A veteran of Pixar Animation Studios, Robert James Gibbs passed away at age of 55. Details of his death are unknown at the moment, but the news began circulating on Facebook and Twitter earlier on 24 April.
Gibbs, who was in the industry for over two decades was working on Monsters at Work for Disney+, a spinoff of the Peter Docter-created Monsters, Inc. franchise. He also directed or co-directed numerous projects at the studio over the years, including Tokyo Mater (which screened theatrically in front of Disney’s Bolt), Air Mater (the first production at the short-lived Pixar Canada), episodes of Mater’s Tall Tales.
Gibbs began his career at Disney with story and writing duties on films such as Pocahontas and Fantasia 2000 before he moved on to Pixar, where he worked as a story artist on Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo and Up, among others.
Recently, he was also working on an animated movie called Hump with Aleander Weimer, DreamWorks veteran Tim Johnson and Amin Matalaqa for MovieBrats Pictures and Eric Gossens of Belgian studio Walking the Dog.
Our hearts broke this morning when we learned of the sudden passing of Rob Gibbs, co-director on our animated film HUMP. We’ve not only lost a creative partner, but also a wonderful human being, always in a good mood and never short of a joke that made it a joy to work with him over the past few years. Before we met Rob, he already looked back at an impressive career at Disney and Pixar…and he kept entertaining us with his anecdotal stories from his many years in the industry. He loved spending time with his daughter, and he loved old classic cars and zombie stories.
You’ll be dearly missed, Rob ♥️
Alex, Esther, Tom
and all of us at MovieBrats Pictures