Jerry Rees

Who is Jerry Rees?

Jerry W. Rees is an animator and director best known for the 1987 Emmy-nominated animated film The Brave Little Toaster. He supervised and helped create many of the visual effects for the cult classic Tron, and is also a sculptor and fine artist.

Rees was mentored as an animator from the age of 16 at Disney Studios by one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, trained and taught at California Institute of the Arts, and began work in 1978 as animator for the Christmas children's film The Small One. He also worked on the 1981 Disney film The Fox and the Hound, and the following year served as one of the visual effects supervisors for the cutting-edge science fiction film Tron.

In 1987, Rees and science fiction writer Thomas M. Disch collaborated on adapting Disch's short story The Brave Little Toaster into an animated film. The resulting film was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and nominated for Best Animated Program at the 1988 Emmys. He also teamed up with fellow CalArts alum Tim Burton to co-write and co-direct the cult classic featurettes Doctor of Doom and Luau.