Mark Andrews (filmmaker)

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Mark Andrews
BAFTA's 2013 (8464858238) (cropped).jpg
Born
Mark Elliott Andrews

(1968-09-12) September 12, 1968 (age 56)
NationalityAmerican
EducationBachelor of Fine Arts (1993) [1]
Alma mater CalArts
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter
  • animator
  • storyboard artist
Years active1994–present
Employer Pixar Animation Studios (2000–2018) [2]
SpousePatricia Gatz [2] [3] [4]
Children4 [5]
Relatives Bryan Andrews (brother)
Awards Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
Brave (2012)

Mark Elliott Andrews (born September 12, 1968) is an American filmmaker, animator, and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing (alongside Brenda Chapman) the 2012 Pixar feature film Brave . He was the story supervisor for The Incredibles and Ratatouille , directed the short film One Man Band and co-wrote the short films Jack-Jack Attack and One Man Band.

Contents

Career

Andrews studied animation at the Character Animation Program at CalArts. After that he was one of five who got a Disney internship, but was fired after three months. [6] He is also considered to be Brad Bird's "right-hand man".[ who? ] Some of his student films have been featured at MOMA's exhibition TOMORROWLAND: CalArts in Moving Pictures. Unlike most other CalArts alumni, he was not a huge fan of Disney films, and claimed he was a bigger fan of anime such as Kimba the White Lion , Speed Racer , and Robotech . [7]

He is the father of Maeve Andrews, who voiced Jack-Jack Parr in The Incredibles . [8] Andrews replaced Brenda Chapman as director of Brave (2012). [9] Both were credited as directors, and they won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. [10]

On January 13, 2013, it was announced that Andrews was writing and directing another original feature film at Pixar. [11] Having now directed an animated film, Andrews found the storyboarding phase on Brave to be a frustrating and overly time-consuming process since a 2-D context was being used to convey a 3-D film and it left little room for change later on, which contrasted with his experience on John Carter just before where that film was always being made in the context of the live-action medium and changes could be made in real time. [12] Andrews pitched to Pixar Presidents Ed Catmull and Jim Morris his idea to make his next film at Pixar using mo-cap instead of storyboards for sketching ideas to be in a 3-D context earlier in the process of making a 3-D film, which was approved. [12] Andrews ultimately left Pixar in 2018 with the understanding that the studio no longer wanted to make the film, which he described as a "big action-adventure fantasy epic". [12]

Since leaving Pixar, Andrews has been a vocal proponent of implementing tools such as Unreal Engine to work in 3-D animation in context with significantly fewer financial and creative constraints while producing significantly more content. [12] Andrews served as director and executive producer of the Netflix original animated series Super Giant Robot Brothers , which was released on August 4, 2022. [13] The series was made using Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games in collaboration with Reel FX Animation. [14]

Filmography

Films

YearTitle Director Screenplay Story
Supervisor
Story
Artist
OtherNotes
1998 Quest for Camelot NoNoNoNoYesStory Department
1999 The Iron Giant NoNoNoYesYesWorkbook Designer
2001 Osmosis Jones NoNoYesNoYesStory: Animation Department Heads and Designers
2002 Spider-Man NoNoNoYesNo
2004 The Incredibles NoNoYesNoYesVisual Development, Additional Voices
2006 Cars NoNoNoAdditionalNo
2007 Ratatouille NoNoYesNoNo
2009 Up NoNoNoNoYesAdditional Voices
2010 Toy Story 3 NoNoNoNoYesAdditional Story
2011 Cars 2 NoNoNoNoYesPixar Senior Creative Team
2012 John Carter Second UnitYesNoNoNo
Brave YesYesNoNoYesSong Lyrics: "Touch the Sky", Pixar Senior Creative Team
2013 Monsters University NoNoNoNoYesPixar Senior Creative Team
2015 Inside Out NoNoNoNoYes
The Good Dinosaur NoNoNoNoYes
2016 Finding Dory NoNoNoNoYes
2017 Cars 3 NoNoNoNoYes
Coco NoNoNoNoYes
2018 Incredibles 2 NoNoNoNoYesStory Consultant, Pixar Senior Creative Team

Short films

YearTitle Director Writer Story
Artist
Executive
Producer
OtherNotes
1997Loose ToothNoNoNoNoYesAnimation Story Developer
2005 Jack-Jack Attack NoStoryNoNoNo
Mr. Incredible and Pals NoNoYesNoNo
One Man Band YesYesNoNoNo
2007VioletYesNoNoNoNo
2009AlmaNoNoNoNoYesConsultant
2012 The Legend of Mor'du NoNoNoYesNo
2014Love HurtsNoNoNoNoYesRole: Reese
2020Circle of StoneYesYesNoNoNo [15]

Television

YearTitle Director Writer Executive
Producer
Storyboard
Artist
Character
Models
Song
Lyricist
Notes
1996 The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest NoNoNoYesYesNoAnimation director, storyboard artist on episode: "Escape to Questworld"
Models on episodes: "East of Zanzibar" and "Future Rage"
1998-2000 Histeria! NoNoNoYesNoNoStoryboarded 11 episodes
2001 The Powerpuff Girls NoYesNoYesNoNoEpisode: "Nano of the North"
2001-04 Samurai Jack NoYesNoYesNoNoWrote 5 episodes, storyboarded 2 episodes
2003-04 Star Wars: Clone Wars NoNoNoYesNoNoStoryboarded 20 episodes
2021 What If...? NoNoNoYesNoNoStoryboarded 9 episodes
2022 Super Giant Robot Brothers YesNoYesComic bookNoYes
Primal NoYesNoYesNoNoEpisode: "The Red Mist"
TBAKyōryū [16] TBATBATBATBANoNoShowrunner
HawkmasterNoYesYesNoNoNo [17]

Music video

YearTitleDirectorStoryboard
Artist
Notes
2021"The Writing on the Wall"CreativeYesMusic video by Iron Maiden

Video games

YearTitle Animator
1994 Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: The Second Cataclysm Yes

Other credits

YearTitleRole
2008 Bolt Consultant - uncredited [18]
2009TracyPitchman #1
Wild DogsSpecial Thanks
2011 Toy Story Toons: Small Fry
2015 Sanjay's Super Team
2016 The Jungle Book Thanks
2019 Smash and Grab Brian Larsen's Story Brain Trust
Float Story Trust
2021 Nona Special Thanks

References

  1. "Mark Andrews, Director, Pixar Animation Studios". AIGA San Francisco. Archived from the original on March 29, 2013. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  2. 1 2 "Mark Andrews on Interview Friday - Lunch Therapy 79". YouTube . June 26, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  3. "Circle of Stone". FilmFreeway . Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  4. Maschwitz, Stu (October 22, 2020). "Circle of Stone". Prolost. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  5. "SVN with Mark Andrews - Brave". YouTube . July 6, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  6. Day 89: A113 Series: Mark Andrews — the Kennedy Compounds
  7. Andrews, Mark (Director) (June 22, 2012). Mark Andrews: "Brave" - Talks at Google (Motion picture). Talks at Google. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021.
  8. Click, Stephanie (June 22, 2012). "Brave: The Review". Stephanie Click. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  9. Barnes, Brooks (October 20, 2010). "Pixar Removes Its First Female Director". New York Times.
  10. McClintock, Pamela (February 24, 2013). "Oscars 2013: Brenda Chapman's 'Brave' Win a Vindication After Being Fired From the Project". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  11. "Mark Andrews - backstage interview - Golden Globes 2013". YouTube . January 13, 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "BRIC-AVG Speaker Series: Animating in Unreal Engine". YouTube . January 28, 2025. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  13. Milligan, Mercedes (June 22, 2021). "Netflix Announces Trio of Animated Kids' Comedies from Top Talents & First-Time Creators". Animation Magazine. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  14. "Behind the Scenes on Super Giant Robot Brothers! with Reel FX | Unreal Engine". YouTube . January 25, 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  15. "Circle of Stone Official Trailer". YouTube . February 25, 2020. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  16. Hopewell, John; Lang, Jamie (June 7, 2024). "Oscar-Winning 'Brave' Director Mark Andrews to Showrun Postapocalyptic Samurai Dinosaur Series 'Kyoryu' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  17. White, Peter (October 4, 2021). "Fantasy Animated Drama 'Hawkmaster' In The Works At Fox From Ex-Pixar Pair Mark Andrews & Andrew Gordon & Oded Turgeman". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  18. "Mark Andrews directed Super Giant Robot Bros animation in record time ~ D.A.Livecast #35". YouTube . August 19, 2022. Retrieved June 15, 2024.