Tim Johnson | |
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Born | [1] | August 27, 1961
Alma mater | Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences [3] |
Occupation(s) | Animator, film director, film producer, television director |
Years active | 1990 – Present |
Employer | DreamWorks Animation (1996-2019) |
Tim Johnson (born August 27, 1961) 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 .
Johnson was born in Chicago. He studied at Northwestern University where he earned a BA in English Literature. He also produced two animated films; both of which earned Richter Grant Organization Awards. [4]
Upon graduating, he worked for two years as a freelance animator and director. His introduction to computer animation came in 1985 while he worked on the staff at Post Effects in Chicago. [4] He later joined Pacific Data Images in 1988 and two years later co-founded the studio's Character Animation Group. [4] He also directed the first CG Pillsbury Doughboy commercial.
Johnson won two Annie awards on Antz and Over the Hedge , an Audience Award on Over the Hedge, and a Grand Prize for The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror VI".
While at DreamWorks Animation, he also directed Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas , Home (an adaptation of The True Meaning of Smekday ), and the Christmas television special Kung Fu Panda Holiday , [5] [6] [7] and additionally served as executive producer for How to Train Your Dragon and Abominable .
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1998 | Antz | Director |
2000 | Cyberworld | Director: Antz segment, Animation Director: Homer3 segment |
2003 | Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas | Director |
2006 | Over the Hedge | Director |
Hammy's Boomerang Adventure | Creative Consultant | |
2010 | How to Train Your Dragon | Executive Producer |
2015 | Home [5] [6] | Director |
2019 | Abominable | Executive Producer [8] |
Year | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1995 | The Simpsons's Treehouse of Horror VI | Computer Animation Director |
2010 | Kung Fu Panda Holiday | Director |
2019 | How To Train Your Dragon: Homecoming | Director [9] |
Antz is a 1998 American animated adventure comedy film produced by DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Pacific Data Images, and distributed by the former via DreamWorks Distribution. It was directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson from a screenplay written by Todd Alcott and the writing team of Chris and Paul Weitz. The film stars 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 arrogant General Mandible (Hackman) attempts to seize control of the ant colony, Z must combine his desire for purpose with his inner strength to save everyone.
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is a 2003 American animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. Featuring the character Sinbad the Sailor, it was directed by Tim Johnson and Patrick Gilmore and written by John Logan, and stars the voices of Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Joseph Fiennes. It tells the story of Sinbad, a pirate who travels the sea with his dog and his loyal crew, alongside Marina, the fiancée of his childhood friend Prince Proteus, to recover the stolen Book of Peace from Eris to save Proteus from approving Sinbad's death sentence.
Conrad Vernon is an American voice actor, director, producer, writer, and storyboard artist best known for his work on the DreamWorks animated film series Shrek as well as other films such as Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, and Penguins of Madagascar. He also co-directed non-DreamWorks animated films such as Sony Pictures' Sausage Party and MGM’s The Addams Family.
Karey Kirkpatrick is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. His films include Chicken Run, The Rescuers Down Under, James and the Giant Peach,Over the Hedge, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Charlotte's Web, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He has also directed the films, Over the Hedge, Imagine That starring Eddie Murphy and Smallfoot. Kirkpatrick wrote the English-language screenplays for the U.S. releases of the Studio Ghibli films The Secret World of Arrietty in 2012 and From Up on Poppy Hill in 2013.
DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA) (also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio owned by Universal Pictures, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The studio has released a total of 49 feature films, including several of the highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Shrek 2 (2004) having been the highest at the time of its release. Its first film, Antz, was released on October 2, 1998, and its latest film, The Wild Robot, was released on September 27, 2024. They have an upcoming theatrical slate of films, which includes Dog Man on January 31, 2025, How to Train Your Dragon on June 13, 2025, The Bad Guys 2 on August 1, 2025, Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie on September 26, 2025, and Shrek 5 on July 1, 2026.
William Damaschke is an American film executive and producer who currently serves as the president of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. Previously, he had spent 20 years at DreamWorks Animation, most recently as Chief Creative Officer, where he was involved in the creative, artistic, and operational direction of the company. His tenure oversaw the release of some of the company's big franchise films, including Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods. He also oversaw all of DreamWorks's live theatrical productions, including the award-winning Shrek the Musical. Damaschke’s other projects as a producer include the Broadway musical The Prom, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, which played at the Longacre Theatre from 15 November 2018 to 11 August 2019; the Broadway-bound musical Half Time, directed and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, which was presented at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Spring of 2018; and the stage adaptation of Moulin Rouge, directed by Alex Timbers, on which Damaschke serves as executive producer. He was also formerly the president of Skydance Animation.
Pacific Data Images (PDI) was an American computer animation and visual effects 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.
Simon Finlay Wells is an English film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great-grandson of author H. G. Wells, and is best known for directing An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Balto (1995), and The Prince of Egypt (1998).
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.
Bradford Clark Lewis is an American film producer, animation director, and politician. He produced Antz, the Oscar-winning Ratatouille, Storks, and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. He also co-directed Cars 2. He is a former mayor of the city of San Carlos, California.
Raman Hui Shing-Ngai is a Hong Kong animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the films Monster Hunt and Monster Hunt 2.
Christopher Jenkins is a Welsh effects animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, director and producer.
The True Meaning of Smekday is a 2007 children's book by Adam Rex. It was adapted by DreamWorks Animation into the 2015 feature film Home.
How to Train Your Dragon is a 2010 American animated fantasy film loosely based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Cressida Cowell. Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois, who co-wrote the screenplay with Will Davies, and produced by Bonnie Arnold. The film stars the voices of Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller, and Kristen Wiig. The story takes place in Berk, a mythical Viking village; Hiccup, an undersized teen wishing to become a dragon slayer like the other Vikings, injures a rare Night Fury dragon but is unable to bring himself to kill it. He instead helps and befriends the dragon, and quickly discovers that things are not exactly as they seem in the conflict between Vikings and dragons.
Serguei Kouchnerov is a Belarusian-Ukrainian artist, animator, director, story artist and screenwriter. He started his career as an animator and director in Kiev, Ukraine. In 1992, he was hired by Walt Disney Feature Animation as a character animator and came to the United States of America, where he currently lives and works at Illumination Entertainment.
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 CG animation veteran with nearly 35 years of experience, Smith supervised the layout department on PDI/DreamWorks' first animated feature Antz (1998), serving as the head of layout in Shrek (2001). He then directed the Universal Studios Theatre 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-directing, 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 on Batwheels for Warner Bros.
How to Train Your Dragon is an American media franchise from DreamWorks Animation and loosely based on the eponymous book series of the same name by British author Cressida Cowell. It consists of three feature films: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). The franchise also contains five short films: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010), Book of Dragons (2011), Gift of the Night Fury (2011), Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019). A live-action remake of the first film is scheduled for release by Universal Pictures in June 2025.
Home is a 2015 American animated science fiction comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Loosely based on Adam Rex's 2007 children's book The True Meaning of Smekday, the film was directed by Tim Johnson from a screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember, and stars the voices of Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Steve Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Matt Jones. The story follows the shared adventures of a friendly alien who is shunned by the rest of his kind, and a teenage girl searching for her mother after they are separated during an invasion of Earth.