What I Learned Animating on "The Lion King"

"I know that your powers of retention..."

In the summer of 1993 I had the great good fortune to work at the Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles on The Lion King, animating under the guidance of lead animator Andreas Deja, who supervised the animation of Scar, voiced by Jeremy Irons.

For a junior animator, it was a dream job, and an education in character animation.

Andreas Deja, Scar and The Lion King

Disney Legend: Andreas Deja

Two weeks ago I was invited to participate in a panel discussion at CTN in Los Angeles about my father's work in animation. It was a nice way to honour his memory and talk about his work in an open forum with family, friends and colleagues.

While I was in LA, I also got to meet up at the Disney lot with Andreas Deja, lead animator and the man responsible for bringing "Scar" to life.

Roger Rabbit Reunion at Disney

Doy, Alex, Nik Ranieri, Ross Anderson, Burny Mattinson, Max Howard, Charles Fleischer, Andreas Deja

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released in the summer of 1988, making the movie 31 years old this year.  On Friday at Disney in Los Angeles we had an informal reunion with some the people who worked at the film, hosted in the Rotunda Building by Disney marketing head Howard Green.  Lead animator Andreas Deja was there, as well as Burny Mattinson, officially the longest serving employee of The Walt Disney Company,  Producer Max Howard, Charles Fleischer, the voice of Roger Rabbit, Ross Anderson, who has written the history of the film, animator Nik Ranieri, and me.

Medusa Thumbnails by Milt Kahl

Thumbnails by Milt Kahl

Andreas Deja's animation blog, Deja View, is a treasure trove of information about the Golden Age of Disney animation, and in particular the work of Disney's "Nine Old Men".

In a recent blog post, Andreas has uncovered the thumbnail sketches that legendary animator Milt Kahl used to animate his classic scene of Madame Medusa, the villainess of The Rescuers, removing her false eyelashes in the mirror.

The scene is one of Milt's best; a shot I often show in class to illustrate the importance of great acting choices in character animation.