There are those JHM stories that people just seem to ignore. And then there are those other articles. The ones that seem to take on a life of their own.
Take — for example — the “Can a few WDFA die-hards really make a difference?” article. The piece where I talked about how veteran Disney animator Andreas Deja has become something of a hero to many over-of-work traditional animators. All because Andreas is reportedly refusing to work on any on WDFA’s upcoming computer animated features. But — at the same time — Glen Keane (considered by many to be the greatest living animator working today) has become something of a pariah with this same group of people. All because Keane has allegedly agreed to work in CG on Disney Feature Animation, “Rapunzel Unbraided.”
Well, as you might expect, a story that said something like that was rather controversial. Which is why quite a few folks came forward to take issue with the piece. Take — for example — this e-mail from Lee C. which read:
I read your article about WDFA 2D animators refusing to work on CG films, where you wrote:
“Who am I talking about? Feature Animation vets like Andreas Deja. Who — I’m told — is absolutely refusing to work on any Disney CG projects.”
A bit later, I came across an article on-line at VFXWorld.com, about “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas” — an upcoming direct-to-video CGI film. Here’s an excerpt:
Veteran Disney animator and Mickey expert Andreas Deja was on hand to give guidance. “There’s a lot of drawing that’s gone on and it’s funny how there are many traditional skills that go into making this type of CG movie,” Marsden explained. “And when scenes come back to us, Andreas helps draw notes…to make sure that Mickey’s eyes are following Donald or his posture needs to be more depressed or his body should be in a certain pose, and the best way to do that is always to draw. So Andreas has been trying to make sure that things are the way we know Mickey.”
Does that count as “working on” a CG film?
Lee C
Which is a fair enough question, don’t you think? Which is why — with the hope that it would clarify my earlier comments — I spent the following note back to Lee C.
Lee —
I’ll grant you that Deja’s consulting work on “Twice Upon a Christmas” could be viewed (by some) as being somewhat hypocritical. But you have to understand that Andreas has a special attachment to the Mouse, having animated the character in both Disney’s “The Prince and the Pauper” and “Runaway Brain.” So he’s become the go-to guy at WDFA as the company tries to successfully translate 2D Mickey Mouse into 3D.
Also please note the way that that article describes Deja’s contribution on “Twice Upon a Christmas: ” … Andreas helps draw notes …” This isn’t a guy who’s clicking keys or picking up an electronic stylus for this production. He’s deliberately hand drawing stuff and then handing it off to Marsden’s people.
I know, I know. A lot of people would say that I’m splitting hairs. But the fact of the matter is — because Andreas is determined to whatever he has to in order to keep Disney traditional animation alive — the guy’s been reduced to working on a direct-to-video project, “Bambi II.” Which you’ll have to admit is a tremendous waste of talent.
Anyway … Thanks for sending this along this morning, Lee. I really do appreciate that you took the time to try and make me aware of this apparent inconsistency in what Deja says and what Deja does.
Best Regards,
jrh
You did catch that little info tidbit in there, didn’t you? That Andreas is now working on “Bambi II” for the folks at Disney Toon Studios (the folks who produce those video premiere projects for Buena Vista Hoem Entertainment)? Which (let me repeat what I sent in my e-mail to Lee C.) seems like a tremendous waste of talent.
Mind you, other e-mails that I received tried to poke holes in Andreas’ “I’m-not-going-to-work-in-CG” claim as well as trying to defend Glen’s position. Take this note from A:
(ITALICS)
Hello Jim,
Due to your recent attacks from readers on the Glen Keane story, I thought I would tell you what I have heard from my inside sources. It’s a sad story but I don’t feel anger is needed. So here is what I have been told.
Several months ago (about October or November) I was talking to a friend of mine at Disney and he was dishing me some dirt on upcoming projects. He was currently working on “My Peoples” (AKA “A Few Good Ghosts” AKA whatever…) He was telling me how really great the movie was going to be, about it being very funny and everyone at the studio was excited about finishing it (including Andreas Deja who was animating a main character in CG).
Now my friend loved to gossip so he wasn’t one to boast on a Disney film out of fear. Anyway, he had been telling me that they had been having trouble with getting the film’s “look” to be acceptable with feature animation head David Stainton and crew. What they were apparently having problems with was the film was using a sort of reverse take on computer/2D hybrid.
The characters in [“My People”] (described as junk puppets) were to be animated in CG and everything else was to be animated traditionally. The look of the film was to be, when the “human” characters were around everything was very smooth Disney 2D as the puppets lay inanimate, but when the puppets came to life (being CG) the animators were purposefully animating them to look more like old Rankin-Bass stop-motion. (Think Rudolph-but animated like Rudolph, not animated smoothly.) My source said that it looked amazing and it was a real fun, fresh way to use computer animation for this picture. Andreas apparently had his hand in the project puposefully trying to work with CG in a new way.
Now, the problems started to arise when screenings began going through Mr. Stainton and crew. Reportedly, every time they would show dailies and what-not in this new technique, he would tell the animators that he didn’t understand why they weren’t making the animation all smooth and flowing “…like Pixar.” They would say that was because they were supposed to be like stop-motion puppets and not “living toys” like in “Toy Story.” Well, in the end this point was never received and the project was cancelled.
Are you still with me? The Glen stuff is coming up.
At this time, my friend had gone to dinner with Andreas Deja and spoken of his displeasure with Disney. Well, to be frankly honest, he was downright depressed. He had stated that at that time, he was THE ONLY 2D animator currently employed at the California studios. It got bad to the point that Andreas actually moved out of the studio and worked almost exclusively out of his home office.
Now that is that….on to Glen.
During this time, several new projects were being tossed around. “Chicken Little” was one of them. When I asked what the state was with that project, all my friend would say is that the movie started out being a very cute tale of a female chick who says the sky is falling and gets called a freak. She then gets sent to a camp where she met a bunch of other kids and makes friends and blah blah blah. A cute happy story. He said it was pretty good. Then he said for some reason, this whole project got scrapped, the little girl became a little boy and now the story was about aliens attacking the world. That was the last he had (and was interested) to hear of the project.
Also at this time the whole “Princess” line from Disney was being pitched in full force. This is where Glen comes into play. Dave Stainton had told the studio he wanted another fairy tale picture. So Glen Keane and some others had pitched a project based on a story called “The 12 Princesses”. Now, I’m not familiar the story but I was told it’s not about “12” princesses.
When this project was pitched to Dave — before (even) hearing the story — he stated 12 princesses is too many princesses to have in one story. So the project was turned down.
Back to the drawing board, Glen began conceptualizing a very beautiful Rapunzel fairy tale. He did concept illustration, motion tests and all this wonderful work showing how this movie could look….in 2D! Glen was trying VERY hard to get this film produced in 2D, stating — at the pitch — that the studio needed to produce more higher quality movies like the films of old. (“Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast” and whatnot.) He had literally done months of work preparing this pitch for “Rapunzel” to show them how well the movie could show her hair in 2D alone.
One of the comments actually made during the pitch (I am not making this up) was “What’s with all the hair?” After all of the work done by Glen (he was exhausted trying to prove his point), Stanton flat out told him the piece would be done in CG and no other way. Glen was offered a chance to learn CG and be an animator and he refused. He said “Absolutely not!” But he had already invested so much time into the project that he decided to stay on as storyboard and animation director to make sure the project was done to its best quality. Well, that’s what I have to say about that subject.
The real irony of the situation is that only prior to the Rapunzel incident, Glen had been called in to “fix” some shoddy CG work done on Ariel for some CG ride Disney had where a bunch of classic characters had been re-animated in CG. Glen was called in because the animator couldn’t animate her HAIR! Glen had to hand animate Ariel’s hair so the CG guys could see how it was done…….shrug. *sigh*
Well that’s about all I have…and can…say. Hopefully this info will be insightful to your readers should you use it. Thanks for your time Jim.
Well, as you can see, this story isn’t quite as simple as we first thought. And I would imagine that today’s article would get even more WDFA insiders to come forward and explain what’s actually going on with Deja and Keane. Two truly talented men who — let’s be frank here — really deserve to be treated better by the flaks who are currently running Walt Disney Feature Animation.
Which is why JimHillMedia.com is going to continue to follow this story. Even though it may result in even more hate mail being sent my way.
As for the hate mail … don’t worry. I’m a big boy. I can take it. Besides, every so often, a nice note shows up in the pile. Like this one — which came from a very good friend of JHM:
Hi Jim,
Seems you’re taking some heat over today’s column about Glen and Andreas.
Having talked to both Glen and Andreas, about Disney’s current problems, I can understand where they’re both coming from. While I don’t expect any one artist to put his career on the line, it would be nice if those wielding some degree of power could speak up for their colleagues. Well, it didn’t happen in the past, and I don’t expect it to happen now.
I don’t blame Andreas for working on those crappy direct-to-videos. Hell, I’ve done it myself. A buck is still a buck. While I know Glen will do his best on “Rapunzel Unbraided,” I still see that as a Disney version of “Shrek.” No originality at the mouse house these days, with the possible exception of Chris Sanders.
Don’t worry about those “self righteous” animators railing against you. Keep on reporting. I love to make them mad, too.
Okay. That note alone should stir up a few hornets at WDFA as well as out there in the traditional animation community.
So what do you folks think?