Stephen Michael "Steve" Martino (born July 21, 1959) is an American designer and film director. He is best known for directing the films '' Horton Hears a Who!'' (2008), '' Ice Age: Continental Drift'' (2012), and '' The Peanuts Movie'' (2015).

Early life

Martino went to

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pu ...

where he studied design. After graduation, he heard computer animation pioneer

Chuck Csuri Charles Csuri (July 4, 1922 – February 27, 2022), better known as Chuck Csuri, was an American artist and computer art pioneer, described by the ''Smithsonian (magazine), Smithsonian'' magazine as the "father of digital art and computer animati ...

speak. "I was absolutely blown away. No one was doing what he was showing us. I hadn't seen images like that anywhere before," Martino said. He returned to the university and earned in 1989 a master's degree, studying at the Computer Graphics Research Group (later renamed to Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design), founded by Csuri.

Career

After graduation, Steve went to Los Angeles, where he worked in animation and visual effects. In 2001, he joined

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

-based

Blue Sky Studios Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their ...

. There he co-directed computer-animated '' Horton Hears a Who!'' and '' Ice Age: Continental Drift''. He directed '' The Peanuts Movie'' (2015), an animated feature film adaptation of

Charles M. Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...

's comic strip ''

Peanuts ''Peanuts'' is a print syndication, syndicated daily strip, daily and Sunday strip, Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. The strip's original run extended from 1950 to 2000, continuing in reruns afterward. ' ...

''. In February 2018, it was reported that Martino and

Karen Disher Karen Beth Disher (born August 7, 1972) is an American film director and storyboard artist in films, TV, cartoons and video games. She was an artist at Blue Sky Studios, an in-house studio at 20th Century Animation (formerly 20th Century Fox Anim ...

would direct an upcoming animated fantasy musical, under the working title ''The Fright Stuff'', for Blue Sky Studios. The film was originally scheduled for release in 2023, but was moved to an unknown date. The production studio was closed in 2021.

Filmography

Director

Film * '' Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!'' (2008) * '' Ice Age: Continental Drift'' (2012) * '' The Peanuts Movie'' (2015) Short film * ''Scrat's Continental Crack-up'' (2010) * ''Scrat's Continental Crack-up - Part 2'' (2011)

Art director

Film * ''

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'' (2005) Short Films * '' Gone Nutty'' (2002) Television * ''World of Discovery'' (1990) (Main title designer)

Other roles

* '' Ice Age: The Meltdown'' (2006) (Pre-Production Consultant) * ''

Spies in Disguise ''Spies in Disguise'' is a 2019 American computer-animated spy comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Loosely inspired by the 2009 animated short ''Pigeon: Impossible'' by Lucas Martell, the film is direc ...

'' (2019) (Senior Creative Team)

Critical reception

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* American animated film directors Living people Blue Sky Studios people 1959 births People from Dayton, Ohio Film directors from Ohio {{US-film-director-1950s-stub