Finding Nemo and WALL-E earned him two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature. He was also nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay, for Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Toy Story (1995), and for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Toy Story 3 (2010). Stanton directed the sequel to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, which was released in June 2016.
In an interview with World Magazine's Megan Basham, Stanton explained his singular vision for WALL-E: "What really interested me was the idea of the most human thing in the universe being a machine because it has more interest in finding out what the point of living is than actual people. The greatest commandment Christ gives us is to love, but that's not always our priority. So I came up with this premise that could demonstrate what I was trying to say—that irrational love defeats the world's programming. You've got these two robots that are trying to go above their basest directives, literally their programming, to experience love." In addition to his direction and writing work for Pixar, he has also done some voice work, most notably as Evil Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2 (1999) and Crush in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory.
On February 10, 2017, it was revealed by Entertainment Weekly that Stanton was going to direct two episodes of the second season of Stranger Things.
