William Joyce | |
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_The_Man_in_the_Moon.jpg) Joyce promoting The Man in the Moon in November 2011 | |
| Born | William Edward Joyce December 11, 1959 Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. |
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| Education | Southern Methodist University |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Spouse | Frances Elizabeth Baucum Joyce (1960-2016) |
| Children | 2 |
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| Website | |
| williamjoyce | |
William Edward Joyce (born December 11, 1959) is an American writer, illustrator, and filmmaker. He has achieved worldwide recognition as an author, artist and pioneer in the digital and animation industry.[1][2]
He has written and illustrated over 50 children’s books and novels which have been translated into over 40 languages.
He began his film career as a concept artist for the 1995 hit film Toy Story and has since been active in both animation and live action. He subsequently landed credits on the films including A Bug's Life (1998) and Robots (2005). He wrote the book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, which was adapted into a feature film by Disney as Meet the Robinsons (2007), having direct involvement in the film.
Among his many awards, Joyce has won 6 Emmys, 3 Annies and an Academy award for his short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011).
Joyce was named by Newsweek magazine as “one of the 100 people to watch in the new millennium. His feature films, all based on his books, include Epic, Rise of the Guardians, Robots, and Meet the Robinsons. His television series include the groundbreaking computer animated Rolie Polie Olie for which he was creator and showrunner.
He has also painted numerous covers for the New Yorker Magazine. His new company, Howdybot Studios, is focused on Joyce's stories in a variety of mediums and media. Joyce’s latest short film Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat (2022) has won awards at a number of film festivals in the U.S. He is also in pre-production on an animated version of The Great Gatsby. Both projects are in collaboration with DNEG Studios and Epic Games.
His novel Ollie's Odyssey was adapted into a live action/CG limited series on Netflix in August 2022.
He has written and illustrated over 50 children's books including George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo, Rolie Polie Olie, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs and A Day with Wilbur Robinson, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, The Guardians of Childhood series and many others.
His first book “Tammy and the Gigantic Fish” by James and Katherine Gray was published by Harper & Row (now Harper Collins) in 1983. After the retirement of his longtime editor there Laura Gerringer, in 2011 Joyce moved his backlist and all subsequent books to Simon & Schuster where his editor is Caitlyn Dlouhy.
Since being at Simon & Schuster Mr. Joyce has produced a number of bestselling titles, including The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore which debuted at Number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list in July 2012, a position it held for several weeks. Morris Lessmore has been translated into over 40 languages and was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best children's books of all time. Morris Lessmore is the most expansive and experimental of Joyce’s stories. With his company Moonbot Studios, Joyce along with his partners, produced the Lessmore story in a variety of media and mediums simultaneously. A short film was in production (using handmade miniature sets) while the book was being illustrated (along with Joe Bluhm) and an interactive story app was being devised.
The story app of Morris Lessmore received overwhelmingly positive attention and in August 2011 briefly dislodged Angry Birds as the bestselling app in the world. It was voted into the app hall of fame soon after.[3]
Joyce has received three Emmys for Rolie Polie Olie, a Canadian animated television series based on his series of children's books that aired on Disney Channel (part of Playhouse Disney block) and is currently on Disney+. His second television series, George Shrinks, used to air daily on PBS stations. He has received three additional Emmys for other animated projects.
Joyce created conceptual characters for Disney/Pixar's feature films Toy Story (1995) and A Bug's Life (1998). In 2001 Pixar founder John Lasseter introduced Joyce to animation director Chris Wedge. At this time Wedge’s fledging animation studio Blue Sky was completing its Oscar winning short film Bunny and hoped to begin developing feature animated films, which they soon did with the Ice Age franchise.
In 2002, after Joyce and Ice Age director Chris Wedge attempted to adapt one of Joyce's book Santa Calls into a feature film Santa Calls, during that process they both came up with the idea for the computer-animated feature film Robots (2005). Besides being one of the creators, Joyce also served as a producer and production designer.[4]
In 2005, Joyce and Reel FX launched a joint venture, Aimesworth Amusements, to produce feature films, video games and books.[5] The new company announced plans to make three feature films:[6] The Guardians of Childhood, The Mischevians, and Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo.[7] The first of those projects, The Guardians of Childhood was developed by DreamWorks Animation into the feature film, Rise of the Guardians. It was released in 2012 and is based on Joyce's book series and the short film Man in the Moon, directed by Joyce.[8] Joyce was originally slated to direct the film, however early in the production his daughter Mary Katherine, his wife Elizabeth and his sister Cecile were diagnosed with terminal illnesses. He continued on as an executive producer along with his friend Guillermo del Toro. At the beginning of the end credits Dreamworks dedicated the film to Joyce’s daughter who died before the film's release.
In 2007, Disney released Meet the Robinsons, a feature film based on his book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, to which Joyce served as one of the executive producers of the film along with John Lasseter and Clark Spencer. Joyce had written several drafts of the screenplay and did production design on a number of key characters and sets for the final film.
In August 2009, Joyce and Reel FX co-founder Brandon Oldenburg and producers Lampton Enoch and Alyssa Kantrow founded a Shreveport-based animation and visual effects studio MOONBOT Studios.[9] The studio produced an Oscar-winning animated short film[10] and an iPad app[11] The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The short film went on to win an Academy award. A book adaption was released in summer 2012.[12] The studio released in January 2012 another app, The Numberlys. A short film and a bestselling book followed soon after. The Numberlys film was short listed for the 2012 Academy Awards animated short film Oscar.[13]
His book The Leaf Men was adapted by Blue Sky Studios into a 2013 feature film titled Epic, with Joyce as writer, executive producer, and production designer.[14]
In 2021, Joyce wrote and directed the short film Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat with the visual effects company DNEG. DNEG also announced they would be producing a feature animated film adaptation of The Great Gatsby directed by Joyce and written by noted author Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret).[15]
Joyce’s acclaimed young adult novel “Ollie’s Odyssey” has been adopted as a live action/CG hybrid show by Netflix and premieres August 24, 2022. It is the second of Joyce’s works to be adapted by Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse).
Joyce received the 2008 Louisiana Writer Award for his enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana." The award was presented to him on October 4, 2008, during a ceremony at the 2008 Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. On February 26, 2012, he won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
Newsweek called him one of the top 100 people to watch in the new millennium.[16]
Gold medal from the Society of Illustrators for Santa Calls.
Three silver medals from the Society of Illustrators.
| Year | Nominated work | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore | Best Animated Short Film | Won |
| Year | Nominated Work | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998-1999 | Rolie Polie Olie "Little Sister, Big Brother" | Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation | Won |
| 1999-2000 | Rolie Polie Olie | Outstanding Special Class Animated Program | Won |
| 2004-2005 | Rolie Polie Olie | Outstanding Special Class Animated Program | Won |
| 2013-2014 | The Scarecrow | Outstanding New Approaches - Original Daytime Program | Won |
| 2014-2015 | Silent | Outstanding Special Class Animated Program | Won |
| 2016-2017 | Taking Flight | Outstanding Special Class Animated Program | Won |
William Joyce lives with his son Jackson Edward Joyce in Shreveport, Louisiana. His daughter, Mary Katherine, died on May 2, 2010, at the age of 18, due to complications of brain cancer.[17][18] Rise of the Guardians, a film inspired by stories Joyce told her while young and later resulted in The Guardians of Childhood book series, was dedicated to her memory, reading “For Mary Katherine Joyce, a Guardian Fierce and True” during the credits.[19] The main character of Epic, which is also based on Joyce's book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, was named after her.[20] His wife, Frances Elizabeth Baucum Joyce, who was a Shreveport attorney, died on January 20, 2016, at the age of 55, due to complications of ALS.[21] He remarried on the 31st July 2020.[22]
In 2006, Joyce founded the Katrinarita Gras Foundation to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. He is selling prints of his unpublished Mardi Gras The New Yorker cover through the foundation with all profit going to Louisiana artists and arts organizations.[23]
In May 2017, Atheneum Young Readers released the picture book Bently & Egg, A Day with Wilbur Robinson, of which the film version is entitled Meet the Robinsons, and Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo. All are under the label The World of William Joyce.[24]
Note: All books are written and illustrated by William Joyce, except as noted
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Toy Story | Conceptual and art design | |
| 1997 | Buddy | Screenwriter & Co-Producer | Screen story |
| 1998 | A Bug's Life | Conceptual and art design | |
| 2005 | Robots | Writer[a] Producer & Production Designer |
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| 2007 | Meet the Robinsons | Writer[b] Executive Producer |
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| 2007 | Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium | Production Designer | Main title sequence design |
| 2011 | The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore | Director & Writer | |
| 2012 | Rise of the Guardians | Writer[c] Executive Producer |
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| 2013 | Epic | Writer, Production Designer, & Executive Producer | |
| 2013 | The Scarecrow | Executive Producer | |
| 2013 | The Numberlys | Director, Writer | |
| 2014 | Silent | Executive Producer | |
| 2014 | The Cask of Amontillado | Director | |
| 2022 | Mr. Spam Gets a New Hat | Director | |
| TBA | The Great Gatsby[15] | Director | Animated film adaptation |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998–2004 | Rolie Polie Olie | Created by, based on the book series of the same name | |
| 2000–2003 | George Shrinks | Created by, based on the book of the same name | |
| 2022 | Lost Ollie | based on the book Ollie's Odyssey |
