All Pixar Production Dedications — The Disney Classics

Something Disney has always excelled at is holding onto legacies and crediting longtime influential people in the company. Whenever someone that’s close to the company passes away, Disney has done social posts about them, blog posts, and even dedicated certain films to these special souls. I often think about the many tributes Marvel has done for Chadwick Boseman… the brief but meaningful video they put together for the Marvel YouTube channel, and the dedication message that was put at the end of the Black Panther episode of What If…?

“Dedicated to our friend, our inspiration, and our hero: Chadwick Boseman.”

— What If...?

Pixar is another branch of the Disney empire that has valued the work and the minds that have contributed to the success of the animation studio. Several of the Pixar films that are out today are dedicated to different people who have made an impact and have since passed on.

Finding Nemo - Glenn McQueen

Last name sound familiar? That’s right, not only was the Pixar hit Finding Nemo dedicated to Glenn, but his last name inspired the red racing car everybody loves, Lightning McQueen. Glenn passed away 4 years before the release of Cars.

Glenn had been dedicated to the computer technology industry since college, and started out in the industry by creating 3D productions for television commercials. He continued work on character animation in the early 1990s, when he finally found a position at Pixar studios under John Lasseter, an inspiration for him at the time. Glenn began working for Pixar in 1994, just a year before the release of the first Toy Story. He became a supervising animator because of his experience with it, and oversaw the work for Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, and Monsters Inc. Glenn had a larger than life personality, often using his own facial expressions and physicality to figure out how a character would react or say something. He was a dedicated animator who loved creating, and it was a big loss for Pixar. Glenn McQueen died of melanoma on October 29, 2002, about 8 months before the release of Finding Nemo.

“Probably the most valuable thing that I’ve gotten from working at Pixar, forgetting being professional and working on great films and whatnot, is making all kinds of friends.”

— Glenn McQueen

Cars - Joe Ranft

Joe Ranft was a key member of the original Pixar crew when Toy Story’s development began. He had always been interested in the arts, something that would follow him after high school when he studied at the California Institute of the Arts. This is where became friends with John Lasseter and Brad Bird, prominent Pixar directors. After studying the art of character animation, Disney hired Joe and he worked on many big-name Disney animated movies, like Beauty and the Beast, Oliver & Company, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King, Fantasia 2000, and more. He eventually transitioned over to Pixar when Pixar began it’s feat into computer animation, becoming a key writer on Toy Story and developing scenes like Sid’s Room and the Green Army Men characters. He co-wrote A Bug’s Life and was offered a voice role in that film as Heimlich. He also voiced Lenny the binoculars in Toy Story, Wheezy in Toy Story 2, and then Jacques, the french shrimp in Finding Nemo. Ranft’s son Jordan also made a voice acting cameo, playing Tad, one of Nemo’s fish school friends.

The last Pixar film that Ranft worked on was Cars, playing a huge part in the creation of Mater, as well as becoming co-director on the film. His voice can be heard in the role of Jerry Recycled Batteries, the truck McQueen mistakes Mack for. Tragically, Ranft would never be able to see the end product of Cars and its success, as he passed away in a terrible car accident when his friend in the driver’s seat lost control of the car and drove over a cliff into the ocean. Cars would be dedicated to Joe for his impact on the growth of Pixar. Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride was also dedicated to him, as he was a part of the production for that film as well.

“That style of boarding was unique to Pixar, based on, I had worked at a lot of other places before, it was totally unique to Toy Story, and we would group do stuff and it was definitely a one mind that emerged.”

— Joe Ranft

Ratatouille - Dan Lee

Dan Lee was a well respected Canadian animator who joined Pixar in 1996, right after the release of Toy Story. Dan had studied animation at Sheridan Collage in Ontario, the same college that colleague Glenn McQueen also graduated from. Dan worked with Disney for a short period, working on their afternoon cartoon TV spin-off series’ such as Darkwing Duck, the Aladdin TV series, Bonkers, and Goof Troop. Over at Pixar, Dan’s first role there was as an additional character designer, as well as an animator and sketch artist. He then moved up to creating some of the new characters we see in Toy Story 2. On Monsters Inc., he focused heavily on the visual effects component of it, as the production on that one was much heavier than previous films. His most iconic role he took on was as the lead character designer of Nemo, which is what truly made his mark at Pixar. After Finding Nemo, he worked on the 2006 short film Lifted, and then continued his character design work for Ratatouille. Sadly, Dan would never be able to see the final version of Ratatouille in 2007, as he died of lung cancer in 2005 at the age of 35.

Though his career was short lived, his legacy at Pixar and in animation will now last forever through the eyes of Nemo, Rosie, Princess Atta, Dot, Hopper, Tuck & Roll, Waternoose, Marlin, and Bloat.

WALL-E - Justin Wright

Justin Wright knew he wanted to work for Pixar the minute he stepped into the studio on a tour. At the age of 12 Justin underwent heart transplant surgery after major complications with his heart since he was born, and it was necessary by the age of 12 to do the surgery. After the surgery, one of Justin’s doctors took note of his love for sketching and drawing, and took him on a Pixar studio tour. From then on, that was it… Justin knew he wanted to spend any time he could at Pixar as an animator, but he didn’t get there right away, working as a production assistant in 2004 during the making of The Incredibles. Not long after he was offered an internship at the studio which later turned into a full time position in the storyboard department. He worked as an animator on Ratatouille in 2007, then in the story department in 2008 for WALL-E and the Pixar short Presto. Tragically, Justin died of a heart attack on March 18, 2008, just a few months before the release of WALL-E. The film would be dedicated to him and for his love for Pixar.

Brave - Steve Jobs

Though Steve Jobs is best known to the world as the co-founder of Apple Inc., he was also the CEO of Pixar for several years before it was acquired by Disney. At the beginning of Jobs’ career, he worked on the very first prototype of the Apple computer, the Apple I, with his high school friend Stephen Wozniak. Overtime, the prototype and a second version, the Apple II, would be completed and incorporated in 1977. This was the start of a rolling success for Jobs, as he then went on to establish NeXT Inc., a company that focused on creating work station computers. His next project was Pixar, which at the time in 1986, was meant to be a company that sold the Pixar Image Computer and softwares to create computer generated animation. He would become a lead investor in this, which didn’t pan out too well when the selling of these computers failed. When Pixar made the switch over to creating animated movies, Steve moved up to becoming the CEO after the release of Toy Story and signed a 10-year, 5 movie deal with Disney. He ended up selling Pixar to the Walt Disney Company in 2006, effectively stepping away from it.

Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, due to complications with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Though he didn’t have much involvement with the filmmaking process or Brave at all, it was the next Pixar movie to be released after his death, and it was only fitting to honor him as his belief in Pixar was part of what lead it to stardom.

“Pixar’s seen by a lot of folks as an overnight success, but if you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”

— Steve Jobs

Inside Out - Brian Smits

Brian Smits was a computer software engineer that graduated from the University of Oregon in 1990 with a PhD in Computer Engineering. Brian was able to use his degree and wealth of knowledge to help Pixar in the computer engineering department, but he mostly worked from home in Oregon. Brian passed away on June 28, 2013, due to a cardiac complication while mountain biking. The 2015 film Inside Out was dedicated in his honor, as that was likely the last film that Brian worked on.

Scene from Inside Out. Image from: https://fandomwire.com/inside-out-5-facts-pixar-movie/

Incredibles 2 - Bud Luckey

Bud Luckey was the 5th member to join Pixar in 1992 during its humble beginnings. But before he joined Pixar, he was a veteran animator in the 1970s through to the 1990s for Sesame Street, where he would animate a lot of the short sequences. When he joined Pixar he joined primarily as a character designer, but he branched out into several different departments, including animation, storyboarding, writing, composing, production designing, and directing. He had major input on the character of Woody in the original Toy Story, transforming him from a ventriloquist type of character into the rootin-tootin cowboy we love. When the character of Andy was still name-less, they decided to pay tribute to Bud at the time by naming Andy after Bud’s son, Andy Luckey.

Bud also worked on A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, and Toy Story 3. Not only did he work on Pixar’s feature films, but he also played a big part in the short films as well. 2004’s Boundin’ was written, directed, voiced, composed, and designed by Bud himself. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film for Boundin’ that year. He also worked on Jack-Jack Attack, Mater and the Ghostlight, Lifted, and Toy Story Toons. His voice can be heard through Rick Dicker in The Incredibles, and Chuckles the clown in Toy Story 3. Some of his voice work even carried over as Chuckles in Toy Story 4.

Luckey died on February 24, 2018 due to extended illness. Incredibles 2 was dedicated to him for his influential work on almost all of the Pixar films leading up to his passing, specifically for the Toy Story franchise. For Pixar, it only made sense to dedicate an Incredibles movie to him, as his voice lives on through Rick.

“John gives me credit with designing Woody, but I did 200 Woody’s and he picked the right one.”

— Bud Luckey

Toy Story 4 - Don Rickles & Adam Burke

Don Rickles was a famous American comedian and actor who provided the voice for our grumpy yet lovable Mr. Potato Head. Don graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1948, and was a natural born entertainer, telling jokes and amusing stories at the various sales jobs he worked at before moving to Los Angeles. There, he became a stand up comedian, a highly successful one, and eventually got his regular gig moved up to Las Vegas. He started to make his way into the film industry, appearing on late night talk shows Johny Carson and Dean Martin. He eventually got his own show in 1972, The Don Rickles Show. Rickles didn’t do much voicework outside of Toy Story, as it was the primary animated film franchise he was a part of. His voice carried through every single Toy Story movie, short, and video game. Don Rickles passed away on April 6, 2017, at the age of 90. Though Toy Story 4 wouldn’t come out until 2 years after his death, archived audio clips of Don would be used for Mr. Potato Head’s parts in the film. The character just wouldn’t be the same without him.

“Mr. Potato Head is great, he’s a character that everybody knows, and I made him famous and he made me famous and now it’s going to skyrocket my whole career.”

— Don Rickles

Toy Story 4 would also be dedicated to Adam Burke, a dedicated Pixar animator who would work on almost every project from 2004 to 2018, beginning with The Incredibles and ending with The Incredibles 2. He was an animator for The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, and many of the short films in between. Before Pixar, Adam worked for other studios doing hand-drawn work, such as DreamWorks and Warner Bros. Another big part of his job was leading the visits to the children’s hospital after each Pixar release. When Adam died on October 7, 2018 due to lung cancer, it was a major loss for the company.

“A gifted animator and a friend to all. We love you to infinity, and beyond.”

— Dedication to Adam in Toy Story 4

Adam Burke. Image from: https://animatedviews.com/2018/longtime-pixar-dreamworks-animator-adam-burke-passes-away/

Luca - Patricia Willrett

Unlike many of the other folks above who all worked for Pixar, Patricia had a bit of a different story. In 1996, Patricia graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Education and worked as an elementary school teacher at Johnson Elementary School for 15 years. She primarily taught kindergarten and loved her job. Working with children was her true calling, and she felt this even more when she had children of her own. Patricia sadly developed ALS, and passed away at the age of 45 because of it. It’s not clear what her relation to Pixar or any of the Luca crew was, but it was clear she made an impactful mark on someone on the team.