The credits for the piece are: concept/direction Alvy Ray Smith, animation John Lasseter, technical lead Bill Reeves, technical contributions by Tom Duff (who designed the animation program called "md", short for "motion doctor"), Eben Ostby, Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter, Ed Catmull, David Salesin, Tom Porter, and Sam Leffler, filming by David DiFrancesco, Tom Noggle, and Don Conway, and computer logistics by Craig Good.

The title is a tribute to the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre, starring André Gregory and Wallace Shawn, the latter of which went on to voice Rex for the Toy Story franchise.

Because CGI models back then were restricted to rigid geometric shapes, Smith wrote André as a robot.

But Lasseter realized it was possible to make a more cartoony and soft-looking character despite these limitations, as Ub Iwerks' design of Mickey Mouse was also made almost entirely of geometric forms.

After finishing André's design, Lasseter was dissatisfied with how hard it was to make his character express emotions and attitude through his posture, and pushed the envelope by asking for manipulatable shapes capable of the squash and stretch style.