Vanity Fair’s “Hollywood” (March) issue features “The Class That Roared“—an in-depth look at the early years of CalArts’ Character Animation program. Author Sam Kashner talked to a number of CalArts’ alumni for the piece, including John Lasseter (Film/Video BFA 79), chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Lasseter, a two-time Academy Award winner, is best known for directing the first feature-length, computer-animated feature film in Toy Story (1995). He was the second student accepted into CalArts’ Character Animation program in 1975 (behind Jerry Rees [Film/Video 77], who helmed The Brave Little Toaster).
But before Lasseter directed Toy Story, A Bug’s Life (1988), Cars (2006) and other animated feature films, there was Nitemare—his CalArts student film:
Also featured in the Annie Leibovitz photo that accompanies “The Class That Roared” is director Andrew Stanton (Film/Video BFA 87), who has also won Oscars for Best Animated feature for Finding Nemo in 2004 and Wall-E in 2009.
Here are two of Stanton’s student short films (Somewhere in the Arctic and A Story), below:
Videos courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment.