Lasseter On Brave, Monsters University

As anyone who's met him, watched his films, or seen him on screen{ =nofollow}will know, John Lasseter is a bit of a genius. A passionate perfectionist who's brought us Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Cars and more, it was our great pleasure to meet him when he came to town recently to promote Cars 2's release.

Well, it was our man Chris Hewitt's pleasure, anyway, hosting as he did the "Meet the Filmmaker" Q&A session with the Disney head honcho over at London's Apple Store.

In amongst answering the questions of, "Why do you like Hawaiian shirts so much?" and "Where can I find 'A113' in Cars 2?", he also spoke about Pixar's upcoming projects, namely the Monsters, Inc prequel, Monsters University, and Brave, the Emeryville boys' first attempt at a period piece.

For those not in the know already, Brave is set in medieval Scotland, and stars Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald as the protagonist, a fiesty young girl called Merida, with Emma Thompson playing her mum, Queen Elinor, and Billy Connelly playing her dad, King Fergus.

In our exclusive clip from Chris and John's chat, you can hear the man in charge of Walt Disney Animation Studios talk about the project, its difficulties, its successes, and what they hope to achieve with their first female-led feature film.

After that, there's a little on Monsters University, but really, after seeing a snap of Merida in the latest issue of the magazine, you're here for Brave, right? Well, if you're not, you will be after checking out this teaser trailer which we've added below too.

For even more wise words from Mr. Pixar, why not download the full podcast of the evening's entertainment here, for, like, you know, free.

And here's the Brave teaser trailer we mentioned...

Cars 2 is out now, Brave is slated for a August 12, 2012 release, and Monsters University set for a July 13, 2013 reveal.