Ash Brannon

Ashton Brannon (born October 31, 1969) is an American Emmy Award-winning writer, director, visual artist, animator, and producer. He was a story artist and directing animator on Toy Story and co-director of Toy Story 2. He also directed and co-wrote the Sony Pictures Animation film Surf's Up. He also served as co-executive producer, story co-creator and writer on the Netflix animated series Arcane.

Early life

Brannon was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia.

Career

Brannon studied visual arts at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida and went on to attend CalArts in its Character Animation program. He was accepted as a summer trainee at Walt Disney Animation Studios where he worked as an animation inbetweener on Disney's 1989 film The Little Mermaid. From 1990 to 1992. Brannon joined Warner Bros. Animation as a story artist and animator for such projects as Nike's Hare Jordan Super Bowl ad in 1992.

In 1993 Brannon joined Pixar Animation Studios as a story artist on the studio's first two animated feature films Toy Story and A Bug's Life, as well as animation director on the former, before moving on to direct and help develop the storyline for Toy Story 2. Initially planned as a direct-to-video feature, the film was expanded in scope to become a theatrical feature. Brannon won an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production and Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production. He was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 on Surf's Up.

Brannon joined Riot Games in 2016 to help craft the storyline for its animated series Arcane. Additionally he served as a co-executive producer and writer on Season One. Brannon, along with the show's creative team, won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.

Most recently Brannon co-created the NFT animated series Stoner Cats. The six-episode series centers on an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and her five sentient housecats who must take care of her as she declines. The series was produced with partners Mila Kunis and Lisa Sterbakov of Orchard Farm Productions, and features a voice cast including Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Jane Fonda, Seth MacFarlane, and Chris Rock.

Filmography

Films

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Animator	Story Artist	Other	Voice Role	Notes
1989	The Little Mermaid	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Animation Trainee
1990	The Rescuers Down Under	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Special Thanks
1995	Toy Story	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1998	A Bug's Life	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
1999	Toy Story 2	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes		New Character Designs
2006	Over the Hedge	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Open Season	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes		Special Thanks
2007	Surf's Up	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Filmmaker #1
2016	Rock Dog	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Ian
2022	Hotel Transylvania: Transformania	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No

Television

Year	Film	Director	Writer	Storyboard artist	Notes
1993	2 Stupid Dogs	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Episode: "Red"
2021–23	Stoner Cats	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	7 episodes
2021	Arcane	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Episode: "The Base Violence Necessary for Change"; Netflix series

Video games

Year	Title	Notes
1995	Toy Story: The Video Game	Pixar: Animator
1996	Toy Story: Animated Storybook	Disco Godfather (as "Ashley Brannon")
1999	Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue	Special Thanks
	Toy Story 2 Activity Center

External links

• Template:IMDb name

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