Animator of the Month: Iwao Takamoto

Today, I have decided to introduce a new feature to this blog, The Animator of the Month. It will feature animation artists both well-known and obscure, based upon their impact on the animation industry as a whole. This month, Iwao Takamoto will be covered.

Iwao Takamoto cira 2005.

Iwao Takamoto, was born on April 25th, 1925 in Los Angeles, California to Japanese immigrants. Although Iwao never attended college, he was a quick leaner. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angles at age 15. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Iwao and his family were forced to move into the Japanese American internment camp, Manzanar.  Despite having to endure living there until the end of WWII, the Takamoto  family made the best they could of the situation. Iwao took up drawing classes under the wing of two other interns who were formerly film studio art directors.

Barracks at the Manzanar internment camp.

After being released from Manzanar, Iwao contacted Disney. He initially knew little about the company, but had remembered hearing the name frequently from his tutors. Despite having little idea how to put together a portfolio, Iwao's work was accepted by the studio. He would end up working there for 16 years, between 1945 to 1961, as an assistant animator. He worked closely with senior animator Milt Kahl, helping bring life to such characters as Lady from The Lady and The Tramp and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. While he was working on Sleeping Beauty, he married Jane B. Baer in 1957. They would have one son together, Michael, and remained married for seven years. The last film Iwao worked on at Disney was 101 Dalmatians.

Layout drawing by Iwao Takamoto for The Lady and the Tramp.

Iwao working on Sleeping Beauty. 

(The cigarette is just as essential as the pencil.)

A drawing from a sequence in Sleeping Beauty.

While it is easy to speculate that Iwao could have left Disney due to receiving little to no credit for his work, this practice was common at time for other Japanese Americans, women, and minorities. (Today, many contemporary animators are more aware and appreciative of their efforts, including Disney's Andreas Deja.) It is far more likely that he eventually left the studio due to the competition that theatrical animation was receiving from television, and thus started working for Hannah-Barbera.

Iwao at Disney between 1950-1960.

At Hannah-Barbera, Iwao Takamoto found great success. He first began working as a layout artist on The Yogi Bear Show, and would quickly go on to become one of the studio's chief character designers. By the 1970s he had become a major producer for the studio and he would go on to direct two of the company's feature films, Charlotte's Web (1973), and The Jetsons Movie (1990).  Iwao also met Barbara Farber at HB on one of her studio tours. They married in 1964, and would stay together for 44 years, until Takamoto's death.

Iwao's drawing style is distinguished by his use of thick, smooth lines with rounded edges and tapering angles. (Which is what Hannah-Barbera would later become known for.) His work for Disney is more detailed than what HB's more limited animation would allow for. Thus, his later work tends to focus on simple, easy to draw forms. As Iwao's friend and co-worker, Scott Awely, put it:
"When you do a Saturday Morning cartoon, you have to cut out every nonessential line because pencil mileage is money."

Character sketches for HB's Alice in Wonderland TV special.

Iwao seemed to be specially apt at designing cartoon dogs (Astro from The Jetsons, Muttley from Wacky Racers, Scooby-Doo, Hong-Kong Phooey) and young women (Penelope Pitstop from Wacky Racers, Velma and Daphne from Scooby-Doo Where Are You?). Scooby-Doo is arguably Iwao Takamoto's most famous creation. Iwao was inspired to create Scooby-Doo by one of his co-workers who bred Great Danes as show dogs.

Upon reflecting on Scooby-Doo, Iwao said, "She showed me some pictures and talked about the important points of a Great Dane - like a straight back, straight legs, small chin, and such. I decided to go the opposite and gave him a humped back, bowed legs, big chin, and such. Even his color is wrong."

The first sketch Iwao Takamoto proposed for Scooby-Doo in 1969.

Pitch title card for Scooby-Doo.

Later in his life, Iwao's role in the animation industry began to get more commonly acknowledged. In 1996, he received the Winsor McCay Award for Lifetime Achievement, having spent over 50 years working with Disney and Hannah Barbera. He also became Vice President of Special Projects for Warner Brothers Animation the same year.

Iwao Takamoto passed away on January 8th, 2007 at age 81. His legacy lives on through the many animators he worked with and helped inspire. In 2009, Takamoto's post-humerous memoir, My Life with a Thousand Characters, was published. An intimate memoir entitled Living with a Legend by Leslie E. Stern, Iwao's stepdaughter, was published in 2012.

10 Notable Female Animators

Outside of acting, relatively few women get recognized for their efforts in the film industry. This is particularly noticeable in the animation field. While things have certainly improved since the earlier half of the 20th century (where a women had little hope of doing anything but inking, painting, or in-betweening), it is still far more common for female animators and directors to work independently, rather than within the studio system. Female comic book artists are also more common, perhaps for the same reason. Many of them (such as Kaja Foglio [Girl Genius], Kate Beaton [Hark! A Vagrant], and Tracy J. Butler [Lackadaisy]) have met great success 'publishing' on the internet. While women still aren't nearly as common as male cartoonists, they have began to appear in larger numbers in recent years. Below is a list of the ten notable female animators that helped pave way for other artists in the field.

1. Lotte Reiniger

Reiniger's complex stop-motion technique is based on Chinese shadow puppets.

Lotte Reiniger is commonly acknowledged not only as the first significant female animator, but also as a pioneering stop-motion animator. Lotte grew up in Berlin and first became fascinated with film after seeing the works of Georges Melies. In 1918, she was assigned her first major job, animating the wooden rats created for the intertitles for Paul Wegener's The Pied Piper of Hamelin. Shortly after, Reiniger began directing her own short films in her trademark silhouette cutout fashion. She directed seven shorts between 1919 and 1922, which were produced and photographed by her husband, Carl Koch.

After three years of hard work, her feature length film The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) was finally released, beating out Snow White by over a decade. The film was loosely based on One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, and met enough success to allow Lotte to direct a second feature, Doctor Dolittle and his Animals, in 1928. Unfortunately, Lotte and her family were forced to flee Germany after the Nazi regime took control. She lived out the rest of her years in Paris and in London, were she continued to make short fairytale films for advertising companies, BBC, and Telecasting America.

Prince Achmed is the oldest surviving animated film.

2. Lillian Friedman Astor

Friedman was one the first women to work at a major animation studio.

When Lillian Friedman Astor was rejected by Disney, she was not deterred. Instead, she applied to rival studio Fleisher Brothers in 1930 at the age of 19. Within three years, she was 'secretly' promoted from the lowly rank of inker to head animator by Shamus Culhane. She was responsible for animating many key scenes in the popular Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons, as well as several Comicolor titles. Her work includes: "Can You Take It?" (1934), "Betty Boop's Prize Show" (1934), "Be Human" (1936), "Hawaiian Birds" (1936), "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" (1936) and "Pudgy and the Lost Kitten" (1938).

Although she didn't always receive screen credit and was paid considerably less than her male counterparts, Friedman was apparently very pleased to have a job at Fleisher. So much so in fact, she was rumored to have named her dog Popeye! In 1939, Freedman retired from animating in order to raise her family. Despite her short career, she inspired several others to follow her footsteps and not to be afraid to showcase their talents in a traditionally male run profession.

The classic cartoon "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor".

3. Mary Blair

While technically not an animator, Mary Blair hugely influenced the look of many classic Disney films. 

Perhaps no other women at Disney was as well recognized as Mary Blair. She first began working at Disney in 1940 alongside her husband Lee Blair, after previously working at Ub Iwerks Studio and Harman-Ising Studios. Unlike other female employees at Disney at the time (such as Retta Scott and Retta Davidson), Mary Blair was a concept artist and a scenery designer. Blair's art is characterized by her bold use of colors, angular forms, patterns, and simplified shapes. Her style was heavily influenced by her 1941 trip to various South American countries with other Disney artists, as part of Roosevelt's 'Good Neighbor Policy.'

Her designs and storyboards were crucial in the process of creating several animated features including: The Three Caballeros (1944), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). After briefly resigning from Disney after Peter Pan and working as a childern's book illustrator, Mary Blair helped create the It's a Small World attraction for Disneyland in 1964. Additionally, she created several murals for the theme park up until 1971. For those interested, much of Blair's artwork can be viewed here.

A sampling of Blair's unique concept art.

4. Faith Hubley

Faith and her husband, John, reviving an oscar in 1966. 

Faith Hubley began working in the film industry at only 15, when she left home to work in a theater. She made her way to Hollywood three years later. Her first job was as a messenger for Columbia Pictures. Later, Faith worked at Republic Pictures, where she became a music editor and scripts clerk. In 1955, she married animator John Hubley, who had previously worked for Disney and UPA. Soon after, they founded their own independent company, Storyboard Studios. The goal of the studio was to produce one film per year. Both Faith and John made a total of 20 shorts together, between 1957 to 1977.

These films met much acclaim due to their free-form visuals and use of dialogue from actual childern (usually their own), as opposed to using adult actors. Indeed, much of the dialogue in their shorts is nonlinear in nature, and often focuses on relishing things in life that some might consider mundane. The best known shorts the two made are arguably "Moonbird" (1959), "The Hole" (1962), "A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature" (1966), and "Windy Day", all of which won or received Oscar nominations. When John died in 1977, Faith continued to make films on her own up until her own death in 2001. (It should also be noted that Tissa David [who was the second female animator to direct a feature film, and animated the female lead in Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure] frequently worked with the Hubleys.)

A still from "Windy Day" (1967) demonstrating the Hubleys' minimalist style. 

5. Sally Cruikshank

Quite possibly the most abstract animator on this list, Cruikshank's films are like no other.

Sally Cruikshank's work is undeniably weird, but extremely creative and mesmerizing. She was drawn to animation at a young age, citing the surreal 1930s shorts of the Fleisher Brothers, Bob Clampett, and Carl Barks's comics as influences. After completing her education at Smith College and thoroughly studying an animation book by Preston Blair, Cruikshank released her first piece in 1971, the three minute "Ducky". Encouraged by feedback from her peers, Cruikshank enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduating, she produced her most well known short, "Quasi at the Quackadero" (1975), which features two of Cruikshank's reoccurring characters, the infantile Quasi and the temperamental Anita. In 2009, "Quasi" was added to the National Film Registry, and it was voted #46 in the 1994 book, The Fifty Greatest Cartoons.

Cruikshank produced several other surreal short films during the 1970s and 1980s, including "Make Me Psychic" (1978) and "Face Like A Frog" (1988). In 1980, she proposed an animated feature about her duck-like character entitled Quasi's Cabaret, but the project was ultimately abandoned due to funding issues. However, Cruikshank is fondly remembered by many Gen X'ers for an entirely different reason: she animated several segments for the program Sesame Street.

Cruikshank explains her animation process.

6. Ellen Woodbury

Woodbury working at Disney Studios.

Ellen Woodbury made history in 1994, when she became the first woman animator at Disney to supervise a major character. When Woodbury first entered the field of animation, things looked pretty grim. In the early 1980s, very few studios produced films or television series beyond simplistic children's entertainment. Thus, Woodbury was stuck at the uninspiring Filmation. In 1985, her talent was noticed, and Woodbury moved to Disney. She started as a cleanup artist on The Great Mouse Detective, and eventually was promoted to animator on Oliver and Company and The Little Mermaid. Soon after, she animated several iconic Disney characters including Abu (Aladdin, 1992), Zazu (The Lion King, 1994), and Pegasus (Hercules, 1998). In 2005, Woodbury left Disney and became a full time sculptor. She currently teaches character animation at the Art Institute of Colorado. (Anyone who would like to read more about Woodbury can visit the blog, The 50 Most Influential Disney animators, here.)

A model sheet of Abu for Aladdin. 

7. Suzie Templeton

Never heard of her? She's one of the most talented stop-motion artists around.

Perhaps no other career is as time consuming as being a stop-motion animator. Up until a few years ago (thanks to the invention of 3D printers), the average stop-motion film took around five years to make. For this very reason, the technique is less commonly used than other forms of animation. Yet a handful of artists have perfected the craft. One of them is Suzie Templeton.

Interestingly enough, Templeton was not originally inserted in becoming an animator. Although she helped her brothers make several homemade movies during her childhood, Templeton graduated in sciences and held odd jobs in different countries for several years. Dissatisfied, she went back to school and switched to humanities. It was only after seeing Wallace and Gromit, that Templeton entered the realm of animation.

Although she originally planned to work for commercial studios like Aardman, Templeton found the studio model incompatible with her style. So she decided to work independently on more personal projects, than to appeal to the masses. (Perhaps this is because her films tend to deal with dense subjects, such as unhappy marriage, loneliness, and death.) Templeton completed two short films at her university, the Royal College of Art, "Stanley" (1999) and "Dog" (2001), which met much acclaim. In 2006, Templeton released her take on "Peter and the Wolf", a half an hour testament of her skill. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Currently, Templeton is working on an undisclosed feature film.

All of Templeton's puppets are extremely detailed.

8. Nina Paley

Independent animator, cartoonist, and free culture activist.

Nina Paley is one of the most active female animators today. She made several short films starting at the age of 13, but did not really begin experimenting with animation until 1998, after she published two moderately successful comic strips, Nina's Adventures and Fluff. Some of her shorts made during this period include: "Pandorama" (1999), the world's first camera-less IMAX film, "Fetch!" (2001), a humorous take on optical illusions, and "The Stork" (2002), a commentary about overpopulation and consumerism.

In 2008, Paley generated much attention for her first feature film, Sita Sings the Blues, which interprets the Indian epic The Ramayana from Sita's perspective and compares it to Paley's own marriage struggles. Due to issues with clearing rights for the film's soundtrack, Paley has often criticized the inefficiency of copyright laws. (Perhaps this best demonstrated by her short, "Copying is Not Theft" [2009]). Currently, Paley writes the comic-strip Mimi and Eunice, and is working on a second film entitled Seder Masochism.

In order to fiancee her projects, Paley works as freelance artist. Notably, she designed the Cruzio Wireless cat logo. Paley is entirely self taught. Although she studied art at the University of Illinois, she never took any formal animation classes. Her work may seem simplistic from a technical standpoint, but her attention to detail and sense of composition makes up for it. Paley boldly tackles many controversial topics that many other animators and directors tend to gloss over or avoid, but she does so without being overly mean spirited and with a good dosage of humor.  

Sita Sings the Blues proves that even Flash animation can be used creatively.

9. Brenda Chapman

Chapman is likely the best known female animator today, thanks to Brave (and the controversy surrounding it).

Brenda Chapman has certainly been in the news a lot lately, but her career in film stretches back to 1989, when she worked as a story trainee on Disney's The Little Mermaid after graduating from CalArts with BFA in character animation. Chapman served as a writer and storyboard artist for many renaissance films, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Lion King (1994), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). She also worked on several DreamWorks films and co-diercted The Prince of Egypt (1997), making her the first woman to direct an animated feature at a major studio.

In 2003, Brenda moved to Pixar. Five years later, it was announced that she was to direct the company's first fairytale film, The Bear and the Bow, which eventually was renamed Brave. However, Chapman was removed as director due to creative disagreements, and replaced by Mark Andrews. Despite her dissatisfaction with her removal (and move to LucasArts), Brenda was happy with the film's results, and how it remained loyal to the mother-daughter relationship she wanted to portray.

Some impressive concept art for Brave.

10. Lauren MacMullan

Lauren Macmullan (right) with producer Dorothy McKim (left) at the D23 expo. 

Macmullan has directed and storyboarded for several companies over the years. Her speciality seems to be writing for television shows, as she has worked on The Critic, The Simpsons, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, which are some of the most widely acclaimed animated series ever made. Her first venture into film was The Simpsons Movie (2007), where she served as the feature's sequence director.

In 2009, Lauren began creating storyboards for the proposed Pixar film, Newt. Unfortunately, Newt never saw the light of day, due to concerns about its plot being too similar to two other animated films coming out the same year. Lauren Macmullan now seems to be content working at Disney for the time being. She storyboarded Wreck it Ralph (2012), and recently directed a short film starring Mickey Mouse, "Get a Horse!"

Macmullan is known for her use of dramatic lighting and complex facial expressions, two aspects which can often get overlooked in TV animation. Coincidentally, there are two other recent female animators of note that go by the name of Lauren: Lauren Montgomery (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Wonder Woman) and Lauren Faust (The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic).

This Mickey Mouse short will screen alongside Frozen in November.

Early Versions of Famous Cartoon Characters (Disney Edition)

Designing a memorable and believable cartoon personality takes a lot of work and time. Unlike actors, each design for a character must be drawn up and invented on the spot. It is quite easy to overlook all this, as a well defined characters just seem so natural on screen. Listed below is a small glimpse at the formation of several Disney icons from over the years. (For those of you who enjoyed this article, I highly suggest you visit the website the 50 Most Influential Disney Animators.)

1. Snow White

Grim Natwick's first and finalized drawings of Snow White.

At first look, this early sketch of the heroine of Disney's first animated feature looks an awful lot like Betty Boop. This was because Snow White was designed and animated by Grim Natwick, a long time employ and animator for Fleisher Studios. Natwick would later refine Snow White, giving her a more realistic appearance needed for the film.

Besides animating Snow White and Betty Boop, Natwick also contributed to several other projects. He redesigned Woody Wood Pecker for Walter Lantz, animated Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, and helped with Robin William's ill-fated The Thief and the Cobbler, just to name a few. Natwick's contributions can not be understated. Since 2010 there has been a animation festival named after him, which is held an annually in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

2. Jiminy Cricket

Early, more cricket-like sketches of Jiminy by Kimball.

Pinocchio (1940) was the second Disney feature film after Snow White and thus a lot of anticipation surrounded the project. Fortunately, the film proved to be just as, if not even more memorable than its preceder. This was due to its vastly improved animation, more complex plot, and fuller characters. Arguably, Jiminy Cricket is the best example of the later. The cricket originally appeared briefly in the story that the film was based off of, giving advice to Pinocchio only to be squashed. (Although, the cricket did appear later as a ghost.) Walt Disney saw potential in the character and decided to expand the his role and for him to act as Pinocchio's conscience.

Ward Kimball was given the job of designing Jiminy in order to make the cricket more appealing (and as sort of an apology from Walt for cutting a scene that Kimball animated for Snow White). Kimball, who would later become one of the most famous and respected animators who ever lived, found it very difficult to make such an 'ugly insect' cute. Kimball ended up settling with a character that hardly even looked like a real cricket, and more like a small man. Never the less, this did not matter. Kimball's excellent animation of the cricket, the character's appealing design, and portrayal by Cliff Edwards made Jiminy an unforgettable Disney icon.  

3. Aurora 

Early sketches of Aurora based off of Audrey Hepburn by Tom Oreb.   

Mark Davis's finalized look for the character.

To many, Sleeping Beauty (1959) represents the pinnacle of hand drawn animation during the Golden Era at Disney. It had complex, varied animation and an uniquely inspired angular style, blending modernism with Medieval paintings (which was largely due to the genius of the background artist, Eyvind Earle). However, the film was not very well received when it first released. Although Sleeping Beauty was nominated an Academy Award for its score, the film drastically underperformed at the box office (only earning about $7.7 million for its six million production costs!) and the critics found it to be lacking in character development (To be fair, Disney leads, up until fairly recently, have generally been less interesting than the supporting cast.) Due to these factors, Walt would switch completely over to the Xerox process developed by Ub Iwerks to keep costs down for the rest of his films, and Disney would not make another fairytale feature again until The Little Mermaid in 1989.

The development of the princess Aurora (from the Latin word for "dawn", the same name used in Tchaikovsky's ballet) helps make sense of some of the difficulties Disney's ambitious, but troubled film. The original drawings for Aurora by Tom Oreb were heavily modeled off of Audrey Hepburn, who was at the height of her popularity at the time. Marc Davis, who had experience previously animating Cinderella and also animated Maleficent for Sleeping Beauty, modified Oreb's original idea so that Aurora could better fit in with Earle's stylized backgrounds, while still maintaing her willowy frame. Marc Davis's wife, Alice, designed Aurora's final costume and live action footage of actress Helene Stanley was used for reference purposes. Visually Aurora worked well in her film, but she had very little personality. Then again, Aurora is asleep for the vast majority of the film, only having screen time for about eighteen minutes, so this is not too surprising.

4. Cruella De Vil 

Cruella as she appears in the original book. Yes, there was a book.

Sexy Cruella?!

Now we are getting a bit closer.

Cruella in action, as we know her today. 

Arguably one of Disney's most famous villains, Cruella De Vil was another crowning achivement of Marc Davis's Career.  No doubt, her presence and the modern setting of 101 Dalmatians (not to mention the puppies themselves), helped the film become a major success. This was especially relieving to the Disney staff after what had happened with Sleeping Beauty. Cruella Devil shows Marc Davis's skill at creating diverse and memorable personalities. Although Cruella is a villain like Maleficent, she is very different. Cruella is far more dramatic, flamboyant, vain, and in-your-face, whereas Maleficent is far more composed, cruel, and reserved. Cruella is so caricatured that she is very easy to laugh at, but also can come of as frightening if needed. And of course, the more nasty and ugly Cruella is, all the more cute and innocent the dalmatian puppies seem. Looking at the evolution of Cruella De Vil's character, it is certainly interesting to see how her design goes from being a cold and fashionable women, to being outright haggard and crazy! 

"Cruella De Vil. Cruella De Vil. Just try to get this out of your head, you never will." 

5. Prince John



Ollie Johnston's tiger Prince John.

Early drawing of the cast by Ken Anderson.

Prince John doing what he does best.

Robin Hood, for better or for worse, was the first Disney film to not be approved by Walt (and the second to be produced without him, after The Aristocats), as he had died seven years earlier in 1966. Granted Walt did influence the production of the film by the decision of making a film related to, but not directly about the folk character Reynard the Fox (due to Walt finding Reynard too cruel to be likable). Reception for Robin Hood was initially mixed and the animation itself was made on a tight budget (resulting in retracing of several scenes from earlier Disney films) Today, the film has garnered a better reputation for its brand of humor and excellent performance of Prince John by Peter Ustinov.

Like in the Reynard tales, Disney's fox version of Robin Hood faces off against an inept ruler who happens to be a lion. Ollie Johnston originally planed for John to be a tiger, but his since his brother was King Richard 'the lion hearted', the idea was dropped. Prince John isn't even depicted with a mane like a healthy adult male lion. This is likely done as a knock on his inefficacy to rule, and his immature behavior. Interestingly enough, the film's climax was going to be different and would have made John somewhat more of a threat. The surviving storyboards, drawn by Ken Anderson, reveal that Prince John actually attempted to stab Robin Hood after he fell down into the moat.

Robin Hood's alternate ending!

6. Gurgi

Milt Kahl's suggestion for Gurgi.

Mel Shaw's apish Gurgi.

Andreas Deja's cleanup model of Gurgi.

The Black Caldron is widely regarded as one of Disney's biggest disappointments. It lacked interesting or relatable characters, scared away leery family audiences, and failed to capture the spirit of the books from which it was based off of. The film was meant to mark a major turn for Disney and was an early attempt of the studio to renew itself (which would not happen successfully until the late '80s with Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and The Little Mermaid.) The Black Caldron holds an interesting place in history however, as it marks many developments that would later be met with better results in Disney's subsequent films. It was the first Disney movie to use computer generated special effects and to receive a PG rating (which was truly a big deal back in the 1980s). The Black Caldron was one of the earliest Disney films to have no direct involvement from the famous Nine Old Men, thus an entirely newly crop of animators used the film as their training ground.

Andreas Deja, who would later become one of Disney's most acclaimed Renaissance era animators (He also has an excellent blog on animation history!), was given his first major assignment for The Dark Caldron. He animated Gurgi, the ever hungry, comedic canine-like creature and sidekick of the film's hero. Deja with some help from senior animator, Milt Kahl, managed to create some truly memorable scenes with this little misfit dog-man, in an otherwise fairly dull movie. From Kahl's original drawings and Mel Shaw's suggestions, Deja took the initial design of Gurgi and refined the character making him 'cuter' and more of his own vision. 

7. Ariel

An early sketch by Dan Haskett.

Another Haskett drawing. It's closer to the current design.

Glen Keane's Ariel, as we know her today.

An animated adaptation for The Little Mermaid had long been on Disney's back burner. But the idea did not catch on until long after Walt's death. Needless to say, the wait to get the story on the screen did not turn out to be a bad thing. The Little Mermaid ushered Disney into its second golden age and broke box office records. The movie required some of the most detailed and expensive animation since Fantasia (1940), and the end of the film was the first to use the CAPS digital coloring system (which was developed alongside Pixar, hinting at the future dominance of CGI in American film.)

The heroine of the film was designed by Disney's most famous living animator, Glen Keane (who left the company about a year ago). Ariel came into being when co-director Ron Clements decided that the character from the original story had to be rewritten to suit the film's audience. Dan Haskett's initial idea for Ariel was then handed over to Glen Keane to refine. Glen Keane apparently based Ariel's looks off of his own wife and the actress Alyssa Milano. Interestingly enough, Ariel was going to be blond, but it was ultimately decided that red would work better to stand out against the film's backgrounds and her green fins. Although the reception of Ariel's personality has been mixed, (some seeing her as a rebellious role model for young girls while others see her as a ditzy, lovestruck, and naive), the character has always been popular with audiences.  

8. Jafar

Thank heavens they didn't settle for this one.

Jafar continues to evolve...

Concept art by Daan Jippes.

Deja shows off Jafar's various expressions.

Directors Ron Clements and John Musker struck gold again with Aladdin (1992), and Andreas Deja also meet great praise for creating Jafar, easily one of Disney's most recognizable Renaissance era villains, alongside Scar (whom Deja also animated). Like all of Aladdin's other characters, Jafar's angular look was inspired by a distinct geometrical shape. (Speaking of angular, the fact that Deja over exaggerated Jafar's long face certainly leant to the character having many funny expressions!) Unlike the rest of the cast, however, Deja chose not to base Jafar of off the caricatures of Al Hirschfeld, in order to create a sense of contrast. Jafar's lean figure and pointed features were more similar in appearance to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty and Zigzig from The Thief and the Cobbler. (Jafar also bears an uncanny resemblance to the villain Jaffar, played by Conrad Veidt, from the 1940 film The Thief of Baghdad, which was a major influence on Aladdin.)

9. Jane Porter

Siepermann's initial sketches.

  

Another of Siepermann's drawings.

Ken Duncan's Jane is far less reserved! 

Tarzan (1999) is widely regarded as the last major film of Disney's Renaissance era. While the film's lead was animated by Glen Keane, Tarzan's love interest, Jane, was not interestingly enough. Some of Jane's earliest concept art was provided by the talented and late Harald Siepermann. Ken Duncan, who previously supervised the animation of Thomas from Pocahontas (1995) and Meg from Hercules (1997), was in charge of animating Jane Porter. His female leads are quite distinct from Glen Keane's girls. Their faces are far more angular, their eyes aren't so large, and they are overall more 'cartoony' than Keane's more youthful figures. (Duncan's ladies also seem to be a bit more vocal than Keane's female characters.) Apparently, much of Duncan's visual inspiration comes from studying popular female actresses of the 1940s. Notice how Jane's appearance changes over the span of these drawings from being snobbish / aloof to being more playful and goofy.    

10. Stitch 

Stitch in 1985.

Bulldog Stitch?

Stitch gets a bit cuter.

Stitch's model sheet.

For a Disney film, Lilo and Stitch (2002) was rather unconventional. Chris Sander's movie was not based off of a fairytale or popular childern's book. It was an entirely original concept. Lilo and Stitch was also set in present day, utilized water color backgrounds, and all of the major character designs came from Sanders himself. Stitch himself has a longer history than many people realize. The idea of a mischievous little alien becoming part of a family dates back to 1985, when Sanders attempted to pitch the character as an idea for a picture book. It was later decided for the film to take place in Hawaii because no other animated feature had been set there before. Chris Sanders even voiced Stitch himself. He would later leave Disney following a stint over the feature American Dog (which would eventually become Bolt [2008]), and go on to direct How To Train Your Dragon (2010) and The Croods (2013) for Dreamworks.