Joe Ranft

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Joe Ranft
Born	(1960-03-13)March 13, 1960
Birth place	Pasadena, California, U.S.
Died	August 16, 2005(2005-08-16) (aged 45)
Death place	Mendocino County, California, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Screenwriter animator storyboard artist voice actor
Years active	1980–2005
Spouse(s)	Sue Barry ​ ​ (m. 1985)​
Children	2
Relatives	Jerome Ranft (brother)
Employer(s)	Walt Disney Animation Studios (1980–1999) Pixar Animation Studios (1991–2005)

Joseph Henry Ranft (March 13, 1960 – August 16, 2005) was an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist 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.

Ranft's first film was The Brave Little Toaster in 1987. He received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay nomination as one of the writers of Toy Story (1995), and was also the co-director on Cars (2006), his final work before his death.

Early life

Joseph Henry Ranft was born in Pasadena, California, on March 13, 1960, and raised in Whittier. His parents were James and Melissa Ranft. As a child, Ranft developed a love for magic, storytelling, film and comedy. At age 15, he became a member of the Magic Castle Junior Group. After graduating from Monte Vista High School, Whittier, in 1978, Ranft began studying in the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts alongside John Lasseter and Brad Bird. After two years, Ranft's student film Good Humor caught the attention of Disney animation executives, who offered him a job.

Career

In 1980, Ranft joined Disney as a writer and storyboard artist. During his first five years with Disney, he worked on a number of television projects that were never produced. Later in his Disney career, he was promoted into the Feature Animation department, where he was mentored by Eric Larson. Ranft later spoke about Larson's training: "He always reminds me of just the fundamental things that I tend to forget. You know, it's like, animation is so complex; 'How many drawings are in there?' and stuff, but Eric always comes back to like; 'What does the audience perceive?'"

Around this time, he studied under and began performing with the improvisational group, The Groundlings. Ranft stayed with Disney throughout the 1980s, writing the story on many animated features, including Oliver & Company, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. He also worked on The Brave Little Toaster in 1987 for Hyperion Animation and James and the Giant Peach in 1996 for Allied Filmmakers.

Ranft reunited with Lasseter when he was hired by Pixar in 1991 as their head of story. There he worked on all of their films produced up to 2006; this included Toy Story (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay) and A Bug's Life, as the co-story writer and others as story supervisor. He also voiced characters in many of the films, including Heimlich the caterpillar in A Bug's Life, Wheezy the penguin in Toy Story 2, and Jacques the shrimp in Finding Nemo.

In the movie Monsters, Inc., Ranft had a monster named after him (J.J. Ranft) as most of the scarers in the film were named for Pixar staff. Ranft was also given lead story credit on The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and voiced Elmo St. Peters, the appliance salesman. ^{[citation needed]}

His favorite writers were Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. His favorite magicians were John Carney, Daryl, Michael Ammar, Ricky Jay and Jimmy Grippo.

He was posthumously honored in 2006 as a Disney Legend and in 2016 with the Winsor McCay Award, the lifetime achievement award for animators.

Death and legacy

On August 16, 2005, Ranft, 45, and his friend Eric Frierson, 39, were passengers in Ranft's 2004 Honda Element, which was being driven by another friend, Elegba Earl, 32. Earl suddenly lost control and crashed through a guard rail while northbound on Highway 1. The SUV tumbled down a cliff and plunged into the mouth of the Navarro River where it meets the Pacific Ocean in Mendocino County, killing both Ranft and Earl instantly. Frierson survived by escaping through the sun roof, though he received moderate injuries. Ranft died during the production of Cars, which he co-directed and voice acted in. The film and tie-in game are dedicated to his memory, as is Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, on which Ranft was executive producer. His remains were cremated.

Ranft has been recognized by colleagues and in various tributes in animated films released after his death. Henry Selick called him "the story giant of our generation." In honor of Ranft, in Selick's animated film production Coraline, the moving SUV that moves Coraline into her new apartment is emblazoned with a "Ranft Moving, Inc." logo. The movers themselves are modeled after Ranft and his brother Jerome, who voiced one of the movers. Jerome took over most of Ranft's voice roles following his brother’s death. The 2010 Blu-Ray and DVD re-release of Toy Story 2 includes a special feature that focuses on Ranft and his accomplishments titled "Celebrating Our Friend Joe Ranft". Ranft did early drawings for the character of Finn McMissile in an unused scene from the film Cars, and his drawings were later used in creating the character for Cars 2. John Lasseter has cited Ranft as being one of the main inspirations for the character of Mater from those films, and described his influence as being "all over Cars 2". In the film Inside Out, the character of Jangles the clown is based on a character created by Ranft outside of Pixar named "Buttocks the Clown", according to co-director Ronnie del Carmen and story artist Domee Shi. The end credits of the Pixar film Coco showcase a digital ofrenda with pictures of many Pixar employees and their loved ones who had previously died, including Ranft. Additionally, the 2020 film Soul includes his name on a wall of previous mentors to the character 22.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Story Supervisor	Story Artist	Animator	Executive Producer	Other	Voice Role	Notes
1987	The Brave Little Toaster	No	Yes	No	Yes	Directing	No	Yes	Elmo St. Peters / Clown	Animation Screen Story
1988	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No		Animation: Storysketch
	Oliver & Company	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
1989	The Little Mermaid	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No		Storyboards
1990	The Rescuers Down Under	No	Screenplay	Yes	No	No	No	No		Animation Screenplay
1991	Beauty and the Beast	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
1993	The Nightmare Before Christmas	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Igor
1994	The Lion King	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
1995	Toy Story	No	Original Story	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Lenny
1996	James and the Giant Peach	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
1998	A Bug's Life	No	Original Story	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Heimlich / Fly
1999	Toy Story 2	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Wheezy / Heimlich	Additional Story Material
	Fantasia 2000	No	No	No	Additional	No	No	No		Additional Artist: Story
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Wheezy	Direct-to-video
2001	Monkeybone	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Streetsquashed Rabbit
	Monsters, Inc.	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Pete "Claws" Ward	Additional Story Material
2003	Finding Nemo	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Jacques
2004	The Incredibles	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Additional Voices
2005	Corpse Bride	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes		"In Memory of" Dedication
2006	Cars	Co-Director	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Red/Peterbilt

Short films and television specials

Year	Title	Writer	Puppeteer	Other	Notes
1982	Fun with Mr. Future	Yes	No	No
1983	Hansel and Gretel	No	Yes	No	TV special
2006	Mater and the Ghostlight	Original Story	No	Yes	End Credits Designer

Documentaries

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	The Pixar Story	Himself	"In Loving Memory of" Dedication, Very Special Thanks
2009	Waking Sleeping Beauty	caricaturist	"In Memory of" Dedication

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
1996	Toy Story Animated Storybook	Lenny
1998	A Bug's Life: The Video Game	Heimlich
2002	Monsters, Inc. Scream Arena	Pete "Claws" Ward
2003	Finding Nemo: The Video Game	Jacques
	Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure	Wheezy
2007	Cars Mater-National Championship	Red (credit only)

Theme parks

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002–2018	Heimlich's Chew Chew Train	Heimlich
2018–present	Heimlich's Candy Corn Toss	Heimlich	Posthumous, archival audio

External links

• Joe Ranft on IMDb
• Pixar Artist's Corner with Joe
• Michael Sragow (November 23, 1999) "Toy" Story Man. Salon.
• Peter Hartlaub (September 17, 2003) The secret of Pixar's magic can be found at CalArts.... San Francisco Chronicle.
• Disney Legends profile
• Remembrance by James S. Baker
• Remembering Joe Ranft by John Musker, via Pixar Planet.

v - e - dAwards for Joe Ranft

v - e - dCritics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature 1998–2000 A Bug's Life – John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton / The Prince of Egypt – Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Hickner (1998) • Toy Story 2 – John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, and Ash Brannon (1999) • Chicken Run – Peter Lord and Nick Park (2000) 2001–2010 Shrek – Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson (2001) • Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki (2002) • Finding Nemo – Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (2003) • The Incredibles – Brad Bird (2004) • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – Nick Park and Steve Box (2005) • Cars – John Lasseter and Joe Ranft (2006) • Ratatouille – Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton (2008) • Up – Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (2009) • Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich (2010) 2011–present Rango – Gore Verbinski (2011) • Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore (2012) • Frozen – Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee (2013) • The Lego Movie – Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (2014) • Inside Out – Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen (2015) • Zootopia – Byron Howard and Rich Moore (2016) • Coco – Lee Unkrich (2017) • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (2018) • Toy Story 4 - Josh Cooley (2019) Template:Annie Award for Storyboarding in a Feature Production Template:Disney Legends Awards 2000s Template:Winsor McCay Award 2010s