Angus MacLane (born April 13, 1975) is an American animator, filmmaker and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios.[1][2][3][4][5][6] He co-directed the film Finding Dory (2016)[7][8] and made his solo feature directorial debut with the Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear (2022).[9] MacLane is also a Lego enthusiast and created the CubeDudes building format and designed a LEGO WALL-E that has become an official set from The Lego Group.[10][11]
Angus MacLane | |
|---|---|
 MacLane in 2016 | |
| Born | April 13, 1975 |
| Alma mater | Rhode Island School of Design |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Employer | Pixar Animation Studios (1997–2023) |
Early life and education
editAngus MacLane was born on April 13, 1975, in Riverside County, California, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. He originally wanted to be a comic book artist but halfway through school switched to animation and hoped one day he could work at the Will Vinton Studios (now Laika) and would eventually go on to work for the studio before working for Pixar. In 1997, he received a bachelor of fine arts from Rhode Island School of Design.[12]
Career
edit1997–2023: Pixar
editMacLane joined Pixar in 1997, starting as an animator on Geri's Game. He worked as an animator on every Pixar feature film from A Bug's Life (1998) through Toy Story 3 (2010). He also worked in the character development on Monsters, Inc. (2001) and The Incredibles (2004). His work on The Incredibles gained him an Annie for Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation.[13] After serving as Supervising Animator on One Man Band, MacLane started working on the story team for Andrew Stanton's WALL-E and later moved up to Directing Animator. After animating a small scene for a side character named BURN-E, MacLane wanted to know what might happen to the character. He originally wanted BURN-E's story arc part of the actual film, but Stanton ended up wanting him to develop it into a short which eventually became BURN-E, which can now be viewed on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of WALL-E. For a short amount of time, he worked on the animation for Up, and the animation on Toy Story 3.
After BURN-E, MacLane started to move further to directing and writing works in the studio with the Toy Story Toon: Small Fry and Pixar's first TV special Toy Story of Terror!, for which he won an Annie for Outstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated TV/Broadcast Production.[14] In addition, MacLane co-directed Pixar's 2016 film Finding Dory and directed the 2022 film Lightyear.[7][8] Following the commercial failure of Lightyear, MacLane was included among 75 Pixar employees laid off by The Walt Disney Company as part of an ongoing company-wide restructuring.[15][16]
Filmography
editFeature films
edit| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Animator | Story Artist |
Character Developer |
Production Artist |
Other | Voice Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | A Bug's Life | No | No | Additional | No | No | No | No | ||
| 1999 | Toy Story 2 | No | No | Yes | Additional | No | No | No | ||
| 2000 | Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins |
Partial | No | No | No | No | No | No | Directed Pixar CG opening scene direct-to-video [17] [18] | |
| 2001 | Monsters, Inc. | No | No | Yes | Additional | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2003 | Finding Nemo | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ||
| 2004 | The Incredibles | No | No | Yes | No | Animation | No | No | ||
| 2006 | Cars | No | No | Additional | No | No | No | No | ||
| 2007 | Ratatouille | No | No | Additional | No | No | No | No | ||
| 2008 | WALL-E | No | No | Directing | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | BURN-E (uncredited) | |
| 2009 | Up | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ||
| 2010 | Toy Story 3 | No | No | Yes | No | Animation | No | No | ||
| 2016 | Finding Dory | Co-Director | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Sunfish "Charlie Back and Forth" / Additional Voices | Additional Story Material |
| 2017 | Coco | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team | |
| 2018 | Incredibles 2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| 2019 | Toy Story 4 | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| 2020 | Onward | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| Soul | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | |||
| 2021 | Luca | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| 2022 | Turning Red | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| Lightyear | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | ERIC / DERIC & Zyclops | ||
| 2023 | Elemental | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Short films
edit| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Animator | Executive Producer |
Other | Voice Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Geri's Game | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2000 | For the Birds | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2005 | One Man Band | No | No | Supervising | No | No | ||
| 2008 | BURN-E | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | BURN-E / SUPPLY-R | |
| 2010 | Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales | No | No | No | No | Yes | Additional Voices | Episodes 8–9 |
| 2011 | Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation | No | No | Supervising | No | Yes | Captain Zip | |
| Toy Story Toons: Small Fry | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Gary Grappling Hook / T-Bone / Funky Monk / Super Pirate | ||
| 2012 | Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex | No | No | No | No | Yes | Additional Voices | Special Thanks |
| 2016 | Marine Life Interviews | No | No | No | Yes | No | ||
| 2017 | Lou | No | No | No | No | Yes | Special Thanks | |
| 2019 | Purl | No | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| 2022 | Cars on the Road: Gettin' Hitched | No | No | No | No | Yes | Pixar Senior Creative Team |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Other | Voice Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000-01 | Buzz Lightyear of Star Command | Partial | No | No | Directed Pixar CG intro variants [17][18] | |
| 2013 | Toy Story of Terror! | Yes | Yes | Yes | Officer Wilson | TV special |
Other credits
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Tracy | Waiter / Actor #9 | |
| 2021 | Pixar 2021 Disney+ Day Special[19] | Himself | Disney+ Original specials |
| 2022 | Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to 'Lightyear'[20] |
Recognition
edit- 2005, Won Annie Award for 'Character Animation' for The Incredibles[13]
- 2014, Won Annie Award for 'Outstanding Achievement in Directing' for Toy Story of Terror[14]
References
edit- ^ Wolcott, Gary (December 2, 2008). "Q&A with Pixar star MacLane". Tri-City Herald. ATOMICTOWN.COM. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2008.
- ^ Shamsian, Jacob (October 28, 2016). "One of the directors of 'Finding Dory' kept 'Finding Nemo' constantly running on his phone while making the movie". Insider. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
- ^ Moore, Sara (August 26, 2015). "Interview with Angus MacLane of WALL•E". Retrieved December 11, 2020.
- ^ Telsch, Rafe (November 12, 2008). "Interview: BURN-E Director Angus MacLane". CinemaBlend. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
- ^ White, Ryan (December 11, 2011). "Pixar writer, director Angus MacLane puts inspiration from Portland roots into short 'Small Fry'". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
- ^ Radish, Christina (October 14, 2013). "Carl Weathers Talks TOY STORY OF TERROR!, Playing "Combat Carl," Joining the TOY STORY Franchise, and More". Collider. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
- ^ a b Han, Angie (June 11, 2014). "Pixar Updates: 'Finding Dory' Gets Co-Director, More 'Inside Out' Details Revealed". /Film. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ a b Feldberg, Isaac (June 11, 2014). "Angus MacLane Co-Directing Finding Dory With Andrew Stanton". We Got This Covered. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ Julie & T.J. (December 10, 2020). "Pixar Announces 'Lightyear' – An Origin Story of the Human Buzz Lightyear – Coming Summer 2022". Pixar Post. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
- ^ Courtney, Tim (August 14, 2015). "Introducing LEGO Ideas #011 WALL•E". LEGO Ideas Blog. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
- ^ "LEGO Interview: Angus MacLane and the CubeDudes". bricksabillion.com. September 26, 2009. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
- ^ Michael Cavna (December 11, 2008). "The Interview: Pixar Animator Angus MacLane". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2014.
- ^ a b staff. "32nd ANNUAL ANNIE NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS RECIPIENTS". annieawards.org. Annie Awards. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b staff. "41st ANNUAL ANNIE AWARDS WINNERS". annieawards.org. Annie Awards. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Chmielewski, Dawn (June 3, 2023). "Exclusive: Walt Disney's Pixar targets 'Lightyear' execs among 75 job cuts". Reuters. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
- ^ "Walt Disney's Pixar Animation eliminates 75 positions". The Economic Times. June 3, 2023. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
- ^ a b White, James (October 27, 2021). "Lightyear Exclusive Interview: Director Angus MacLane On The 'Real' Buzz's New Movie". Empire. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
- ^ a b Hermanns, Grant (April 21, 2022). "Angus MacLane & Galyn Susman Interview: Lightyear". Screen Rant. Retrieved April 29, 2022.
- ^ Palmer, Roger (November 10, 2021). "Pixar 2021 Disney+ Day Special Details Revealed". What's On Disney Plus. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
- ^ T.J. Wolsos (June 10, 2022). "Buzz Lightyear Documentary 'Beyond Infinity' Now on Disney+". Pixar Post. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
External links
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