Back when we sat down with Roy Conli, the films producer, times were a little less certain.

Youre surrounded by very creative people and your job is to give them the platform to create.

I had a theatrical, literary background.

Script development and whatnot.

Also production, though.

The literary aspect took care of itself.

It gave me a concept of how to finish a film.

He was literary in the last throes, the last year ofThe Lion Kingwhen I got there.

Which was the really tricky year?

Thats the tricky production part.

There was a balance there.

How much of my style emulates Don, Im not quite sure.

This is the thing that we decided to do.

We had two years to put this together.

Nathan [Greno] and Byron [Howard] came in, and they were amazing together.

Those two guys think alike.

They feed off one another.

They seem close, too.

Thats not always the way when directors are paired on animated projects?

So, one will do layout, and one something else.

But I did it as little as I could.

Because both of them are great actors.

Byron is a superb animator.

We were really careful not to jump ahead.

Yeah, three to four.

And the assumption is, sometimes, that one-hundred percent of that is animation.

Sixty percent was finding the story?

I would say that between June and now we did the most animation.

Literally, we lit the film in 16 weeks.

Obviously, there were tests going on before.

We made sure that we knew what the palette was that we wanted to work with.

There was a tremendous visual development team.

My art director is brilliant.

In many ways, my job is about hiring people who are better than me to do the work.

This is the return of Mr Lasseter.

In France, in the 60s, there was a blight on the vineyards in the south.

Thats how I liken Lasseter.

Lasseter was a Disney guy.

Lasseter learned his tools at Disney.

Its strengthened what were doing.

Its not just re-engaging with its roots, although Id argue it does villains and music better than anyone.

Whats great is that hes not trying to impose a culture.

Hes allowing it to evolve as cultures should.

The culture of Pixar is Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich.

Those great directors that have evolved from that place.

What hes allowing is the culture to be Byron, and Nathan, and Chris Williams.

Theres a certain amount of trust that he has to place as a creative artist, and wisely so.

You cannot force art.

You have to let art evolve, and hes wise enough to do that.

The brilliance of Nathan and Byron is that theyre great filmmakers.

Our favourite thing to do, on Mondays, is talk about the films we saw that week.

We talk about the specific structure, chase scenes, what is about that film that we love?

Secondly, they are huge fans of the classic Disney.

So, they bring that new and that old, in such a charming way.

We started off wanting to make this film a 20th century film, touching the legacy.

Fortunately,Hunchbackwas actually a financial success.

I saw all this a little more withTreasure Planet.

But when alls said and done, I dont look atPrincess And The Frogas a failure at all.

I look at films likeScott Pilgrim Vs The World,a brilliant, brilliant, amazing movie.

Amazing direction, amazing design.

Edgar Wright should try directing animation.

Thats not how I judge.

Look, do I want commercial success?

But do I judge the quality of my films on commercial success?

I came from the theatre, and theres no such thing as commercial success there!

The only people I hear talking about commercial success or failure that way are people who work for Disney.

Most of us from the outside thoughtPrincess And The Frogis was a lovely film.

But its the rumours from Disney that suggest it underperformed.

Theres something else I found interesting aboutTangled.

For here, you have the two young, seemingly fearless directors.

Do you think we might be hitting that spot again now?

Every generation has a different ways of telling a story.

And fortunately, the mid-2000s, we found John again.

And were back to being an artist-driven studio, and thats what it has to be.

I love where I am right now in my career.

Ive always been fortunate.

I think the three movies Ive produced are incredibly beautiful, have wonderful storylines.

This one, though, there is not a moment in this film that I sit and cringed at.

There are moments in other films where I sit and go, Why did we do that?

I think, had that been done in 3D, completely, it would have been a different experience.

As it is, Im amazingly proud of that film.

I think its a great film.

Unfortunately, it got caught in some weird marketing issues.

From what I could see, it couldnt have hit at a worst time.

I know what you mean.

It ran up against one of the firstLord Of The Rings, and the firstHarry Potter.

Roy Conli, thank you very much.