Glen Keane
Beast
Glen Keane was the supervising animator of Beast. In the early concept art, Beast was mandrill-inspired, later developing to incorporate elements of the bear and wolf, but with most of the inspiration drawn from the buffalo. Only his horns were, as Keane says, '..just something we gave him ourselves.'
Determined to go to considerable lengths to find inspiration for his character, Keane asked to be allowed into a zoo cage with a temperamental gorilla, in order to get a feeling for what is was like to be so close to the huge beast. Fortunately, he was denied the opportunity...
Of all the characters in the film, I think that of Beast was the most challenging and difficult to portray. The feelings, frustrations and history had to be got across without resorting to the usual device of having the character explain how they felt in long declamations. After all, Beast was sullen, angry, and someone of few words. In the end, it was all done with pure expressive animation, and it was so much better because of it.
On completion of his most recent animation project for Disney, the animation of the character of Pocahontas, Glen Keane took a year-long sabbatical to live in Paris. On April 29th 1997, he renewed his animation contract with Disney for a further seven years - he is now in France at Disney's animation studios in Paris, working as the supervising animator of Tarzan in (you've guessed) Tarzan.
Belle
James Baxter
Belle, the go-it-alone, independent heroine and salvation of Beast was animated by James Baxter. Receiving a series of 'battlefield promotions' during production on Who Framed Roger Rabbit and later on Beauty and the Beast, this moved Baxter into the animation of a major character.
Belle's appearance was developed from a sketch by story man Roger Allers, slightly modified to give her 'a more European look' - the shape and angle of her eyes, in particular, were intended to give her a more mature appearance than earlier heroines. Inspiration for angle and perspective - crucial when producing convincing animation of a human character - came from studying video of actress Shari Stoner. (You know, I'm sure I saw her credited for writing an Animaniacs episode...?)
Trivia buffs will already know :-) that Belle is only the second dark-haired heroine in a Disney feature - the first was Snow White.
Andreas Deja
Gaston
The self-styled 'ideal man' for Belle underwent some changes during Deja's development of him. Early loutish charicatures went (along with a dubious moustache) and in came a smoother, more handsome village braggart. Apparently research for the Gaston physique (and the attitude too, perhaps) came from visits to an LA gym - where real-life counterparts of the character worked out...
Deja sums up Gaston:
'God, I know such people; Los Angeles is full of them.'
After joining Disney in 1980, Deja was one of the team who worked on The Black Cauldron. Later credits included The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid and the Mickey Mouse short The Prince and the Pauper. For fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Deja also worked with Tim Burton on character design and research for The Black Cauldron. He claims veteran Disney animator Milt Kahl as one of his greatest inspirations - apparently he is writing a book on his mentor, to be published soon.
Cogsworth
Will Finn
A self-confessed love of the 'British deadpan character' (hehheh), Finn was perfectly suited to Cogsworth, as was David Ogden-Stiers, who provided the supercilious character with the ideal voice.
As with all the 'enchanted objects', it was a problem to make the animation look natural - as if the characters really could move in the way they did. (One trick I'm glad they didn't use was 'Hell, we can't draw that. Just make 'em fly or something.') The model sheets in The Art of Animation show how the anatomies of all the objects were carefully analysed and their capabilities for movement defined - much inspiration was also drawn from earlier Disney work on animating the inanimate; Pinocchio, for one, but also the Doorknob character from Alice In Wonderland. As Finn explains, the goal with Cogsworth was to 'keep him from looking like just a man in a clock costume.'
Finn's previous work includes the crusty Brit in The Little Mermaid - Grimsby, the mentor of Prince Eric, plus work on The Fox and the Hound, Oliver and Company and The Rescuers Down Under.
Nik Ranieri
Lumiere
Lumiere's name, in French, means light - perfectly appropriate!
The Lumiere-Cogsworth partnership (!?) provides many great sequences. Ranieri faced many of the same challenges as Finn and Pruiksma in animating a candelabrum, but pulled it off spectacularly - Lumiere is the perfect foil to the pompous Cogsworth; and the two are essential to the humour and charm of the film.
Lumiere is another character for whom the model sheets make fascinating reading. There are numerous directions to the animators and clean-up personnel regarding the range of movements allowed, how to draw certain aspects (such as the 'hair' - the wax bead that seems to be perpetually hanging from the top of his head) - but the most bizarre is a direction placed next to a sketch showing how the candle-hands must appear when reaching for something; it reads 'NO toilet hands!'. Check the books - you'll see what I mean!
Previous work for Ranieri included Roger Rabbit, and Ursula in The Little Mermaid, amongst others.
Mrs Potts and Chip
Dave Pruiksma
While Glen Keane was deliberately kept from seeing Robby Benson during his work on Beast, Dave Pruiksma studied Angela Lansbury in order to create the character of Mrs Potts - although, apparently, he never actually met her. He was impressed by her subtle mannerisms, and incorporated many of them into the final character.
While Mrs Potts is very much an interpretation of Angela Lansbury, her teacup-son emerged from the shadows thanks to Bradley Pierce, the boy who provided his voice. Jeffrey Katzenburg liked his performance so much that he insisted Chip's role (initially minor) was strengthened. Interestingly, Chip replaced the Musical Box as the 'stowaway' when Belle fled the castle... the Musical Box is now only glimpsed in one scene.
A graduate of CalArts, Dave Pruiksma's first work at Disney was in-betweening on Mickey's Christmas Carol. He moved on and up with work on The Great Mouse Detective, and he animated both the seahorse 'messanger' and Ariel's friend Flounder in The Little Mermaid.
Ruben Aquino
Maurice
With formal training in architecture, Ruben Aquino seems to have a unique perspective on animation! Starting out in smaller animation houses in LA, he joined Disney Feature Animation to assist on the character of Dr Dawson in The Great Mouse Detective. He was lead animator for Ursula in The Little Mermaid - the team he led including Nik Ranieri (above) and Kathy Zielinski (Frollo - The Hunchback of NotreDame). His handling of the animation of Maurice in Beauty and the Beast ensured that Belle's father didn't get too submerged as a minor figure in the story - no mean feat in a film packed with strong characters!
Other work by Aquino includes 'adult' Simba (The Lion King) and Chief Powhatan (Pocahontas). His sketchbook studies of African fauna on field research for TLK was widely referred to - and he did the pencil animation for the famous CGI wildebeest stampede. Look out for his animation of Shang - the male warrior in the current Disney feature Mulan!
Latest! Ruben Aquino has been nominated in ASIFA-Hollywood's 26th Annual Annie Awards - he is up for the award of 'Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation' for 'Mulan'...
