Andrew Stanton - Wikiwand

Andrew Ayers Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990.^[2] His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), directing Finding Nemo (2003)^[3] 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).

Quick Facts Born, Alma mater ...

Andrew Stanton
Stanton at the 2009 Venice Film Festival
Born	Andrew Ayers Stanton^[1] (1965-12-03) December 3, 1965 (age 59) 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)

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 and Stranger Things.

Early and personal life

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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.^[4]

Stanton acted in high school and directed sketch comedy shot on Super 8 film.^[4] He portrayed Barnaby Tucker in a 1980 high school production of Hello, Dolly!, which later became a source of inspiration for WALL-E.^[5] Stanton studied for a year at the University of Hartford before transferring to the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts.^[4] He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from CalArts in 1987.^[6]

In 1989, Stanton married his high school sweetheart Julie, two weeks after she graduated from Georgetown University.^[4] The couple subsequently settled in Los Angeles, where they raised two children, Ben and Audrey.^[4]^[5] Stanton is a Christian.^[7]

Stanton revealed in 2012 that he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when he was in the middle of writing John Carter.^[8]

Stanton is an Arsenal F.C. fan, and included a scene mimicking their famous offside trap among other Arsenal references in John Carter.^[9]

Career

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Stanton began his career in animation in the late 1980s. He worked as an animator for Kroyer Films,^[10] and one of his early gigs involved animating sperm for a sex-ed film with Martin Short called The Making of Me, originally produced for Disney's Wonders of Life pavilion.^[4] Stanton was one of several CalArts graduates hired by John Kricfalusi to work on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures at Ralph Bakshi's studio.^[11]

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.^[2]^[4] 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.^[12]

Stanton, Lasseter and Pete Docter drafted the original treatment for Toy Story, which bore little resemblance with the eventually finished film.^[13] After production of the film was shut down in late November 1993 following a disastrous test screening,^[14] Stanton retreated into a windowless office and extensively reworked the script with help from Joss Whedon.^[15] The resulting screenplay was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, the first nomination in that category for an animated film.^[16]

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.^[17]

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.^[18] 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 was not the ending of Woody's story but rather the ending of Woody's time with Andy.^[19] Stanton reportedly started writing Toy Story 4 in secret while the third film was still in production.^[19]

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."^[20]

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.^[21] The film is based on The New Yorker short story of the same name by Thomas Pierce. The film would 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.^[22]^[23] In 2022, it was announced that Stanton would direct In the Blink of an Eye for Searchlight Pictures from a screenplay by Colby Day.^[24]

In 2024, Docter announced that Stanton would write and direct the fifth main installment of Toy Story series, Toy Story 5, which is scheduled for release on June 19, 2026.^[25]^[26]