| You've built a pretty amazing
resume at Disney over the past twenty years as both an animator
and producer - Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Little Mermaid,
Beauty & the Beast, Fantasia 2000 - was working for
Disney something you always wanted to be a part of?
It's funny. I tell people no. I enjoyed cartoons growing
up like any other normal kid, but I actually started going
to school in New York for advertising art. Then, in my second
year of college I took what was called a TV graphics class.
And one of the project was to create what was essentially
a moving logo. And that was the first time I had my artwork
move and created some animation.
Around the same time, I had been handed an article in the
New York Post that talked about this school in California
called Cal Arts, which had the Character Animation Program,
which was essentially set up by Disney to help get more
artists into the world. So I sent my portfolio out and got
accepted and received a Disney scholarship. And that is
how I got into it.
It is funny, but while I was at Cal Arts, I was with a
lot of people who were big DIsney fans and their dream was
to work there. And they would ask me what I wanted to do
and I'd say, I want to go back to New York and get into
the commercial world and do advertising with animation.
But that never happened - one thing lead to another and
I got hired at Disney and have been with them for twenty
years.
On the Front Lines is a bit of a change for you,
considering your past work as an animator. What compelled
you to attempt such an enormous undertaking?
I have always been interested in some of this material,
partially because it was under lock and key. And when things
are under lock and key, you are always more curious. I actually
came up with the idea of doing a compilation about ten years
ago. [So] I went in and I pitched it, and it was totally
shot down. (laughs) I felt like this material was never
going to get released and they didn't want to talk about
it. It just wasn't going to go out.
What would eventually change Disney's mind?
I had done presentation materials, so I shoved those into
an envelope and kept those in my office [over the years].Then,
virtually two months to the day after 9/11, I dusted the
stuff off, updated some of the materials and I sent Tom
Schumacher, who was then President of Feature Animation,
I sent him an email which said, Tom, I have an idea I'd
like to come and pitch you. And he shot me back a note that
said, Absolutely. Let's do it.
In two days I was in his office pitching him my idea. And
he was very receptive to it. The fact that 9/11 happened
and there was this outpouring of patriotism in the nation
and all these things happening in the geopolitical realm,
I think people [internally] looked at it and said, This
isn't a bad thing. Dick Cook was receptive to it, Roy Disney,
who was still with the company at the time, was supportive
of it. So I was able to move forward with it.
Why do you think Disney had reservations about
it originally?
Part of it had to do with some of the material was looked
at as being sensitive. Certainly, some of the cartoons are
unflattering to our enemies. Which is what they were meant
to be. There are unflattering caricatures of Japanese soldiers,
of Germans, of Hitler. I think some people deemed it as,
We don't want to put this out there. This was done during
the war, and the war is over, and we don't need to show
these.
But I also think some other people said that this was a
piece of history. And I certainly viewed it that way.
How long did it take you to put all of this together?
I like to tell people this project took me ten years. The
reality is that I pitched it in November of 2001, and completed
it in July 2003.
Was there any sort of issues with the U.S. government,
in terms of clearances?
No. All of this stuff is public domain. All of the training
films are public domain. Also, most of this stuff was declassified
in the late 60s and early 70s.
How complex was the restoration process? The DVDs
look great.
We took the best film elements we could find. We literally
went in and did a whole digital restoration.
Disney is often cited as having the best archival
policies of any studio in the world...
I think they care deeply about the assets they have. I
actually am now involved in the restoration of Bambi, and
have been involved with the restoration of many previous
titles. A great deal of money is being spent on restoring
and preserving this material. Even more recent titles. We
went in and did a restoration on Beauty & the Beast.
We went in and did a restoration on Aladdin. The Lion King.
And we are going to be doing Cinderella. They are now going
back to retrieve the nitrate negative from the Library of
Congress vault. There is an enormous amount of love going
into preserving this material.
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