Chris Meledandri

“In animation, what's wonderful is that when you start to work with multiple nationalities, the common language becomes a visual language rather than a spoken language, which blends beautifully with the art form.”

“I was pulled out of school for every moratorium day and every rally for a left-wing candidate... from Ed Koch in his heyday to Eugene McCarthy. That's the culture that I came from.”

“Embrace risk. The driving force behind our economic model at Illumination Mac Guff is designed to preserve the opportunity to take risk. Subvert the expectation of the audience. Surprise them with unexpected choices.”

“In the 1960s, my father chose to introduce Italian-style clothing into a world that was filled with boxy Brooks Brothers suits. So if you were dressing in his clothes in New York or California, you were breaking a rule. And my mother, Risha, who is still living, has always been an activist. I don't think my mom has met a cause she doesn't like.”

“Education is supposed to be our great equalizer, but when only half of low-income students are enrolling in college and only three tenths are graduating, you have to figure some of our children are getting a greater equalizer than others.”

“If you're going to make a movie about a character who is a supervillain, it's fantastic to have a core sense of empathy for that character.”

“There's no deadline that a movie has to be made by. We have to believe that we have served the responsibility, however long it takes us to get to that point.”

“Owning pets is as close to a universal phenomenon as, I think, anything.”

“What I worry about the most is the competition for young eyeballs. We have so many other competing forms of media. I don't take any audience members for granted.”

“I don't fly by the seat of my pants. I set strategies, and then I pursue those in unrelenting fashion.”

“I have to understand how we are going to market the movie. We view marketing as an extension of content creation... Every time a consumer sees our movie, in whatever form, our obligation is to entertain the audience.”

“My faith in my filmmaking changed on the heels of 'Titan.' It allowed me to pursue things that I previously would have questioned.”