Peter Lepeniotis

Last updated
Peter Lepeniotis
Born
Canada
Occupation(s)Animator, film director, screenwriter, producer, storyboard artist
Years active1995–present
Known for Toy Story 2
Surly Squirrel
The Nut Job

Peter Lepeniotis is a Canadian animator, film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his 2005 animated short Surly Squirrel. He adapted the short into the full-length feature film, The Nut Job , which Lepeniotis co-wrote and directed. It was released in 2014 by Open Road Films and The Weinstein Company. Due to the film's success at the box office, Lepeniotis and the team at ToonBox Entertainment (the studio that produced Lepeniotis' feature film) greenlit a sequel, The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature , which was released in 2017.

Contents

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friz Freleng</span> American animator, cartoonist, director, and producer (1905–1995)

Isadore "Friz" Freleng, credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from the 1930s to the early 1960s. In total he created more than 300 cartoons.

<i>The Nutty Professor</i> (1963 film) 1963 film by Jerry Lewis

The Nutty Professor is a 1963 American science fiction comedy film directed, co-written by, and starring Jerry Lewis. The film also co-stars Stella Stevens, Del Moore, Kathleen Freeman, Howard Morris, and Elvia Allman. The score was composed by Walter Scharf. A parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it follows weak-willed scientist Julius Kelp as he creates a serum that transforms him into a charismatic but narcissistic ladies' man, which he subsequently uses under his alter ego Buddy Love.

The History of Canadian animation involves a considerable element of the realities of a country neighbouring the United States and both competitiveness and co-operation across the border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Scott (voice actor)</span> American actor, writer and producer

William John Scott was an American voice actor, writer and producer for animated cartoons, primarily associated with Jay Ward and UPA, as well as one of the founding members of ASIFA-Hollywood. He is probably best known as the head writer, co-producer and the voice of several characters from the popular programs Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show.

Michel Gagné is a Canadian cartoonist.

<i>Hoodwinked!</i> 2005 animated film

Hoodwinked! is a 2005 American independent computer-animated musical mystery comedy film. It retells the folktale "Little Red Riding Hood" as a police procedural, using backstories to show multiple characters' points of view. It was produced independently by Blue Yonder Films with Kanbar Entertainment, directed and written by Cory Edwards along with Todd Edwards, and Tony Leech, and produced by Katie Hooten, Maurice Kanbar, David K. Lovegren, Sue Bea Montgomery, and Preston Stutzman. The film features the voices of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, Patrick Warburton, Anthony Anderson, David Ogden Stiers, Xzibit, Chazz Palminteri, and Andy Dick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scrat</span> Fictional Ice Age character

Scrat is a fictional rodent in the Ice Age franchise and the mascot of the now-defunct animation company Blue Sky Studios. In the 2002 film Ice Age plus its follow-up shorts and theatrical sequels, he is a saber-toothed, long-snouted rat-like squirrel with no dialogue who is obsessed with trying to collect and bury his acorn(s), putting himself in danger and usually losing his food in the process to his frustration. He additionally is a catalyst for major natural disasters that drastically alter the world around him and at times sets the stage for the main conflicts of the films. Scrat's storylines are mostly independent of those of other characters of "the Herd," though the two do intersect at times. While Scrat is a side character for the theatrical films that he appears in, he is the protagonist of other media such as certain shorts and his own miniseries Ice Age: Scrat Tales. In all of his appearances, his vocal effects were provided by the studio co-founder Chris Wedge, who also directed the first film.

Surly may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Ramsey</span> American illustrator, storyboard artist, and filmmaker

Peter A. Ramsey is an American illustrator, storyboard artist, and filmmaker. He is best known for directing DreamWorks Animation's Rise of the Guardians (2012), becoming the first African American to direct a major American animated film, and co-directing Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). For Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Mark McCorkle is an American screenwriter, television writer and film and television producer. Among others, he is co-creator of the popular Disney animated series, Kim Possible. He frequently collaborates with fellow writer Bob Schooley. Prior to Kim Possible, McCorkle, Schooley, and the main director of Kim Possible, Steve Loter, also held their respective jobs on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. He worked on DreamWorks' The Penguins of Madagascar as a producer along with Schooley, again with regular voices Sullivan and John DiMaggio. From 2017 to 2021, McCorkle and Schooley created and executive produced a TV series based on the 2014 Disney animated feature, Big Hero 6 for Disney XD and Disney Channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Osborne (filmmaker)</span> American filmmaker (born 1970)

Mark Randolph Osborne is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He is best known for directing the animated films Kung Fu Panda (2008) and The Little Prince (2015), the former of which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also directed the stop-motion short film More (1998), which was nominated for Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

<i>Ice Age</i> (franchise) American multimedia franchise

Ice Age is an American media franchise created by Michael J. Wilson, centering on a group of mammals surviving the Pleistocene ice age. It consists of computer-animated films, short films, TV specials and a series of video games. The first five films were produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by its then parent company 20th Century Fox. The series features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, and Chris Wedge. The film series centers mainly on "the Herd," which since the first film consists of at least Manny, Sid, and Diego. The franchise also features mostly independent plotlines involving a dialogue-free saber-toothed squirrel named Scrat, who ends up in misadventures from trying to retrieve and bury his acorns.

<i>Ice Age</i> (2002 film) 2002 animated film directed by Chris Wedge

Ice Age is a 2002 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Chris Wedge and co-directed by Carlos Saldanha from a screenplay by Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, and Peter Ackerman, based on a story by Wilson. It features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Višnjić, and Jack Black. Set during the days of the Pleistocene ice age, the film centers around three main characters—Manny (Romano), a no-nonsense woolly mammoth; Sid (Leguizamo), a loudmouthed ground sloth; and Diego (Leary), a sardonic smilodon—who come across a human baby and work together to return it to its tribe. Additionally, the film occasionally follows Scrat, a speechless "saber-toothed squirrel" (Wedge), who is perpetually searching for a place in the ground to bury his acorn.

<i>The Nut Job</i> 2014 film by Peter Lepeniotis

The Nut Job is a 2014 animated comedy film directed by Peter Lepeniotis, who also wrote the film with Lorne Cameron. It stars the voices of Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, Stephen Lang, Jeff Dunham, Gabriel Iglesias, and Sarah Gadon. The film is loosely based on Lepeniotis' 2005 short animated film Surly Squirrel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Barlen</span> Canadian screenwriter and producer (born 1980)

Robert George Barlen is a Canadian screenwriter and producer. He is best known for having co-written The Weinstein Company's animated film Escape from Planet Earth (2013), The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017), and Nickelodeon's Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021) and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023), all are in collaboration with his business partner Cal Brunker, who served as the director for these films.

<i>The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature</i> 2017 film by Cal Brunker

The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature is a 2017 animated comedy film directed by Cal Brunker and written by Brunker, Bob Barlen, and Scott Bindley. The sequel to The Nut Job (2014) and based on the characters created by Peter Lepeniotis, it stars the voices of Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, Jackie Chan, Katherine Heigl, Bobby Moynihan, Bobby Cannavale, Isabela Moner, Jeff Dunham, and Gabriel Iglesias. The film is an American-Canadian-South Korean co-production, produced by Gulfstream Pictures, Redrover International and ToonBox Entertainment, and distributed by Open Road Films in the United States and The Weinstein Company in international. The story follows Surly Squirrel and his animal friends as they find out that Percival J. Muldoon, the unscrupulous Mayor of Oakton City, plans to bulldoze Liberty Park to make way for an amusement park named Libertyland. They must join forces with Mr. Feng and his mice to save Liberty Park and defeat the mayor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Persichetti</span> American filmmaker and animator

Robert Persichetti Jr. is an American filmmaker, animator, and storyboard artist. He is best known for co-directing the film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Callan Stuart "Cal" Brunker is a Canadian animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, and film director. He is best known for directing The Weinstein Company's animated film Escape from Planet Earth (2013), The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017), Nickelodeon's Paw Patrol: The Movie (2021) and Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023), all of which he co-wrote with his business partner Bob Barlen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hageman Brothers</span> American screenwriters and television producers

Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman, professionally known as the Hageman Brothers, are American screenwriters and television producers. They are best known for their work on the television series Ninjago (2011–2019), Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (2016–2018), and Star Trek: Prodigy (2021–2024), as well as the feature films Hotel Transylvania (2012), The Lego Movie (2014), The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017), Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), and The Croods: A New Age (2020).

References

  1. "War of Their Worlds". SC Films International. Retrieved 2020-06-03.