William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his

Claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

for his work alongside several

Emmy Awards The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

and

Clio Awards The Clio Awards, also simply known as The Clios, is an annual award program that recognizes innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals. The award ...

for his studio's work.

Life and education

Vinton was born on November 17, 1947, to a car dealer father and a bookkeeper mother in McMinnville, Oregon. His paternal grandfather, William T. Vinton, was a well known state senator in Oregon, representing Portland. During the 1960s, Vinton studied physics,

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

and

filmmaking Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where he was influenced by the work of

Antoni Gaudí Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalans, Catalan architect and designer from Spain, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan ''Modernisme''. Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barc ...

. During this time, Vinton made a

feature-length A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film (motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

about the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

counter-culture movement titled ''Gone for a Better Deal'', which toured college campuses in various film festivals of the time. Two more films about student protest followed, ''Berkeley Games'' and ''First Ten Days'', as well a narrative short ''Reply'', and his first

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

, ''Culture Shock''. Vinton received his bachelor's degree in architecture from UC Berkeley in 1970.

Career

Collaboration with Bob Gardiner

Meeting clay animator Bob Gardiner in the

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

area in the early 1970s, Vinton brought him to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

and they commandeered Vinton's home basement to make a quick 1½-minute test film of

clay animation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

(and the supporting armatures) called ''Wobbly Wino'', completed in early 1973. Gardiner refined his sculpting and animation techniques while Vinton built a system for animating his

Bolex Bolex International S. A. is a Swiss manufacturer of motion picture cameras based in Yverdon located in Canton of Vaud, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. Originally Bol, the company was founded ...

Rex-5 16mm camera and they began work in mid-1973 on an 8-minute

16mm 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, ...

short film about a drunk wino who stumbles into a closed

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

and interacts with the

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

s and

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s. Completed in late 1974 after 14 months of production, the film combined Gardiner's sculpting skills and comedy writing talent with Vinton's camera skills. '' Closed Mondays'' won an

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

in the spring of 1975, the first film produced in Portland to do so. Vinton and Gardiner parted ways during the production of their second short film, ''Mountain Music'' completed by Vinton in 1976. Gardiner focused on producing PSA spots for local political issues (eventually evolving into other artistic media such as music and holograms) while Vinton established Will Vinton Productions (later Will Vinton Studios) in Portland to capitalize on the animation technology Gardiner had developed for their animated short ''Closed Mondays''. Quickly expanding his studio by hiring new animators, Vinton produced dozens of commercials for regional and then national companies.

Will Vinton Studios

Going solo

Still with only a handful of animators, Vinton produced a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

of 27-minute films of a

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

fairy tales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the Folklore, folklore genre. Such stories typically feature Magic (supernatural), magic, Incantation, e ...

in the late 1970s and early 1980s, such as '' Martin the Cobbler'' (1977), the Oscar-nominated ''Rip Van Winkle'' (1978), and ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (, ) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published po ...

'' (1979). These films were later released theatrically under the umbrella title ''Trilogy'', and later to video as ''The Little Prince and Friends''. In 1978, Vinton produced the documentary ''Claymation: Three Dimensional Clay Animation'' a 17-minute film featuring the behind-the-scenes technical processes used. The term "claymation" was later trademarked by Vinton, and has become synonymous with

in general.

35mm years

Graduating to 35mm film, Vinton produced other short films during this time: ''Legacy'' (1979), ''

Dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

'' (1980), ''The Creation'' (directed by Joan Gratz, 1981, Academy Award nominee), ''The Great Cognito'' (directed by Barry Bruce, 1982, Academy Award nominee), ''A Christmas Gift'', and the music video ''Vanz Kant Danz'' (1987) for

Creedence Clearwater Revival Creedence Clearwater Revival, commonly abbreviated as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American Rock music, rock band formed in El Cerrito, California. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, h ...

John Fogerty John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty, he founded the swamp rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), for which he was th ...

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

video compilations of these films were released in the 1980s as ''Festival of Claymation'' and ''Son of Combo II''. Vinton, no longer performing animation himself, later produced special effects scenes for TV shows and movies, including a sequence for

Bette Midler Bette Midler ( ;''Inside the Actors Studio'', 2004 born December 1, 1945) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and author. Throughout her five-decade career Midler has received List of awards and nominations received by Bette Midler, numero ...

's '' Divine Madness!'' movie (1980), an Emmy-winning sequence for the '' Moonlighting'' TV series (1987), and the opening and closing title sequences for the feature comedy film '' Brain Donors'' (1992). His company's animation effects for

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

's ''

Return to Oz ''Return to Oz'' is a 1985 dark fantasy film released by Walt Disney Pictures, co-written and directed by Walter Murch. It stars Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in her first screen role. The film is ...

'' (1985) were also nominated for the Academy Award for Special Effects. In May 1985, Will Vinton Productions released their first and only theatrical film '' The Adventures of Mark Twain''. Following his work on ''Return to Oz'', Vinton was hired by the Disney studio to produce animation effects for their

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

- EPCOT Center film, ''

Captain EO ''Captain EO'' is a 1986 American 3D science fiction short film shown at several Disney theme parks from 1986 until 1998. The film, starring Michael Jackson, was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film was shown as part of an attraction with ...

'' in 1986 and the '' Speed Demon'' music video for Michael Jackson's musical anthology feature-length film, ''

Moonwalker ''Moonwalker'' is a 1988 American experimental film, experimental anthology film, anthology musical film starring Michael Jackson. Rather than featuring one continuous narrative, the film expresses the influence of fandom and innocence through ...

'' (1988). Prominent among his hundreds of now international commercial creations were the California Raisins, the

Domino's Pizza Domino's Pizza, Inc., commonly referred to as Domino's, is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain founded in 1960 and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware-domiciled and headquartered ...

Noid, and the

M&M's M&M's are color-varied sugar-coated dragée chocolate confectionery by the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division of Mars Inc.. The candy consists of a candy shell surrounding a filling which determines the specific type of M&M's. Each piece has ...

Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Crispy (Orange) characters. The California Raisins' first big hit was the song "

I Heard It Through the Grapevine "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" is a song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for Motown Records in 1966. The first recording of the song to be released was produced by Whitfield for Gladys Knight & the Pips and released as a ...

" in the first of their series of TV spots for the California Raisin Advisory Board. They became such a media phenomenon that they went on to star in their own pair of

primetime Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to b ...

specials for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

television, ''Meet the Raisins'' (1988), ''The Raisins Sold Out'' (1990), and a cel-animated show, '' The California Raisins Show''. A couple of music albums of songs from the specials, produced by Nu Shooz pop rock band leader John Smith were also released. CBS also commissioned three more prime-time specials, '' Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration'' (1987), '' Claymation Comedy of Horrors'' (1991), and '' Claymation Easter'' (1992). ''Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration'' and ''Claymation Easter'' won a

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

for Outstanding Animated Program. Claymation Comedy of Horrors was nominated for this category, but lost to ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

''. All were later released to video and DVD. In the 1990s, a variety of Vinton's 400+ animators and technicians helped with new creations and films of their own using the Vinton facilities called the ''Walkabout Program''. Craig Bartlett created his short film ''Arnold Escapes From Church'' (1988) and generated two more clay-animated short films, ''The Arnold Waltz'' (1990) and ''Arnold Rides a Chair'' (1991), each would later spawned ''

Hey Arnold! ''Hey Arnold!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Craig Bartlett for Nickelodeon. It originally aired from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004. The show centers on fourth grader Arnold Shortman, who lives with his grandparents in an inner ...

'', a cel-animated series for

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

in 1996.

Computer animation

The mid-1990s also saw Vinton adding computer animation to his output, used most visibly for his M&M's character commercials. A short CGI film, ''Fluffy'', directed by Doug Aberle, was created during this time. Other CGI films—some combined with clay and stop-motion animation—soon followed. Vinton contributed to a consumer-grade computer animation application called '' Playmation'', developed by Hash, Inc., a computer animation company in Vancouver, Washington. In 1997,

Brandon Tartikoff Brandon Tartikoff (January 13, 1949 – August 27, 1997) was an American television executive who was head of the entertainment division of NBC from 1981 to 1991. He was credited with turning around NBC's low prime time reputation with several ...

—in what would be his last substantial contribution to television before his death that year—commissioned Vinton to create a Christmas special, ''The Online Adventures of Ozzie the Elf''. Ozzie the Elf was originally created as a mascot for America Online's holiday portal, which Tartikoff (who was working for AOL at the time) saw as a potential crossover property. Vinton had high hopes that the special, which was animated in Claymation, would become a perennially rerun special.

Switch from Claymation to Foamation

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Vinton Studios produced the animated series '' The PJs'' for the

FOX Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

TV network. The series was conceived and executive-produced by actor and comedian

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He had his breakthrough as a standup comic before gaining stardom for his film roles; he is widely recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time. H ...

. Another animated series was produced for the

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

TV network by the Vinton studio, '' Gary and Mike''. ''Gary and Mike'' was shot using digital video capture system developed for the production by two Vinton engineers Miegel Ginsberg and Gary McRobert. Both series used a refinement in Vinton's style of dimensional animation. Most of the clay figures were replaced by models of moulded foam rubber, eliminating many of the limitations, and maintenance issues, that are inherent with clay, which had been developed by Vinton and his technical teams as far as it could go. Vinton soon coined a new term for this process, ''Foamation''. The studio also produced an unaired

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

for Slacker Cats in 2001.

Decline

By the end of the 1990s, the Vinton studio, seeking funds for more feature-length films, had become big enough to bring in outside investors, which included Nike, Inc., founder

Phil Knight Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist who is the co-founder and chairman ''emeritus'' of Nike, Inc., a global sports equipment and apparel company. He was previously its chai ...

and his son, Travis, who had worked at the studio as an animator. In spring of 2001, the studio's animated shows, '' The PJs'' and '' Gary and Mike'', were cancelled, with the latter only airing 13 episodes. In 2002, Vinton lost control of the studio he founded after Knight became the majority shareholder and Vinton failed to garner funds for further feature production in Los Angeles, eventually being dismissed from the studio. Vinton later sought damages for this and sued for ownership of his name. In 2005, Will Vinton Studios was rebranded as

Laika Laika ( ; , ; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft, launched into lo ...

. Premiere stop-motion animator/director

Henry Selick Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his work in stop motion animation and for directing the films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ''James and the Giant Peach (film) ...

joined the studio as a supervising director. The studio currently produces theatrical films such as ''

Coraline ''Coraline'' () is a 2002 British dark fantasy horror children's novella by author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman started writing ''Coraline'' in 1990, and it was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for ...

'', ''

ParaNorman ''ParaNorman'' is a 2012 American animated comedy horror, comedy horror film produced by Laika, LLC, Laika. Directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler (filmmaker), Chris Butler (the latter's feature directorial debut), and written by Butler, the film ...

'', '' The Boxtrolls'', ''

Kubo and the Two Strings ''Kubo and the Two Strings'' is a 2016 American animated fantasy film directed by Travis Knight and written by Marc Haimes and Chris Butler. Produced by Laika, the film stars the voices of Charlize Theron, Art Parkinson, Ralph Fiennes, Roone ...

'', and '' Missing Link''.

Aftermath

Vinton later founded a new production facility, Will Vinton's Free Will Entertainment, also based in Portland. In 2005, Vinton produced ''The Morning After'', the first short film under the new company. The film combines CGI and

live action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...

. He also taught at the Portland branch of

The Art Institutes The Art Institutes (AI) were a private for-profit system of art schools in the United States. The Art Institutes offered programs at the certificate, associate's, bachelors, and master's levels. By 2012, there were 50 campuses with roughly ...

and maintained an office there as an artist in residence. Vinton created a

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

titled ''The Kiss'', an adaptation of

The Frog Prince "The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" (, literally "The Frog King or the Iron Henry") is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in Grimms' Fairy Tales, ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 1). Traditionally, it is the fir ...

with music by

David Pomeranz David Pomeranz (born February 9, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, composer, lyricist, and writer for musical theater. He is also an ambassador for Operation Smile, a foundation dedicated to cleft lip and palate and a member of the Churc ...

that premiered on March 24, 2014, in

Lake Oswego, Oregon Lake Oswego ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County, with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah and Washington counties. Population in 2020 was 40,731, an 11.2% increase since 2010, making it the ...

. The

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency, LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. With 1,800 employees in March 2016, it is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous client ...

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

represented Vinton for production projects, which included a graphic novel called ''Jack Hightower'' produced in tandem with

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

Illness, retirement, and death

In 2006, Vinton was diagnosed with

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...

and retired in 2008 from producing films. He died in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, on October 4, 2018, after a 12-year battle with the disease at the age of 70. He was the subject of the documentary film ''Claydream'', which was directed by Marq Evans and released at the 2021

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

Work

Feature films

* ''Gone for a Better Deal'' (1974) – director, producer (live-action documentary) * ''

'' (1985) – claymation director, producer (Academy Award nominee) * '' The Adventures of Mark Twain'' (1985) – director, producer (''Comet Quest'': UK: video title) * ''

Shadow Play Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim (material), ...

'' (1986) – producer (live-action thriller) * ''Festival of Claymation'' (1987) – director, producer (compilation of short films) * ''

'' (1988) – segment director, producer: '' Speed Demon'' by

* '' Brain Donors'' (1992) – segment director (intro and outro) * ''

The Wild ''The Wild'' is a 2006 animated adventure comedy film directed by Steve "Spaz" Williams with a screenplay by Ed Decter, John J. Strauss, Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin, as well as featuring an ensemble cast consisting of Kiefer Sutherland, ...

'' (2006) – executive producer

TV series

* '' The California Raisin Show'', TV Series 23:00 × 13 (executive producer) * ''Klay's TV'', TV series pilot (director, executive producer) * 5 Cecille shorts for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'', 1:30 min. (producer) * ''

Adventures in Wonderland Adventures in Wonderland may refer to: * ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll * ''Adventures in Wonderland'' (1992 TV series), 1992–1995 American live-action/puppet musical television series based ...

'' (Caterpillar's Stories), 4 min. × 30 (executive producer) * ''Hammer Time'' short for ''

'' * '' The PJs'', TV Series 23:00 × 52 (executive producer)

Winner * ''Boyer Brother'', TV Series Pilot (executive producer) * '' Gary & Mike'', TV Series 23:00 × 13 (executive producer)

Nominee * '' Slacker Cats'', TV Series Pilot (executive producer)

TV specials

* '' Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration'' (1987), 23 min. (director, producer) Prime-time Emmy Winner * '' Meet the Raisins!'' (1988), 23:00 (executive producer, producer) Prime-time Emmy nominee * '' The Raisins: Sold Out! The California Raisins II'' (1990), 23:00 (director, producer) Prime-time Emmy nominee * '' Claymation Comedy of Horrors'' (1991), 23:00 (executive producer, producer) Prime-time Emmy winner * '' Claymation Easter'' (1992), 23:00 (executive producer, producer) Prime-time Emmy Winner * '' The Online Adventures of Ozzie the Elf'' (1997), 21:30 (animator)

Short films

* ''Wobbly Wino'', 2 min. (director, producer) * ''Culture Shock'', 17 min. (co-director, producer) * '' Closed Mondays'' (1974), 9 min. (co-director) Academy Award winner *
Mountain Music
' (1976), 9 min. (director, producer) * ''Martin the Cobbler'' (1977), 26 min. (director, producer) * ''Claymation'' (1978), documentary, 18 min. (director, producer) *
Rip Van Winkle
' (1978), 26 min. (director, producer) Academy Award Nominee * ''The Little Prince'' (1979), 25 min. (director, producer) * ''Legacy: A Very Short History of Natural Resources'' (1979), 7 min. (director, producer) * ''

'' (1980), 17 min. (director, producer) * ''A Christmas Gift'' (1980), 7 min. (director, producer) *
Creation
' (1981), 7:36 (director, producer) Academy Award Nominee * '' The Great Cognito'' (1982), 5 min. (director, producer) Academy Award Nominee * ''The Diary of Adam and Eve'', 24 min. (director, producer) * ''Vanz Kant Danz'' (

music video) (1985), 6 min. (director, producer) * ''Mr. Resistor'' (1994), 8 min. (executive producer) * ''Go Down Death'' (1994), 10 min. (director, producer) * ''Zerox and Mylar'' (1995), 5 min. (executive producer) * ''

Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension ''Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension'' (also titled ''Marvin the Martian in 3D'' and ''Marvin the Martian in 4D'') was a 1997 3-D Looney Tunes film formerly an attraction at Drayton Manor Resort in Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire, Eng ...

'' (1996), 13 min. (producer) * ''Bride of Resistor'' (1997), 6 min. (executive producer) * ''The Stars Came Dreaming'' (1998), 12 min. (executive producer) * ''The Lost 'M' Adventure'' (3-D short film featuring the M&M's characters) (2000), 12 min. (executive producer) * ''Día de los Muertos'' (''Day of the Dead'') (2002), 8 min. (executive producer) * ''The Morning After'' (2005), 7:30 (director, producer) * ''The Martial Artist'' (2007), 20 min. (director, producer, writer)

Musical theatre

* ''The Kiss'' (2014), (director, producer)

References

External links

*
Free Will Entertainment
* Will Vinton's Claymation and Stopmotion Animation Site
A celebration of Will Vinton on Just Make Animation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vinton, Will 1947 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American artists 21st-century American artists American animated film directors American animated film producers American television directors American television producers Animators from Oregon Clay animators People in the computer animation industry Deaths from multiple myeloma in the United States Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Film directors from Oregon Film producers from Oregon People from McMinnville, Oregon Producers who won the Best Animated Short Academy Award American stop motion animators UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni