This summer we were given a brief where we had to choose someone who had been influential in our field (animation in my case) and research them. I spent a while trying to decide whether I should choose someone obscure who had been influential to me personally but not necessarily to animation as a whole (I mindmapped it and made shortlists and all sorts of faffery), and choosing someone who had very obviously influenced it… in the end I went for the obvious.
– EARLY LIFE –
Glen Keane was born in Philadelphia in 1954, the son of Bil Keane – a cartoonist and creator of the syndicated newspaper comic strip “The Family Circus”. Watching his father work when he was a child was one of Glen’s primary influences in choosing to pursue a career in art.
After Keane had completed high school, he applied to the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) to study sculpture. His application accidentally ended up in CalArts’ School of Film Graphics, where he was offered a place. During his time there he was mentored by Jules Engel – an artist who had worked on Disney’s “Fantasia” and “Bambi”, and had visiting lecturers including Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston – two of Disney’s Nine Old Men (and writers of “The Illusion of Life”), who helped refine the 12 Basic Principles of Animation.
– DISNEY –
After CalArts, Keane applied to work at Walt Disney Studios, but was initially rejected. He reapplied after spending around a year working as a layout artist for Star Trek: The Animated Series, and was then hired by the studio. His first assignment at Disney was as an assistant animator on “The Rescuers” (1977), working on Bernard and Penny, under the supervision of Ollie Johnston. As assistant animator, his role will have been to take Johnston’s rough key drawings and do clean-up – redrawing the animator’s drawings on a new frame, with clean line work. An assistant animator will also add breakdown poses when there is a big difference between the animator’s keys, then pass all of the frames on to the inbetweener (who – as the job title describes – draws the inbetween frames).
By the time of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ next film, Keane had impressed his supervisors enough that he was offered the role of supervising animator on the bear (the antagonist at the climax of the film) in “The Fox and the Hound” (1981). During production he mentored Henry Selick, who cites Keane as an influence and who went on to direct “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline”.
Keane left the studio briefly in 1983 after his contract ended, but continued to work for Disney as a freelancer, supervising the animation on Ratigan for “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986). Ratigan was a great character – he spends most of the film parading around like a member of high society (played beautifully by Vincent Price), but he hides a murderous rage that presents itself should anyone dare point out that he is a rat. By the end of the film he has turned rabid, and as a nice piece of added symbolism, his fancy clothes have torn to shreds.
He played a key part in the Disney Renaissance, working as supervising animator on protagonists in six of the ten films produced by the studio during this period (1989-2000). The first was Ariel in “The Little Mermaid” (1989), who he also designed.
“I went and told these guys “I really want to do Ariel.” They said “Well, I don’t know Glen, it’s supposed to be a pretty girl, can you do that?” I said “Look, I have to do Ariel, I can feel it in my heart” – from an interview featured in the 2009 documentary “Waking Sleeping Beauty”
Most of his prior animation experience had been on animals and later villains, but he was determined to work on Ariel after hearing Jodi Benson (her voice actress) singing “Part of Your World” and being captivated by her voice. His design for Ariel was inspired by his wife, Linda (her heart shaped face, blue eyes and turned-up nose in particular) as were some of Ariel’s mannerisms – for instance the way she bites her lip. Keane would later take inspiration from other family members in his work – Tarzan was inspired by his son, Rapunzel by his daughter, and baby Rapunzel by his granddaughter! This was something he sort of inherited from his father, who based the characters in his comic strip on his own family.
“I love characters that have this burning desire inside. This sense of believing the impossible is possible.” – interviewed in 2011 by Criticize This
After Ariel, Keane designed and animated Marahute in “The Rescuers Down Under” (1990). The design was based on the prehistoric Haast’s Eagle, making her much larger and more imposing creature than a regular eagle, capable of carrying Cody (the child protagonist) on her back. She is majestic and fiercely protective of her eggs, having already lost her mate to the film’s antagonist, McLeach. Marahute has some interesting design sketches, click the picture below for a better view:
His next assignment was Beast in “Beauty and the Beast” (1991), which I think is his best work. The film had a somewhat troubled production schedule – two years into the four-year development time the production team had to completely overhaul the story and setting of the film. As a result of this, everything had to be rushed (this is noticeable in places).
Keane was in charge of designing Beast, and his initial sketches had him looking more like a gorilla or a bull. He spent a lot of time at a zoo looking for inspiration, and in the end he combined different characteristics from many animals – the head of a buffalo, a lion’s mane, gorilla eyebrows, wild boar tusks, a bear’s torso and the lower body of a wolf. He retained one human feature – his eyes, which communicate his sadness at his situation (as well as his standing posture being hunched – he feels no reason to walk tall).
The film climaxes with what is quite possibly one of my favourite pieces of animation ever (in pencil test form), showing Beast’s death and transformation back to being human, shown here:
Ahh.
Keane’s next three characters are titular, starting with “Aladdin” (1992). Similarly to “Beauty and the Beast” the film had issues – a year and a half before it was due to be released the studio decided they needed to change the characterisation for Aladdin (among others). His design was inspired by Michael J. Fox, but originally he was going to be in early adolescence rather than late teens. This made any potential romance with the more mature Jasmine less believable, so they decided to up his age to 18, taking inspiration from male models.
“Pocahontas” (1995) was the first time that, in addition to being supervising animator on Pocahontas, Keane was also heavily involved in visual development and story (he worked on a lot of the storyboards for the film). Critically, “Pocahontas” was the least successful film the studio produced during the Renaissance, partly due to the historical inaccuracy of the plot (for instance, the real Pocahontas was 12 when she met John Smith).
Early designs for Pocahontas showed her as being younger (which had more character), but in the end they decided they wanted a supermodel feel, basing her to some extent on Naomi Campbell. This is the only film Keane has worked on where we have actually seen *his* drawings (since all of his animation is cleaned up by assistants) – during the “Colours of the Wind” sequence we see his charcoal drawings. This would ultimately contribute to why he left Disney – he decided he wanted to pursue animation projects where he could be more loose and expressive, rather than the finished product being heavily reliant on being cleaned up.
Keane’s third titular character was in “Tarzan” (1999), where he again also worked as a story artist. As research, Keane travelled to Uganda with his son to explore the jungle looking for gorillas (with the help of a guide). They found a family group of 13 gorillas, who he observed and sketched. He wanted to feel the connection that Tarzan would feel with his home environment.
The animation on Tarzan is interesting because of his upbringing as one of the gorillas – his muscles are exaggerated as well as his hands and feet to allow for more believable movement, and his mannerisms are certainly inspired by his gorilla family. He has an awkward relationship with his ‘father’, Kerchak, who never approved of his mate, Kala, taking Tarzan in in the first place (having lost their infant son to the cheetah Sabor, who also killed Tarzan’s parents). It’s interesting seeing the projection of gorilla behaviour onto Tarzan complemented by the projection of more human-seeming behaviour/problems onto gorillas.
The last film Keane worked on at Disney was “Tangled” (2010). At the beginning of its six-year development Keane was director and executive producer, but he stepped down as director in 2008 (remaining in charge of animation on the film). To begin with it was very much his project – he worked on it very closely with his daughter Claire, who is a visual development artist at Disney.
Keane and his team wanted the film to look like an oil painting (an early source of inspiration was Jean-Honore Fragonard, particularly “The Swing”) – using non-realistic rendering of 3D animation. This was the first exclusively 3D film that Keane had worked on, but he wanted to retain the traditional feel of 2D. He organised a seminar named “The Best of Both Worlds” where he and his colleagues discussed the pros and cons of both 2D and 3D animation. They came to a variety of conclusions about how the film should look, but at the time they were not possible with technology they had, so the studio need to create new ways to be able to achieve it – particularly her hair. Keane drew up a series of instructions on how her hair should look, which had been standard practice in passing his designs onto the other animators, but this time it was up to the software engineers to develop something capable of doing what he wanted in 3D.
“We’re starting the story with this young, vibrant, gifted person who has to get out and realise who she’s meant to be. That’s what the story is.” – Keane talking about Rapunzel in “The Art of Tangled”.
Rapunzel is such a relatable character because she is just beginning something most of us have to go through at some stage – leaving the safety of your home and family and finding your way in the world on your own. That said, most of us don’t then discover that our ‘mother’ is actually an old hag just trying to retain her youth, who stole you from your royal parents.
– GOING SOLO –
Having spent nearly 38 years and most of his professional life working for Disney, he left in 2012.
“I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist its siren’s call to step out and discover them.”
– from his farewell letter to his co-workers.
In August 2013, at the annual D23 expo (Disney D23 is the official Disney fan club), Keane was made a Disney legend, and earlier this very week Keane’s future plans were revealed.
“I’m just about to start a little company. Glen Keane Productions. I’m starting very small with animation, drawings and the like. I’m about to start working on a new project that I really can’t start talking about yet. But I’ve got some ideas.”
– from an interview with Jim Hill Media
In addition to mentoring less experienced animators during his time at Disney, Keane regularly gives lectures at CalArts and does demonstrations at conventions. In advising other artists he produces simple but useful guides on what is important in animation drawings – general advice such as solidity and weight, and more character-specific guides, such as how to deal with Rapunzel’s hair in “Tangled”. His life drawing is fascinating to look at – he favours charcoal, and is greatly skilled at capturing the form accurately with very few lines.
“I see myself as an artist first. I’ve never thought of myself as a Disney Animator… …I put my portfolio in at CalArts to become a sculptor, a painter, and it was sent to the school of animation by mistake” – Keane interviewed in 2010
Keane helped define the Renaissance of Disney Animation, arguably their best period. His style is unique and recognisable, and has influenced what is seen as the current ‘Disney style’ (the way the more recent princesses look, for example). His characters come from the people he loves, knows, even just people he’s observed from afar. He has a varied body of work and is a master at his craft.
For me personally, he’s probably one of the reasons why I love animation. It’s impossible to not feel inspired by seeing his characters come to life, hearing how passionately he talks about what he does – even just seeing his development sketches makes me feel motivated to improve. He is wonderful.
Contextastic 