Dan Scanlon has worked with Pixar Animated Studios for most of his career. He started out as a storyboard artist and animator for several movie sequels, including The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame II (2002). In 2009 he made his foray into directing with Mater and the Ghostlight, a short film. Monsters Univeristy (2013) became the first feature film for which he was director. His 2020 releases include Onward, which was inspired by the loss of his father as a child and the experience of receiving an audio recording of him when he was a teenager.