Carlos Saldanha: Director, Net Worth, 'Rio', 'Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' & Facts To Know

Brazilian director Carlos Saldanha was born in 1965. He is well known as an animator of animated films as well as a producer with Blue Sky Studios. He's directed such films as, 'Ice-Age: The Meltdown' in 2006, 'Ice-Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' in 2009, 'Rio' in 2011, and 'Rio 2' Saldanha helped co-direct the films 'Ice Age' in 2002 and 'Robots' in 2005. In 2003, Saldanha was nominated for Oscar Award for Best Animated Short Film for 'Gone Nutty'. Saldanha is married to mathematician Isabella Scarpa. The pair lived in a studio apartment in Manhattan's Greenwich village until their family out grew the apartment with the birth of the second of their four children. When they outgrew the apartment they moved to New Jersey to live along side their friends. Their childrens' names are Manoela, Sofia, Julia and Rafael. Saldanha along with his wife and oldest daughter compete in the Hoboken Harriers Running Club which is a 5k running club. His daughters, Manoela and Sofia have rendered their voice to the 'porcupine-like critter' called 'Molehog' in the film, 'Ice-Age: The Meltdown' which was directed by Saldanha. Sofia rendered her voice to Lina Gunderson as a child in the film, 'Rio'.

Saldanha was born in Brazil but he grew up in Marechal Hermes, Rio de Janeiro. He loved cartoons as a child and was also fond of drawing. By the time he was an adult, Saldanha initially considered a career in computer science only because he thought that a career in art would not be a good career choice for him. As he became aware of how computer-generated imaging was changing the world of animation, he discovered the continuing education program at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He eventually decided to major in computer animation saying, "I knew from the first day in class that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life". His instructors saw his talent and convinced him to enroll in the school's MFA program. Despite being aware of the risk factors, Saldanha opted to stay in Manhattan with his family so that he could complete the program. During his time at the SVA, Saldanha completed two award-winning film shorts that were later featured in film festivals around the world. While there, he met MFA instructor and future film directing partner, Chris Wedge. Wedge invited Saldanha to join Wedge's company, 'Blue Sky Studios'. He graduated from SVA with a Master's degree in Computer Art in 1993. While he was still in the initial stages of his career, Blue Sky Studios provided the special effects and Saldanha grabbed a hold of the opportunity to co-produce animated TV commercials. In 2002, Wedge and Saldanha co-directed the animated feature film, 'Ice Age'. The movie was a huge success and opened with a gross profit of $46.3 million. The duo then co-directed the film 'Robots' in 2005. This film even broke his earlier record at the box office with the movie 'Ice Age.' Saldanha later directed the 2006 sequel of Ice Age, 'Ice-Age 2: The Meltdown'. In 2009, Saldanha directed the sequel, 'Ice-Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' and after directing three films in icy locales, he desired a change of location. His next project was the 2011 film, 'Rio' which was set in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro. He did have that nagging feeling that his hometown of Rio de Janeiro was not fully portrayed in the film so he traveled to the city with other animators so they could properly capture the unique environment and habitats of Rio. The movie was a huge success and did a gross business of $484 million worldwide. 2012 saw Saldanha sign a five-year contract with 20th Century Fox to develop and produce animated and live-action films. He formed a Fox-based production company in 2013 called, 'Bottle Cap Productions'. In 2014, he directed and co-wrote the film 'Rio 2' and in 2017, an animated feature film adaption of, 'The story of Ferdinand' was released just before Christmas. He directed and co-wrote 'The Story of Ferdinand' for the most part on his own. He also directed the live-action adaptation of the graphic novel, 'Rust: Visitor in the Field'.

His net worth is currently under review.

In an interview, Carlos Saldanha spoke about his views on 'Rio 2'. On being asked what made the film different from the first one, he said, "I think being in the Amazon.' Getting to that world is very different from the first one because with the first one, the challenge was to work in the city, with Rio as the city. With the second film, we had to go to a completely new world. We had to do a lot of research about what trees are in the Amazon, as well as the plants and animals that live there too. So, that’s the most different part of it. Everyone knows how Carlos Saldanha is deeply rooted to his Brazilian roots. When asked about filming in Brazil, someone wanted to know if he felt pressure while working there. His respons? "Yeah, for sure! I remember growing up and seeing movies made about Brazil but I never felt connected to them. There was too much of a foreign eye in it for me so I tried to be as careful as I could when I was filming there. I wanted to make something that not only felt true to Brazilians but to their reality as well. I wanted to film something that was close to my heart, so that I could feel as though I belonged in their world. At the same time I also wanted to create something for the rest of the audience that’s never been done there before. I want you to feel like, through the movie, you can see Brazil. It’s not a documentary but I’m showing the side that I want to show and I hope that it fits in with my story. I hope that when you see the film that it’s pretty accurate. When I had the premiere in Brazil and people saw it for the first time, people though that I was making a movie about Rio and it felt right to me. I wanted to share a little bit of that culture.

Saldanha's film, 'Ferdinand' was nominated in the Best Animated Film category at the Oscar 2018. Oscar 2018 will be held in March 4, 2018.