The Big Picture

Mark Gustafson, a stop-motion animator who won an Oscar for his work on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, has died at the age of 64. Gustafson’s career in stop-motion animation spanned decades, starting with his work on the iconic California Raisins commercials. Gustafson’s impact on animation is immense, shaping the craft and inspiring countless animators. His legacy will be remembered in his historic filmography and contributions to the industry.

Stop-motion veteran Mark Gustafson, best known for his Oscar-winning work aboard Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio last year, died on Thursday, February 1. His friend and collaborator Guillermo del Toro announced the news on Friday on social media alongside a report in The Oregonian newspaper. He was 64 at the time of his death. “I admired Mark Gustafson, even before I met him,” del Toro wrote in the thread on X (formerly Twitter). “A pillar of stop-motion animation- a true artist. A compassionate, sensitive and mordantly witty man. A Legend – and a friend that inspired and gave hope to all around him. He passed away yesterday. Today we honor and miss him.”

In reinventing his Pinocchio story to make it darker and set it within Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, del Toro specifically tapped Gustafson not just to help with the visual effects, but to be the co-director of the film alongside him. Together, they were able to claim Best Animated Feature at the Oscars along with many other accolades from both the Annie and BAFTA Awards. Pinocchio was always a passion project for del Toro, but Gustafson was also deeply involved for much of the time the film was in the works, forging a close partnership that gave it life after a long road of production.

Gustafson started working in stop-motion in the 1980s when he came to Will Vinton Studios in his birthplace of Portland, Oregon to bring to life the California Raisins. His visual effects efforts would pay off as the stop-motion dancing and singing raisins shot to international fame after appearing in a now-iconic commercial for the California Raisin Advisory Board. He’d most notably pen the story for the beloved mascots’ 1988 television special Meet the Raisins! which he would also serve as the lead animator for. Commercials proved to be a good showcase of his work, as Gustafson would also go on to work as an animator for Planters’ Mr. Peanut.

Mark Gustafson Leaves Behind a Legacy of Stop-Motion on the Big and Small Screen

From the 1990s onward, Gustafson would get to flex his stop-motion muscles in the television industry, becoming an Emmy winner in 1992 for Claymation Easter. The special demonstrated his talents as a director which would then translate to other shows, like the Eddie Murphy co-created series The PJs, where he helmed a pair of episodes. His work would then extend outward to Wes Anderson, joining as the animation director for the auteur’s acclaimed film Fantastic Mr. Fox. Before Pinocchio, his final animation department work would come in 2011 as the head of the department for A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas.

When it comes to Gustafson’s impact on animation, del Toro perhaps puts it best about the late stop-motion maestro. “He leaves behind a Titanic legacy of animation that goes back to the very origins of Claymation and that shaped the career and craft of countless animators,” the director continued. “He leaves friends and colleagues and a historic filmography. Prayers and thoughts go to his beloved wife, Jennifer.”