Monday at Universal, a couple of battle-hardened animation veterans and I sat in the 25th floor conference room and commiserated about all the talent 'round about the industry...and in particular the amazing group that worked in the Disney Animation department between '78 and...oh, '83. It was quite a staff....
Firstly, there was Don Bluth (who directed and produced more independent animated features than anybody in the history of 'toons.)
There was Brad Bird (Iron Giant, The Incredibes, Ratatoullie, Family Dog)
...Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Willy Wonka, etc.)...
...John Musker and Ron Clements (Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules and on and on)...
John Lasseter....
Joe Ranft...(Pixar's dynamo story head)
Bill Kroyer...
And directors/story artists/animators like Glen Keane, Andy Deja, Eric Goldberg, Tom Sito, Mike Gabriel, Ed Gombert, Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers...
I know I'm leaving important names out but my collar's getting tight and you get the general idea. There was just a whole big raft of people who came to movie prominence in the eighties, nineties and beyond. They showed up at Disney within about six or seven years, and some stayed, some moved on, but holy crap there were a lot of folks who became motion picture tyros or animation icons. Or both...
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5 comments:
Now that I think about it, a few of these artists got to the Mouse House a little later. Oh well...
If i recall right that photo was taken at the end of Black Cauldron while the entire crew still was on staff and before we moved to Flower street.
Allers didn't join the company until sometime after that move on Oliver & Co and Goldberg not until Alladin, but I think the other names are either there were there prior to this photo
Are these the people at the party or are they examples of great animators? Because I know that one of the people on the list isn't with us anymore...
I'm not sure what you're asking. This post doesn't have anything to do with the TAG Holiday Party of last Friday. The post is simply commenting on what an amazing group of talent (and future stars) were at Disney about 25 years ago.
I get what the post is saying now. I was refering to Joe Ranft. Bless him. I hope I'm not offening anyone. If I am, sorry.
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