After John Lasseter's exit, the 'Soul' co-director has reinvigorated Disney's multibillion-dollar Oscar-winning powerhouse by ushering in a new diverse generation of filmmakers and projects.
In June of 2018, then Disney CEO Bob Iger summoned Pete Docter from the Pixar Animation Studios campus in Emeryville, California, to Disney's corporate headquarters in Burbank — a building fronted by 19-foot sculptures of characters from Snow White — for a conversation that would seem to be a career pinnacle for any modern animator. For Docter, however, the moment was fraught. "I go down there into that giant building with the dwarves on it and push the elevator button," Docter says. "I had a suspicion of what he wanted to talk about, and it just hit me. I will be honest, there was a little bit of dread."
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