Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio co-director Mark Gustafson dies aged 64

Del Toro describes Gustafson – who worked on Fantastic Mr Fox and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas – as a ‘pillar of stop-motion animation’

Mark Gustafson, co-director of Oscar-winning animation Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, died on Thursday aged 64. The news was reported in the Oregonian, and Del Toro posted a tribute on social media, saying Gustafson was “a pillar of stop-motion animation [and a] compassionate, sensitive and mordantly witty man”.

Gustafson joined Del Toro on Pinocchio after a long career in stop-motion, having animated The California Raisins in the 1980s at the start of his career, and rising to be animation director on the Wes Anderson Roald Dahl adaptation Fantastic Mr Fox in 2009. He also acted as head of animation on A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas in 2011.