Andrew Stanton

Andrew Stanton

Andrew Stanton, 2009
Born Andrew Stanton
(1965-12-03) December 3, 1965 (age 46)
Rockport, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation Director, producer, screenwriter, voice actor
Years active 1995–present
Spouse Julie Stanton

Andrew Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor based at Pixar Animation Studios and Sony Pictures Animation. His film work includes writing and directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (as co-director), Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and his first live-action film, John Carter. He also co-wrote every film of the Toy Story franchise, Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University.

Finding Nemo and WALL-E earned him two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. He was also nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay for both and Toy Story, and for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Toy Story 3. He also voiced Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2 and various video games.

Early life

Stanton was born and raised in Rockport, Massachusetts. As a child, he was painfully shy and he used theatrics with his classmates to gain acceptance. In highschool, he starred in several 8mm films as well as performed in plays put on by Rockport High school's theater troupe. He studied character animation at The California Institute of the Arts and graduated from the school in 1983. His earliest known venture into professional animation was at Ralph Bakshi Productions, where he worked on The New Adventures along with other young animators like Jeff Pidgeon, Eddie Fitzgerald, Tom Minton, John Kricfalusi, and Jim Reardon. All of them have done worthwhile things, including Pidgeon who joined him at Pixar. Stanton joined Pixar in January 1990 and was the second animator (John Lasseter being the first) and ninth overall employee hired at the studio. He now lives in Mill Valley, California and is married to Julie Stanton. He has a daughter named Audrey and a son named Ben.

According to the book Outlaw Animation: Cutting-Edge Cartoons from the Spike and Mike Festivals by Jerry Beck, Stanton was also friends with famed animation promoters "Spike and Mike". In one particular instance Spike visited Stanton's home in a super hero costume calling himself "the Centaur". After frightening the neighborhood parents and captivating the imaginations of the children near an ice cream truck Stanton had to get Spike back inside before anyone alerted the authorities.

Career

In an interview with World Magazine's Megan Basham, Stanton explained his singular vision for WALL-E: "What really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love."[1]

In addition to his direction and writing work for Pixar, he has also done some voice work, most notably Evil Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2 and Crush, the laidback turtle in Finding Nemo.

Stanton made his live-action directing debut with Disney's John Carter. The film was based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel, A Princess of Mars. It was released in March 2012 and received mixed reviews from critics. The big-budget science fiction film did not meet Disney's domestic box-office expectations, as they have stated they expect to lose $200 million on the film. However, the movie has done much better overseas - scoring Russia's biggest opening day ever and starting out very well in Hong Kong and other countries in the Far East.[2]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Functioned as
Director Writer Executive producer Voice actor Role
1987 A Story (short) Yes Yes No Yes Randy / The Goon Squad
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (TV series, 13 episodes) No Yes No No
1988 Somewhere in the Artic (short) Yes Yes No Yes Bahr
1995 Toy Story No Yes No Yes Commercial Chorus
1998 A Bug's Life Yes (co-director) Yes No Yes Bug Zapper #1
1999 Toy Story 2 No Yes No Yes Emperor Zurg
2000 Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins No No No Yes Hamm
2001 Monsters, Inc. No Yes Yes No
2003 Finding Nemo Yes Yes No Yes Crush / New England Lobster / others
Exploring the Reef No No Yes No
2004 The Incredibles No No No Yes Additional voices
2006 Cars No No No Yes Fred
2007 Ratatouille No No Yes No
2008 WALL-E Yes Yes No Yes Human character
BURN-E (short) No No Yes No
Presto (short) No No Yes No
2009 Up No No Yes No
Partly Cloudy (short) No No Yes No
2010 Toy Story 3 No Yes No No
2012 John Carter Yes Yes No No
Brave No No Yes No

Video games

Year Title Role Notes
1998 A Bug's Life Hopper
1999 Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue Emperor Zurg
2003 Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure Emperor Zurg
2007 Cars Mater-National Championship Fred
2010 Toy Story 3: The Video Game Emperor Zurg Uncredited
PS3 version only
2011 Kinect Disneyland Adventures Crush / Emperor Zurg

References

  1. ^ Megan Basham (2006-06-28). "WALL-E world". World Magazine. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14127. Retrieved 2008-07-02. 
  2. ^ Ethan Sacks (2012-03-19). "John Carter slams Disney with $200 million loss, studio announces". New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/john-carter-slams-disney-200-million-loss-studio-announces-article-1.1047073. Retrieved 2012-03-21. 

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andrew Stanton
Films by Andrew Stanton
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  • Brave (2012)
  • Monsters University (2013)
  • The Good Dinosaur (2014)
  • Untitled Pixar Movie that Takes You Inside the Mind (2015)
  • Dia de los Muertos themed movie (2015)
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