Valerie LaPointe | |
|---|---|
 LaPointe in 2018 | |
| Born | August 4, 1981 |
| Alma mater | Virginia Commonwealth University (BFA) University of Southern California (MFA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2006–present |
| Spouse | Matthew Luhn |
| Children | 2 |
Valerie LaPointe (born August 4, 1981) is an American director and storyboard artist for Pixar Animation Studios.
LaPointe was born in Norfolk, Virginia. When she was in the third grade, she watched The Little Mermaid (1989), and began drawing the character Ariel. "It really struck a chord and inspired me," LaPointe said, "I kind of became fixated on everything about it." [1] At eight years old, she decided being an animator was her career goal. [2] [3] Her family moved to Kempsville. When she was 12, she wrote a letter addressed to Walt Disney Pictures with a pitch idea for a film. The studio mailed back, stating that they don't accept outside pitches, but they sent her an information packet detailing where to go to art school and what to study. [1]
In 1999, LaPointe enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). There, she produced a student film titled Night Life, which used watercolor paintings. She graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree, graduating in communication arts and design. [2] Subsequently, she received a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship from the United States Department of Education. A VCU professor encouraged her to pursue a Master's degree, [2] in which she later enrolled in the School of Cinematic Studies at the University of Southern California (USC). During her graduate studies, she created a stop motion student film titled Lolly's Box, which was screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. [4] It became one of the top eight finalists for the 2006 Student Academy Awards. [5]
In 2006, LaPointe became an apprentice story artist for Pixar's inaugural story internship program; she was in a class with eight other interns, including Adrian Molina. [6] She graduated from USC in 2007 with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA), and was hired as a full-time employee for Pixar. [1] Her first official project as a storyboard artist was the 2008 short film Presto . She later worked on the Mater's Tall Tales and Toy Story Toons series, such as Small Fry (2011) and Partysaurus Rex (2012). She moved up to feature-length films, which included Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), and The Good Dinosaur (2015). [2] [6]
In 2016, LaPointe joined the production team for Toy Story 4 (2019). Admittedly, she felt Toy Story 3 (2010) provided the essential closure to the series. However, she listened to director Josh Cooley's pitch for the film, in which Bo Peep was to be the focal character. She stated, "...then I perked up and thought, 'Okay. Yeah. I could see this being a really good reason to make this.'" [3] She was made the story supervisor, in which she supervised a team of storyboard artists to retool Bo Peep, a minor love interest in the first two Toy Story installments, into a confident feminist heroine. [1] Additionally, LaPointe came up with the idea of the film's antagonist Gabby Gabby. She explained, "I really wanted to have a girl baby doll character in the Toy Story universe [to have] more female toy characters in general. But also, why was there never a baby doll? It's so signature of every little girl." [7] For her work on Toy Story 4, she was credited as one of the eight story writers. [8]
By the end of 2018, the Toy Story 4 story team was approached to produce an animated spin-off short film. LaPointe pitched a short film based on Bo Peep, adapting story ideas that were cut from Toy Story 4. [6] She remembered: "I think the biggest looming question was what happened in that space and time because in Toy Story 4 we see Bo being given away and then we pick back up with her, she is a lost toy ... We'd come up with a lot of ideas in the meantime: For me, it was a big mystery that we didn't have the screen time for in the feature, so it was just perfect for a short film." [6] LaPointe was made the director of the film, later titled Lamp Life (2020), in which she did most of the writing and storyboarding. [6] It was released on Disney+ on January 31, 2020. [9]
In 2019, Variety named LaPointe as one of the top ten American animators to watch for. [7] As of 2020, she is in development of several projects at Pixar. [6]
LaPointe is married to Matthew Luhn, and she has two daughters. [1] [2] [10] She lives in Oakland, California. [11]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Story Supervisor | Story Artist | Producer | Voice Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Up | No | No | No | No | No | Additional Voices | |
| 2012 | Brave | No | No | No | Additional | No | ||
| 2015 | Inside Out | No | No | No | Yes | No | ||
| The Good Dinosaur | No | No | No | Yes | No | |||
| 2019 | Toy Story 4 | No | Original Story | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2020 | Soul | No | No | No | No | Associate executive |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Story Artist | Editor | Producer | Voice Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Night Life | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2005 | Upside Downed | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Melina | |
| Lolly's Box | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2007 | Your Friend the Rat | No | No | No | No | No | 2D ink and paint artist | |
| 2008 | Presto | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2008–2010 | Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales | No | No | Yes | No | No | Episodes 1–3 | |
| 2009 | George and A.J. | No | No | No | No | No | Cat Lady | |
| 2011 | Toy Story Toons: Small Fry | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2012 | Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex | No | No | Additional | No | No | ||
| 2020 | Lamp Life | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2021 | Sprite Fright | No | No | No | No | No | Ellie |
Toy Story is a 1995 American animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The first installment in the franchise of the same name, it was the first entirely computer-animated feature film, as well as the first feature film from Pixar. The film was directed by John Lasseter, written by Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow based on a story by Lasseter, Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft, produced by Bonnie Arnold and Ralph Guggenheim, and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and Jim Varney.
Pixar Animation Studios, known simply as Pixar, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, a segment of the Walt Disney Company.
Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to Toy Story (1995) and the second installment in the Toy Story franchise. The film was directed by John Lasseter, co-directed by Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich, and produced by Helene Plotkin and Karen Robert Jackson, from a screenplay written by Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin, and Chris Webb, and a story conceived by Lasseter, Stanton, Brannon, and Pete Docter. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Pidgeon reprise their roles from the first film. In the film, Woody is stolen by a greedy toy collector, prompting Buzz Lightyear and his friends to save him, but Woody is then tempted by the idea of immortality in a museum.
Tin Toy is a 1988 American animated short film produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter. The short film, which runs for five minutes, stars Tinny, a tin one-man band toy, trying to escape from Billy, a human baby. The third short film produced by the company's small animation division, it was a risky investment: due to the low revenue produced by Pixar's main product, the Pixar Image Computer, the company was under financial constraints.
Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the Toy Story series and the sequel to Toy Story 2 (1999). It was directed by Lee Unkrich, the editor of the first two films and the co-director of Toy Story 2, produced by Darla K. Anderson, and written by Michael Arndt, while Unkrich wrote the story along with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, respectively, director and co-writer of the first two films. The film's ensemble voice cast includes Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, and R. Lee Ermey. In Toy Story 3, Andy Davis (Morris), now a teenager, is going to college. Woody (Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Allen), and the other toys are accidentally donated to Sunnyside Daycare, a daycare center, by Andy's mother (Metcalf), and the toys must decide where their loyalties lie.
Peter Hans Docter is an American filmmaker and animator. He was credited as the director for the Pixar animated feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Soul (2020), and has served as the company's chief creative officer (CCO) since 2018. From his nine Academy Award nominations, he is a record-three time recipient of Best Animated Feature for Up, Inside Out and Soul. Docter has also won six Annie Awards from nine nominations, a BAFTA Children's Film Award and a Hochi Film Award. He describes himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".
Joseph Henry Ranft was an American animator, screenwriter, and voice actor. He worked for Pixar Animation Studios and Disney at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Television Animation. His younger brother Jerome Ranft is a sculptor who also worked on several Pixar films.
Robert Peterson is an American animator, director, screenwriter, storyboard supervisor and voice actor who works at Pixar. He was hired at Pixar by Roger Gould in 1994 as an animator for commercials, before subsequently becoming an animator on Toy Story (1995). He was the co-director and co-writer for Up (2009), in which he also voiced the characters Dug and Alpha. His work as a writer for the films Up and Finding Nemo (2003) earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He was also a co-writer on Cars 3 (2017) and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program for his work on Forky Asks A Question (2020).
Bo Peep is a fictional character appearing in the Disney–Pixar Toy Story franchise. The character is primarily voiced by Annie Potts. She appears in the first two films as a supporting character, portrayed as a love interest to the protagonist, Woody. After being given away prior to the events of Toy Story 3, Bo returns in Toy Story 4 as a major character.
Jessie is a fictional cowgirl rag doll in the Disney–Pixar Toy Story franchise. She first appeared in Toy Story 2 and returned in the sequels Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4. The idea for introducing a female character was suggested by Nancy Lasseter, while John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Ash Brannon, and Andrew Stanton developed and created the character. She is voiced by Joan Cusack in the Toy Story filmography, while Sarah McLachlan is her singing voice in Toy Story 2. Kat Cressida also voiced the character in the Disney Infinity series.
Toy Story is an American media franchise created by Pixar Animation Studios and owned by The Walt Disney Company. It centers on toys that, unknown to humans, are secretly living, sentient creatures. It began in 1995 with the release of the animated feature film of the same name, which focuses on a diverse group of toys featuring a classic cowboy doll named Sheriff Woody and a modern spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear.
Jeff Pidgeon is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist and voice actor at Pixar.
George and A.J. is a 2009 American animated short film, directed and written by Josh Cooley which uses characters from the film Up. Taking place during the events of the film, it follows what nurses George and A.J. did after Carl Fredricksen left with his house tied to balloons. Due to its budget, all of the animation was done in a limited "storyboard" style, with some objects moving by keyframes, while other things like characters and their mouths barely move at all; however, the characters' expressions and the story are still conveyed.
Joshua Cooley is an American filmmaker, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He is best known for directing the films Toy Story 4 (2019) and the upcoming Transformers One (2024), the former of which he won for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Inside Out (2015), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Matthew Luhn is an American storyboard artist, animator, and director for Pixar and The Simpsons. He is also known for serving as a creative writing instructor and keynote speaker.
Toy Story 4 is a 2019 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the fourth installment in Pixar's Toy Story series and the sequel to Toy Story 3 (2010). It was directed by Josh Cooley from a screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom; the three also conceived the story alongside John Lasseter, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Valerie LaPointe, and Martin Hynes. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Jeff Pidgeon, Laurie Metcalf, John Morris, Joan Cusack, Estelle Harris, Blake Clark, Bonnie Hunt, Jeff Garlin, Kristen Schaal, Timothy Dalton, and Lori Alan reprise their character roles from the first three films and Carl Weathers reprised his role from Toy Story of Terror! with Madeleine McGraw replacing Emily Hahn as Bonnie and they are joined by Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, and Ally Maki, who voice new characters introduced in this film. Set after the third film, Toy Story 4 follows Woody (Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Allen) as the pair and the other toys go on a road trip with Bonnie (McGraw), who creates Forky (Hale), a spork made with recycled materials from her school. Meanwhile, Woody is reunited with Bo Peep (Potts), and must decide where his loyalties lie.
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