DivaLea: Joe Ranft

Joe Ranft, Pixar Animation Studios' head of story for more than a decade and a cornerstone of the company's creative team, died Tuesday when the car he was riding in plunged into the ocean after running off the road in Mendocino County, Calif. He was 45.


Picture from Yahoo! Movies, copyright Pixar

I want to say a personal thanks to Joe (can I call you Joe? Mister Ranft? Billy Bawb?) for helping bring back my son to me. It's a story I've told before, once to some poor bewildered Pixar dude on the floor of Comic Con, but bear with me.

In 1998, my family moved back to Texas from Alameda, California, just down the highway a bit from Pixar. My son was three, and had been sinking deeper and deeper into what we'd learn was autism. He spoke very little, what he did say was mostly echoed, he made no eye contact, he couldn't hug. But he loved Toy Story. Madly.
We went into a now-closed Half Price Books together on afternoon. Hanging on to his right leg with one hand, and browsing with the other, I picked out a few CDs, paid for them, and we got back into our truck.
One of those CDs was the soundtrack to Toy Story. I put it in, and the first few bars of "You've Got a Friend In Me" came over the speaker. The result was electric: my son's legs shot straight out, his head turned so fast there was almost a whipcrack sound, and he looked at me in wonder, his face lit with a grin I hadn't seen in almost two years. I'd made contact. The light in his eyes was back.

Since then, my husband and I have used our son's love of Toy Story to help him learn to read, to play, to understand loss and to appreciate giddy joy.
How many people will travel from this world having saved a life that might have otherwise been spent in years, if not endless, freefall?

Thanks, Joe, Mr. Ranft, Billy Bawb. Whatever. Thanks ever so much for helping make a bridge between me and my little boy.

Love,
Ms. Lea