Joe Ranft, 45; Artist for Pixar Animated Films, Voice of Heimlich in
'A Bug's Life'
By Charles Solomon - Special to The Los Angeles Times
August 18, 2005
Joe Ranft, one of the key creators of Pixar's hit animated features
and the voice of Heimlich the Bavarian caterpillar in "A Bug's Life"
(1998), was killed in an automobile accident Tuesday afternoon. He was
45.
A spokeswoman for the Mendocino County sheriff-coroner's office
confirmed that Ranft was killed when the car in which he was a
passenger veered off the road while traveling north on Highway 1,
plunging 130 feet over the side of the road and into the ocean.
Also killed was the driver, Elegba Earl, 32, of Los Angeles. Another
passenger, Eric Frierson, 39, also of Los Angeles, was hospitalized
with moderate injuries at Mendocino Coast District Hospital in Fort
Bragg, according to the sheriff-coroner's office.
Ranft was widely respected as one of the top story artists in the
animation industry. He was one of seven writers nominated for an
Academy Award for best original screenplay for 1995's "Toy Story."
But Ranft spent most of his time drawing storyboards for animated
films.
"I don't know if people really understand what I do," he said in a
1998 interview with The Times. "When I say that I do story for
animation, they say, 'Oh, you're a writer!' If I tell them I'm kind of
a writer, but I draw, they get this puzzled look. But when I say, `I'm
the voice of Heimlich,' the lightbulb goes on and they say, 'Oh,
great!' "
Telling stories in one form or another was Ranft's lifelong passion.
Born in Pasadena, he grew up in Whittier, where his early interests
included movies, drawing, performing in school plays and doing
sleight-of-hand magic.
"I liked evoking a response from an audience through the illusion of
magic," he said. "Animation is the ultimate illusion, the illusion of
life: These characters don't really exist; we create the illusion of a
character."
Ranft entered the character animation program at California Institute
of the Arts in the fall of 1978. As a student, he was inspired by Bill
Peet's storyboards from the 1946 Disney feature "Song of the South."
"His pastel drawings were so alive, they just knocked me over. Even
though they were just still drawings, they screamed to be animated,"
Ranft recalled. "I knew that's what I wanted to try to accomplish."
Ranft left CalArts for the Walt Disney Studio in 1980, where he
quickly established a reputation as an exceptional story artist.
"Joe was the undisputed storyboard master at Pixar: His boards were
just inspiring," said "Monsters, Inc." director Pete Docter. "On 'Toy
Story,' his boards for the 'army man' sequence, which went into film
pretty much unchanged, became the model we aspired to on the film."
Docter added: "On 'Monsters,' he was a great mentor: constructive and
supportive and always a pleasure to be around. Joe was really a major
part of Pixar's soul. He was one of the key players who made all the
films what they are."
At Disney, Ranft worked on "Oliver & Company" (1988), "Who Framed
Roger Rabbit" (1988), "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "The Lion King"
(1994) and "Fantasia/2000." He oversaw the story on "The Rescuers Down
Under" (1990) and was co-writer and supervising animator on "The Brave
Little Toaster" (1987).
More recently, he served as executive producer on "Tim Burton's Corpse
Bride," due this fall.
While at Disney, Ranft became friends with John Lasseter, who later
became a top executive at Pixar Animation Studios.
Their paths had diverged when Lasseter went to Pixar to direct a
series of innovative computer-animated shorts while Ranft did story
work at Skellington Productions on Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before
Christmas" (1993) and "James and the Giant Peach" (1996), which were
distributed by Disney. But the two stayed in touch.
"John and I had a pact that when he directed his first feature, I was
going to work on it," Ranft told The Times.
Ranft moved to Pixar to serve as story supervisor on Lasseter's "Toy
Story," the first computer-animated feature. His understanding of
story structure and his talent for creating emotionally complex
characters that audiences cared about won him a place in the core
group of artists at Pixar, colleagues said.
In addition to working on the story of "A Bug's Life," Ranft got the
role as Heimlich's voice after Lasseter noticed that his wife, Nancy,
laughed harder at Ranft's temporary dialogue during production than
she did at the actor hired to voice the caterpillar.
Ranft served as story supervisor on "Toy Story 2" (1999) and provided
the voice for Wheezy the Penguin, the asthmatic character who makes
Woody realize he could end up forgotten on a shelf. Ranft was credited
with additional story material for "Monsters, Inc." (2001) and oversaw
the story on Lasseter's "Cars," which is slated for release next year.
"Joe had a great passion for telling stories, and he told them better
than anyone," Lasseter said Wednesday. "He was funny, poignant,
original, and he had an infallible sense for how to structure a
story."
Unlike many story artists, Ranft never expressed an interest in
directing.
"I've had people say, 'Oh, you're just going to keep story-boarding,'
" he said with a characteristic laugh, "My answer is, 'Yes, it's what
I've always wanted to do, and I want to get better at it.' "
A longtime resident of Marin County, Ranft is survived by his wife,
Sue, and their children, Jordan and Sophia. A memorial service will be
held Sunday at 2 p.m. at Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino
Alto, Mill Valley.
