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Jorge R. Gutierrez

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Jorge R. Gutierrez
Gutierrez at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con
Born (1975-01-25) January 25, 1975 (age 49)
Mexico City, Mexico
Alma materCalifornia Institute of the Arts (BFA, MFA)
Occupations
  • Animator
  • painter
  • writer
  • producer
  • director
  • voice actor
Years active1998–present
Known forEl Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera
The Book of Life
Maya and the Three
Spouse
​
(m. 2001)​
Children1

Jorge R. Gutierrez (born January 25, 1975) is a Mexican-American animator, writer, producer, director, painter, and voice actor. He co-created with Sandra Equihua the Nickelodeon animated series El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, co-wrote and directed The Book of Life, Son of Jaguar for Google, and Maya and the Three for Netflix Animation.

Biography

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Born in 1975 in Mexico City and raised in Tijuana, Gutierrez has completed various films, cartoons, illustrations and paintings exploring his love of Mexican pop and folk culture.

Gutierrez attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where he received his BFA (1997) & MFA (2000) in Experimental Animation under Jules Engel, and was mentored by Maureen Selwood.[1] There he created the 3D short Carmelo, which won the 2001 Student Emmy Award in animation and was screened at Kodak's Emerging Filmmakers Program at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.[2] In 2000, Gutierrez worked under animator Maurice Noble, for the art direction of Chuck Jones' Timberwolf for Warner Bros. In 2001, he began creating Jorge Gutierrez' El Macho, an animated web series for Sony Pictures.

Gutierrez has also done character design on many animated series including Nickelodeon's ChalkZone, as well as Kids' WB's ¡Mucha Lucha!, Cartoon Network's Class of 3000, and Disney's The Buzz on Maggie for which he was nominated for a 2006 Annie Award in character design. As a writer, he's worked on Scholastic's Maya & Miguel as well as Disney's Brandy & Mr. Whiskers and Vampirina.

In 2008, Gutierrez won two Annie awards (Best TV Animated Show & Best TV Character Design) and one Emmy (Best TV Character Design) working on his passion project for Nickelodeon, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, along with his co-creator and wife, Sandra Equihua who also won an Emmy for her character designs.

In 2010, he created some of the sketches in Cartoon Network's Mad including "Dear Reaper...", "Dog vs Mailman" (part 1, 2 and 3), "Video Game Cheats", "Arcade Boy" and "Dog vs Fire Hydrant".

In 2012, Gutierrez directed and co-wrote an animated adventure feature film with a Romeo and Juliet style love story set against a Mexican "Day of the Dead" backdrop.[3] The film, with the official title The Book of Life, was co-produced with 20th Century Fox Animation and was released on October 17, 2014.[4][5] He earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film in 2014. He was also nominated for three Annie awards (Best Film, Best Director & Best Character Design).

In February 2015, Reel FX and Gutierrez announced a multi-year, multi-picture deal which included Kung Fu Space Punch and The Book of Life 2.[6][7]

In 2016 Gutierrez designed, voiced, wrote and directed the Annie and Emmy nominated Son of Jaguar VR short for Google Spotlight Stories.

In 2016, Gutierrez was awarded an Impact Award by the National Hispanic Media Coalition for his “Outstanding Direction in a Motion Picture”.[8]

On August 2, 2017, it was reported that Gutierrez would write and direct The Billion Brick Race, a spin-off of The Lego Movie, for Warner Animation Group.[9] However, on February 8, 2018, it was reported that Gutierrez had permanently cancelled the project.[10]

In October 2020, he signed an over-all-deal with Netflix Animation.[11] He directed the Immigration music video for the Emmy Award-winning series We the People, and wrote and directed the Annie (Best TV Animated Show & Best TV Music) and Emmy (Best Writing, Best Promo, Best Sound and Individual Achievement for Color) Award-winning Maya and the Three, a nine episode animated limited series for Netflix Animation. He had been developing a follow-up series to Maya set in the same universe for Netflix titled Kung Fu Space Punch, however, it was scrapped in 2022 along with many other planned animated series.[12] He was also set to direct an original animated film titled I, Chihuahua from a script he wrote with Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias.[13] However, the film was cancelled in April 2024, due to creative differences.[14]

Personal life

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Gutierrez did not speak until the age of five. As an adult, he was diagnosed with autism following his son's diagnosis.[15][16]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Director Screenwriter Actor Role Notes
2000 Carmelo Yes Yes Yes Carmelo's Father Short film, won Student Emmy
2001 Lint People No No No — Short film
Storyboard artist
2001 El Macho Yes Yes Yes El Macho Web series
Also character designer
2014 The Book of Life Yes Yes Yes Skeleton Carmelo Feature film
Also character designer and additional music composer
2015 Guardians of Oz No Yes No — Feature film
Also executive producer and character designer
2017 Son of Jaguar Yes Yes Yes Son of Jaguar VR Short film
Also character designer and art director
2023 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse No No Yes Additional Voices Feature film
2024 The Casagrandes Movie No No Yes Felipe the Street Vendor Feature film
— I, Chihuahua[13] Yes Yes Yes — Feature film
Canceled

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2003 ChalkZone — Guest art director for "Pumpkin Love/Chip of Fools/Irresistible/Please Let Me In"
2004 ¡Mucha Lucha! — Character designer for Season 2 and 3
2004-2007 Maya & Miguel — Freelance writer for multiple episodes
2005 The Buzz on Maggie — Character model design supervisor
2006 Brandy & Mr. Whiskers — Writer for "Big Girls Don't Body Slam"
2007 Class of 3000 — Guest music video art director for "Love is in the Hair...Net"
2007-2008 El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera Gordo Gordo Creator, writer, character designer, executive producer, production designer
2010 Carmen Got Expelled Butcher TV short; Also creator, writer, character designer, and director
2010-2013 Mad — Animator, graphic designer
2015-2016 The Adventures of Puss in Boots — Executive consultant
2018 Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ghostbear (voice) 4 episodes
2019-2022 Victor and Valentino Sal (voice) Recurring role
2019 The Loud House Lucha Libre Commentator (voice) Episode: "Lucha Fever with the Casagrandes"
2021 We the People — Director for "Immigration"
2021 Maya and the Three King Teca (voice) Also creator, writer, director, and executive producer
2021 Animaniacs Diego Rivera (voice) Segment: "The Warners Are Present"
2021 The Casagrandes Lucha Libre Commentator / Pigeon Referee (voices) Episode: "Saving Face"
2024 Star Trek: Prodigy Dr. K'ruvang (voice) Episode: A Tribble Called Quest
2024 The Simpsons Guest Animator Episode: Treehouse of Horror XXXV
— Kung-Fu Space Punch[17] — Canceled[18]

Bibliography

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Year Title Publisher ISBN Notes Ref
2014 The Art of The Book of Life Dark Horse Books ISBN 978-1616555337 Author & illustrator [19]
2018 Día de los Muertos Little Simon ISBN 978-1534415157 Illustrator [20]
Border Bang Cernunnos ISBN 978-2374950419 Author and illustrator [21]

References

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  1. ^ @mexopolis (January 12, 2023). "my dad saved my first year CalArts review" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ "Loved Book of Life? Then you need to see this short film by its director". www.vox.com. 27 October 2014. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  3. ^ "GUILLERMO DEL TORO JOINS WITH REEL FX TO PRODUCE EPIC ANIMATED ADVENTURE DAY OF THE DEAD". Reel FX. February 21, 2012. Archived from the original on April 8, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  4. ^ McClintock, Pamela (December 12, 2012). "Fox Animation Teaming With Guillermo del Toro on 'Book of Life' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
  5. ^ "Fox Sets New Dates for Book of Life, Gone Girl and Frankenstein". ComingSoon.net. October 15, 2013. Archived from the original on October 15, 2013. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  6. ^ "Untitled Kung Fu Space Western Is Reel". Big Cartoon Blog. BCDB. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015.
  7. ^ Hopewell, John (April 24, 2017). "'Despicable Me 3,' Pixar's 'Coco,' 'The Big Bad Fox' to Bow at France's 2017 Annecy Animation Festival". Variety. Retrieved April 30, 2017.
  8. ^ Roterman, Natalie (2015-02-12). "Gina Rodríguez, Carlos Ponce, Elizabeth Peña To Be Honored At NHMC Awards". Latin Times. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  9. ^ Hood, Cooper (August 2, 2017). "Book of Life Director Developing LEGO's Billion Brick Race". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  10. ^ McLean, Tom (February 8, 2018). "Jorge Gutierrez Departs as Director of 'LEGO Movie' Spinoff". Animation World Network. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  11. ^ Thorne, Will (2020-10-14). "'The Book of Life' Director Jorge Gutierrez Inks Overall Deal With Netflix". Variety. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  12. ^ Jorge Gutierrez [@mexopolis] (May 27, 2022). "my beloved kung space western is not moving forward at Netflix Animation :(" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. ^ a b "Jorge Gutierrez To Direct Netflix Animated Film "I, Chihuahua" Starring Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias" (Press release). Netflix Media Center. March 23, 2022. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  14. ^ "*since everyone is asking, my beloved "I Chihuahua" is, as of now, officially dead at FAN (Feature Animation Netflix) over "creative differences". I adore the film with all my heart and absolutely plan to get it made somewhere else. Netflix is being really cool about letting me take it outside so I could not be more excited and hopeful for the future".
  15. ^ "Jorge R. Gutierrez on Twitter: "It's #WorldAutismAwarenessDay ! I'm the autistic father (I was diagnosed 3 years ago) of a wonderful son who also happens to have autism. It has made us who we are and I could not be more proud of him."".
  16. ^ Bennett, Neil (12 February 2019). "Jorge Gutiérrez on the Power Being Autistic Brings to his Creativity". Digital Arts Online. Archived from the original on 2020-09-28. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  17. ^ "Annecy: Reel FX, Jorge R. Gutierrez Announce 'The Book of Life 2,' Unveil 'Kung Fu Space Punch' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. June 15, 2017. Retrieved June 15, 2017.
  18. ^ Gutierrez, Jorge [@mexopolis] (May 26, 2022). "my beloved kung space western is not moving forward at Netflix Animation" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  19. ^ Gutierrez, Jorge (Oct 17, 2014). The Art of The Book of Life. Dark Horse Books. ISBN 978-1616555337.
  20. ^ Eliot, Hannah (July 24, 2018). Día de los Muertos. Little Simon. ISBN 978-1534415157.
  21. ^ Gutierrez, Jorge (November 8, 2018). Border Bang. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-2374950419.
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