How does one become a director for an animated movie?

Degrees that would help you to finding a career in animation include: 3D animation, animation, graphic design. Really has everything to do with computers. Now when talking about directing, you're bringing up a whole different beast. You need to learn about film in general, and becoming a director is nothing but difficult.

For college, go to cal arts. That's where a majority of the animators for Disney go. Be good at what you do and apply. My mom's friend is a screen play writer for Disney studios and he hates it there. They don't really pay their workers well so maybe make sure that is definitely where you'd like to work. I believe they treat their animators better though. When i was a kid, we'd go visit her friend for lunch and I remember when they worked on the lion king. They had a full grown lion in this room with glass windows surrounding it and tons of animators observing and sketching. It was awesome! If you live near Buena try getting a job at the Disney studio and this way you can make much needed connections.