You know what’s really striking about Andreas Deja ? Not that he’s such an accomplished animator, the talent behind such memorable Disney characters as Gaston in “Beauty & the Beast,” Jafar in “Aladdin,” Scar in “The Lion King,” the title character in “Hercules” as well as one of the title characters (I.E. Lilo) in “Lilo & Stitch“). But — rather — that this huge talent has such a small ego.
Which perhaps explains why Andreas is somewhat uncomfortable with all the acclaim that’s recently been heaped at his feet. Winning the Winsor McKay Award at this year’s Annies. That week-long celebration of Deja’s career that was held in his hometown of Dinslaken, Germany. Not to mention tomorrow night’s event at Van Eaton Galleries, where the cream of the animation community is expected to turn out to help celebrate “An Evening with Andreas Deja.”
Andreas Deja returns to his hometown in Germany for week-long celebration of his career
Truth be told, this sort of event isn’t really Andrea’s cup of tea. But given that this “Evening” (Which is a very belated celebration of the 25th anniversary of Deja’s arrival at the Walt Disney Animation Studios) is actually a fundraiser for the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive … Andreas is willing to stand in the spotlight for a little while if it will help out such a worthwhile cause.
“I think that I’m still kind of young for this sort of celebration,” Deja admitted. “But Steve (Worth) asked for my help and I’m glad to do what I can.”
Of course, some of Andreas’ unease may come from the fact that — while many animators working today consider him to be something of a Disney Legend — Deja knew the real Legends. Having corresponded with and/or befriended many of the veteran artists who helped create such classic Disney films as “Bambi,” “Cinderella” and “Fantasia.”
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“I actually got to meet all but two of the ‘Nine Old Men,’ ” Deja explained. “Les Clark and John Lounsbery had both passed away before I arrived at the studio in 1980. But as for the rest, I did get to talk with them and then convince them that I wasn’t just some fan. That I was serious, that I genuinely did want to learn more about my craft. Which is why some of them were then nice enough to share their insights about how to get a good performance out of an animated character.”
The key (as Andreas understands it) is that you have to ” … throw yourself into the brain of your character. Take your own life experience, your own working knowledge and then try and make that character, that moment in the movie seem as real as possible.”
Case in point : “Lilo & Stitch.” Deja freely admits that he initially had trouble tackling this assignment, which was animating the very odd 6-year-old girl who served as the emotional center of this Chris Sanders film. But then Andreas saw the storyboards for the sequence in the movie where Lilo & her sister, Noni were at home screaming at one another.
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“There was something very familiar about all that yelling and door slamming,” Deja said. “Which was when I realized that this was just what my two sisters used to do when I was living at home. It was then that I realized how to root this sci-fi story in real life. Make what was happening to these characters at that moment something that the audience could really connect with.”
That said, the character of Lilo did present Andreas with some interesting challenges. “She had this huge Muppet mouth with no teeth,” he continued. “I constantly worried about matching the dialogue. I mean, you have to have teeth to properly be able to say words like ‘Stitch.’ “
It’s Deja’s keen eye for details like that — as well as his desire to not repeat himself — that has made this veteran Disney artist something of an idol to many modern animation students. Which is why Andreas often finds himself being asked to give advice about which career path they should take.
“A lot of students tell me that — while they love traditional animation and really want to learn that craft — they still feel that they have to study CG because that’s where the jobs are right now,” Deja explained. “That — to me — is a decision that’s being made out of fear. Which isn’t how an artist should operate. Instead of giving in to fear you should always follow your gut.”
Many times in his career, Andreas opted to follow his gut and take the less-easy path to success. Whether it was turning down the chance to animate a great character like Frollo in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (Because Deja felt that that was just one-too-many Disney villains and was worried about repeating himself) or leaving a comfortable life in LA to go work on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in London (Because it looked like Richard Williams and his team were really trying to do something special with that motion picture). Or — better yet — Andreas’ decision to stick with traditional animation when so many of his colleagues at WDAS were climbing into the CG lifeboat.
“I’ve always said that if you take the drawing out of Disney, it just isn’t Disney,” he continued. “That’s why I think that it’s great that they’re now reviving traditional animation at the studio. And not a moment too soon. If they had waited even one more year to try & rebuild this unit, it would have been almost impossible. People were leaving town, getting into other lines of business. But now hopefully we can avoid a repeat of the 1980s, where Disney made a couple of awkward movies while the artists had to relearn the craft of making good animated features.”
Hopefully with Deja on hand, WDAS can avoid any awkward mis-steps when production of “The Princess and the Frog” (I.E. Disney’s first traditionally animated feature since “Home on the Range“) officially gets underway sometime later this year. As of this moment, that new Ron Clements & John Musker movie is still in story development. So to kill time ’til he can get an assignment on that project, Andreas has been doing everything from helping to create new shorts for the studio to working on Disney’s highly anticipated Holiday 2007 release, “Enchanted.” Plus — of course — agreeing to take part in worthwhile events like tomorrow night’s “An Evening with Andreas Deja” at Van Eaton Galleries.
Speaking of which … Space is extremely limited at this ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive fundraiser. So if you want to be guaranteed a seat (More importantly, the chance to get your hands on one of only 200 limited edition giclees featuring some of Andreas’ most famous characters that the artist has created just for this event), please call 818-788-2357. Tickets purchased in advance are $10, $12 at the door. The festivities are expected to get underway at 7 p.m. and then wrap up sometime around 10 p.m.
Van Eaton Galleries is located at 13613 Ventura Blvd in Sherman Oaks, CA. For further information on the galleries and/or this special event, please click on this link.
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