174. Pete Docter: The Inside Out of Pixar’s Process

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast

Mygirlfriendsboyfriend, Interviews, Comedy Interviews, Sleepwalkwithme, Iraglass, Comedy, Thankgodforjokes, Thenewone, Mikebirbiglia, Dontthinktwice, Birbiglia

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2012, Mike was invited his film Sleepwalk With Me at Pixar and he’s been friends with filmmaker Pete Docter ever since. Known for his directorial feats of greatness with Monsters, Inc., Up, Soul, and Inside Out, Pete Docter is now the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar. Pete walks Mike through the Pixar “draft” process for developing a story, and reveals the ups and downs of being a Pixar director. Pete shares stories of his time spent with Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and some of the original Disney animators. Plus, advice on giving (and receiving) creative notes, and the story of Pete’s Star Wars fan film he made when he was a kid.

Transcript

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0:00.0	My wife said, you think anybody ever asks Steve Jobs to go to lunch?
0:05.3	I don't know.
0:06.3	So I tried it.
0:07.4	And so he and I had lunched a number of times, a dozen or so.
0:10.4	And one time he told me he hopes that he'll be reincarnated as a Pixar director.
0:17.1	So that was interesting.
0:22.0	That is the voice of the great Pete Doctor.
0:24.4	Holy cow, are we in for a great episode?
0:27.8	I've wanted to have Pete Doctor on this show for so many years.
0:32.6	He has directed some of my favorite films of all time at Pixar, Monsters, Inc., Soul, Inside
0:39.8	Out, Up, Up is one of my all-time favorites. He's won three Oscars. I mean, these are
0:45.7	classic films. If you haven't seen these films, you absolutely should. He is currently
0:50.5	the chief creative officer at Pixar overseeing all of the films there.
0:57.4	He is one of the smartest people I have encountered in storytelling and filmmaking in my entire life.
1:06.0	There is a new Pixar film in theaters now called Elio I'm really excited for. And today I talk with Pete about
1:14.4	all that. We talk about story. We talk about animation. We talk about Steve Jobs. And I think you're
1:21.5	really going to love it. My new special, The Good Life, I want to thank you. It's currently on Netflix.
1:25.5	So many of you have watched it and sent me
1:29.6	messages and emails and posted about it on social media. And I can't thank you enough. We just did a
1:36.2	screening at the 90 Second Street Y last week. I talked to my good friend Hassan Minaj about it.
1:41.9	The feedback has been amazing and I can't thank you enough.
1:44.7	I have five live shows this summer.
	...

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