Joe Ranft was one of the most prolific storytellers in the Pixar canon.

Working at first for Eric Larsen at Disney, working on Lion King and Beauty and the Beast among others, then moving over to work with Jon Lassiter at Pixar as the head of the story dept - Joe was responsible for the story's and characters in Toy Story, Bugs Life, Cars and others.

Unfortunately a car accident took his life in 1995. He left behind his family, and brother who works in the industry.  

Having seen the film "Soul" and realizing how much of a documentary it is - meaning that a number of the story points are also story points in the "Flipside" research I've been doing for over a decade (the Great Beginning, classrooms of newly formed souls, guides and teachers who watch over them, how a person comes from there to hear - how we choose our journeys in advance based on the lessons we need to or want to learn, etc) I thought for our New Year's podcast Joe would be an ideal candidate.

He has messages for his family and friends, including Jon Lassiter, including Pete Docter, co writer and director of Soul.  For those who don't know who he is, they should know him - he's one of the "mentors" for 22 in the film "Soul" that's posted on the wall her list of mentors she's "defeated."  

The name of the main character appears to be named after Joe - and from their review (the flipside review of the film) they loved it.

They said "It was more accurate than you think" as well as giving it a 98% accuracy for "how to explain it to people on the planet. (however, pointing out that once one is on the flipside, it's about 15% accurate in terms of that more vast experience.)  You want to talk to the flipside? Anyone can, and this is just one of the 42 examples from this year. Happy New Year.