Joe Ranft is an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He attended California Institute of the Arts, where he studied character animation. After two years, his student film attracted Disney animation executives to offer him a job. In his first five years at Disney, Joe worked as a writer and storyboard artist on small television projects, but none of those were ever produced. He had the opportunity to be mentored by Disney legend, Eric Larson, in the Feature Animation department. Some of the movies that Ranft wrote stories for include: Oliver and Company, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Brave Little Toaster, and James and the Giant Peach.
On this day, October 5th, in 1991, Joe Ranft was hired to work for Pixar. He took part in all of their films produced from his time of hire until 2006. These films include: Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and his last production, Cars. Ranft received an Academy Award nomination for his work on Toy Story. In addition to being a storyboard artist, Ranft was also the voice behind several of these characters. To name a few, he voiced Heimlich, the caterpillar from A Bug’s Life, Wheezy, the penguin in Toy Story 2, and Jacques, the shrimp in Finding Nemo.