Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1,000 years and revived on December 31, 2999. Fry finds work at the interplanetary delivery company Planet Express, working alongside the one-eyed mutant Leela and the robot Bender. The series was envisioned by Groening in the mid-1990s while working on The Simpsons; he brought David X. Cohen aboard to develop storylines and characters to pitch the show to Fox.
"Roswell That Ends Well" is the nineteenth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 51st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 2001. The plot centers on an accidental time travel event that results in the main characters participating in the Roswell Incident in 1947.
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.
Rough Draft Studios, Inc. is an American animation production studio based in Glendale, California, with a second studio in Glendale and its sister studio Rough Draft Korea located in Seoul, South Korea. The studio was founded in Van Nuys, Los Angeles by Gregg Vanzo in 1991.
Jim Reardon is an American animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15. He has been described by Ralph Bakshi as "one of the best cartoon writers in the business".
Raymond Saharath Persi is an American animator, director, screenwriter, producer, storyboard artist and voice actor. He has directed many episodes of The Simpsons, including "Mobile Homer", "The Girl Who Slept Too Little", "The Monkey Suit", "Little Big Girl", "24 Minutes", "Love, Springfieldian Style" and the Emmy Award-winning "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story". Persi went on to work as a sequence director for The Simpsons Movie (2007).
Lauren Hunter MacMullan is an American animation director. She grew up in the Pennsylvania suburbs of Havertown, Lansdowne and Swarthmore, and graduated from Swarthmore High School in 1982. She attended Harvard University, and was on the staff of the Harvard Lampoon. Her first primetime TV job was on The Critic, where she directed the episode with guest stars Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, followed by directing for King of the Hill. She went on to become the supervising director and designer for Mission Hill. After the show was cancelled quickly, she got a job directing on The Simpsons, and stayed for three seasons. She also has directed some episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and won an Annie award for storyboarding on that show.
The Annie Award for Best Animated Feature is an Annie Award introduced in 1992, awarded annually to the best animated feature film.
Byron P. Howard is an American animator, character designer, story artist, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as one of the directors of the Walt Disney Animation Studios films Bolt (2008), Tangled (2010), Zootopia (2016), Encanto (2021), and the upcoming Zootopia 2 (2025). He is the first LGBT director to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature twice for his work on Zootopia and Encanto.
Clark Spencer is an American film producer, businessman and studio executive best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and for winning the Oscars for Best Animated Feature for his work on Zootopia and Encanto.
Wreck-It Ralph is a 2012 American animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Rich Moore and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Phil Johnston and Jennifer Lee, and a story by Moore, Johnston, and Jim Reardon. John Lasseter served as the film’s executive producer. Featuring the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch, the film tells the story of the eponymous arcade game villain who rebels against his "bad guy" role and dreams of becoming a hero.
Events in 2001 in animation.
The Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Directing in a Feature Production is an Annie Award, awarded annually to the best animated feature film and introduced in 1996. It rewards directing for animated feature films. The recipients are directors as well as co-directors.
The Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in a Feature Production is an Annie Award awarded annually to the best animated feature film and introduced in 1998 rewarding voice acting for animated feature films.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is a 2018 American animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph. The film was directed by Rich Moore and Phil Johnston, and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Johnston and Pamela Ribon, and a story by Moore, Johnston, Ribon, Josie Trinidad, and Jim Reardon. John Lasseter, Jennifer Lee, and Chris Williams served as the film's executive producers. John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, and Ed O'Neill reprise their character roles from the first film, and are joined by Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, and Alfred Molina as part of the new cast, as well as Alan Tudyk, who voiced a new character in this film. In the film, Ralph (Reilly) and Vanellope von Schweetz (Silverman) must travel to the Internet to get a replacement for the Sugar Rush cabinet's broken steering wheel and prevent Mr. Litwak (O'Neill) from disposing of the game.
Zootopia is a 2016 American animated buddy cop film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore, co-directed by Jared Bush, and produced by Clark Spencer, from a screenplay written by Bush and Phil Johnston, and a story by Howard, Moore, Bush, Johnston, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, and Jennifer Lee. The film stars the voices of Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Jenny Slate, Nate Torrence, Bonnie Hunt, Don Lake, Tommy Chong, J. K. Simmons, Octavia Spencer, Alan Tudyk and Shakira. The film follows a rookie police officer rabbit and a con artist fox as they work together to uncover a conspiracy involving the disappearance of some of the titular city's predatory citizens.
Donald Lee Hall is an American animation film director, voice actor and screenwriter who is best known for directing the films Winnie the Pooh (2011), Big Hero 6 (2014), Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) and Strange World (2022), and co-directing the film Moana (2016) for Walt Disney Animation Studios. For his work on Big Hero 6 won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Philip Johnston is an American filmmaker and voice actor, best known as one of the writers for the Walt Disney Animation Studios films Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Zootopia (2016) and Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), the latter of which he directed alongside Rich Moore.
Zootopia+ is an animated miniseries based on Zootopia by Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Jared Bush. Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, the series was released on Disney+ on November 9, 2022.
The Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production is an Annie Award given annually to the best animated direction in animated television or broadcast productions. Directing for television productions was first recognized at the 24th Annie Awards alongside feature film in the Best Achievement in Directing, though the next year a separate category would be created resulting in two directing categories, one for television/broadcasting productions and another for animated feature films.
