Pete Docter

Peter Hans Docter (born October 9, 1968) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor and chief creative officer of Pixar. He is best known for directing the animated feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001), Up (2009) and Inside Out (2015) and voicing Russell Ferguson in Finding Meow-Meow (2005) and Pettopia (2016) and as a key figure and collaborator at Pixar. He has been nominated for eight Oscars (two wins thus far for Up and Inside Out – Best Animated Feature), seven Annie Awards (winning five), a BAFTA Children's Film Award (which he won) and a Hochi Film Award (which he won). He has described himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".

Early life

Docter was born in Bloomington, Minnesota, the son of Rita Margaret (Kanne) and David Reinhardt Docter. His mother's family is Danish American. He grew up introverted and socially isolated, preferring to work alone and having to remind himself to connect with others. He often played in the creek beside his house, pretending to be Indiana Jones and acting out scenes. A junior-high classmate later described him as "this kid who was really tall, but who was kind of awkward, maybe getting picked on by the school bullies because his voice change at puberty was very rough".

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The front gate to Pixar Studios

Both his parents worked in education: his mother, Rita, taught music and his father, Dave, was a choral director at Normandale Community College. He attended Nine Mile Elementary School, Oak Grove Junior High, and John F. Kennedy High School in Bloomington. Unlike his two sisters, Kirsten Docter, who is now the violist of the Cavani String Quartet, and Kari Docter, a cellist with the Metropolitan Opera, Docter was not particularly interested in music, although he learned to play the double bass and played with the orchestras for the soundtracks of Monsters, Inc. and Up.

Docter taught himself cartooning, making flip books and homemade animated shorts with a family movie camera. He later described his interest in animation as a way to "play God", making up nearly living characters. Cartoon director Chuck Jones, producer Walt Disney, and cartoonist Jack Davis were major inspirations.

He spent about a year at the University of Minnesota studying both philosophy and making art before transferring to the California Institute of the Arts, where he won a Student Academy Award for his production "Next Door" and graduated in 1990. Although Docter had planned to work for the Disney Corporation, his best offers came from Pixar and from the producers of The Simpsons. He did not think much of Pixar at that time, and later considered his choice to work there a strange and unusual one.

Career

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Pete Docter in 2009 promoting the movie Up

Before joining Pixar, Docter had created three non-computer animations, "Next Door", "Palm Springs", and "Winter". All three shorts were later preserved by the Academy Film Archive. He was a fan of the company's early short films, but he knew nothing about them otherwise. He commented in an October 2009 interview, "Looking back, I kind of go, what was I thinking?"

He started at Pixar in 1990 at the age of 21 after Joe Ranft recommended him for John Lasseter, and began work the day after his college graduation as the tenth employee at the company's animation group and its third animator. He first met owner Steve Jobs when Jobs came to lay off some older workers. Docter instantly felt at home in the tight-knit atmosphere of the company. He has said, "Growing up ... a lot of us felt we were the only person in the world who had this weird obsession with animation. Coming to Pixar you feel like, 'Oh! There are others!'"

Docter had been brought in with limited responsibilities, but John Lasseter quickly assigned him larger and larger roles in writing, animation, sound recording, and orchestra scoring. He was one of the three key screenwriters behind the concept of Toy Story, and partially based the character of Buzz Lightyear on himself. He had a mirror on his desk and made faces with it as he conceptualized the character.

Docter's fascination with character development was further influenced by a viewing of Paper Moon, he told journalist Robert K. Elder in an interview for The Film That Changed My Life.

I like the more character-driven stuff, and Paper Moon brought that home to me in a way that I had not seen in live action, really focusing on the whole story just about characters. It was almost theatrical in the same way you might see a stage show because you're locked in a room. It's got to be about characters, and yet it was so cinematic, a film that couldn't be done in any other medium. It just kind of blew my socks off.

Docter has been an integral part of some of Pixar's most seminal works, including Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and Monsters, Inc., all of which received critical acclaim and honors. He contributed to these animated films as a co-author to the scripts, and worked with CGI stalwarts such as John Lasseter, Ronnie Del Carmen, Bob Peterson, Andrew Stanton, Brad Bird, and Joe Ranft. Docter has referred to his colleagues at Pixar as a bunch of "wild stallions".

In 2004, he was asked by John Lasseter to direct the English translation of Howl's Moving Castle. Docter made his directorial debut with Monsters, Inc., which occurred right after the birth of his first child, Nick. Docter has said that the abrupt move from a complete, single-minded devotion to his career to parenting drove him "upside down" and formed the inspiration for the storyline. Docter then directed the 2009 film Up, released on May 29, 2009. He based the protagonist of Up partially on himself, based on his frequent feelings of social awkwardness and his desire to get away from crowds to contemplate. Following the success of Up, Docter and fellow Pixar veterans John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich as well as long-time collaborator and director Brad Bird were honored with the Golden Lion Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 66th Venice International Film Festival.

Docter appeared at Comic-Con 2008 and the 2009 WonderCon.

In May 2009, Docter remarked retrospectively to Christianity Today that he had lived "a blessed life" so far. The A.V. Club has called him "almost universally successful". He has been nominated for eight Oscars (winning two), three Annie Awards (winning two), four BAFTA Film Awards (winning two), a British Academy Children's Award (which he won), and a Hochi Film Award (which he won). Accepting his Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, he said, "Never did I dream that making a flip book out of my third-grade math book would lead to this." Docter served as Vice-President of Creativity at Pixar Animation Studios through June 2018, and following Lasseter's step-down from the role, is the studio's chief creative officer. Also in June 2018, TheWrap reported that Docter plans to complete the film he's currently working on.

Personal life

He is married to Amanda Docter and has two children, Nicholas and Elie. Elie has a speaking part in Up as young Ellie and was the inspiration for Riley in Inside Out.

Docter is a fan of anime, particularly the work of Hayao Miyazaki. Docter has said that Miyazaki's animation has "beautifully observed little moments of truth that you just recognize and respond to". He is also a fan of the work done by his competitors at DreamWorks as well. Referring to the competitive environment, he has said: "I think it's a much healthier environment when there is more diversity".

Docter is also a devout Christian. Though he incorporates his personal morality into his work, he has said that he does not intend to ever make a movie with an explicitly religious message. About the relationship between his faith and his filmmaking, Docter has said:

"I don't think people in any way, shape, or form like to be lectured to. When people go to a movie, they want to see some sort of experience of themselves on the screen. They don't come to be taught. So in that sense, and in terms of any sort of beliefs, I don't want to feel as though I'm ever lecturing or putting an agenda forth.

"

Filmography

• The Little Mermaid (1989) - Assistant animator (uncredited)
• Toy Story (1995) – Story / Supervising animator / Story artist / Storyboard artist (Uncredited)
• Toy Story 2 (1999) – Story
• Monsters, Inc. (2001) – Director / Story / Voice of CDA Agent 00002 / Animator (Uncredited)
• Finding Meow-Meow (2005) - Story, voice of Russell Ferguson
• Up (2009) – Director / Screenplay / Story / Voice of Kevin and Campmaster Strauch / Animator (uncredited)
• Monsters University (2013) – Executive producer
• Inside Out (2015) – Director, story, voice of Father's Anger
• Pettopia (2016) - Voice of Russell Ferguson
• Baby Driver (2017) - Production assistant (uncredited)
• Toy Story 4 (2019) – Story
• Steven Universe: The Movie (2019) - ADR Loop Group
• Luca (2021) - Executive producer
• Turning Red (2021) - Executive producer

Reception

Critical, public and commercial reception to films Docter has directed as of December 17, 2015.

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	CinemaScore	Budget	Box office
Monsters, Inc.	96% (192 reviews)	78 (34 reviews)	A+	$115 million	$577.4 million
Up	98% (281 reviews)	88 (37 reviews)	A+	$175 million	$735.1 million
Inside Out	98% (301 reviews)	94 (48 reviews)	A	$175 million	$857.6 million
Average	97%	87	A	$155 million	$723.37 million

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Year	Nominee/work	Award	Result	Ref.
1995	Toy Story	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
2001	Monsters, Inc.	Best Animated Feature	Nominated
2002	Mike's New Car	Best Animated Short Film	Nominated
2008	WALL-E	Best Original Screenplay	Nominated
2009	Up		Nominated
		Best Animated Feature	Won
2015	Inside Out		Won
		Best Original Screenplay	Nominated

Annie Awards

Year	Nominee/work	Award	Result	Ref.
1996	Toy Story	Best Individual Achievement in Animation	Won
2000	Toy Story 2	Outstanding Achievement in Writing	Won
2002	Monsters, Inc.	Directing in a Feature Production	Nominated
2010	Up	Directing in a Feature Production	Won
		Writing in a Feature Production	Nominated
2016	Inside Out	Directing in a Feature Production	Won
		Writing in a Feature Production	Won

Other awards

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref
1995	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation	Toy Story	Nominated
2001	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Animated Feature	Monsters, Inc.	Nominated
2001	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation		Nominated
2008	Nebula Award for Best Script		WALL-E	Won
2008	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form	Won
2009	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Animated Feature	Up	Won
		Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
2009	Golden Globe Awards	Best Animated Feature Film		Won
2009	British Academy Film Awards	Best Animated Film		Won
		Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
2009	Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation			Nominated
2009	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form		Nominated
2009	Satellite Awards	Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
2015	Golden Globe Awards	Best Animated Feature Film	Inside Out	Won
2015	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Animated Feature		Won
		Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
		Best Comedy		Nominated
2015	British Academy Film Awards	Best Animated Film		Won
		Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
2015	Satellite Awards	Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature		Won
		Best Original Screenplay		Nominated
2015	Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation			Nominated

See also

• List of Pixar staff

External links

• Pete Docter on IMDb
• Pixar Animation Studios website
• Radio interview on Fresh Air (21 mins, 2009)

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v - e - dAwards for Pete Docter

v - e - dAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature 2000s Shrek – Aron Warner (2001) • Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki (2002) • Finding Nemo – Andrew Stanton (2003) • The Incredibles – Brad Bird (2004) • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – Nick Park and Steve Box (2005) • Happy Feet – George Miller (2006) • Ratatouille – Brad Bird (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton (2008) • Up – Pete Docter (2009) 2010s Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich (2010) • Rango – Gore Verbinski (2011) • Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman (2012) • Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho (2013) • Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams, and Roy Conli (2014) • Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera (2015) • Zootopia – Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Clark Spencer (2016) • Coco – Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson (2017) • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (2018) • Toy Story 4 – Josh Cooley, Jonas Rivera, and Mark Nielsen (2019) Template:Annie Award for Directing in an Animated Feature Production 1996–2010 Template:Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production 1996–2010 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) v - e - dGolden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film Cars – John Lasseter (2006) • Ratatouille – Brad Bird (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton (2008) • Up – Pete Docter (2009) • Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich (2010) • The Adventures of Tintin – Steven Spielberg (2011) • Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman (2012) • Frozen – Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee (2013) • How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois (2014) • Inside Out – Pete Docter (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) • Missing Link – Chris Butler (2019) v - e - dNebula Award for Best Script/Ray Bradbury Award Nebula Award for Best Script Soylent Green – Stanley R. Greenberg (1973) • Sleeper – Woody Allen (1974) • Young Frankenstein – Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder (1975) • Star Wars – George Lucas (1977) • The Sixth Sense – M. Night Shyamalan (1999) • Galaxy Quest – David Howard and Robert Gordon (2000) • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – James Schamus, Kuo Jung Tsai, and Hui-Ling Wang (2001) • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson (2002) • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson (2003) • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson (2004) • Serenity – Joss Whedon (2005) • Howl's Moving Castle – Hayao Miyazaki, Cindy Davis Hewitt, and Donald H. Hewitt (2006) • Pan's Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, and Pete Docter (2008) Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation Terminator 2: Judgment Day – James Cameron (1992) • Babylon 5 – J. Michael Straczynski (1999) • 2000X – Tales of the Next Millennia – Yuri Rasovsky and Harlan Ellison (2001) • Joss Whedon (2008) • District 9 – Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (2009) • Inception – Christopher Nolan (2010) • Doctor Who: "The Doctor's Wife" – Richard Clark and Neil Gaiman (2011) • Beasts of the Southern Wild – Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar (2012) • Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón (2013) • Guardians of the Galaxy – James Gunn and Nicole Perlman (2014) • Mad Max: Fury Road – George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris (2015) • Arrival – Eric Heisserer (2016) • Get Out – Jordan Peele (2017) • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman (2018)