Monday, March 19, 2012

The John Musker Interview -- Part I


John Musker, long-time director, producer and writer at the House of Mouse, grew up in Chicago Illinois and earned a Bachelor's Degree from Northwestern University ...


TAG Interview with John Musker

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

The degree was not in art. But John had been the political cartoonist at Northwestern's student newspaper, had an ongoing interest in drawing, and after graduation sent portfolios and resumes off to Walt Disney Productions and Marvel Comics. Two rejection letters followed, but Disney suggested that John apply to the California Institute of the Arts.

Which John did. And two years (and student films) later, Disney Feature Animation reversed its earlier position and offered John a job that began the week that Star Wars opened. ...

Cal Arts class circa 1976 -- Back: Joe Lanzisero, Darrell Van Citters, Brett Thompson, John Lasseter (pencil in mouth), Leslie Margolin, Mike Cedeno, Paul Nowak, Nancy Beiman; Middle: Jerry Rees, Bruce Morris, Elmer Plummer, Brad Bird, Doug Lefler; Front: Harry Sabin, John Musker

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Frankensteinian?" From an English Literature major, too...

I guess that's why he got into cartoons. Thank goodness!

Steve Hulett said...

Tongue in cheek, anon.

Relax a little.

Anonymous said...

Nice cliff hanger at the end, Steve! Makes me definitely want to hear more!

Highly looking forward to part 2. Is this going to be another 3-parter? *hoping for a yes*

Steven Kaplan said...

I'll take that one ..

You're welcome. I try to find spots where you leave feeling that way. Good to see this one worked out.

Yes, there will be three parts of Mr. Musker's interview. We'll have videos coming soon as well.

Chris Sobieniak said...

I'll have to listen to this one tomorrow!

Anonymous said...

That stick is firmly planted in your mouth. For a bunch of so-called "cartoonists," you sure don't have much of a sense of humor...I'm quite sure Musker got a laugh out if it.

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