# Mark Gustafson
**Mark Gustafson** (September 19, 1959 – February 2024) was an American stop-motion animator, director, and writer who won the Academy Award for Animated Feature as co-director of *Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio* (2022) and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program for the 1992 television special *A Claymation Easter*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) • [2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023) Over four decades he worked as an animator, animation director, and director on clay-animated television specials, series, commercials, and features, becoming a central figure in [Portland, Oregon](https://www.edgepedia.org/portland-oregon)'s animation community.[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1959, United States[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) |
| Died | February 2024; sources give February 1[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) or February 2[4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/), at age 63 or 64[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/) |
| Signature honors | Academy Award for Animated Feature (2023) for *Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio*; Emmy Award (1992) for *A Claymation Easter*, with four Emmy nominations in total[2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023) • [1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) |
| Best-known credits | Animation director on *Fantastic Mr. Fox* (2009); co-director of *Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio* (2022)[5](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-412163/filmographie/) |
| Early specialty | Clay animation (Claymation) at Will Vinton's Portland studio, from the mid-1980s[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) • [6](https://cinema.eiga.com/person/337515/) |
| Scale of the Pinocchio shoot | 940 days of filming, roughly ten times a conventional live-action schedule, with up to 60 units working at the same time[7](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-long-to-make-pinocchio-guillermo-del-toro) • [8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/guillermo-del-toro-pinocchio-stop-motion-mark-gustafson) |
## Early career in clay animation
Gustafson began working as a clay animator in the mid-1980s in Portland, where Will Vinton and his partner Bob Gardiner had pioneered the Claymation process of sculpting and photographing clay figures frame by frame.[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) • [6](https://cinema.eiga.com/person/337515/) He worked as an animator on Vinton's clay-animated feature *[The Adventures of Mark Twain](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-adventures-of-mark-twain)* (1986)[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) • [6](https://cinema.eiga.com/person/337515/) and is credited with the animation department on *[Return to Oz](https://www.edgepedia.org/return-to-oz)* (1985).[9](https://www.metacritic.com/person/mark-gustafson/)
Through the late 1980s and 1990s he moved into writing and directing television specials built around Vinton's clay characters. He animated the 1987 television special *A Claymation Christmas Celebration*, wrote and animated *Meet the Raisins!* (1988), and made his directing debut with *Claymation Easter* (1992).[4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/) He also worked on the series *The California Raisin Show* and directed commercials for brands including Planters' Mr. Peanut, Sony, Coca-Cola, and ESPN.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/)
**Emmy recognition.** The Television Academy lists four nominations for Gustafson in the Outstanding Animated Program category: *Meet the Raisins* (1989), *Will Vinton's Claymation Comedy of Horrors* (1991), *A Claymation Easter* (1992, winner, CBS), and *The PJs* (1999, FOX).[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) On *The PJs*, an animated series set in a housing project, he served as supervising director.[10](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/guillermo-del-toro-inbtwn-pinocchio-interview-223937.html) He continued making short films through the 1990s and 2000s, writing and directing *Mr. Resistor* (1994), *Bride of Resistor* (1997), and *Joe Blow* (2004).[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/)
## Fantastic Mr. Fox
[Wes Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-anderson)'s 2009 stop-motion adaptation of [Roald Dahl](https://www.edgepedia.org/roald-dahl)'s *[Fantastic Mr. Fox](https://www.edgepedia.org/fantastic-mr-fox-film)* was Gustafson's first major feature credit, as animation director.[5](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-412163/filmographie/) *Time* magazine, naming the film one of its 25 all-time best animated films, credited the collaboration between director Wes Anderson and animation director Mark Gustafson for the film's handling of puppets moved one frame at a time, tens of thousands of times.[11](https://time.com/4609386/best-animated-films/) The film earned a Metascore of 83, the highest of the features listed on Gustafson's Metacritic career page.[9](https://www.metacritic.com/person/mark-gustafson/) He also provided 3D animation for *A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas* (2011).[4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/) • [9](https://www.metacritic.com/person/mark-gustafson/)
## Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
The collaboration that defined Gustafson's late career was announced in May 2012, when the Jim Henson Company stated that [Guillermo del Toro](https://www.edgepedia.org/guillermo-del-toro) would co-direct a 3D stop-motion *Pinocchio*, based on Gris Grimly's illustrated edition of [Carlo Collodi](https://www.edgepedia.org/carlo-collodi)'s tale, with Gustafson, then credited as animation director on *Fantastic Mr. Fox*.[12](https://www.henson.com/guillermo-del-toro-and-mark-gustafson-will-co-direct-stop-motion-3d-feature-guillermo-del-toros-pinocchio/) The project eventually reached the screen a decade later as a Netflix release on December 9, 2022, set in Italy during the rise of fascism under Mussolini.[13](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-12-09/guillermo-del-toro-pinocchio-netflix-fascism-father-figures)
The production was unusually large for the medium. Del Toro told Netflix's Tudum podcast that the film took 940 days to capture, about ten times the length of a long live-action shooting schedule, and that animators were cast so that whoever was best at a character animated that character; one animator spent two years on the bedroom scenes between Geppetto and [Pinocchio](https://www.edgepedia.org/pinocchio).[7](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-long-to-make-pinocchio-guillermo-del-toro) In a [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute) interview, Gustafson described often having 60 units working at the same time and explained the film's visual approach: backgrounds were kept historically plausible and free of exaggerated angles so that Pinocchio, the anarchical element, would stand out against them.[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/guillermo-del-toro-pinocchio-stop-motion-mark-gustafson) He described the animators as the film's actors.[14](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/MoMA_CraftingPinocchio_PressRelease_FINAL-update_ENG.pdf)
At the 95th Academy Awards on March 12, 2023, *Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio* won the Oscar for Animated Feature Film, credited to Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, and Alex Bulkley; it was Netflix's first win in the category.[2](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023) • [15](https://apnews.com/article/6452155f694151688ca95be10bcd4ec9) Accepting on stage, Gustafson said, "It's so good to know this art form we love so much, stop motion, is very much alive and well."[15](https://apnews.com/article/6452155f694151688ca95be10bcd4ec9)
## Death
Gustafson died of a heart attack in early February 2024. Oregon ArtsWatch reported the death as occurring Thursday, February 1, at age 63,[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) while the Television Academy and the Los Angeles Times give February 1, 2024, and SensaCine and Filmstarts give February 2, 2024, at age 64.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson) • [16](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-02-05/mark-gustafson-appreciation-guillermo-del-toro-stop-motion-animation) • [4](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/) He was survived by his wife, Jennifer Smieja.[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) Del Toro wrote in tribute that Gustafson was "a pillar of stop motion animation, a true artist, a compassionate, sensitive and mordantly witty man."[3](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/) The Television Academy included him in the In Memoriam presentation at the 76th Creative Arts Emmy Awards in September 2024.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson)
## References
1. [Mark Gustafson, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/mark-gustafson)
2. [The 95th Academy Awards (2023), Oscars.org](https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023)
3. [Portland Oscar winner Mark Gustafson dies at 63, Oregon ArtsWatch](https://www.orartswatch.org/portland-oscar-winner-mark-gustafson-dies-at-63/)
4. [Mark Gustafson, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/actores/actor-412163/)
5. [Mark Gustafson: Filmographie, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-412163/filmographie/)
6. [マーク・グスタフソン：プロフィール・作品情報, 映画.com](https://cinema.eiga.com/person/337515/)
7. [How Long Did It Take To Make Pinocchio? Netflix Tudum](https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-long-to-make-pinocchio-guillermo-del-toro)
8. [Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and the stop-motion renaissance: an interview with co-director Mark Gustafson, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/guillermo-del-toro-pinocchio-stop-motion-mark-gustafson)
9. [Mark Gustafson, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/person/mark-gustafson/)
10. ['Pinocchio' Director Guillermo Del Toro On The Boundaries North American Animation Should Be Pushing, Cartoon Brew](https://www.cartoonbrew.com/interviews/guillermo-del-toro-inbtwn-pinocchio-interview-223937.html)
11. [The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films, Time](https://time.com/4609386/best-animated-films/)
12. [Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson Will Co-Direct Stop Motion 3D Feature "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio", The Jim Henson Company](https://www.henson.com/guillermo-del-toro-and-mark-gustafson-will-co-direct-stop-motion-3d-feature-guillermo-del-toros-pinocchio/)
13. ['Pinocchio' Netflix: Guillermo del Toro explains fascist setting, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-12-09/guillermo-del-toro-pinocchio-netflix-fascism-father-figures)
14. [Guillermo del Toro: Crafting Pinocchio, MoMA press release](https://press.moma.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/MoMA_CraftingPinocchio_PressRelease_FINAL-update_ENG.pdf)
15. ['Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio' wins best animated feature, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/6452155f694151688ca95be10bcd4ec9)
16. [Guillermo del Toro on 'Pinocchio' co-director Mark Gustafson, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-02-05/mark-gustafson-appreciation-guillermo-del-toro-stop-motion-animation)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Film and television directors › Directors of the United States and Canada › Contemporary film directors*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license