Glen Keane
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Glen Keane (born on April 13, 1954)[1] (http://www.nndb.com/people/291/000022225/), is the son of Bil Keane, an illustrator best known for the daily comic strip The Family Circus, and Thelma "Thel" Carne Keane [2] (http://www.nndb.com/people/291/000022225/). He is perhaps the most famous traditional (2D) lead character animator in recent history. He is currently employed at Walt Disney Studios.
Glen graduated from CalArts in 1974 and joined Disney the same year. His debut work was featured in The Rescuers as an animator for Penny, alongside the famed Ollie Johnston [3] (http://aimee.wyvernweb.com/anim/aagleninterview.html), and Bernard. He then went on to animate Elliot the Dragon in Pete's Dragon [4] (http://aimee.wyvernweb.com/anim/aagleninterview.html). He animated the climatic bear showdown in The Fox and the Hound. In 1982, after being inspired by the groundbreaking film Tron, he worked with director John Lasseter (Toy Story, Toy Story 2) on Where the Wild Things Are, a 30 second short integrating traditional character animation on a computer generated background.
Glen left Disney officially for some time, working as a freelance artist on Ratigan in The Great Mouse Detective.[5] (http://aimee.wyvernweb.com/anim/aagleninterview.html) During a lull in production at Disney he did some work on "The Chipmunk Adventure". He came back to Disney to do work on Fagin, Sykes and Georgette in Oliver & Company. He rose to lead character animator becoming one of what some people refer to as the "Nine New Men". In this post he was responsible for some of the most memorable characters in what has been referred to as the "New "Golden Age" of Disney Animation.
- Ariel - The Little Mermaid
- Beast - Beauty and the Beast
- Aladdin - Aladdin
- Pocahontas - Pocahontas
- Tarzan - Tarzan
Most recently he was lead animator for Long John Silver in (Treasure Planet) and currently, Glen Keane is returning to his foray into the computer generated world as the director of Disney's upcoming CG film, Rapunzel Unbraided, expected to hit theaters in 2007. In Rapunzel Unbraided, Glen and his team hope to bring the unique style and warmth of traditional cell-animation to CG.
In addition to his work as an animator, he is the author and illustrator of a series of children's Bible parable books featuring Adam Raccoon and King Aren the Lion.