Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, California. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Antz is a 1998 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pacific Data Images and released by DreamWorks Pictures. It was directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson from a screenplay by Todd Alcott, Chris Weitz, and Paul Weitz. The film features the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Sylvester Stallone, Christopher Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Anne Bancroft, Danny Glover and Gene Hackman. Some of the main characters share facial similarities with the actors who voice them. The film involves an anxious worker ant, Z (Allen), who falls in love with Princess Bala (Stone). When the treacherous scheming of the arrogant officer General Mandible (Hackman) threatens to wipe out the entire worker population, Z must save the ant colony from the flooded tunnel and strives to make social inroads.
A Bug's Life is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures as its second feature-length film, following Toy Story (1995). Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton from a screenplay written by Stanton, Donald McEnery and Bob Shaw and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton and Joe Ranft, the film stars the voices of Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 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. Unfortunately, the "warriors" he brings back turn out to be an inept troupe of Circus Bugs. The film's plot was initially inspired by Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper.
Phillip Bradley Bird is an American film director, animator, screenwriter, producer and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action.
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously 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.
Pacific Data Images (PDI) was an American computer animation production company based in Redwood City, California, that was bought by DreamWorks SKG in 2000. It was renamed PDI/DreamWorks and was owned by DreamWorks Animation.
William Everett Luckey was an American artist, cartoonist, illustrator, musician, singer and voice actor. He worked at the animation studio Pixar, where he worked as a character designer on a number of films, including Toy Story, Boundin', Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille. Luckey was also the voice of Rick Dicker in The Incredibles, Chuckles the Clown in Toy Story 3 and as Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh (2011).
Aron J. Warner is an American film producer and voice actor who's best known for producing the Shrek films. He was known as the first person to win the Academy Awards Best Animated Feature Film.
The ceremony for the 34th Annual Annie Awards, honoring the best in animation in 2006, was held on February 11, 2007, at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California.
Eric Darnell is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, screenwriter, songwriter and occasional voice actor best known for co-directing Antz with Tim Johnson, as well as co-directing and co-writing Madagascar, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted with Tom McGrath, as well as the spin off Penguins of Madagascar (2014) with Simon J. Smith.
Peter Sohn is an American animator, voice actor, storyboard artist, and film director. He is known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios as the director of 2015's The Good Dinosaur. He has also been the voice of Emile in Ratatouille, Squishy in Monsters University, and Sox in Lightyear.
Tim Johnson is an American animator, film director, film producer, and television director. Johnson is best known for directing the DreamWorks Animation films Antz, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Over the Hedge, and Home.
Ratatouille is a 2007 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The eighth film produced by Pixar, it was written and directed by Brad Bird, who took over from Jan Pinkava in 2005, and produced by Brad Lewis, from an original idea by Pinkava, who was credited for conceiving the film's story with Bird and Jim Capobianco. The film stars the voices of Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, and Brad Garrett. The title refers to the French dish ratatouille, which is served at the end of the film, and also references the species of the main character, a rat. Set in Paris, the plot follows a young rat Remy (Oswalt) who dreams of becoming a chef at Auguste Gusteau's (Garrett) restaurant and tries to achieve his goal by forming an unlikely alliance with the restaurant's garbage boy Alfredo Linguini (Romano).
Carlos Baena is a professional animator and now a cofounder of the online school Animation Mentor, which was started in March 2005. It was the first post-secondary school that helped students to pursue a career in animation. At the school, students work with mentors from major studios in a production-style environment, and graduate with a professional demo reel.
The 27th Annual Annie Awards were held on November 6, 1999.
Simon James Smith is a British animator, film director, and voice actor. He is best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation. Smith came to PDI/DreamWorks in 1997 as head of layout for the company's feature film division. A CGI animation veteran with nearly 35 years of experience, Smith supervised the layout department on PDI/DreamWorks' first animated feature Antz, serving as the Head of Layout in Shrek. He then directed the Universal Studios Theater experience Shrek 4-D, followed by the short Far Far Away Idol. His first feature film as a director was in 2007, with Bee Movie. He then directed another DVD short, Megamind: The Button of Doom, before co-helming, with Eric Darnell, the comedy/spy action spin-off from the Madagascar series, Penguins of Madagascar, the mini series "Baymax Dreams" for Disney, and is executive producer "Batwheels" for Warner Bros.
Sanjay Patel is an American animator and illustrator who has worked in the animation department of various projects, most of them animated films released by Pixar.
Rex Grignon is a Canadian-American animation director and entrepreneur. Grignon received his animation training at Sheridan College where he graduated in 1984. He then earned his bachelor's degree in 1985 from New York Institute of Technology. He worked in Europe for two years as a staff animator and Art Director in Frankfurt and Paris, mostly working on early 3D commercials and broadcast graphics. Grignon moved to the U.S. in 1988 where he worked for Pacific Data Images as a Senior Animator and co-founded PDI's Character Animation Group with Tim Johnson.
