Dave Pruiksma: Cartoon Animator

I recently had the opportunity to interview the talented Dave Pruiksma, who is an animator of many beloved and popular cartoon characters. The following summarizes our discussion:

Bell: What was it like working at the Disney animation studio?

Pruiksma: Well, that is a two sided question. You see, at first things at Disney were very fun and exciting and challenging, but over my 20 years at the studio, many things changed and so did my experience of Disney Feature Animation. To illustrate this, let me tell you a little about the history of my association with Disney Feature Animation.

As a kid, in the early 1960s, I had never even dreamed it would be possible for me to work at Disney Animation Studios. Disney was something I perceived to be very lofty and unreachable. Something special. I thought, if I was lucky, I could bag a job at Hanna Barbera Productions doing The Flintstones or some other show in their huge production of television programming. Even as a small child I knew Disney and Hanna Barbera were different. I loved them both, but H & B just seemed a more attainable goal.

Then, after moving to California and attending California Institute of the Arts in the Character Animation program, I created characters and animated films that Disney took a shine to. Before I knew it, I was offered an entry level position at Walt Disney Feature Animation in the summer of 1981. I was floored at this development. It was wonderful! There I was, working with Eric Larson, one of Walt Disney’s hand picked “Nine Old Men” and each day I found myself strolling down the historic halls of the original 1940 Animation Building, (which no longer houses even a single animation artist and has not since the studio brass kicked Feature Animation off the lot in 1985).

Be that as it may, I was just thrilled to be working at Disney Feature Animation, one of the only studios at that time still devoted to full, top quality character animation. And, even though creativity was in the doldrums and the department, (at that time only about 150 people) was toiling away on sleepy, uninspired projects such as “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” and “The Black Cauldron”, the excitement and energy in the air was palpable. We were young, energetic and chomping at the bit to make a mark in the long tradition of Disney Feature Animation.

Finally, people like John Musker and Ron Clements (both brilliant animators turned story folk and finally directors)and others, were given the opportunity to develop projects such as “Basil of Baker Street” (renamed “The Great Mouse Detective” by an inspired “creative” executive of the day) and “The Little Mermaid”. The young staff (myself included) that had just finished laboring for years on the ponderous production of “The Black Cauldron” were so thrilled and excited to be working on a pithy, charming and entertaining story with appealing cartoon characters and traditional design. It was very freeing and enjoyable work. A great time for us to stretch our creative muscles and grow for the unknown tasks ahead.

After “Basil” came “Oliver and Company”, not exactly an artistic triumph for the department, but a step in the right direction which ended up being the most popular and profitable animated feature to date in 1988. Finally, things really started to roll as we came off of “Oliver” and plunged into “The Little Mermaid”. I still remember the day they brought the animation staff into the screening room and showed us the story reels for the “Under Da Sea” and “Part of Your World” sequences. It really was magic as a room full of then current animation’s harshest critics just melted into sheer joy. With this film, we knew we had arrived and a new age of classic animated features was about to be born.

This thrill grew with each progressive picture we worked on as we watched the quality of animation, technology and art direction merge into better and more impressive endeavors. For me, this arc peaked at “Aladdin”, (in my opinion the best, overall animated feature produced by our generation of animation artists) even though I also loved working on “Beauty and the Beast” and I seem to be the most known for my work on that film.

It was a great time to be in animation with the great sense of experimentation, success and acclaim. Sadly, that era would not last very long. As the films became more and more successful and profitable, the creative process was beginning to be “aided” by more and more management types, people brought in from the outside, (mostly from live theater that was at that time on the skids). These people had no animation experience, little sense of entertainment and what’s more, seemed to display and open contempt for the medium of animation itself. But, there they were and soon there their friends were and soon after that the joy and life of the animation process began to be removed and the people who loved animation and had actually revitalized animation for audiences in the 1980s and 1990s were soon bumped out of the process in favor of hack writers, “creative” managers and tasteless executives, not to mention the focus groups.

It was the beginning of the end for the magic of the Disney animated feature and my personal journals indicate that I could see it coming as early as late 1992.

Yet, I continued honing my craft as a Directing/Supervising Animator and working on the various productions coming down the pike, taking only a short break in my busy animation schedules to conceive of, develop and institute a special training program to teach animation principles and skills to the young, up and coming artists as well as the clean-up department. This program ran for a year from 1996 to 1997, just after I finished my work on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” to when I began development and character design on “Kingdom of the Sun”, soon to be renamed “The Emperor’s New Groove”.

At around the time I embarked on development of “Kingdom of the Sun” I was offered another 4 year contract at Disney and, even though I knew things were taking a very dark turn at the studio and lucrative offers came for other studios, including an emerging studio looking for top talent, I thought that I, and others like me in the department that cared, could help make a difference there at Disney. So, I committed to the 4 more years with Disney, knowing in my heart that if things did not get better, these would be my last years in the field I loved so much. Unfortunately, things did not get better.

They got worse. MUCH worse. Management was out of control, budgets spiraled upwards, needlessly, under incompetent leadership. The work schedules were grueling. In my last four years at Walt Disney Feature Animation, I had a front row seat for the death blows dealt to a 70 plus year tradition. Finally, I could not stand it any longer, so, between the end of animation on “Atlantis” (in January of 2001) and the start of my contracted “sabbatical” (In February of 2001), I quietly packed up the belongings I had collected over 20 years of work in the department into small boxes and then secretly carried each newly filled box out to my car every night until my office was empty.

There was a small luncheon gathering of close friends, colleagues and associates as an opportunity for folks to say goodbye to me on the day before I left for my "sabbatical". Then I left the Feature Animation building on Riverside Drive just across the street for the studio lot, knowing I would never return to Disney Feature Animation. That ended my 20 + year association with Disney, not out of desire, but out of necessity. I knew that Feature Animation would be going down in flames and it was not long before that premonition was coming true.

Note: For more information on this, as well as my letter of resignation, please visit my Bio page at http://www.pruiksma.com/bio.html

Bell: With what productions have you been associated?

Pruiksma: Here is a list of the major productions I have been associated with in the 25 or so years I have worked in the business:

• Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
  
  
• The Black Cauldron (1985)
  
  
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
  
  
• The Chipmunk Adventure (1986) A Non Disney Feature
  
  
• Oliver and Company (1988)
  
  
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
  
  
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
  
  
• Cranium Command (1990)
  
  
• Beauty and the Beast (1991)
  
  
• Aladdin (1992)
  
  
• The Lion King (1994)
  
  
• Pocahontas (1995)
  
  
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997)
  
  
• Kingdom in the Sun (1999) Unreleased
  
  
• Atlantis (2001)
  
  
• One By One (2003) A sequence from the Unreleased Fantasia Update
  
  
• Designs for Paul Frank Industries, Inc. (2001 to present)
  
  
• Animation for Renegade Animation (2001 to 2004)
  
  
• Writing, Storyboarding and Directing on the first season of "HiHiPuffyAmiYumi" for Cartoon Network (2004)
  
  

Bell: What characters did you animate on "Beauty and The Beast," and how long did it take to complete?

Pruiksma: I was on Beauty and the Beast for about a year and a half from start to finish. I was a Supervising/Directing Animator on the characters of Mrs. Potts and Chip as well as some miscellaneous sugar bowls, creamers, tea carts and other inanimate objects around the Beast’s castle. I finished up animation in late 1990, which then gave follow up people such as clean up and ink and paint time to do their magic on the animated scenes before the release of the film in 1991. I was also lucky enough to reprise the roles of Mrs. Potts and Chip in the summer of 1998 by animating key scenes of the characters in the bonus sequence of the song “Human Again” which was added to the original film from storyboards produced but omitted from the original release. It was a great deal of fun working on Mrs. Potts and Chip and “Beauty and the Beast”. A real labor of love and a highlight of my career.

Bell: What type of work did you do on the animations?

Pruiksma: As a Supervising/Directing Animator, it was my job to develop the design & appearance, motion style and performance of the characters assigned to me and to keep those elements consistent throughout the production as the different animators working under me would help generate the footage needed to complete the film. I was also responsible for leading these animators by example as I animated all the really important key appearances of the characters throughout the film. I also created reference model sheets for animators, clean up artists and even consumer products and toy producers that are still in use today.

Bell: What tools did you use to animate the cartoons?

Pruiksma: Well, not many. At that time all an animator had at their disposal was a pencil, a ream of animation paper, the storyboard and a lot of imagination. As I approached a scene or sequence, I would sit and listen to the voice tracks, consider the character and the plot points or emotions to be communicated in the scene or sequence and then start planning my action one drawing at a time. It is a slow, labor intensive, but very rewarding process. In fact, in my creative life, I have never experienced anything quite as unique and exhilarating as the experience of hand animating on a Walt Disney Animated Feature and I doubt that anything will come along again that will match the satisfaction of watching a series of drawings come to life on the big screen.

Bell: Is there anything that you would like people to know?

Pruiksma: Just that I am saddened by the loss of the great art form of classical, hand drawn animation and in the overall downturn in the quality of the animated feature today. There are, as always, some exceptions and some bright spots, but I feel like the medium has lost a great deal of heart, warmth, acting and imagination and that is really a shame. I would also like to remind your readers that The Walt Disney Company of today is really no longer the Disney that we knew and has not been for quite some time. It is definitely not Walt’s Disney and it is not even the Disney that did “Beauty and the Beast” a decade or so ago. The NEW Disney wears the costume and mask of Mickey Mouse but I can tell you, without a doubt, it is not the real Disney. It has now, under the questionable leadership of Michael Eisner and others, devolved into just a brand like Sony, Pepsi or GE and, under current management, a faded one at best. I also feel it will remain so until the general public turns it back on this new Disney “brand”, (example: sub-standard animated features and deplorable sequels to classics made on the cheap for DVD and theatrical distribution).

Consumers, use your good sense and your wallet to vote for a return to the Disney quality we once knew. The only thing that the current leaders at Disney understand is the bottom line and, so long as people buy the junk they currently produce, The Walt Disney Company will happily supply that junk for consumers to buy because junk is cheaper to produce and provides more profits for greedy executives, you see. This is the business model of today. Make as much as you can as fast as you can. Buy a trusted name, run it into the ground and then move on before anyone suspects they have been had.

In closing, I urge consumers to shun the sub-standard products produced by Disney today both at the stores and on the screens, large and small. Demand the level of quality that generations have come to expect from Disney. What Disney is now offering is not good enough and it is up to each and every consumer to send a message to the powers that currently be at The Walt Disney Company to bring quality and dependability and trust back to the Disney name.

Thank you.

I would like to thank Dave Pruiksma for allowing me to interview him. Pictured is Dave Pruiksma with Bradley Pierce, the voice of Chip who is the teacup in the animated film "Beauty and the Beast."

http://www.pruiksma.com/