Ash Brannon

Ash Brannon (born 1969 in Columbus, Georgia) is an American animator, writer, and director who was a story artist and directing animator on Toy Story and co-director on Toy Story 2 for Pixar. Besides working at Pixar, he has also worked with Universal Animation on Magina, The Sounds of the Ocean and Computeropolis 3, DreamWorks Animation on Over the Hedge and Sony Pictures Animation on Surf's Up. He also directed and wrote the 2016 computer-animated film Rock Dog and the 2018 live-action film Real Tag, a remake of the 2015 Japanese film Tag, which in turn is inspired by the title of the novel Riaru Onigokko by Yusuke Yamada.

Brannon studied visual arts at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida for high school and went on to CalArts for further education. Studying in CalArts Character Animation program, Brannon likewise practiced his skills in animation as a trainee for Disney Animation's 1989 film The Little Mermaid. In the meantime, Brannon served as an animator for such projects as Nike's Hare Jordan Super Bowl ad in 1992 and the television series That's Warner Bros.!.

He won an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production and Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production on Toy Story 2. He was also nominated for an Oscar in 2007 on Surf's Up.

According to the Toy Story 2 DVD audio commentary, Al McWhiggin's license plate "LZTYBRN" is Brannon's actual license plate.