Guillermo del Toro has written a loving tribute to animator and Pinocchio co-director Mark Gustafson, who died yesterday (seen below). The news of his death came from the filmmaker’s post, which features a picture of the two creatives when they worked on their award-winning stop-motion film. The Oscar-winning collaborator was 64.
The horror and fantasy director wrote that he “admired” the collaborator before they met. As a creative, he called him “a pillar of stop motion animation- a true artist.” When it comes to how being a person, he wrote that he was a “compassionate, sensitive and mordantly witty man.”
Guillermo del Toro Pens Loving Tribute to Pinocchio Animator Mark Gustafson, Who Died Yesterday
Coming off the news that Mark Gustafson died, no cause of death has been officially announced. Deadline reported that it was from a heart attack.
The Shape of Water director wrote that his co-director “leaves behind a Titanic legacy” that “shaped the career and craft of countless animators.” That influential work started in the 1980s working at the legendary Will Vinton Studios for films like The Adventures of Mark Twain. Co-directing Pinocchio became his biggest film, awarding the team an Oscar for the Best Animated Feature.
The two spent plenty of time together when making the animated film. In the thread, the filmmaker looked back on all the time they spent “burning the midnight oil during postproduction, or doing daily animation turnovers via Zoom during COVID or being trapped in an elevator in a Cinema in London.” For him, that time spent further cemented how people should meet their heroes. When it comes to meeting an idol, he wrote, “You cannot be disappointed by someone being human.”
Mark Gustafson is survived by his wife, Jennifer.
