William Joyce (writer)

Children's literature

He has written and illustrated over fifty children's books including George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and his Adventures with the Family Lazardo, Rolie Polie Olie, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs and A Day with Wilbur Robinson.

Joyce is currently working on a series of novels and picture books, The Guardians of Childhood, consisting of a total of 13 books.

Film and television

Joyce has received three Emmys for Rolie Polie Olie, an animated series based on his series of children's books that airs on the Disney Channel. His second television series, George Shrinks, used to air daily on PBS stations.

Joyce created conceptual characters for Disney/Pixar's feature films Toy Story (1995) and A Bug's Life (1998).

In 2001, after Joyce and Ice Age director Chris Wedge failed to adapt one of Joyce's books to the screen, Santa Calls, they both came up with the idea for the animated film Robots (2005), which is based on the book of the same name itself by Joyce himself. Besides being one of the creators, Joyce also served as a producer and production designer.

In 2005 Joyce and Reel FX launched a joint venture, Aimesworth Amusements, to produce feature films, video games and books. The new company announced plans to make three feature films: The Guardians of Childhood, The Mischevians, and Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With the Family Lazardo. The first of those projects, The Guardians of Childhood was developed by DreamWorks Animation into the feature film, Rise of the Guardians. It was released in 2012 and is based on Joyce's book series and the short film Man in the Moon, directed by Joyce.

In 2007, Disney released Meet the Robinsons, a movie based on his book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, to which Joyce served as one of the executive producers of the film along with John Lasseter and Clark Spencer.

In August 2009, Joyce and Reel FX co-founder Brandon Oldenburg founded a Shreveport-based animation and visual effects studio MOONBOT Studios. The studio produced an Oscar-winning animated short film and an iPad app The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. A book adaption was released in summer 2012. The studio released in January 2012 another app, Numberlys, with a short film and a book announced to come later.

His book The Leaf Men was adapted by Blue Sky Studios into a 2013 computer-animated feature film titled Epic, with Joyce as writer, executive producer, and production designer.

Saks Fifth Avenue

In both 1994 and 1995 Joyce designed the Christmas displays for Saks Fifth Avenue's original location.

The World of William Joyce

This exhibition is run by the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature. It began in 1998 and is currently still traveling nationally.

Artspace

Artspace is a gallery located in Shreveport that is run under the guidance of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council. Joyce serves as the Artistic Director. He has helped bring a Peter Pan Centennial exhibit, an Art of Robots exhibit, and Faces of Katrina.

Community

Joyce has recently founded the Katrinarita Gras Foundation to raise money for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He is selling prints of his unpublished Mardi Gras The New Yorker cover through the foundation with all profit going to Louisiana artists and arts organizations.

Awards and accolades

Joyce received the 2008 Louisiana Writer Award for his enduring contribution to the "literary intellectual heritage of Louisiana." The award was presented to him on October 4, 2008, during a ceremony at the 2008 Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge. On February 26, 2012, he won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore."

Newsweek called him one of the top 100 people to watch in the new millennium.

Personal life

Bill Joyce lives with his son Jackson Edward Joyce in Shreveport, Louisiana. His daughter, Mary Katherine, died from a brain tumor at the age of 18 on May 2, 2010. Rise of the Guardians, a film inspired by stories Joyce told her while young and later resulted in The Guardians of Childhood book series, was dedicated to her memory. The main character of Epic, which is also based on Joyce's book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, was named after her. His wife, Frances Elizabeth Baucum Joyce, who was a Shreveport attorney, died on January 20, 2016 at the age of 55, after a long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Books

In May 2017, Atheneum Young Readers released the picture book "Bently & Egg," A Day With Wilbur Robinson, of which the film version is entitled Meet the Robinsons, and Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo. All are under the label "The World of William Joyce."

Note: All books are written and illustrated by William Joyce, except as noted

Rolie Polie Olie series:

1. Rolie Polie Olie (1999)
2. Rolie Polie Olie: How Many Howdys? (board book) (1999)
3. Rolie Polie Olie: A Little Spot of Color (board book) (2000)
4. Rolie Polie Olie: Polka Dot! Polka Dot (board book) (2000)
5. Snowie Rolie (2000)
6. Rolie Polie Olie- Character Books: Olie, Spot, Zowie, Billie (2001)
7. Sleepy Time Olie (2001)
8. Big Time Olie (2002)
9. Busy Books (2002)

The Guardians of Childhood series:

Novels:

1. Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (2011) – written with Laura Geringer
2. E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core! (2012)
3. Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies (2012)
4. The Sandman and the War of Dreams (2013)

Picture books:

1. The Man in the Moon (2011)
2. The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Mansnoozie (2012)
3. Jack Frost (2015)