Angus MacLane (born April 13, 1975) is an American animator, filmmaker and voice actor, best known for his work at Pixar Animation Studios. He co-directed the film Finding Dory (2016) and made his solo feature directorial debut with the Toy Story spin-off film Lightyear (2022). MacLane is also a Lego enthusiast and created the CubeDudes building format and designed a LEGO WALL-E that has become an official set from The Lego Group.
Early life and education Angus MacLane (born Angus Tyler MacLane), was born on April 13, 1975, in Riverside County, California, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. His father, Don MacLane was credited for "Math" in the film directed by his son, Lightyear, where he calculated the course-correction math the titular character used on his first test flight.https://twitter.com/ChrisBurrowsCG/status/1549795448705060864?s=20&t=5MoMKf_0vHqGZdhWVbk7ZA He originally wanted to be a comic book artist but halfway through school switched to animation and hoped one day he could work at the Will Vinton Studios (now Laika) and would eventually go on to work for the studio before working for Pixar. In 1997, he received a bachelor of fine arts from Rhode Island School of Design.
Career 1997–2023: Pixar MacLane joined Pixar in 1997, starting as an animator on the short film Geri's Game. He worked as an animator on every Pixar feature film from A Bug's Life (1998) through Toy Story 3 (2010). He also worked in the character development on Monsters, Inc. (2001) and The Incredibles (2004).
After serving as a supervising animator on One Man Band, MacLane started working on the story team for Andrew Stanton's WALL-E before moving up to directing animator. After animating a small scene for a side character named BURN-E, MacLane was intrigued to learn what might happen to the character. This led to the development of a short film for the film's home media release, titled BURN-E, which became his first directing credit at Pixar.
In the following years, MacLane continued to direct for the studio, being in charge of the Toy Story Toons short film Small Fry (2011) and the television special Toy Story of Terror! (2013). In June 2014, it was announced he would work again with Stanton as co-director on Finding Dory (2016).
In December 2020, it was announced he would write and direct Lightyear, a Toy Story spin-off centered on the character the toy is based upon. His feature directorial debut, the film was billed as a passion project inspired by his love of science fiction films. The film was released in June 2022 to generally positive reactions but becoming a box-office bomb, which in turn lost the studio an estimated $106 million.
MacLane was one of 75 Pixar employees laid off by The Walt Disney Company as part of an ongoing company-wide restructuring in May 2023.
Further projects In November 2025, it was reported that MacLane was developing a new film titled Trudy Blue, with Dakota Johnson attached in the leading role.
Filmography
Films Year TitleDirectorWriterAnimatorStoryArtistCharacterDeveloperProductionArtistOtherVoice RoleNotes 1998 A Bug's Life 1999 Toy Story 2 2000 Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins Directed Pixar CG opening scene direct-to-video 2001 Monsters, Inc. 2003 Finding Nemo 2004 The Incredibles 2006 Cars 2007 Ratatouille 2008 WALL-E BURN-E (uncredited) 2009 Up 2010 Toy Story 3 2016 Finding Dory Sunfish "Charlie Back and Forth" / Additional Voices Additional Story Material 2017 Coco Pixar Senior Creative Team 2018 Incredibles 2 2019 Toy Story 4 2020 Onward Soul 2021 Luca 2022 Turning Red Lightyear ERIC / DERIC / Zyclops 2023 Elemental 2026 Hoppers Special Thanks
Shorts Year TitleDirectorWriterAnimatorExecutiveProducerOtherVoice RoleNotes 1997 Geri's Game 2000 For the Birds 2005 One Man Band 2008 BURN-E BURN-E / SUPPLY-R 2010 Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales Additional Voices Episodes 8–9 2011 Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation Captain Zip Toy Story Toons: Small Fry Gary Grappling Hook / T-Bone / Funky Monk / Super Pirate 2012 Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex Additional Voices Special Thanks 2013 Party Central 2016 Marine Life Interviews 2017 Lou Special Thanks 2019 Purl 2022 Cars on the Road Pixar Senior Creative Team
Television Year TitleDirectorWriterOtherVoice Role Notes 2000–01 Buzz Lightyear of Star Command Directed Pixar CG intro variants 2013 Toy Story of Terror! Officer Wilson TV special 2025 Win or Lose Pixar Senior Creative Team
Other credits {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- | 2005 | The Making of 'The Incredibles''' | Himself | DVD Extra |- | 2009 | Tracy| Waiter / Actor #9
| 2021 | Pixar 2021 Disney+ Day Special| rowspan="2"| Himself | rowspan="2"| Disney+ Original specials |- | 2022 | Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to 'Lightyear'|}
Recognition 2005, Won Annie Award for 'Character Animation' for The Incredibles 2014, Won Annie Award for 'Outstanding Achievement in Directing' for Toy Story of Terror''
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