October 9 - Pete Docter

On this day, in 1968, Peter Hans Docter was born in Bloomington, Minnesota. Pete grew up in a musical family. His mother taught music, his father was a choral director, one sister became the violinist in the Cavani String Quartet and the other plays cello for the Metropolitan Opera. Pete, on the other hand, preferred to pretend he was Indiana Jones in and around the creek beside their house or made short animated films with the family video camera. Even though he was a tall, gangling, kind of socially awkward kid, he may have turned out the best of the whole family.

Pete went to the University of Minnesota posing as a major in philosophy. In his spare time, Pete made art. A lot of art. So much art that, after only a year of being philosophical, he transferred to the California Institute of the Arts. While there, Pete created three films utilizing traditional animation techniques: Palm Springs, Next Door and Winter. Next Door was awarded a Student Academy Award, which for those of you who don't know (I didn't) is an actual Oscar given to college students. Since his further successes have occurred, all three films have been preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

As Pete was getting ready to graduate from CalArts, his best job offers were from the producers of The Simpsons and a fledgling company named Pixar. While he knew almost nothing about Pixar other than the fact that he liked a few of their shorts, the traditional animation student chose the computer animation company. So at the age of 21, literally the day after his college graduation, Pete started working for Pixar as only the third animator the company ever employed.

Because of his age and relative inexperience, Pete wasn't initially given a whole lot to do. It wasn't long though, before the head of Pixar, John Lasseter, began to realize just the kind of guy he'd been lucky enough to hire. Even though he was brought in as an animator, Pete began doing additional things like writing, sound recording and orchestra scoring. For Pixar's first feature, Toy Story, he was one of only three key scriptwriters. Buzz Lightyear (one of my favorite characters) is, in part at least, based on Pete. He would go on to co-author A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc., which was also his directorial debut. A debut that was nominated for all kinds of awards. True, it didn't win any of those awards but Pete would soon change that.

Pete once again contributed his writing skills to WALL-E, garnering an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and winning a Nebula award. His next project, for which he co-wrote the script, directed and played the voices of Kevin and Campmaster Strauch, was 2009's Up. Pixar always brings the feels in their movies, but Up was the first time I (and pretty much every other adult) actually had to stifle sobs in a movie theater. And not just at the end of the movie, but the beginning too. Thanks Pete. It was an awesome experience. The Academy thought so, too, not only giving Up the Oscars for Best Original Score and Best Animated Feature, but also nominating it for Best Picture period. Pete also won an Annie Award for directing.

At this point, Pete's role began shifting again. He started playing more of an executive role at Pixar. His next few credits would in fact be as Executive Producer on the shorts Dug's Special Mission and Party Central and the feature Monsters University. His directing days weren't quite over though. He would return to that role for 2015's Inside Out. Pete also co-wrote the script based on a story idea he'd help develop and provided the voice for Father's Anger. Once again, Pete delivered a delightfully touching, highly inventive story. Once again, he won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, the Annie Award for directing and, this time, added the Annie Award for writing.

All in all, for the three films Pete's directed for Pixar, he enjoys an average rating of 97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and, on an average budget of $155 million, has an average gross of over $723 million. For you math whizzes, that means his three movies have grossed over 2 billion dollars. Which means Pete knows what he's doing. A very good thing for Pixar. You may have heard about the controversy surrounding the company's founder, John Lasseter, and his subsequent departure. You may have also wondered what was going to happen to the level of quality that Pixar would be able to sustain going forward. You don't have to worry. Pete has John's job now and (you knew I was going to say this at some point) the Docter is in.

A fantastic addendum to Pete's story: One of my all-time favorite attractions was in the Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot. For anyone who remembers it, Cranium Command was a hilarious look at the various systems of the human body as seen from the inside. It was totally the inspiration for Inside Out, not because Pete was a fan of it, because Pete actually worked on the animation for it. The story behind Command is a crazy one that I hope to post about in the future, but part of that story is how a young Pete Docter, before he graduated from CalArts and became a legend at Pixar, was pulled in to help hurriedly finish its animation in time for its grand opening.

Also on this day, in American history: Mary Ann Shadd Cary