I so love the animation process. Interesting, everything that I do in animation, the kind of crafting and skills of storytelling, totally work within the structure of the Disney nature films. In a weird way, I like to think that animation is like painting, and Disney nature is like sculpting. Animation you start with a blank canvas and you paint. With Disney nature, you start with a big block of imagery and you hone it down into your final story. Somewhere you end up with something kind of pretty to watch.
If I like many photographers, and I do, I account for this by noting a quality they share - animation. They may or may not make a living by photography, but they are alive by it.
Animation is the only thing I ever wanted to do in my whole life. I have no desire for live-action or anything else.
I'm not honestly a real student of animation. I never was into it all that much. I don't really watch any animated shows.
All movies are inherently collaborative, and animation even more so. There are hundreds and hundreds of people involved with an animated movie.
If [hand-drawn animation] is a dying craft, we can't do anything about it. Civilization moves on. Where are all the fresco painters now? Where are the landscape artists? What are they doing now? The world is changing. I have been very fortunate to be able to do the same job for 40 years. That's rare in any era.
Animation story boarding works differently than live action story boarding. The story crew along with a writer really does shape and create the film - the world and it's characters. We meet almost every day and brainstorm the plot of the film. It's a highly collaborative process - and we continue to improve the story until we literally run out of time.
I've always loved animation and animated films.
For me, part of the fascination with making animation is you go to a place; it's a complete immersion in someone else's fantasy.
I'm a huge fan of animation, and just the arts in general - anything that emanates from someone's mind and soul and is capable of touching other people's minds and souls.
I'd had a belly-full of being subservient. I had to find something else to do, and I did. I went to the animation houses. I went to new fields.
If I wasn't acting or doing stand-up, I would be in animation. Or if I had the discipline I might studies physics.
Technology is the friend of traditional animation. It doesn't have to replace it. It can help you do it.
I don't necessarily consider myself part of the animation world.
When I was in my early 20s, I was quite into Japanese animation. It's like the same thing that I end up always saying which is, imagery based stuff is the thing that really gets me.
When caricaturist, Al Hirschfeld, did a drawing of a celebrity, it often looked more like the person than the person did. That's our goal in animation.
Intelligence, goodness, humanity, excitement, serenity. Over time, these are the things that change the musculature of your face, as do laughter, and animation, and especially whatever peace you can broker with the person inside. It's furrow, pinch, and judgement that make us look older - our mothers were right. They said that if you made certain faces, they would stick, and they do. But our mothers forgot that faces of kindness and integrity stick as well.
I have more faith in doing something creative for a cable station or something like Yahoo or Google or Amazon. What Netflix did with 'House of Cards' and David Fincher was brilliant. That is inspiring to me. I think there is more chance for creativity in animation, it just hasn't happened there yet.
My brothers were the ones who taught me about mythology and storytelling, and showed me how to do stop-motion animation.
Acting is a plum gig, and then animation is an even more plum gig.