18 Comments »   posted in Animators, John Dorman, Tom Minton

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Drawing by John Dorman (left) and still from “Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero” directed, written and produced by Boyd Kirkland

The animation community lost two major talents last weekend—Boyd Kirkland (1950-2011) and John Dorman (1952-2011). Click on their names to read their obits on the Animation Guild Blog.

Kirkland was a director of many classic episodes of the groundbreaking American superhero cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. He also directed X-Men: Evolution and directed, wrote, boarded, and produced at numerous studios since entering the business in 1978. More thoughts about his passing can be found at Comics Continuum.

John Dorman had worked in animation since 1974, primarily as a board artist, designer and art director. At Ruby-Spears, he supervised the development department where he brought on greats like Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, and Doug Wildey. His list of credits range from Ralph Bakshi’s Hey Good Lookin’ to Spumco’s The Ripping Friends to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

There are some nice memories of Dorman on Buzz Dixon’s blog including this memorable tale:

While working on the animated Moses film, Prince of Egypt, John was assigned the task of storyboarding the parting of the Red Sea. The Exec in charge had some Strong Ideas how the story should be told, or rather, re-told. Specifically, to make it more “female friendly”, the Exec ordered the scene written with Moses’ wife breaking his staff across her knee & telling him to have faith in himself if he wanted to part the sea.

John was not a very spiritual, much less religious man, but he knew enough about the Bible to know camel dung when he smelled it. Still, a job was a job & John needed the money, so he storyboarded the scene as written…but he also “plused” it a bit.

John turned the storyboard in and the Exec smiled at how well John had interpreted the Exec’s ideas, then noticed something and frowned. “This is all wonderful work,” the Exec said to John, “but who’s this figure here? The one in the cape with the horned helmet and a big hammer?”

“Oh, that’s Thor,” John said. “I figured since you were [m]ucking around with the Bible I might as well throw him in.”

24 Comments »   posted in Animators, Boyd Kirkland, John Dorman

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Animation Guild Interviews

January 24, 2011 1:00 pm

Steve Hulett of The Animation Guild has started posting a wonderful series of audio interviews with the current “old guard” of Hollywood hand drawn animation. The first ten sessions are online now with more to come. My good friends Mark Kausler, Dan Haskett and Tom Sito (pictured above) relate some great stories of their almost 40 years (each) in the business. Other interviewees include Mark Kirkland (The Simpsons), Brian McEntee (Beauty and the Beast), Tim Walker (Warner Bros.), Robert Alvarez (Fosters Home), Ed Gombert (Little Mermaid), Bruce Smith (Proud Family) and Rubin Aquino (Lion King) – these are good long interviews, all worth downloading. Click here and enjoy!

3 Comments »   posted in Animators, Animation Guild

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Ze Glen Keane Est Très Bon, Non?

January 14, 2011 5:38 am

I’m sure Glen Keane shares lots of thought-provoking ideas in this interview, but who knows what since he decided to speak in some bizarre tongue. Thankfully, there’s also an English transcript.

(via Michael Barrier)

24 Comments »   posted in Animators, Glen Keane

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