Jerry W. Rees (born November 15, 1956) is an American film director and animator, best known for the Emmy-nominated animated film ''

The Brave Little Toaster ''The Brave Little Toaster'' is a 1987 American animated musical film directed by Jerry Rees. It is based on the 1980 novella of the same name by Thomas M. Disch. The film stars Deanna Oliver, Timothy E. Day, Jon Lovitz, Tim Stack, and Thu ...

'' (1987) and creating many of the

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

for the cult classic ''

Tron ''Tron'' (stylized as ''TRON'') is a 1982 American science fiction action- adventure film written and directed by Steven Lisberger from a story by Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. The film stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer ...

'' (1982).

Early life

Rees was mentored as an animator from the age of 16 at

Disney Studios The Walt Disney Studios is an American film and entertainment studio, and is the Studios Content segment of the Walt Disney Company. Based mainly at the namesake studio lot in Burbank, California, the studio is best known for its multifaceted ...

, by one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, and was trained and taught at

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

, along with classmates

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios ...

Brad Bird Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American film director, animator, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up ...

John Musker John Edward Musker (born November 8, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director Ron Clements and is best known for writing and directing the Disney films ''The Great Mo ...

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...

and

Doug Lefler Doug Lefler (born in California) is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and storyboard artist, best known as director of the ''Dragonheart'' fantasy adventure film sequel '' Dragonheart: A New Beginning'' and ''The Last Legi ...

Career

In 1978, Rees worked as an animator for the Christmas children's film '' The Small One''. He also worked on the Disney film ''

The Fox and the Hound ''The Fox and the Hound'' is a 1981 American animated buddy drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. The 24th Disney animated feature film, the film tells the st ...

'' (1981), and the following year served as one of the visual effects supervisors for the cutting-edge science fiction film ''Tron''. In 1987, Rees and science fiction writer

Thomas M. Disch Thomas Michael Disch (February 2, 1940 – July 4, 2008) was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominatio ...

collaborated on adapting Disch's short story ''

'' into an animated film. The resulting film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

and nominated for Best Animated Program at the 1988 Emmy Awards. He also teamed up with fellow CalArts alum

to co-write and co-direct the cult classic featurettes ''Doctor of Doom'' and ''Luau''. Rees directed the

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

-penned '' The Marrying Man'' (1991) and served as an animation producer on the film ''

Space Jam ''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel ...

'' (1996). He directed the award-winning ''Back to Neverland'' documentary starring

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and come ...

and

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

, shown as part of the animation studio tours at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. He also directed the educational films ''Tourist from Hell'' and ''The Editing Story'', which screened as part of the backstage tour at

Disney's Hollywood Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by M ...

. In 1993, Rees wrote and produced (with Steven Paul Leiva) a new Betty Boop feature film for

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

. Seventy-five percent of the film was storyboarded, but two weeks before voice recording was to begin, MGM switched studio chiefs and the project, tentatively called The Betty Boop Feature Script, was abandoned. In addition to his film credits, Rees helped produce and direct a record-setting 13 multimedia features at the various Disney theme parks, including

Sounds Dangerous ''Sounds Dangerous!'' was an audio show at Echo Lake inside Disney's Hollywood Studios starring comedian Drew Carey. The presentation took place inside an ABC soundstage with theater-style seating. Guests were told that the show was an ABC test ...

Disney-MGM Studios Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by ...

, the live-action sequences of

Cranium Command Cranium Command was an attraction at the Wonders of Life pavilion at Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot theme park. The show was a humorous presentation on the importance of the human brain. The show's script was written by Jenny Tripp, a staff w ...

EPCOT Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unre ...

, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! at

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is an enclosed, launched roller coaster located at Disney's Hollywood Studios within Walt Disney World. Manufactured by Vekoma, the roller coaster opened to the public on July 29, 1999. It uses linear ...

and

Walt Disney Studios Paris Walt Disney Studios Park ( French: ''Parc Walt Disney Studios'') is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France, which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through ...

, Extra-Terrorestrial Alien Encounter at

Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...

, Michael & Mickey at

, and the new Cinemagique show at

. Rees also directed the pre-ride film at

Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division, it is the ...

ride

Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

. For some time, Rees was attached as director to a project called ''Rand Robinson, Robot Repairman'', financed by

Interscope Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mu ...

and

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

. The film was set in a futuristic Los Angeles, and Philips expected to use the film to showcase their emerging technology. Rees storyboarded various scenes in the film, but eventually several key players left the project, and it was shelved. In 2010, Rees and voice actress/writer

Deanna Oliver Deanna Oliver (born September 27, 1952) is an American actress and writer. She hails from Spokane, Washington. Oliver performed the voice of Toaster in the film ''The Brave Little Toaster'' (1987) and its sequels. In addition, she was a writer o ...

made an appearance at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

to discuss the making of their film ''The Brave Little Toaster''.2010 interview with Jerry Rees and Deanna Oliver - Cal State, Northridge
/ref> Currently, Rees is a full-time creative consultant at the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

film studio

Wild Brain WildBrain Entertainment, Inc. (stylized as W!LDBRAIN, formerly Wild Brain Productions and sometimes simply WildBrain) was an American animation studio that developed and produced television programming, motion pictures, commercial content, and li ...

, where he is developing CGI Features. Rees is also attached to direct a Casey Silver Productions CGI feature.

Filmography

Feature films

Short films

Television

References

External links

Official website

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rees, Jerry 1956 births 20th-century American screenwriters 21st-century American screenwriters Animators from Texas Animal impersonators American animated film directors American animated film producers Animation screenwriters American male screenwriters California Institute of the Arts alumni Living people People from Johnson County, Texas Walt Disney Animation Studios people Film directors from Texas Screenwriters from Texas 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers