Doug Sweetland

*Storks*

**Doug Sweetland** is an American animator and film director.

As a child, Sweetland drew cartoons for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts for several years. After graduating high school in 1992, he opted to attend California Institute of the Arts and pursue his lifelong love and passion for animation.

In 1994, he decided to leave school in his final year to join Pixar. His first assignment was as an animator on *Toy Story*. He continued as animator on *A Bug's Life* and *Toy Story 2*. He was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation for the film.

Sweetland continued to build an incredible reputation as one of the best animators in the business. He was awarded back-to-back Annie Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Character Animation for *Monsters, Inc.* and *Finding Nemo*. He took on the lead animator role for Bud Luckey's Oscar-nominated *Boundin'* and worked as an animator and storyboard artist on the Oscar-winning *The Incredibles*. Sweetland followed this up by stepping into the supervising animator role on John Lasseter's *Cars*.

In 2007, Sweetland pitched a short film about a sympathetic magician who gets "dumped" by his rabbit. This eventually evolved to a more slapstick film (and a throwback to Warner Bros. classic *Looney Tunes*). Teddy Newton was brought on board to design the characters; it emerged as Sweetland's directorial debut. *Presto* was very well received by audiences and critics alike when it preceded *WALL-E* in theaters. It was honored in 2008 with an Academy Award nomination in the Best Animated Short Film category. It was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2008. After finishing *Presto*, Sweetland then left Pixar in 2009.

On September 24, 2010, it was reported that Sweetland had been hired by Sony Pictures Animation to direct a computer-animated film adaptation of *The Familiars* novel series; that project has been cancelled, and instead moved to Paramount Animation to direct *Puffy*, which was released into theaters in March 2014. In January 2013, it was reported that Warner Bros. was developing the computer-animated feature film *Storks* under their newly created Warner Animation Group banner, conceived and written by Nicholas Stoller, with Sweetland set to direct. In April 2015, Warner Bros. announced that the film, which Sweetland co-directed with Stoller, would be released on September 23, 2016. After the released of *Storks*, he later returned to Paramount Animation and also directed *Puffy's Big Break*, which is set to be released on July 12, 2019.

## Filmography

* *Toy Story* (1995) (animator)
* *A Bug's Life* (1998) (animator)
* *Toy Story 2* (1999) (animator)
* *Monsters, Inc.* (2001) (directing animator)
* *Finding Nemo* (2003) (animator)
* *Boundin'* (2003) (lead animator; short film)
* *The Incredibles* (2004) (animator, storyboard artist)
* *Cars* (2006) (supervising animator)
* *Presto* (2008) (director, writer; short film)
* *Little Penguin* (2010) (lead animator; short film)
* *Twin, Duo, and Three* (2010) (animator, storyboard artist)
* *Sweet Wonderful Dreams* (2011) (director, writer; short film)
* *The Flamingo Prince* (2011) (storyboard artist)
* *Pound Puppies* (2012) (storyboard artist)
* *Virtual Journey: Level Two* (2013) (animator)
* *Puffy* (2014) (director)
* *Secret Diary* (2014) (director; short film)
* *Puffy Shorts* (2014) (executive producer; short film)
* *Puffy Fever* (2015) (director; short film)
* *Red-Haired Flame* (2015) (animator)
* *The Adventures in Medieval* (2015) (animator)
* *Puffy: The Series* (2016–present) (executive producer)
* *Storks* (2016) (director)
* *It's A Puffy Christmas!* (2016) (executive producer)
* *Pigeon Toady's Guide to Your New Baby* (2016) (director; short film)
* *Virtual Journey: Next Dimensions* (2017) (animator)
* *One Helping Son* (2017) (director; short film)
* *Puffy's Treasure Hunt* (2018) (director; short film)
* *Crawler, Liger and Ratty: The Three Animals* (2018) (storyboard artist)
* *Puffy's Big Break* (2019) (director)
* *Virtual Journey: Game Changer* (2021) (director)