Topic: Andrew Stanton

Andrew Christopher Stanton, Jr. (born December 3, 1965) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional voice actor based at Pixar Animation Studios. His most notable film work includes writing and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E; both films earned him the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Stanton was born in Rockport, Massachusetts. He studied character animation at CalArts and graduated from the school in 1987.

In an interview with World Magazine's Megan Basham, Stanton explained his singular vision for WALL-E: "(W)hat really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love."