Andrew Stanton | |
---|---|
Born | Andrew Ayers Stanton [1] December 3, 1965 Rockport, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts (BFA) |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1981–present |
Employer | Pixar Animation Studios (1990–present) |
Spouse | Julie Stanton (m. 1989) |
Children | 2 |
Awards |
|
Andrew Ayers Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990. [2] His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), directing Finding Nemo (2003) [3] and its sequel Finding Dory (2016), WALL-E (2008), and the live-action film, Disney's John Carter (2012), and co-writing all five and directing the upcoming latter in Toy Story films (1995–2026) and Monsters, Inc. (2001).
Finding Nemo and WALL-E earned Stanton two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. He was also nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, for Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Toy Story (1995), and for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Toy Story 3 (2010). WALL-E has also been inducted into the National Film Registry. Stanton has also directed episodes of various television series since 2017, including episodes of 3 Body Problem , Better Call Saul , Legion and Stranger Things .
Stanton was born in Rockport, Massachusetts. His father, Ron Stanton, was the founder of a company that worked on radars for the United States Department of Defense. His mother, Gloria Stanton, pursued an acting career before becoming a homemaker. Both of Stanton's parents were natives of nearby Wellesley. [4]
Stanton acted in high school and directed sketch comedy shot on Super 8 film. [4] He portrayed Barnaby Tucker in a 1980 high school production of Hello, Dolly! , which later became a source of inspiration for WALL-E. [5] Stanton studied for a year at the University of Hartford before transferring to the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. [4] He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from CalArts in 1987. [6]
In 1989, Stanton married his high school sweetheart Julie, two weeks after she graduated from Georgetown University. [4] The couple subsequently settled in Los Angeles, where they raised two children, Ben and Audrey. [4] [5] Stanton is a Christian. [7]
Stanton revealed in 2012 that he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when he was in the middle of writing John Carter . [8]
Stanton is an Arsenal F.C. fan, and included a scene mimicking their famous offside trap among other Arsenal references in John Carter. [9]
This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(December 2020) |
Stanton began his career in animation in the late 1980s. He worked as an animator for Kroyer Films, [10] and one of his early gigs involved animating sperm for a sex-ed film with Martin Short called The Making of Me , originally produced for Disney's Wonders of Life pavilion. [4] Stanton was one of several CalArts graduates hired by John Kricfalusi to work on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures at Ralph Bakshi's studio. [11]
After being rejected by Disney three times, Stanton was hired by Pixar's animation group in 1990 as its second animator (John Lasseter being the first) and ninth employee. [2] [4] Back then Pixar was not yet an animation studio, and their animation group was dedicated to making television commercials as a step towards their goal of making the first computer-animated feature. [12]
Stanton, Lasseter and Pete Docter drafted the original treatment for Toy Story , which bore little resemblance with the eventually finished film. [13] After production of the film was shut down in late November 1993 following a disastrous test screening, [14] Stanton retreated into a windowless office and extensively reworked the script with help from Joss Whedon. [15] The resulting screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, the first nomination in that category for an animated film. [16]
In an interview with World Magazine 's Megan Basham, Stanton explained his singular vision for WALL-E:
What really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love. [17]
Stanton was credited as a narrative guru on Ralph Breaks the Internet , helping director and former classmate Rich Moore construct the story following Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios former chief creative officer Lasseter's step down. [18] He co-wrote Toy Story 4 , which was released on June 21, 2019. Initially, when he pitched the idea to director Josh Cooley, Cooley was concerned feeling like Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending. Stanton reportedly told Cooley "Toy Story 3 was a good ending--but it's not the ending." He explained that it was not the ending of Woody's story but rather the ending of Woody's time with Andy. [19] Stanton reportedly started writing Toy Story 4 in secret while the third film was still in production. [19]
He has expressed interest in directing more live action films, stating that he wants to return "[b]ecause it's quicker and it's a little bit more of the opposite... It's the antithesis of animation. Animation you get to control everything, and it's awesome in that sense. But there's no spontaneity, and it takes a long time! And so there's high risk for the complete opposite reasons of live-action." [20]
In 2020, it was announced that Stanton was in talks to direct and write Chairman Spaceman for Searchlight Pictures and Simon Kinberg's production label, Genre Films. [21] The film is based on The New Yorker short story of the same name by Thomas Pierce. The film would mark Stanton's third venture into the science fiction genre, following WALL-E and John Carter. Stanton has been quoted many times saying that science fiction is his favorite genre. Films like Star Wars , Blade Runner , Aliens , as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel, Princess of Mars, helped shape his interest in the genre. The same year, Stanton was attached to direct Revolver, a romantic comedy starring Maya Hawke and Ethan Hawke from a screenplay by Kate Trefry. [22] [23] In 2022, it was announced that Stanton would direct In the Blink of an Eye for Searchlight Pictures from a screenplay by Colby Day. [24]
In 2024, Docter announced that Stanton would write and direct the fifth main installment of Toy Story series, Toy Story 5 , which is scheduled for release on June 19, 2026. [25] [26]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Other | Voice Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Toy Story | No | Yes | No | Yes | Commercial Chorus 2 | Story Artist, Character Designer |
1998 | A Bug's Life | Co-Director | Yes | No | Yes | Bug Zapper Bug 1 Singing Grasshopper 2 | Story Artist |
1999 | Toy Story 2 | No | Yes | No | Yes | Emperor Zurg | |
2000 | Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins | No | No | No | Yes | Hamm | Direct-to-video |
2001 | Monsters, Inc. | No | Screenplay | Yes | No | ||
2003 | Finding Nemo | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Crush/Lobster/Seagulls | |
2004 | The Incredibles | No | No | No | Yes | Additional Voices | |
2006 | Cars | No | No | No | Yes | Fred | Additional Screenplay Material |
2007 | Ratatouille | No | No | Yes | No | ||
2008 | WALL-E | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Axiom Passenger 2 | Pixar Senior Creative Team - uncredited on WALL-E |
2009 | Up | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||
2010 | Toy Story 3 | No | Story | No | Yes | ||
2011 | Cars 2 | No | No | No | Yes | ||
2012 | John Carter | Yes | Screenplay | No | No | ||
Brave | No | No | Yes | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team | ||
2013 | Monsters University | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||
2015 | Inside Out | No | No | Yes | Yes | ||
The Good Dinosaur | No | No | Yes | Yes | |||
2016 | Finding Dory | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Crush/Clam/Seagulls | |
2017 | Cars 3 | No | No | No | Yes | ||
Coco | No | No | No | Yes | |||
2018 | Incredibles 2 | No | No | No | Yes | ||
Ralph Breaks the Internet | No | No | No | Yes | Narrative Guru | ||
2019 | Toy Story 4 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team | |
2020 | Onward | No | No | No | Yes | ||
Soul | No | No | No | Yes | |||
2021 | Luca | No | No | No | Yes | ||
2022 | Turning Red | No | No | No | Yes | ||
Lightyear | No | No | Yes | Yes | Additional Screenplay Material Pixar Senior Creative Team | ||
2023 | Elemental | No | No | No | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team | |
2024 | Inside Out 2 | No | No | No | Yes | ||
2025 | Elio | No | No | No | Yes | ||
2026 | Hoppers [27] | No | No | No | Yes | ||
Toy Story 5 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||
TBA | Incredibles 3 [28] | No | No | No | Yes | ||
In the Blink of an Eye | Yes | No | No | No | Post-production |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Voice |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | Somewhere in the Arctic [29] | Yes | Yes | No | Bahr |
1987 | A Story [29] | Yes | Yes | Producer | Randy / Goon Squad |
1991 | Light & Heavy | Yes | No | No | |
2003 | Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau | No | No | Yes | |
2008 | Presto | No | No | Yes | |
BURN-E | No | Story | Yes | ||
2009 | Partly Cloudy | No | No | Yes | |
2016 | Piper | No | No | Yes | |
Marine Life Interviews | No | Yes | No |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Story Artist | Voice | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1987 | Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures | No | Yes | No | No | 13 episodes | |
1994 | 2 Stupid Dogs | No | No | No | Yes | Episode: "Cookies, Ookies, Blookies" | |
1995 | The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa | No | No | No | Yes | Episode: "Good Mousekeeping" | |
2010 | Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman | No | No | No | No | Crush | Episode: "The Ol' Shell Game" |
2013 | Toy Story of Terror! | No | No | Yes | No | TV special | |
2017 | Stranger Things 2 | Yes | No | No | No | Episodes: "Chapter Five: Dig Dug" and "Chapter Six: The Spy" | |
2018 | Better Call Saul | Yes | No | No | No | Episode: "Piñata" | |
2019 | Legion | Yes | No | No | No | Episode: "Chapter 20" | |
2020 | Tales from the Loop | Yes | No | No | No | Episode: "Echo Sphere" | |
2021–22 | For All Mankind | Yes | No | No | No | Directed four episodes | |
2022 | Obi-Wan Kenobi | No | Yes | No | No | Episodes: "Part V" and "Part VI" | |
2024 | 3 Body Problem | Yes | No | Co-Executive | No | Directed episode: "Destroyer of Worlds" | |
2025 | Win or Lose | No | No | Yes | No | [30] [31] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1998 | A Bug's Life | Hopper | Replacing Kevin Spacey |
1999 | Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue | Emperor Zurg | |
2003 | Finding Nemo | Crush | |
Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure | Emperor Zurg | ||
2006 | Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue [32] | Seagulls | Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS only |
2007 | Cars Mater-National Championship | Fred | |
2009 | Cars Race-O-Rama | Fred / Tater Jr. | PS3/Xbox 360/Wii version only |
2010 | Toy Story 3: The Video Game | Emperor Zurg | Uncredited PS3 version only |
2011 | Kinect Disneyland Adventures | Crush / Emperor Zurg | |
2015 | Disney Infinity 3.0 | Crush | |
2018 | Lego The Incredibles | Seagulls |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1989–2007 | The Making of Me | Animator [33] | |
1998–present | It's Tough to Be a Bug! | Hopper | Replacing Kevin Spacey |
2007–present | The Seas with Nemo & Friends | Crush, Seagulls | |
2007–present | Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage | Crush, Seagulls |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1997 | Geri's Game | Very Special Thanks |
2000 | For the Birds | Thanks |
2006 | Lifted | Special Thanks |
2007 | Fog City Mavericks | |
The Pixar Story | Himself; Very Special Thanks | |
2010 | Finding Nico | Special Thanks |
2014 | Lava | |
Toy Story That Time Forgot | Extra Special Thanks | |
2015 | Sanjay's Super Team | Special Thanks |
2016 | Zootopia | Creative Consultant [34] |
2019 | Purl | Kristen Lester's Story Trust |
Frozen II | Special Thanks | |
Spies in Disguise | ||
2021 | Encanto | |
2022 | Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to 'Lightyear' | Himself [35] |
Cars on the Road | Special Thanks; Pixar Senior Creative Team | |
2023 | Nimona | Special Thanks |
Andrew Stanton has cast certain actors and crew members in more than one of the films he has directed.
Year | Category | Film | Result | Shared With |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Best Original Screenplay | Toy Story | Nominated | Shared With Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft |
2003 | Best Animated Feature | Finding Nemo | Won | — |
Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | Shared with Bob Peterson and David Reynolds | ||
2008 | Best Animated Feature | WALL-E | Won | — |
Best Original Screenplay | Nominated | Shared With Jim Reardon and Pete Docter | ||
2010 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Toy Story 3 | Nominated | Shared With Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, and Lee Unkrich |
Two of Stanton's short films, A Story and Somewhere in the Arctic..., were preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012. [36]
Toy Story is a 1995 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the first installment in the Toy Story franchise, the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. The film was directed by John Lasseter, written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow based on a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney.
Pixar Animation Studios, known simply as Pixar, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, a segment of the Walt Disney Company.
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from a screenplay written by Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds, based on a story by Stanton. The film stars the voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, and Geoffrey Rush. It tells the story of an overprotective clownfish named Marlin (Brooks) who, along with a forgetful regal blue tang named Dory (DeGeneres), searches for his missing son Nemo (Gould). Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself.
Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to Toy Story (1995) and the second installment in the Toy Story franchise. The film was directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich, and produced by Helene Plotkin and Karen Robert Jackson, from a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin, and Chris Webb, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, Brannon, and Pete Docter. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Pidgeon reprise their roles from the first Toy Story film. In the film, Woody is stolen by a greedy toy collector, prompting Buzz Lightyear and his friends to save him, but Woody is then tempted by the idea of immortality in a museum.
A Bug's Life is a 1998 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is Pixar's second feature-length film, following Toy Story (1995). The film was directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Andrew Stanton, and produced by Darla K. Anderson and Kevin Reher, from a screenplay written by Stanton, Donald McEnery, and Bob Shaw, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft. It stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Hayden Panettiere. In the film, a misfit ant named Flik looks for "tough warriors" to save his ant colony from a protection racket run by a gang of grasshoppers. However, the "warriors" he brings back are a troupe of Circus Bugs. The film's plot was initially inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.
Knick Knack is a 1989 American animated short film produced by Pixar that was written and directed by John Lasseter. The short is about a snow globe snowman who wants to join the other travel souvenirs in a summer-themed party. However, the glass dome that surrounds him prevents him from doing so, thus leading to his many tries to break out of his snow globe. Knick Knack is Pixar's fourth short and the final short produced during the company's tenure as a hardware company. It was also the final Pixar short film released before the company's first feature-length film Toy Story.
Philip Bradley Bird is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both animation and live-action.
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the head of animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Peter Hans Docter is an American filmmaker and animator, who has served as chief creative officer (CCO) of Pixar since 2018. He has directed the company's animated films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Soul (2020). From his nine Academy Award nominations, he is a record-three time recipient of Best Animated Feature for Up, Inside Out and Soul. Docter has also won six Annie Awards from nine nominations, a BAFTA Children's Film Award and a Hochi Film Award. He describes himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".
Joseph Henry Ranft was an American animator, screenwriter, and voice actor. He worked for Pixar Animation Studios and Disney at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Television Animation. His younger brother Jerome Ranft is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar films.
Circle Seven Animation was a short-lived division of Walt Disney Feature Animation specializing in computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation and was originally intended to create sequels to the Disney-owned Pixar properties, leading rivals and animators to derisively nickname the division "Pixaren't". The studio did not release any films during its existence, nor were any of its scripts used by Pixar.
WALL-E is a 2008 American animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced by Jim Morris, and written by Stanton and Jim Reardon, based on a story by Stanton and Pete Docter. It stars the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, and Sigourney Weaver, with Fred Willard in a live-action role. The film follows a solitary robot named WALL-E on a future, uninhabitable, deserted Earth in 2805, left to clean up garbage. He is visited by a robot called EVE sent from the starship Axiom, with whom he falls in love and pursues across the galaxy.
Toy Story is an American media franchise created by Pixar Animation Studios and owned by The Walt Disney Company. It centers on toys that, unknown to humans, are secretly living, sentient creatures. It began in 1995 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, which focuses on a diverse group of toys featuring a classic cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody and a modern spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear.
Finding Dory is a 2016 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Angus MacLane, produced by Lindsey Collins, and written by Stanton and Victoria Strouse. The second installment to the Finding Nemo franchise, the film is both a sequel and spin-off following the events of Finding Nemo (2003). Ellen DeGeneres and Albert Brooks reprise their roles from the first film, with Hayden Rolence, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton and Eugene Levy joining the cast. The film focuses on the amnesiac fish Dory (DeGeneres), who journeys to be reunited with her parents.
Angus MacLane is an American animator, filmmaker and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios. He co-directed the film Finding Dory (2016) and made his solo feature directorial debut with the Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear (2022). MacLane is also a Lego enthusiast and created the CubeDudes building format and designed a LEGO WALL-E that has become an official set from The Lego Group.
Joshua Cooley is an American filmmaker and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing the animated films Toy Story 4 (2019) and Transformers One (2024), with the former winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Inside Out (2015), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Toy Story 4 is a 2019 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the fourth installment in Pixar's Toy Story series and the sequel to Toy Story 3 (2010). It was directed by Josh Cooley from a screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom; the three also conceived the story alongside John Lasseter, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, and Martin Hynes. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Jeff Pidgeon, Laurie Metcalf, John Morris, Joan Cusack, and Estelle Harris are among the actors who reprise their character roles from the first three films, and are joined by Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, and Ally Maki, who voice new characters. Set after the third film, Toy Story 4 follows Woody (Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Allen) as the pair and the other toys go on a road trip with Bonnie (McGraw), who creates Forky (Hale), a spork made with recycled materials from her school. Meanwhile, Woody is reunited with Bo Peep (Potts), and must decide where his loyalties lie.
Toy Story 5 is an upcoming American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The fifth main installment and the seventh overall in the Toy Story film series, it is written and directed by Andrew Stanton. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are set to reprise their respective roles of Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the first four main films, along with Anna Faris.