John Lasseter, Capricorn and Creative Head of Pixar

With Disney's acquisition of Pixar -- the best animation studio in the U.S. -- John Lasseter is now both creative head of Pixar as well as Disney animation. Lasseter is the director of the Toy Story movies, as well as A Bug's Life and Cars.

Born January 12, 1957 in Hollywood (imdb.com), Lasseter is a Capricorn, a natural leader. His Sun conjoins Mercury, making communication key to his identity. Placed in Capricorn, the messenger planet needs to express itself in a concrete, measurable manner. This pragmatic focus is beneficial to an animation studio -- Capricorn is focused on the bottom line, and no doubt Pixar's great financial success is due not only to the brilliance of their movies but also to Lasseter's organizational abilities.

Lasseter's Sun and Mars make a stressful square to Mars in Aries. There is an impulsive side to John -- part of him probably wants to just go ahead and implement (Mars) his ideas (Mercury). However, the Capricorn part of him tells him to hold his horses, to stand at the mountaintop to get a more practical overview as to how to initiate his studio's projects.

John has mentioned that great animation is not enough to make a movie to be proud of -- it needs to capture the audience emotionally, there has to be a quality story in which the viewer cares about the characters. Where is this focus on emotions found in his chart? He has no personal planets in water, and without an exact birthtime we do not know if any of his angles are in water signs. His Moon is most likely in Gemini, opposite Saturn in Sagittarius, square Pluto in Virgo, trine Jupiter in Libra, and sextile Uranus in Leo. It may even be inconjunct Neptune in Scorpio. So his emotional center is heavily inundated with outer planet energies!

The Moon in Gemini symbolizes the child (Moon) who loves the fast-paced, Bugs-Bunny-as-trickster cartoons where many things are happening at once (Gemini). However, in a possible T-square with Pluto and Saturn, this is a heavy Moon. These are planets of danger (Pluto) and abandonment/separation (Saturn) -- in fact, Steven Spielberg has a similar configuration. In Toy Story, Woody is endangered by the evil boy-next-door who likes to torture his toys. In A Bug's Life, Dot finds herself in a very dangerous scenario (with a bird? -- it's hard to remember). Additionally, the ants are threatened by the grasshoppers. In Toy Story 2, Woody is reunited with his family (Moon) but encounters manipulation (Pluto) by his father (Saturn).

In Cars -- Gemini rules transportation -- the protagonist, Lightning McQueen, is separated (Saturn) from his truck on his trek to California and ends up unintentionally destroying the main street in Radiator Springs, a small town off Route 66. The town elder sentences him (Saturn) to community service, in which he must re-pave (Pluto) the street he had destroyed. He transforms (Pluto) from the self-absorbed (Mars in Aries) race-car, and as a result transforms the town itself, bringing new life into a place that had been abandoned -- left for dead (Saturn) -- by the drivers along the interstate. One can also see the conflict between hot-in-the-pants Lightning McQueen (Aries) and the older, wiser Doc Hudson (Capricorn).

Cars incorporates some of Miyazaki's influence. Lasseter intentionally created a sense of slowness -- of "nothing going on" -- and depicted beautiful nature scenery. These qualities are staples of the Japanese animator's films. Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, has this slow quality -- it takes its time -- and is also an earth sign.

Whoa! All this Capricorn energy, plus the Moon opposite Saturn (and square Pluto) ... there's quite an emotional depth -- a weightiness -- that John Lasseter brings to his films. This is probably what differentiates Pixar from the other studios that focus on pop-culture references and poop jokes at the expense of a riveting story with characters we care about. I do hope that this brilliant animator turns Disney upside down!

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