At Pixar Animation Studios, makers of fine CG-animated fantasies, it truly takes three to tango. One director alone simmply can't handle the mammoth, years-long task of masterminding a CG film. Assistance is required to make the movie – and survive the experience.
In the case of Disney/Pixar's Monsters, Inc., the main man was director Pete Docter; the Pixar veteran who came up with the film's original idea. Essentially, he had final creative authority on Monsters, Inc. (executive produced by Pixar's John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, produced by Darla Anderson). He directed the film but was aided by two co-directors, Lee Unkrich (the co-director of Toy Story 2 who also later repeated the job on Finding Nemo) and David Silverman (a prolific director of The Simpsons who worked at Pixar for three years before leaving to rejoin the Simpsons crew).
A historical note: These interviews were conducted separately for an extensive "Making Monsters, Inc. " story (published in STARLOG #293) that quoted all three as well as five other creators. To this end, Silverman chatted at Pixar on September 10, 2001, while both Docter and Unkrich talked the next day while doing post-production at Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch. However, almost five hours' worth of interviews makes for a great deal of conversation, and it has long been our intention to assemble the directors' most intriguing outtakes into one big Monster talk.
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