Monday, September 12, 2011

The Larry Leker Interview -- Part I

Mr. Larry Leker a few years prior to the start of his animation career ...

Animation veteran Larry Leker has pretty much covered all the bases on the cartoon ballfield in a career spanning thirty-plus years ...

TAG Interview with Larry Leker

Find all TAG Interviews on the TAG website at this link

Getting his start with Ralph Bakshi in the 1970s, Larry has done the assistant animator/ animator thing as well as supervised layout. He has also directed and storyboarded while working on a wide variety of features, everything from Secret of NIMH to Beauty and the Beast to DWA's Spirit.

In this week's TAG Interview, Larry tells us how a Phoenix, Arizona teenager without formal art training found his way into a long and successful career in the world of animation.

(Just like last week, we offer audio and video versions of the interview. So take your pick.)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Someone for works for Don Bluth! And talks about Don Bluth more often! There should be MORE interviews that had always good experiences with Don Bluth!

Steve Hulett said...

Everybody has their own experiences and viewpoints in the world of animation.

We hope to get them all.

Anonymous said...

" There should be MORE interviews that had always good experiences with Don Bluth!"

Because there aren't many. Especially all the people in L.A., Ireland, and the Phillppines that he owes money to and left high and dry over the years.

People might be more forgiving if he ever made a film worth watching.

But he hasn't.

Anonymous said...

Great Interview
I have enjoyed working with Don John and Gary. And like Larry really learned and perfected my craft there. Thanks for the opportunity i have made a career out of it.
One thing rarely mentioned is that Don kept a lot artists around between movies and had them help out with design , clean up , ink and paint , efx. Many had a chance to train and apprentice a craft like boarding , BG paiting or animation and were kept on during slow periods.

Anonymous said...

Craft--perhaps. But little about good film making, strong storytelling, or "Character Animation."

As don's cartoons continually prove--no one gives a flying rats arse about technique and craft when they're watching a film. They just want to CARE--something his films fail to do.

Anonymous said...

Agreed. We get together once in a while to watch some of the bluth stuff just to laugh at how awful it is. And I use clips of everything from Nimh to Rockadoo-doo , Anastasia, and Troll in Central Park in talks I give to show how NOT to make an animated cartoon. Always gets a big laugh!

Chris Sobieniak said...

Bluth has his fans and enemies it seems.

Anonymous said...

Bluth's cartoons are awful. I'm glad the 9 old men ran him out of Disney--they all hated him.

Anonymous said...

I.love.that.photo. =D

Michael Cawood said...

Ever since I've subscribed to this on iTunes the Part 2s have always arrived before the Part 1s. Very odd. I've just gotten used to hearing the intro after the ending. Does anyone else have that problem?

Back to the interview... very interesting, and honest! I really enjoyed this one. Lots of truth in here about the industry.

Chris Sobieniak said...

I tend to simply download 'em when they show up, I suppose if there was an RSS option to get just the interview mp3's, I'd use that instead.

Chris Sobieniak said...

Although bothering to look into that Orson Welles flick, I don't suppose we'll see Larry's little stint anytime soon if the approach to complete it 'professionally' doesn't come up.

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