In recent decades, he returned to feature animation with Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) and Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022).

[3] When he was 15, during a babysitting job, he discovered the book The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch on a coffee table.

Minkoff recalled, "I cracked it open and it was filled with so much incredible artwork from the golden age of animation."

[4] He studied at Palo Alto High School and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1980s in the Character Animation department.

"[5] During the summer of 1982, Minkoff received an internship at Walt Disney Productions, and was apprenticed by Eric Larson, a senior animator who was one of the "Nine Old Men".

[5] In 1988, Who Framed Roger Rabbit had become a critical and commercial success, which revived a new interest in theatrical cartoon shorts.

[5] Eager to direct a live-action film, Minkoff was handed the script for a feature-length Roger Rabbit sequel, and was hired to develop the project.

"[15] Sometime later, he worked briefly with Robert Zemeckis on a film project with Universal Pictures and a version of Mr. Popper's Penguins with producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

In November 2000, Minkoff, along with his producing partner Jason Clark, had signed a three-year first-look deal at Columbia Pictures, in which he also agreed to direct the sequel, Stuart Little 2 (2002).

In 2011, DreamWorks Animation announced it was producing the project as a computer-animated film, which reunited Minkoff with Jeffrey Katzenberg.

[30] In November 2015, Minkoff and his producing partner Pietro Ventani had signed a two-picture deal with Le Vision Pictures to co-develop and produce a CGI-animated adaptation of Wolf Totem based on the Jiang Rong novel and a live-action comedy titled Silkworms.

[31] In 2010, Minkoff was pitched the idea for Blazing Samurai by writer Ed Stone, who had initially envisioned an all-human cast.