Pixar’s John Lasseter Emotionally Accepts Disney Legends Award For Steve Jobs [Video]

The Disney Legends Award is presented annually to a person who has left a significant impact on The Walt Disney Corporation. This year, the late Steve Jobs received the honor, and last night John Lasseter accepted the award on Jobs’ behalf at the D23 Expo. Lasseter is the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, a studio Jobs co-founded, and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He created Toy Story and is arguably the most influential and iconic storyteller in the history of animation.

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the award before brining Lasseter onstage to accept. Both men were friends with Jobs, and Lasseter got chocked up a few times while sharing stories about Jobs influence on the early days of Pixar.

We were having dinner one day, in the middle of the hardest part of making ‘Toy Story’, and he started looking off again in the distance and he said: You know John, when we make the computers at Apple. He said the lifespan of that computer is what, 3 years? He said in 5 years it’s a door stop. Ya know, that’s how technology goes. But he said ‘if you do your job right what you create and what Pixar creates can last forever.’