The Animated American

James Baker
Director

James is currently a Supervisor at The Third Floor, the premiere pevisualization company for the entertainment industry. James supervised GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 and ANT MAN, for which he received a VES nomination for Virtual Cinematography. Previously, James supervised previsualisation on GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and PARADISE LOST. Before that, he was Previs Lead on THOR THE DARK WORLD. In addition, James has also worked on the previs for such films as X MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST, THE AVENGERS, SAN ANDREAS, POLTERGEIST (2015), JACK THE GIANT SLAYER, 47 RONIN, 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE and JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND as well as supervising 4 video game cinematics. Prior to The Third Floor, James was an animator at Sony on the features OPEN SEASON, BEOWULF, I AM LEGEND and CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS. James began his career at Disney. He enjoyed a nine year run animating on such memorable characters as Hades (James Woods) in HERCULES, Mushu (Eddie Murphy) in MULAN, Kuzco (David Spade) in THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE, as well as having worked on such films as POCAHONTAS, THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, TARZAN, FANTASIA 2000, TREASURE PLANET and BOLT. In addition, he worked on LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION for Warner Bros., animating three of the world’s most recognizable cartoon characters – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian. Being multi-faceted, James had worked on music videos and documentaries as well as having directed several short films, including the multi-awarding winning ANIMATED AMERICAN.

Joe Haidar
Director

Joe co-directed the award-winning ANIMATED AMERICAN, a live-action/animation hybrid short film, along with Jim Baker. In 2017, Joe will be directing a soon-to-be-announced animated TV series by DreamWorks. Joe has also worked as a storyboard artist on such features as ROADCHIP and BLAZING SAMURAI, the all new animated SMURFS movie at Sony Pictures Animation as well as CURIOUS GEORGE, ENCHANTED, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS THE SQUEAKQUEL, MR. LIMPET, and HOP; helping the directors realize their vision. He also supervised animation for the live-action indy musical LUCKY STIFF. Prior to storyboarding, Joe was a feature animator at Walt Disney Studios for fifteen years. While there, he pitched the idea that inspired Disney to make their version of HERCULES. Joe has animated on some of Disney’s most beloved characters, including the Genie (Robin Williams) in ALADDIN and Roger Rabbit in WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, which gave him the opportunity to work closely with academy award winners Richard Williams and Robert Zemeckis. He worked on the highly acclaimed film BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (the only animated feature ever to be nominated for Best Picture), as well as MULAN, POCAHONTAS, ATLANTIS, and HOME ON THE RANGE. Prior to Disney, he worked in London England on rock videos, commercials and storyboarded on the cult classic feature, HIGHLANDER.

Credits