In 1994, Sweetland joined Pixar. His first assignment was as an animator on Toy Story. He continued as animator on A Bug's Life,[3] and Toy Story 2. He was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation for the film.
In 2007, Sweetland pitched a short film about a sympathetic magician who gets "dumped" by his rabbit. This eventually evolved to a more slapstick film (and a throwback to Warner Bros. classic Looney Tunes). Teddy Newton was brought on board to design the characters; it emerged as Sweetland's directorial debut, Presto, which preceded WALL-E in theaters.[2] It was nominated in 2008 for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2008. After finishing Presto, Sweetland left Pixar in 2009.
On September 24, 2010, it was reported that Sweetland had been hired by Sony Pictures Animation to direct an animated film adaptation of The Familiars novel series;[3] that project has been cancelled. In January 2013, Warner Bros. developed the animated feature film Storks under their newly created Warner Animation Group banner, conceived and written by Nicholas Stoller and directed by Sweetland.[5] In April 2015, Warner Bros. announced that the film, which Sweetland co-directed with Stoller, would be released on September 23, 2016.[6]
