10 Most Important Directors Of The 21st Century (So Far)

If Miyazaki raised the bar for animation in the East, then Pixar were responsible for its overwhelming success in the West. Disney built its name on innovating the medium, something that has continued with its 3-D animation arms.

While it might seem like a copout to list three directors in one spot, Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter are all inextricably linked to the CGI revolution. It was a movement that began with Toy Story in 1995, the first full feature length CGI movie, and has only continued throughout the 2000s and 2010s, with films likes Up, Monsters, Inc., Inside Out (Docter), WALL-E, Finding Nemo (Stanton), The Incredibles and Ratatouille (Bird) racking up huge ticket sales and awards aplenty.

Bird, Stanton and Docter have each bagged two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature each (the only directors to have done so), an award which might not even exist were it not for Pixar’s considerable input.

Where other studios have seen fit to saturate the market with unimaginative sequels, Pixar (and its three premier directors) have always tried to push the envelope, proving that animation can explore deeper issues than “I wonder what shenanigans some talking animals could get up to.”