I did this drawing for Ollie Johnston in 1997 when he was celebrating his 85th birthday, which is on Halloween, October 31.
The reason I am thinking about Hercules right now is because I just returned from a screening of the film at Hollywood's vintage El Capitan theater. The movie palace is currently screening all of John Musker's & Ron Clements' animated films, leading up to their brand-new and first CG Disney movie Moana.
As far as my impressions regarding the animation in Hercules, Nik Ranieri's Hades and Ken Duncan's Meg sure stand out. My character Hercules as well as some of the others seem to work best when not "over animated", meaning when the acting reads clearly and feels natural. Some of the scenes I animated way back hold up, while others scream to be done over again. For some reason the sentimental scenes I did still work for me, when Herc is being humiliated by Hades, or when he is coping with Meg dying. Some moments with Meg at night on their first date look ok, too.
I was at the screening! Thank you for your hard work on that awesome film.
ReplyDeleteIt was the first time I'd seen the film in a long time and I'd forgotten just how much comedic animation there is in it. I'd say the vast majority of it holds up given how much the audience was laughing.
Apart from Hades, Meg and Hercules (great job and refreshing to read your take on this looking back) the Titans by Dominique Monferry and crew stood out to me as well. A reallly cool kind of mix between Fx and character. Especially this cyclops character. It's not that often that you see a big character move around with such convincing mass and fat etc. Just really well drawn as well.
ReplyDeleteAndreas!
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say howdy and hope you're doing well. The blog is one of my favorite go to places for animation info and reference, and just wanted to drop you a quick note and wish you all the best my friend!
Rob Corley
Have you listened to his podcast interview from 2005? I just found it and I'm binge-listening to the podcasts: http://animationpodcast.com/album/all-shows/ :)
DeleteHi Rob, so nice to hear from you! All the best to you as well!
DeleteThe screening last night was wonderful! Hercules, both the film and character, hold a very special place in my heart. Curious, which scenes featuring Hercules would you do over again?
ReplyDeleteHow much I would like to see (again) the Disney classics in a movie theatre! Hercules would be one of them for sure!
ReplyDeleteYou know, something tells me that John and Ron didn't even want Moana to be CGI in the first place.
ReplyDeleteI love this movie and character!!! Congratulations for this excellent job!
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