Andrew Stanton | |
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Born | Andrew Ayers Stanton [1] December 3, 1965 Rockport, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts (BFA) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1981–present |
Employer | Pixar Animation Studios (1990–present) |
Spouse | Julie Stanton (m. 1989) |
Children | 2 |
Awards |
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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 four Toy Story films (1995–2019) 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. On television, Stanton directed two episodes of Stranger Things in 2017, an episode of Better Call Saul in 2018, the final season premiere of Legion in 2019, and an episode of 3 Body Problem in 2024.
Andrew Stanton was born on December 3, 1965, 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. [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]
Following Toy Story, Lasseter asked Stanton to help him direct and write Pixar's next feature A Bug's Life . Early in the film's production, the film had difficulty incorporating the circus bug's portion of the story and the main character (Flik's) portion of the story. In a day, Stanton was able to write a screenplay that tied both concepts together. In 1999, Stanton returned to write Toy Story 2 , the critically acclaimed sequel to Toy Story, and also voiced Emperor Zurg. He would then go on to write Monsters, Inc. . Docter, the director of Monsters, Inc., would cite him many times as the originator of the idea that monsters generated screams to use to power their city.
Stanton made his solo directorial debut in 2003 with Finding Nemo . He took inspiration from his own role as a father and how he was overprotective of his son. Stanton directed, wrote and voiced Crush the sea turtle in the film. Just like Toy Story before it, Michael Eisner was not confident in the film and predicted it would fail. During this time Stanton and other Finding Nemo co-writer Bob Peterson developed the storytelling theory of "2+2", to not give the audience the full picture but rather halves and have them put the film together. The film turned out to be an enormous success becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2003 behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and the highest-grossing animated film of that time period, beating out The Lion King . He won his first Academy Award for the film in the category of Best Animated Feature, and his screenplay was nominated in the category of Best Original Screenplay.
Following his success with Finding Nemo, Stanton began work on his next film as director WALL-E . WALL-E was considered a huge risk for both Pixar and Disney, considering how experimental the film sounded. Stanton nevertheless had confidence in the film and that audiences wouldn't be bored by the dialogue-less first thirty minutes, but rather enamored by it. Upon release the film was a huge critical and financial success. Stanton won his second Academy Award for the film in the category of Best Animated Feature and once again his screenplay was nominated in the category of Best Original Screenplay. 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 returned to write Toy Story 3 in 2010, alongside Michael Arndt. When he first pitched the scene of the toys in the incinerator both Lasseter and Lee Unkrich (the director of the film) teared up. Many employees at Pixar have pointed out how the release of the film happened to be somewhat consecutive to one of Stanton's children going to college. His screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay. After the acquisition of Pixar by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, Stanton became the vice president of creativity at Pixar alongside fellow Pixar director Pete Docter. He is a member of the studio's coveted brain trust, and has executive produced and served as a creative and mentor-like voice on the following films: Ratatouille , Up , Brave , Monsters University , Inside Out , and The Good Dinosaur .
In 2012, Stanton made his live-action directing debut with Disney's John Carter . The film was based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel, A Princess of Mars . Upon release it received mixed reviews and was a box office failure.
Following John Carter, Stanton returned to Pixar to direct the sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo, Finding Dory . He came up with the concept upon watching a pre-screening of the 3D rerelease of the film and walking out of the theater worried about Dory. The film was released in 2016 and was a huge hit critically and financially, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of that year. It was also critically well received, with critics calling it "a worthy successor to Nemo".
On February 10, 2017, it was revealed by Entertainment Weekly that Stanton was going to direct two episodes of the second season of Stranger Things . Since then Stanton has also directed an episode of Better Call Saul , and Legion .
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 wasn't 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 is currently the Vice President of Creativity at Pixar helping to ensure the company's creative output.
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 will 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]
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Executive Producer | Other | Voice | 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 | Additional | No | Yes | Fred | |
2007 | Ratatouille | No | No | Yes | No | ||
2008 | WALL-E | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Axiom Passenger 2 | |
2009 | Up | No | No | Yes | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team | |
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 | Additional | Yes | Yes | 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 | ||
TBA | In the Blink of an Eye | Yes | No | No | No | post-production |
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Voice |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1986 | Somewhere in the Arctic [25] | Yes | Yes | No | Bahr |
1987 | A Story [25] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Randy / Goon Squad |
1991 | Light & Heavy | Yes | No | No | |
2003 | Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau | No | No | Executive | |
2008 | Presto | No | No | Executive | |
BURN-E | No | Story | Executive | ||
2009 | Partly Cloudy | No | No | Executive | |
2016 | Piper | No | No | Executive | |
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 | Yes | No | Episode: "Destroyer of Worlds", credited as co-executive producer (8 episodes) | |
Win or Lose [26] | No | No | Yes | No | 8 episodes |
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 [27] | 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 [28] | |
1998–present | It's Tough to Be a Bug! | Hopper | Replacing Kevin Spacey |
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 [29] |
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 [30] |
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. [31]
Toy Story is a 1995 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the franchise of the same name, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. It was directed by John Lasseter and produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, from a screenplay written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow and a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft. The film features music by Randy Newman, and was executive-produced by Steve Jobs and Edwin Catmull. The film features the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, and Erik von Detten.
Pixar Animation Studios is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, a segment of the Walt Disney Company.
Monsters, Inc. is a 2001 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Mary Gibbs, and Jennifer Tilly, the film was directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, and produced by Darla K. Anderson, from a screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson. The film centers on two monsters, the hairy James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (Goodman) and his one-eyed partner and best friend Mike Wazowski (Crystal), who are employed at the titular energy-producing factory Monsters, Inc., which generates power by scaring human children. However, the monster world believes that the children are toxic, and when a little human girl, Boo (Gibbs), sneaks into the factory, she must be returned home before it is too late.
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was written by Stanton, Bob Peterson, and David Reynolds from 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.
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 were a troupe of Circus Bugs. The film's plot was initially inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.
Tin Toy is a 1988 American animated short film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The short film, which runs for five minutes, stars Tinny, a tin one-man band toy, trying to escape from Billy, a human baby. The third short film produced by the company's small animation division, it was a risky investment: due to the low revenue produced by Pixar's main product, the Pixar Image Computer, the company was under financial constraints.
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.
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. He was credited as the director for the Pixar animated feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Soul (2020), and has served as company's chief creative officer (CCO) since 2018. 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.
Ronaldo del Carmen is a Filipino writer, director, storyboard artist, illustrator, and voice actor. He co-directed and co-wrote the story for the Pixar film Inside Out (2015), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
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.
Robert Peterson is an American animator, director, screenwriter, storyboard supervisor and voice actor who works at Pixar. He was hired at Pixar by Roger Gould in 1994 as an animator for commercials, before subsequently becoming an animator on Toy Story (1995). He was the co-director and co-writer for Up (2009), in which he also voiced the characters Dug and Alpha. His work as a writer for the films Up and Finding Nemo (2003) earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He was also a co-writer on Cars 3 (2017) and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program for his work on Forky Asks A Question (2020).
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. It stars the voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, with Sigourney Weaver and Fred Willard. 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 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 and released by 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 a 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.
Finding Nemo is a CGI animated film series and Disney media franchise that began with the 2003 film of the same name, produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The original film was followed by a sequel, Finding Dory, released in 2016. Both films were directed by Andrew Stanton. The film series received widespread critical acclaim from critics and audiences with two films released to-date, the series has grossed $1.9 billion worldwide.
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, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He made his feature directorial debut with the Pixar animated film Toy Story 4 (2019), the fourth film in the Toy Story franchise, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He is also directing the upcoming Transformers animated film Transformers One (2024). Prior, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Inside Out (2015), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.