Jill Culton
- Pixar Animation Studios (1993–2003)
- Sony Pictures Animation (2003–2009)
- DreamWorks Animation (2010–present)
Open Season
Abominable
Jill Culton is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and screenwriter. With her directorial debut on Sony's first animated film, Open Season, she became the first female principal director of a big budget, computer-generated feature.[1]
Education and career
Previously, she studied at the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where she later taught animation.
She was also a storyboard artist for various Pixar films such as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and also co-wrote the original treatment for Monsters, Inc., and continued to become the Head of Development.
She animated on Toy Story and served as a Directing Animator at Turner Features for the film Cats Don't Dance.
Along with Anthony Stacchi, she helped to develop Curious George while working at Industrial Light & Magic.[2][3]
In 2003, Culton joined Sony Pictures Animation, which launched a year before to produce CG animated films.[4] During her years at Sony, Culton, along with directing Open Season and executive producing Open Season 2, also developed Hotel Transylvania.
As of 2010, Culton was at DreamWorks Animation.[5] For some time, she was writing and directing an animated film (now titled Abominable) about a little girl and a Yeti, tentatively titled Everest,[6][7] but by 2016, she had left the project.[8] However, in 2018, she came back to the project to write and direct once again.[9]
In June 2024, it was announced that Culton would serve as the co-director of Warner Bros. Pictures Animation's adaptation of Oh, the Places You'll Go!.[10]
Filmography
- The Princess and the Cobbler (1993) (animator: Calvert/Cobbler Productions)
- Toy Story (1995) (story artist)
- Cats Don't Dance (1997) (supervising animator: Supporting Animal Characters, storyboard artist)
- A Bug's Life (1998) (additional storyboard artist)
- Toy Story 2 (1999) (character designer: new characters, story artist)
- Shrek (2001) (story artist)
- Monsters, Inc. (2001) (story, story supervisor, visual development)
- Open Season (2006) (director, story)
- Boog and Elliot's Midnight Bun Run (2006) (director, writer)
- Surf's Up (2007) (special thanks)
- Open Season 2 (2009) (executive producer)
- Shrek Forever After (2010) (special thanks, character designer: new characters, story artist)
- Abominable (2019) (director, writer)
- Oh, the Places You'll Go! (2027) (co-director)
References
- ^ Stein, Ruthe (September 27, 2006). "DATE LINES / News, notes and updates from the Bay Area arts and culture scene compiled by Chronicle staff writers and critics". SFGate. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ Harris, Dana (May 8, 2003). "Sony tooning new animation unit". Variety. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ^ Eller, Claudia (May 12, 2003). "Lucas Starts Animation Division". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
Later, Universal -- concerned about a budget that topped $100 million -- scrapped plans to enlist ILM in making an animated adaptation of the children's classic "Curious George."
- ^ Wolfe, Jennifer (July 10, 2014). "Emails, Court Docs Show Sony Resisted Wage-Fixing Cartel". Animation World Network. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ^ "Two in One Interview: NY Illustrators – Character Designers". CTN Animation Expo. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ Gachman, Dina (March 21, 2013). "Bringing 'The Croods' to Life: A Spotlight Interview with Producers Kristine Belson and Jane Hartwell". Studio System News. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
We have a project tentatively titled Everest, but that's a temp title. It's about a little girl and a Yeti, and the writer-director is Jill Culton.
- ^ Milligan, Mercedes (March 26, 2014). "DreamWorks Adopts FLIX for Story Development". Animation Magazine. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
Culton, who made her directorial debut with Sony's Open Season, is currently writing and directing a film about a young girl and a Yeti for DWA with the working title Everest.
- ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (December 5, 2016). "'How To Train Your Dragon 3' Flies To 2019; Uni's DWA To Scale 'Everest'". Deadline. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
- ^ Frater, Patrick (February 2, 2018). "CMC Takes Over Universal's Stake in Oriental DreamWorks".
- ^ Fleming Jr., Mike (June 10, 2024). "Jill Culton Joins Jon M. Chu To Co-Direct Dr. Seuss' 'Oh, The Places You'll Go!' For Warner Bros Pictures Animation & Bad Robot; Benj Pasek & Justin Paul Writing Original Tunes". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Jill Culton at IMDb
- v
- t
- e
- Toy Story (1995)
- A Bug's Life (1998)
- Toy Story 2 (1999)
- Monsters, Inc. (2001)
- Finding Nemo (2003)
- The Incredibles (2004)
- Cars (2006)
- Ratatouille (2007)
- WALL-E (2008)
- Up (2009)
- Toy Story 3 (2010)
- Cars 2 (2011)
- Brave (2012)
- Monsters University (2013)
- Inside Out (2015)
- The Good Dinosaur (2015)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- Cars 3 (2017)
- Coco (2017)
- Incredibles 2 (2018)
- Toy Story 4 (2019)
- Onward (2020)
- Soul (2020)
- Luca (2021)
- Turning Red (2022)
- Lightyear (2022)
- Elemental (2023)
- Inside Out 2 (2024)
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- Toy Story of Terror! (2013)
- Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014)
- Toy Story
- Monsters, Inc.
- Finding Nemo
- The Incredibles
- Cars
- Inside Out
productions
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000; direct-to-video film)
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000–01; television series)
- Exploring the Reef (2003; short film)
- Planes (2013)
- The Dam Keeper (2014; short film)
- Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014)
- Borrowed Time (2016; short film)
- Weekends (2017; short film)
- Monsters at Work (2021–present; television series)
- Starling (2023; short film)
- Luxo Jr.
- Toy Story
- Sheriff Woody
- Buzz Lightyear
- Jessie
- Bo Peep
- Monsters, Inc.
- Dory
- The Incredibles
- Cars
- WALL·E
- Merida
- Joy
- The Pixar Story (2007)
- A Spark Story (2021)
and experiences
- It's Tough to Be a Bug! (1998)
- Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (1998)
- A Bug's Land (2002)
- Turtle Talk with Crush (2004)
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends (2007)
- Cars Quatre Roues Rallye (2007)
- Crush's Coaster (2007)
- Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (2007)
- Toy Story Mania! (2008)
- Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek (2009)
- Toy Story Land (2010)
- RC Racer (2010)
- Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin (2010)
- Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop (2010)
- Alien Swirling Saucers (2018)
- Slinky Dog Dash (2018)
- Cars Land (2012)
- Luigi's Flying Tires (2012)
- Radiator Springs Racers (2012)
- Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters (2016)
- Remy's Ratatouille Adventure (2014)
- Nemo & Friends SeaRider (2017)
- Pixar Pier (2018)
- Games of Pixar Pier (2018)
- Incredicoaster (2018)
- Pixar Pal-A-Round (2018)
- Jessie's Critter Carousel (2019)
- Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy (2019)
- RenderMan
- Presto Animation System
- Awards and nominations
- feature films
- short films
- Film references
- Computer Graphics Lab
- Industrial Light & Magic
- Lucasfilm Animation
- Circle Seven Animation
- Pixar Canada
- Pixar Photoscience Team
- Computer Animation Production System
- A Computer Animated Hand
- The Works
- The Shadow King
- Rush: A Disney–Pixar Adventure
- Disney Infinity
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Walt Disney Animation Studios
- 20th Century Animation
Category
Work group