Who directed the first Toy Story film?

John Lasseter directed the first Toy Story film.

Released in 1995, Toy Story was directed by John Lasseter and produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was Pixar’s first feature-length film and the first feature film made entirely with computer animation, making Lasseter’s directing role part of a major turning point in cinema history.

Lasseter had previously worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation before joining Lucasfilm’s computer-graphics division. He became a founding member of Pixar in 1986, where he directed computer-animated shorts including Tin Toy. The success of that 1988 short helped persuade Disney to work with Pixar on a computer-animated feature.

A frequent mix-up is assigning Toy Story’s director credit to other Pixar filmmakers. Lee Unkrich co-directed Toy Story 2 and later directed Toy Story 3; Andrew Stanton was a key writer and story contributor; and Pete Docter helped develop the story and later directed films such as Monsters, Inc. and Up. Lasseter also directed Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 4.