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.
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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. 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
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