Fabled Film Company May Get a Reanimator

Suddenly, John Lasseter is Walt Disney Co.'s $7.4-billion man.

Returning to the company where he worked more than 20 years ago as a low-level artist, computer animation's master storyteller faces a daunting task: how to merge his community of hit-making mavericks at Pixar Animation Studios with a more staid Disney animation group that has struggled for much of the last decade to regain its stride.

"I don't think anyone expects it to be easy, but John brings something that no one else can bring," said Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook of Lasseter, currently Pixar's creative head. "He's the Michael Jordan of animation. He makes everyone else around him great."

When Disney formally acquires Pixar this summer, Lasseter will become the chief creative officer of both studios. He also will help design rides for Disney's theme park division, where he once operated a Jungle Cruise boat at Disneyland and, more recently, helped design a Bug's Land at Disney's California Adventure.

Lasseter's fans say he is Disney's best hope to rekindle an animation group that dominated film animation from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" through "The Lion King." He is exceptionally popular with animators, who see him as one of their own and are drawn to his wide-eyed enthusiasm.

"John is an artist; he understands their passions, their psyches, their insecurities -- the whole package," said Chris Buck, the director of "Tarzan," who worked with Lasseter at Disney in the early 1980s.

The 49-year-old executive wears Hawaiian shirts on the job, stuffs his office full of windup toys and shuns limousines for an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile at the Academy Awards. Pixar's Emeryville, Calif., headquarters reflect that carefree management style. Animators and computer geeks tool around on scooters through hallways decorated with discarded Chuck E. Cheese mouse statues.

In graduation ceremonies for the company's Pixar University training program, new hires dress in large hats or as cheerleaders before parading backward as Lasseter delivers the commencement address.

Despite overseeing some of the entertainment industry's most successful films, Lasseter shuns Hollywood. He and his wife live in Sonoma, Calif., with their five sons.

Lasseter once served as grand marshal of the town's Independence Day parade and has been active in Boy Scouts and Indian Guides.

For Lasseter, Tuesday's deal marks a second homecoming.