Saturday, April 23, 2005
Aladdin Reunion Wrap Up
Robin Williams said wake up and smell the hummus. He was not making fun of the homeless. Really he wasn`t. And Aladdin said good tiger etc, he never said good teens take their clothes off. Okay, we got that out of the way.
Eric Goldberg was in a position to put his stamp on this film. Everybody else in the studio was working on some other animated film when Eric came in from England (He closed his English studio because of too much stress, he said, and then moved to Disney. Does that remove the stress factor, Eric?)
As the first animator on board Eric did a pass at most of the characters. This is how he managed to put over his Al Hershfeld inspired designs and set the look of the film. We got to see many of these designs last night at the ASIFA-Hollywood sponsored Glendale Library event when Eric and others showed their rough story reels from the 1992 movie.
There were rough animation reels from Eric Goldberg (Genii) Andreas Deja (Jafar), Tina Price- (CGI pioneer who animated the Magic Carpet) and many others that showed the characters in the development process. There were a couple of reels where you could see when the character jelled and first came to life.
To start Tom Sito asked everybody on stage to relate their first contact with the project. Ron Clements and John Musker (co-directors) spoke to the early development process. The move away from Alan Menken`s songs and the later journey back to them.
A comment that gave a lot of insight for me was that Robin Williams was not really a singer but he could do a good impression of a singer.
They made Kathy Zeilinski (animator of Jaffar as a beggar) stand up in the audience and relate the embarrassing story of how her water broke on her last day before maternity leave as she was finishing her very last scene (Jaffar as a snake). I can`t have my baby now, I`m suppose to have 3 more weeks.
Will Finn (Iago) was unable to attend because of health issues. Duncan Marjoribanks (Abu) was drafted from the audience. Hey I paid my money to get in, I`m not suppose to be on the stage. We offered him his money back but that didn`t seem to be the point.
I got a chance to catch up with Norma Rivera (assistant animator on Aladdin) I hadn`t seen her since Chuck Jones` last public appearance way back in 2001.
I also tried to talk one of the panel into appearing on our State of the Industry panel at Comic-Con. I`ll let you know if that works out.
Also in attendance were Raul Garcia, David Burgess animators; Brian Cliff -lead key assistant on the Genii; and Chris Heller -assistant animator
You know, you just have to come to these events folks. There is no way that I can remember all the cool stuff related to the audience. I do know that it will come out in my History of Animation classes or when I talk of Aladdin but it is like trying to relate a flowing stream of water.
All the crew members signed a poster (Eric Goldberg drew a great Genii and Andreas Deja did a killer Jafar drawing. This poster will be auctioned off in an online silent auction to raise money for the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center Project. I will give you the link when I get it.
The night ended with a number of questions from the floor and then the event broke up into long lines of people wanting to get sketches and autographs. Everybody from the Aladdin team was very generous with their time and talents.
This was a once in a lifetime event. You really should have been there! ¶ 9:07 AM
Eric Goldberg was in a position to put his stamp on this film. Everybody else in the studio was working on some other animated film when Eric came in from England (He closed his English studio because of too much stress, he said, and then moved to Disney. Does that remove the stress factor, Eric?)
As the first animator on board Eric did a pass at most of the characters. This is how he managed to put over his Al Hershfeld inspired designs and set the look of the film. We got to see many of these designs last night at the ASIFA-Hollywood sponsored Glendale Library event when Eric and others showed their rough story reels from the 1992 movie.
There were rough animation reels from Eric Goldberg (Genii) Andreas Deja (Jafar), Tina Price- (CGI pioneer who animated the Magic Carpet) and many others that showed the characters in the development process. There were a couple of reels where you could see when the character jelled and first came to life.
To start Tom Sito asked everybody on stage to relate their first contact with the project. Ron Clements and John Musker (co-directors) spoke to the early development process. The move away from Alan Menken`s songs and the later journey back to them.
A comment that gave a lot of insight for me was that Robin Williams was not really a singer but he could do a good impression of a singer.
They made Kathy Zeilinski (animator of Jaffar as a beggar) stand up in the audience and relate the embarrassing story of how her water broke on her last day before maternity leave as she was finishing her very last scene (Jaffar as a snake). I can`t have my baby now, I`m suppose to have 3 more weeks.
Will Finn (Iago) was unable to attend because of health issues. Duncan Marjoribanks (Abu) was drafted from the audience. Hey I paid my money to get in, I`m not suppose to be on the stage. We offered him his money back but that didn`t seem to be the point.
I got a chance to catch up with Norma Rivera (assistant animator on Aladdin) I hadn`t seen her since Chuck Jones` last public appearance way back in 2001.
I also tried to talk one of the panel into appearing on our State of the Industry panel at Comic-Con. I`ll let you know if that works out.
Also in attendance were Raul Garcia, David Burgess animators; Brian Cliff -lead key assistant on the Genii; and Chris Heller -assistant animator
You know, you just have to come to these events folks. There is no way that I can remember all the cool stuff related to the audience. I do know that it will come out in my History of Animation classes or when I talk of Aladdin but it is like trying to relate a flowing stream of water.
All the crew members signed a poster (Eric Goldberg drew a great Genii and Andreas Deja did a killer Jafar drawing. This poster will be auctioned off in an online silent auction to raise money for the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center Project. I will give you the link when I get it.
The night ended with a number of questions from the floor and then the event broke up into long lines of people wanting to get sketches and autographs. Everybody from the Aladdin team was very generous with their time and talents.
This was a once in a lifetime event. You really should have been there! ¶ 9:07 AM
