Top 45 Lee Unkrich Quotes

I just ended up focusing on film editing as I was getting my career started. I’m very passionate about editing and will continue to edit for the rest of my career, but it’s not like that was all I did and then somehow I grew into directing a movie.

When we were making ‘Toy Story,’ my grandmother was very ill, and she knew she was not going to make it. I went back to visit her, and there was a moment during that visit that I had to say goodbye, and I knew I’d never be seeing her again. I looked at her and knew that I was looking at her for the last time.

Going through the Chagrin Falls school system, I always thought I was going off to art school.

The question I get more than any other is, ‘What does it mean to direct an animated film?’ And the reality is that it’s not a whole lot different from what you do in live action.

If I went back to live-action, I’d have to do it the Pixar way. If I didn’t, I’d feel like I was walking a tightrope without a net.

I love that people are still obsessively trying to understand and decode ‘The Shining.’ People want to find meaning in things that seemingly don’t have meaning on the surface.

I was disappointed that ‘Tangled’ didn’t get nominated for Best Animated Film.

I did direct quite a bit when I was in school, and I directed some television afterwards.

For ‘Toy Story 3’ to be recognized by the Academy as not only one of the best animated films of the year, but also as one of the 10 best pictures of the year, is both humbling and overwhelming.

For anyone who’s had a transition in their life – heading off to college, parents sending their kids off to college, people getting out of college and heading off into the workforce. Those are major transitions.

I saw a lot of movies that I probably shouldn’t have seen. I saw ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ when I was in first grade – that kind of thing.

I grew up loving watching movies, and at a certain point, I started to become fascinated with making movies. Then I went to film school, and I got to dabble with different aspects of moviemaking, and I ended up settling heavily into editing – editing was what I was really adept at, had a passion for.

It’s important that nobody gets mad at you for screwing up. We know screwups are an essential part of making something good.

Any of us directing at Pixar, whether it’s our first time or not, feel a lot of pressure to not make a bad Pixar film.

I’m lucky to be surrounded by incredibly talented people at Pixar, of course, and I learn a lot from them each and every day.

If you look at the beginning of children’s entertainment in literature, the first books that were written for kids were cautionary tales. They were books that were there to teach kids about growing up and how to live life.

Initially, when people asked us when ‘Toy Story 2’ was going to come out, we’d say, ‘We have no interest in sequels. We just want to do original stories.’

We could make the most beautiful film in the world, but if it doesn’t have a heart beating underneath it, then no one’s going to be interested.

When we made ‘Toy Story,’ we knew, even back then, that this was going to be the ugliest film we would ever produce.

Do you ever achieve total forgiveness after screwing up?

The only reason we made ‘Toy Story 2’ is that we happened to come up with a storyline that was really good. It wasn’t driven by wanting to make a sequel.

I really personalized the pressure to make a good ‘Toy Story’ film. It made me physically sick at the beginning. Literally, I wanted to throw up in the morning because I was just so racked with stress.

We got together as a group to come up with the idea for ‘Toy Story 3’ in the same cabin where we dreamed up ‘Toy Story.’

It’s an incredible honor to be nominated by the Academy.

It’s a strange business, and unfortunately, what we do in animation is a mystery, especially the directors.

When we made ‘Toy Story,’ journalists were more interested in talking about the technique because it was so new and unknown, and we just wanted to talk about the story.

Every one of us at Pixar is worried that we’re going to be the one to make the dud.

I had worked for a lot of directors whose work I didn’t respect, and as I was editing material, I was thinking about how I would have shot the scenes and what I would have done to make the scenes better. After several years of that, I got to the point that I was pretty confident I could sit in the director’s chair.

I never wanted ‘Toy Story 3’ to feel like another sequel just grafted on. We all know that if you put 3 after your title, it typically means garbage, and we knew that going in.

It wasn’t the first film to show a kind of alternate vision of suburbia, but it left an indelible impression, I think, on everybody, and all films like that will forever be measured against ‘Blue Velvet.’

I love movies that are funny and scary and truly emotional all in one film, and I don’t feel like I see movies like that a lot.

We all, to some degree, wish we could have some element of our childhood back again while, for kids, moving on is something they’re worried about. They know it’s going to happen at some point.

It is shocking how much a day-care center is like a prison. They both have security cameras with walled exercise yards. Prisons are permanent day cares for people permanently in time-out – convicts.

I ended up being exposed to cinema that a lot of other kids wouldn’t have been exposed to.

When I was around 12 or so, I saw ‘The Shining.’ I just remember that being a turning point for me, where I started to think about the fact that there was a hand behind the film. That it wasn’t just this magical story being told – there were actual people crafting these films, and they were works of art.

I feel like my job as a storyteller and director is to create an experience where the audience forgets they’re in a cinema and can get lost in the story. Things popping out of the screen call attention to the artifice of what you’re doing, so I use 3D as more of a window into a world behind the screen.

When people think of Mexican music, they most often think of mariachi, and that, of course, is one part.

The walls between live-action and animation are becoming really porous, and it’s interesting.

If you ask any of us which movie we were making when one of our kids was born, we’ll be able to tell you instantly. It’s like our family lives are permanently woven into the movies.

I didn’t want to be the guy who screwed up ‘Toy Story.’

I don’t like 3D movies that have things popping out of the screen. Firstly, I find it straining on my eyes, and more importantly, it distracts me from the movie.

I guess it’s the fear of failure and not knowing how the films are going to do that just drives us to work really hard to make them the best they can possibly be.

I love Giuseppe Tornatore, the guy that did ‘Cinema Paradiso.’

Pixar is filled with people who don’t get rid of their toys.

We try our best every time to make engaging films that we’re interested in, and we just hope the rest of the world likes them.