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 Pixar animated feature films '' Monsters, Inc.'' (2001), '' Up'' (2009), ''

Inside Out Inside Out may refer to: *Backwards (disambiguation) or inverse Books * '' Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd'', by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason * ''Inside Out'', Christian book by Larry Crabb * ''Inside Out'', novel by Barry Eisler ...

'' (2015), and ''

Soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

'' (2020), and as a key figure and collaborator at Pixar. He has been nominated for nine Oscars and has won three for

Best Animated Feature This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

—for ''Up'', ''Inside Out'' and ''Soul''—making him the first person in history to win the category three times. He has also been nominated for nine

Annie Awards The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in cinema and television. Originally des ...

(winning six), a BAFTA Children's Film Award and a Hochi Film Award.Awards for Peter Docter
Imdb.com Accessed June 8, 2009. He has described himself as a "geeky kid from Minnesota who likes to draw cartoons".

Early life

Docter was born in

Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is a suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, on the north bank of the Minnesota River, above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 89,987, m ...

, 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 ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...

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." 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 was the violist and a founding member of the Cavani String Quartet, and Kari Docter, a

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D ...

with the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is opera ...

, Docter was not particularly interested in

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

, although he learned to play the

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

and played with the orchestras for the soundtracks of '' Monsters, Inc.'' and '' Up''. Docter taught himself cartooning, making

flip book A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...

s and homemade animated shorts with a family movie camera. He later described his interest in

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

as a way to "play God", making up nearly living characters. Cartoon director

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, pro ...

, producer

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

, and cartoonist Jack Davis were major inspirations. He spent about a year at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

studying both

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

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

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fr ...

, his best offers came from Pixar and from the producers of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...

''. He did not think much of Pixar at that time, and later considered his choice to work there a strange and unusual one.

Career

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?"Pixar Movies Are Lousy ... at First
The Wrap He started at Pixar in 1990 at the age of 21 after John Lasseter asked his former classmate the late Joe Ranft, who was one of Docter's teachers at CalArts, to recommend any students who would be a good fit for the company. Deciding to follow his instincts and what "felt right" at the time, he accepted the job offer from then obscure Pixar and began work there the day after his college graduation as the tenth employee at the company's animation group and its third

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games ...

. 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 Robert K. Elder (born January 20, 1976) is an American journalist, author, and film columnist. He is currently the President and CEO othe Outrider Foundation He has written more than a dozen books on topics ranging from the death penalty and m ...

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 Ronnie del Carmen (born December 31, 1959) is a Filipino animation writer, director, story artist, story supervisor and production designer. He co-directed and was one of the story writers for the 2015 Pixar film '' Inside Out'', for which he ...

, Bob Peterson,

Andrew Stanton Andrew Ayers Stanton (born December 3, 1965) is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990. His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's ''A Bug's Life'' (1998), directing '' Finding Nemo'' (2003) ...

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 ...

, and Joe Ranft. Docter has referred to his colleagues at Pixar as a bunch of "wild stallions".Pete Docter
by Tasha Robinson. The A.V. Club. Published May 28, 2009. He is also one of the five founding members of the Pixar Braintrust, which came together during the making of ''Toy Story'' (the other four being Lasseter, Stanton, Ranft and Unkrich). Docter made his directorial debut with '' Monsters, Inc.''—the first Pixar film not directed by Lasseter—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. In 2004, he was asked by John Lasseter to direct the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

translation of ''

Howl's Moving Castle ''Howl's Moving Castle'' is a fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones, first published in 1986 by Greenwillow Books of New York. It was a runner-up for the annual Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and won the Phoenix Award twenty years ...

''. 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.What's Up, Doc(ter)?
By Mark Moring. ''

Christianity Today ''Christianity Today'' is an evangelical Christian media magazine founded in 1956 by Billy Graham. It is published by Christianity Today International based in Carol Stream, Illinois. ''The Washington Post'' calls ''Christianity Today'' "evan ...

''. Published May 26, 2009. Following the success of ''Up'', Docter and fellow Pixar veterans John Lasseter,

and

Lee Unkrich Lee Edward Unkrich (born August 8, 1967) is an American film director, film editor, screenwriter, and animator. He was a longtime member of the creative team at Pixar, where he started in 1994 as a film editor. He later began directing, first as ...

as well as long-time collaborator and director

were honored with the Golden Lion Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievement at the

66th Venice International Film Festival The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, held in Venice, Italy, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, with Maria Grazia Cucinotta serving as the festival's hostess. The opening film of the festival was '' Baarìa'' by Giuseppe Tor ...

. Docter directed the 2015 film ''Inside Out'' to critical acclaim. His next film, ''

'', was released on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

on December 25, 2020 to critical acclaim. Docter appeared at Comic-Con 2008 and the 2009 WonderCon. In May 2009, Docter remarked retrospectively to ''

'' 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 three), three

(winning two), four BAFTA Film Awards (winning two), a

British Academy Children's Award The British Academy Children's Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). They have been awarded annually since 1996, before which time they were a part of the main British Acad ...

(which he won), and a Hochi Film Award (which he won). Accepting his first

Academy Award for Best Animated Feature The Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is given each year for animated films. An animated feature is defined by the Academy as a film with a running time of more than 40 minutes in which characters' performances are created using a frame-by- ...

, 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 Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Califor ...

through June 2018, and following Lasseter stepping down from the role, became the studio's chief creative officer. ''

TheWrap ''TheWrap'' is an American online news website covering the business of entertainment and media via digital, print and live events. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman in 2009. Awards ''TheWrap'' has won awards for its journalism, incl ...

'' reported that Docter planned to complete the film he was currently working on, which ultimately became ''Soul''.

Personal life

Docter is married to Amanda Docter and has two children, Nicholas and Elie. Elie has a speaking part in ''Up'' and was the inspiration for the character of Riley in ''

''. Docter is a fan of

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

, 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".Interview with Up Director Peter Docter
By Beth Accomando. KPBS. Published May 29, 2009. He is 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". During an interview in 2009, Docter confirmed that he is a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

and said that it influences his work. However, he went on to say that he did not envision himself ever creating a Christian film. About the relationship between his faith and his filmmaking, Docter has said:

Filmography

Films

Shorts and series

Other credits

Reception

Critical, public and commercial reception to films Docter has directed as of January 9, 2021.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

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, ''

Mike's New Car ''Mike's New Car'' is a 2002 American computer animated comedy short film, starring the protagonists from ''Monsters, Inc.'', Mike Wazowski and James P. "Sulley" Sullivan. Directed by Pete Docter and Roger L. Gould, it is the first Pixar short to ...

'' ,

Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

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Annie Awards

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, '' Toy Story'' , Best Individual Achievement in Animation , , style="text-align:center;", , - ! scope="row", 2000 , '' Toy Story 2'' , Outstanding Achievement in Writing , , style="text-align:center;", , - ! scope="row",

, '' Monsters, Inc.'' , Directing in a Feature Production , , style="text-align:center;", , - ! rowspan="2" scope="row",

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Other awards

Collaborators (actors)

Pete Docter has cast certain actors and crew members in more than one of the films he has directed

References

External links

*
Pixar Animation Studios website

Radio interview
on '' Fresh Air'' (21 mins, 2009) * Peter Docter is interviewed by Diana Seyb and shows one of his early cartoons just as he was heading out to California to work in the animation industry
Northern Lights TV Series #135 (1990)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Docter, Peter 1968 births Animators from Minnesota American animated film directors American animated film producers American chief executives American chief executives in the media industry American Christians American film studio executives American male voice actors American people of Danish descent American storyboard artists American voice directors Animation screenwriters Annie Award winners California Institute of the Arts alumni Directors of Best Animated Feature Academy Award winners Disney executives Disney people Film directors from Minnesota Hugo Award-winning writers Living people Male actors from Minnesota Nebula Award winners People from Bloomington, Minnesota Pixar people University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni