornado.
10:09Lost my whole shack.
10:13And it actually was one of the inspirations for Mater.
10:16Welcome to Route 66.
10:18See y'all later.
10:19Bye now.
10:20Where are you?
10:22Shoot.
10:23You're in Radiator Springs.
10:25Joe had this, you know, the combination of this huge heart and this sick sense of humor.
10:30Oh, look at the beautiful colors of the blood.
10:34We drew on a view dying because our teacher said it would be more dramatic.
10:38He would, in that way, keep the sort of sweet and some might say schmaltzy elements of the story in
10:44check
10:44by having that sort of dark element as well.
10:49And that became an essential ingredient for the films we do even now.
10:54I just like to go for something that comes alive or feels fresh or like, wow, that would be cool.
11:01Oh, wow, that's, you know, that excitement to get something across.
11:06And like, people are gonna laugh so hard when they see this.
11:09Joe was like born to entertain people.
11:16He was just a natural at it.
11:19Joe was just a really giving guy.
11:21I mean, he just really cared about people, I think, beyond, for sure, beyond where most people do.
11:29He didn't have to care about any of our lives outside of work, but, man, he did.
11:34And I think he wanted you to be a better artist, but he also helped a lot of us be
11:41better people.
11:41You walked up to him and asked him a question you always left with dignity.
11:44He always found a way to say, oh, I want to help you answer this, but I want to celebrate
11:49the fact that you're even asking the question.
11:51He was just a great listener, probably the best.
11:57And he had a real sixth sense for when people needed it, even if you weren't looking for it.
12:02And that I'll miss more than anything else is the random knock at the doorway and just going, ah, it's
12:08Joe.
12:12And, ah, yeah, he was just remarkable.
12:15He was one of the most amazing talents I've ever seen.
12:19And boy, do we miss him terribly.
12:22And, ah, yeah, he was one of the most amazing talents I've ever seen in my family.
12:54So.
12:54What?
12:57So.
12:58And.
12:58So.
Comments