<P> In 1980, Ranft joined Disney as a writer and storyboard artist . During his first five years with Disney, Joe worked on a number of television projects that were never produced . Later in his Disney career, he was promoted into the Feature Animation department, where he was mentored by Eric Larson . Ranft later spoke about training under the Disney legend: "He always reminds me of just the fundamental things that I tend to forget . You know, it's like, animation is so complex;' How many drawings are in there?' and stuff, but Eric always comes back to like;' What does the audience perceive?"' </P> <P> Around this time, he studied under and began performing with the improvisational group, The Groundlings . Ranft stayed with Disney throughout the 1980s, writing the story on many animated features, including Oliver & Company, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast . He also worked on The Brave Little Toaster in 1987 for Hyperion Animation and James and the Giant Peach in 1996 for Allied Filmmakers . </P> <P> Ranft reunited with Lasseter when he was hired by Pixar in 1991 as their head of story . There he worked on all of their films produced up to 2006; this included Toy Story (for which he received an Academy Award nomination) and A Bug's Life, as the co-story writer and others as story supervisor . His final film was Cars . He also voiced characters in many of the films, including Heimlich the caterpillar in A Bug's Life, Wheezy the penguin in Toy Story 2, and Jacques the shrimp in Finding Nemo . </P> <P> In the movie Monsters, Inc., Ranft had a monster named after him (J.J. Ranft) as most of the scarers in the film were named for Pixar staff . Ranft used a German accent to voice Heimlich the caterpillar in A Bug's Life and a French accent to voice Jacques the shrimp in Finding Nemo . He was also given lead story credit on The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and voiced Elmo St. Peters, the appliance salesman . </P>

Who does the voice of the caterpillar in a bug's life