Andrew Stanton

For the children's author, see Andy Stanton.

Andrew Stanton
Stanton at the 2009 Venice Film Festival
Born	Andrew Ayers Stanton (1965-12-03) December 3, 1965 Rockport, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts (BFA)
Occupations	Film director screenwriter producer animator storyboard artist voice actor
Years active	1981–present
Employer	Pixar Animation Studios (1990–present)
Spouse	Julie Stanton ​ (m. 1989)​
Children	2
Awards	Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Finding Nemo (2003) WALL-E (2008)

Andrew Ayers Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990. His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), directing Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel Finding Dory (2016), WALL-E (2008), and the live-action film, Disney's John Carter (2012), and co-writing all five and directing the upcoming latter in Toy Story films (1995–2026) and Monsters, Inc. (2001).

Finding Nemo and WALL-E earned Stanton two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. He was also nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, for Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Toy Story (1995), and for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Toy Story 3 (2010). WALL-E has also been inducted into the National Film Registry. Stanton has also directed episodes of various television series since 2017, including episodes of 3 Body Problem, Better Call Saul, Legion, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Stranger Things.

Early and personal life

Stanton was born in Rockport, Massachusetts. His father, Ron Stanton, was the founder of a company that worked on radars for the United States Department of Defense. His mother, Gloria Stanton, pursued an acting career before becoming a homemaker. Both of Stanton's parents were natives of nearby Wellesley.

Stanton acted in high school and directed sketch comedy shot on Super 8 film. He portrayed Barnaby Tucker in a 1980 high school production of Hello, Dolly!, which later became a source of inspiration for WALL-E. Stanton studied for a year at the University of Hartford before transferring to the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from CalArts in 1987.

In 1989, Stanton married his high school sweetheart Julie, two weeks after she graduated from Georgetown University. The couple subsequently settled in Los Angeles, where they raised two children, Ben and Audrey. Stanton is a Christian.

Stanton revealed in 2012 that he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when he was in the middle of writing John Carter.

Stanton is an Arsenal F.C. fan, and included a scene mimicking their famous offside trap among other Arsenal references in John Carter.

Career

Stanton began his career in animation in the late 1980s. He worked as an animator for Kroyer Films, and one of his early gigs involved animating sperm for a sex-ed film with Martin Short. Stanton was one of several CalArts graduates hired by John Kricfalusi to work on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures at Ralph Bakshi's studio.

After being rejected by Disney three times, Stanton was hired by Pixar's animation group in 1990 as its second animator (John Lasseter being the first) and ninth employee. Back then Pixar was not yet an animation studio, and their animation group was dedicated to making television commercials as a step towards their goal of making the first computer-animated feature.

Stanton, Lasseter and Pete Docter drafted the original treatment for Toy Story, which bore little resemblance with the eventually finished film. After production of the film was shut down in late November 1993 following a disastrous test screening, Stanton retreated into a windowless office and extensively reworked the script with help from Joss Whedon. The resulting screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, the first nomination in that category for an animated film.

Following Toy Story, Lasseter asked Stanton to help him direct and write Pixar's next feature A Bug's Life. Early in the film's production, the film had difficulty incorporating the circus bug's portion of the story and the main character (Flik's) portion of the story. In a day, Stanton was able to write a screenplay that tied both concepts together. In 1999, Stanton returned to write Toy Story 2, the critically acclaimed sequel to Toy Story, and also voiced Emperor Zurg. He would then go on to write Monsters, Inc.. Docter, the director of Monsters, Inc., would cite him many times as the originator of the idea that monsters generated screams to use to power their city.

Stanton made his solo directorial debut in 2003 with Finding Nemo. He took inspiration from his own role as a father and how he was overprotective of his son. Stanton directed, wrote and voiced Crush the sea turtle in the film. Just like Toy Story before it, Michael Eisner was not confident in the film and predicted it would fail. During this time Stanton and other Finding Nemo co-writer Bob Peterson developed the storytelling theory of "2+2", to not give the audience the full picture but rather halves and have them put the film together. The film turned out to be an enormous success becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2003 behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and the highest-grossing animated film of that time period, beating out The Lion King. He won his first Academy Award for the film in the category of Best Animated Feature, and his screenplay was nominated in the category of Best Original Screenplay.

Following his success with Finding Nemo, Stanton began work on his next film as director WALL-E. WALL-E was considered a huge risk for both Pixar and Disney, considering how experimental the film sounded. Stanton nevertheless had confidence in the film and that audiences wouldn't be bored by the dialogue-less first thirty minutes, but rather enamored by it. Upon release in 2008, the film was a huge critical and financial success. Stanton won his second Academy Award for the film in the category of Best Animated Feature and once again his screenplay was nominated in the category of Best Original Screenplay. 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.

Stanton returned to write Toy Story 3 in 2010, alongside Michael Arndt. When he first pitched the scene of the toys in the incinerator both Lasseter and Lee Unkrich (the director of the film) teared up. Many employees at Pixar have pointed out how the release of the film happened to be somewhat consecutive to one of Stanton's children going to college. His screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay. After the acquisition of Pixar by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, Stanton became the vice president of creativity at Pixar alongside fellow Pixar director Pete Docter. He is a member of the studio's coveted brain trust, and has executive produced and served as a creative and mentor-like voice on the following films: Ratatouille, Up, Brave, Monsters University, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur.

In 2012, Stanton made his live-action directing debut with Disney's John Carter. The film was based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel, A Princess of Mars. Upon release it received mixed reviews and was a box office failure.

Following John Carter, Stanton returned to Pixar to direct the sequel to 2003's Finding Nemo, Finding Dory. He came up with the concept upon watching a pre-screening of the 3D rerelease of the film and walking out of the theater worried about Dory. The film was released in 2016 and was a huge hit critically and financially, becoming the highest-grossing animated film of that year. It was also critically well received, with critics calling it "a worthy successor to Nemo".

On February 10, 2017, it was revealed by Entertainment Weekly that Stanton was going to direct two episodes of the second season of Stranger Things. Since then Stanton has also directed an episode of Better Call Saul, and Legion.

Stanton was credited as a narrative guru on Ralph Breaks the Internet, helping director and former classmate Rich Moore construct the story following Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios former chief creative officer Lasseter's step down. He co-wrote Toy Story 4, which was released on June 21, 2019. Initially, when he pitched the idea to director Josh Cooley, Cooley was concerned feeling like Toy Story 3 was the perfect ending. Stanton reportedly told Cooley "Toy Story 3 was a good ending--but it's not the ending." He explained that it wasn't the ending of Woody's story but rather the ending of Woody's time with Andy. Stanton reportedly started writing Toy Story 4 in secret while the third film was still in production.

He is currently the Vice President of Creativity at Pixar helping to ensure the company's creative output.

He has expressed interest in directing more live action films, stating that he wants to return "[b]ecause it's quicker and it's a little bit more of the opposite... It's the antithesis of animation. Animation you get to control everything, and it's awesome in that sense. But there's no spontaneity, and it takes a long time! And so there's high risk for the complete opposite reasons of live-action."

In 2020, it was announced that Stanton was in talks to direct and write Chairman Spaceman for Searchlight Pictures and Simon Kinberg's production label, Genre Films. The film is based on The New Yorker short story of the same name by Thomas Pierce. The film will mark Stanton's third venture into the Science-Fiction genre, following WALL-E and John Carter. Stanton has been quoted many times saying that science fiction is his favorite genre. Films like Star Wars, Blade Runner, Aliens, as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel, Princess of Mars, helped shape his interest in the genre. The same year, Stanton was attached to direct Revolver, a romantic comedy starring Maya Hawke and Ethan Hawke from a screenplay by Kate Trefry. In 2022, it was announced that Stanton would direct In the Blink of an Eye for Searchlight Pictures from a screenplay by Colby Day.

In 2024, Docter announced that Stanton will write and direct the fifth main installment of Toy Story series, Toy Story 5, which is scheduled for release on June 19, 2026.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer	Other	Voice Role	Notes
1995	Toy Story	No	Yes	No	Yes	Commercial Chorus 2	Story Artist, Character Designer
1998	A Bug's Life	Co-Director	Yes	No	Yes	Bug Zapper Bug 1 Singing Grasshopper 2	Story Artist
1999	Toy Story 2	No	Yes	No	Yes	Emperor Zurg
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins	No	No	No	Yes	Hamm	Direct-to-video
2001	Monsters, Inc.	No	Screenplay	Yes	No
2003	Finding Nemo	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Crush/Lobster/Seagulls
2004	The Incredibles	No	No	No	Yes	Additional Voices
2006	Cars	No	No	No	Yes	Fred	Additional Screenplay Material
2007	Ratatouille	No	No	Yes	No
2008	WALL-E	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Axiom Passenger 2	Pixar Senior Creative Team - uncredited on WALL-E
2009	Up	No	No	Yes	Yes
2010	Toy Story 3	No	Story	No	Yes
2011	Cars 2	No	No	No	Yes
2012	John Carter	Yes	Screenplay	No	No
	Brave	No	No	Yes	Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team
2013	Monsters University	No	No	Yes	Yes
2015	Inside Out	No	No	Yes	Yes
	The Good Dinosaur	No	No	Yes	Yes
2016	Finding Dory	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Crush/Clam/Seagulls
2017	Cars 3	No	No	No	Yes
	Coco	No	No	No	Yes
2018	Incredibles 2	No	No	No	Yes
	Ralph Breaks the Internet	No	No	No	Yes		Narrative Guru
2019	Toy Story 4	No	Yes	Yes	Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team
2020	Onward	No	No	No	Yes
	Soul	No	No	No	Yes
2021	Luca	No	No	No	Yes
2022	Turning Red	No	No	No	Yes
	Lightyear	No	No	Yes	Yes		Additional Screenplay Material Pixar Senior Creative Team
2023	Elemental	No	No	No	Yes		Pixar Senior Creative Team
2024	Inside Out 2	No	No	No	Yes
2025	Elio	No	No	No	Yes
2026	Hoppers	No	No	No	Yes
	Toy Story 5	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
TBA	Incredibles 3	No	No	No	Yes
	In the Blink of an Eye	Yes	No	No	No		Post-production

Short films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer	Voice
1986	Somewhere in the Arctic	Yes	Yes	No	Bahr
1987	A Story	Yes	Yes	Producer	Randy / Goon Squad
1991	Light & Heavy	Yes	No	No
2003	Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau	No	No	Yes
2008	Presto	No	No	Yes
	BURN-E	No	Story	Yes
2009	Partly Cloudy	No	No	Yes
2016	Piper	No	No	Yes
	Marine Life Interviews	No	Yes	No

TV episodes and specials

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive Producer	Story Artist	Voice	Notes
1987	Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures	No	Yes	No	No		13 episodes
1994	2 Stupid Dogs	No	No	No	Yes		Episode: "Cookies, Ookies, Blookies"
1995	The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa	No	No	No	Yes		Episode: "Good Mousekeeping"
2010	Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman	No	No	No	No	Crush	Episode: "The Ol' Shell Game"
2013	Toy Story of Terror!	No	No	Yes	No		TV special
2017	Stranger Things 2	Yes	No	No	No		Episodes: "Chapter Five: Dig Dug" and "Chapter Six: The Spy"
2018	Better Call Saul	Yes	No	No	No		Episode: "Piñata"
2019	Legion	Yes	No	No	No		Episode: "Chapter 20"
2020	Tales from the Loop	Yes	No	No	No		Episode: "Echo Sphere"
2021–22	For All Mankind	Yes	No	No	No		Directed four episodes
2022	Obi-Wan Kenobi	No	Yes	No	No		Episodes: "Part V" and "Part VI"
2024	3 Body Problem	Yes	No	Co-Executive	No		Directed episode: "Destroyer of Worlds"
2025	Win or Lose	No	No	Yes	No

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	A Bug's Life	Hopper	Replacing Kevin Spacey
1999	Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue	Emperor Zurg
2003	Finding Nemo	Crush
	Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure	Emperor Zurg
2006	Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue	Seagulls	Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS only
2007	Cars Mater-National Championship	Fred
2009	Cars Race-O-Rama	Fred / Tater Jr.	PS3/Xbox 360/Wii version only
2010	Toy Story 3: The Video Game	Emperor Zurg	Uncredited PS3 version only
2011	Kinect Disneyland Adventures	Crush / Emperor Zurg
2015	Disney Infinity 3.0	Crush
2018	Lego The Incredibles	Seagulls

Theme parks

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1989–2007	The Making of Me		Animator
1998–present	It's Tough to Be a Bug!	Hopper	Replacing Kevin Spacey
2007–present	Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage	Crush, Seagulls

Other credits

Year	Title	Role
1997	Geri's Game	Very Special Thanks
2000	For the Birds	Thanks
2006	Lifted	Special Thanks
2007	Fog City Mavericks
	The Pixar Story	Himself; Very Special Thanks
2010	Finding Nico	Special Thanks
2014	Lava
	Toy Story That Time Forgot	Extra Special Thanks
2015	Sanjay's Super Team	Special Thanks
2016	Zootopia	Creative Consultant
2019	Purl	Kristen Lester's Story Trust
	Frozen II	Special Thanks
	Spies in Disguise
2021	Encanto
2022	Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to 'Lightyear'	Himself
	Cars on the Road	Special Thanks; Pixar Senior Creative Team
2023	Nimona	Special Thanks

Collaborations (Acting)

Andrew Stanton has cast certain actors and crew members in more than one of the films he has directed.

	Finding Nemo	WALL-E	John Carter	Finding Dory	In the Blink of an Eye
Albert Brooks	N			N
Ellen DeGeneres	N			N
Alexander Gould	N			N
Willem Dafoe	N		N	N
Brad Garrett	N			N
Allison Janney	N			N
Austin Pendleton	N			N
Stephen Root	N			N
Vicki Lewis	N			N
Himself	N	N		N
Bob Peterson	N			N
John Ratzenberger	N	N		N
Bob Bergen	N	N
Paul Eiding	N	N
Jess Harnell	N	N
Sherry Lynn	N	N
Mickie McGowan	N	N
Laraine Newman	N	N
Jeff Pidgeon	N	N
Jan Rabson	N	N
Jim Ward	N	N
Sigourney Weaver		N		N
Angus MacLane		N		N
Dominic West			N	N
Kate McKinnon				N	N

Award and nominations

Academy Awards

Year	Category	Film	Result	Shared With
1995	Best Original Screenplay	Toy Story	Nominated	Shared With Joss Whedon, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft
2003	Best Animated Feature	Finding Nemo	Won	—
	Best Original Screenplay		Nominated	Shared with Bob Peterson and David Reynolds
2008	Best Animated Feature	WALL-E	Won	—
	Best Original Screenplay		Nominated	Shared With Jim Reardon and Pete Docter
2010	Best Adapted Screenplay	Toy Story 3	Nominated	Shared With Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, and Lee Unkrich

Preservation

Two of Stanton's short films, A Story and Somewhere in the Arctic..., were preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Bibliography

• Price, David (2008). The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-307-26575-3.

External links

• Andrew Stanton at IMDb
• A Day in the Life of Andrew Stanton – The New York Times
• Andrew Stanton at TED
  • "The clues to a great story" (TED2012)