Apr 4, 2006

Listen to Glen Keane on the Podcast

It's up! The latest Animation Podcast is part one of an interview with master animator Glen Keane--truly a guy who requires no other introduction. I haven't even played it myself yet, but I'm sure it's going to be fascinating stuff:

Glen Keane interviewed by Clay Kaytis

My one on one interactions with Glen have been limited to a total of about 3 minutes, but one in particular stands out as a great memory: seeing "Mermaid" at an 8:00 show at the Cinerama Dome, my group--all family, no other students or fans--was settled in the rear of the theater, and just as the lights came down Glen Keane and his family sat down in front of us. Of course I recognized him, and I'd seen his rough pencil test of "Part Of Your World" when he brought it to show to the entire animation department a year or so earlier. It had stunned me(and everyone else)with its beauty. It was absolutely a new pinnacle for Disney character animation. So, after sitting through this finished film, and being more entertained than I'd been in ages by a bunch of guys at the top of their form, it was obvious that this was really going to be a new day for animation. Thank goodness.

As the credits rolled and we all jumbled our way up the aisle, I was side by side with Glen for a second. I stopped him with an outstretched hand and said, shaking his as he looked at me politely, "Thanks for that beautiful animation". He looked a wee bit disoriented, as you might imagine--who was I supposed to be? He had no idea...but he also looked pleased. It made my night that I was able to literally thank him for such an exceptional job. I don't know what he thinks of that animation of Ariel now, with all the years of newer discoveries, hindsight, etc.--but to me it's still way up there.
Okay, off to play that while I work!



6 comments:

Ward Jenkins said...

That's a great story, Jenny. I love that you were able to thank him for his animation without going into too much detail about who you were, etc. Very cool.

The podcast was great, just like I figured. It's funny, though -- I get a bit flustered whenever all the podcasts end because they end right when they are getting to a good juicy part. D'oh! But it's great that Clay is doing this. Love it.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip, Jenny!

Huge Glen Keane fan.

B.

Jenny Lerew said...

-Hey Bob! Isn't it cool, what Clay does? Another Mac guy! And what have you been up to with iMovie lately? ; ) Wanna see!

-Hey Ward--I owe you a chat! Sorry--we've been busy[bees]to the extent that I havent been in the office at all(then I was out Monday). Anyway, yep, that was a cool thing, to be able to give Glen the tiniest of thanks(although for a second I probably scared the poor man to death! Geek alert!! LOL). He's a very gracious and generous artist. A few things he said in his CalArts lectures have sustained me artistically in some rough times...one day I may thank him for that, too. He certainly raises the bar for all of us.

Ward Jenkins said...

No problem, Jenny! I've been busy lately myself lately(currently working on two different jobs at work -- yikes!).

Anonymous said...

I met Mr. Keane at the Annie Awards years ago. Decent chap. And yes... it was like meeting a famous musician, or a seasoned actor. (Gene Hackman comes to mind).

Very nice man.

I haven't done anything with iMovie lately. I'm lame.

I hope all is well. It's a toss up for me to set my homepage to... Blackwing? Or Pidgeon? Blackwing? Or Pidgeon? I check both your blogs regularly.

B.

Unknown said...

Glen Keane is a great guy, I had the chance to meet him several times while he was working in Paris on Tarzan, and he was the nicest guy on earth, so keen to show me his animation, going through the sequences, explaining to me how and why he did it that way... amazing! Then I met hime again with 2 friends 3 years ago in L.A. and again, welcome me in his office, he was working on the development of Rapunzel at the time, took us through the storyboard, his beautiful drawings, we spent an afternoon with him. I was working with his daughter too in Paris, such a nice person too.
It's with this kind of Artist that you learn, they just want to share they're knowledge without beeing pretentious or arrogant, top guy!