Lasseter event canceled

CANCELED
John Lasseter is the Walt Disney of the digital age, creating – with the likes of Toy Story, Cars and Finding Nemo — enduring cultural touchstones of your children’s youth. Now the chief creative officer of both Pixar Animation Studios and Disney Animation Studios, the Sonoma Valley resident shares his own story in a December 4 visit with author Amy Wallace.

Way back in 1986, his Oscar-nominated short Luxo Jr. (which introduced the bouncing white desk lamp that would become Pixar’s mascot) was among the first to show what digital animation could do. Nine years later, in 1995, Pixar released Toy Story, the first feature length computer-animated film ever made. The film, which Lasseter directed and co-wrote, grossed $372 million at the world-wide box office, garnered three Academy Award nominations, and was awarded a Special Achievement Academy Award. Lasseter went on to direct A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Cars 2, but his impact is now felt in every Pixar and Disney Animation production because it is usually Lasseter who oversees a collaborative process called The Braintrust.

Developed at Pixar, the Braintrust – a regular meeting of each studio’s top creative minds – is designed to help directors and producers who are deep into the filmmaking process to identify and solve the problems that inevitably come up in animated storytelling. Since the Walt Disney Co. acquired Pixar in 2006, Lasseter has helped introduce the Braintrust idea to filmmakers at Disney Animation as well.

The workings of the Braintrust are a key focus of the 2014 book Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, by Pixar and Disney Animation president Ed Catmull (with Amy Wallace). Wallace, who interviewed Lasseter several times for that book, will be interviewing him again at the Sonoma Speakers Series event.

7 p.m. Hanna Boys Center, 17000 Arnold Dr. $35-$75. Sonomaspeakerseries.com