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 As head of the Disney-owned
studio that created cultural moments from “Toy
Story” to “Monsters Inc.” among others, Pixar
Animation Studios President Jim Morris spoke
with Reuters about the way the organization
adapted to this moment and kept his team
together in times of fear and isolation.
Q: You head up a famously collaborative and
creative team, so when the virus first hit, how
did you handle that?
A: We were all caught off-guard, of course. We
were heavy into production, finishing up the
movie “Soul,” and we were hoping to stay
on-site. It quickly became evident that was not
going to happen.
We got out of the office in two days, and
because we were working with equipment that we
could take home, we got back up and rolling
pretty quickly. “Soul” did get done on schedule
about four weeks later, so maybe the pressure of
getting a movie done focused us.
Q: How did your teams adapt to new modes of
working?
A: We are all incredibly grateful Zoom existed,
so we could get on each other’s screens and talk
and collaborate. It’s not like being there, but
it worked well enough to keep us going.
Some departments were hobbled a bit by working
remotely, others less so. With story teams, for
example, where you get into a room together and
throw ideas around, that seems to work better in
person.
The fact that so many people here have worked
together for so long was pretty helpful. We have
a kind of shorthand with each other about how to
get stuff done.
Q: What leadership lessons did you take away
from all this?
A: It has been a tricky time for a lot of
reasons. People were uprooted from the
workplace, and maybe they had kids at home and
were trying to do home education, or maybe they
didn’t have kids and were totally isolated –
everything got more intense. A lot of things
came together to make leadership really
difficult.
To ameliorate that, we started doing weekly
company meetings, broadcast to everyone, to tell
them what was going on in a straight-up,
unglossy way. We did this in conjunction with
our Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter and just
tried to be transparent about the issues we were
dealing with and empathetic about what they were
dealing with.
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 Q: Since you are experts in
storytelling – where are we in this larger
American story, of getting through this period?
A: I’m optimistic that we will have more people
coming back into the studio – maybe not every
day, but a large amount of people coming back.
That will rely on a lot of things, like new
variants and more vaccinations for kids so
parents won’t be so anxious.
Q: What advice would you have
for other companies about collaboration in times
of crisis?
A: I know many companies were quick to say they
would work remotely forever. I think that’s
probably not the best recipe for doing your best
creative collaboration.
It feels electric to be in a room with someone
else, to work through an idea on a whiteboard
during a story meeting or to read body language
without the filter of Zoom. My advice would be
some in-person collaboration because that
generates something of a different cloth than
what you get from home.
Q: What do you foresee about a return to
theaters?
A: Our feature films were made for the
theatrical experience and they are beautiful to
watch on the big screen. We had two films
released on Disney+, “Soul” and “Luca,” and we
were grateful to be successful on that platform.
But deep down inside, I would rather release
films on the big screen for the communal
experience. I sure hope to get films back into
theaters, and for more people to go out to the
movies again, because it’s a different
experience than watching them at home.
Q: Do you have a favorite Pixar movie?
A: I produced “Wall-E,” so I have an inclination
to say that one. But on an emotional level,
there is something about “Up” that I keep going
back to over and over. And in terms of sheer
brilliance of filmmaking, “Ratatouille” is a
jewel of a film. Those are the ones that pop to
my mind.
(Editing by Lauren Young; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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