Kerchak

Next to Beast, Kerchak was probably the most fun I've had on a film. Factors contributing to this were 1) I love apes, one of my favorite movies is "Planet of the Apes" and ever since then I have found them to be just plain cool. 2) working with supervising animator Bruce Smith. Bruce had just finished directing animation on "Space Jam" and was convinced to come back to animating and head up Kerchak. Bruce and I had never met and it was a bit intimidating to follow up someone with Bruce's reputation. Most of the people who had been in the California clean up scene long before I had were requesting to work with me. Thanks to Bruce I was suddenly popular. 3) the challenge of realizing what the directors and especially Bruce wanted for the character. The wrinkles were a big subject of debate early on. Unlike Kala and Terk, Bruce wanted a random uneven, more natural approach. In other words, there is no pattern, they are different in every scene, and it was our job to lock them down so they aren't swimming all over his face. This proved especially challenging in close-ups and dialogue scenes. And 4) Lance Herickson's voice. Kerchak's supervising animator and voice actor were among the last to be cast and I think Disney scored on both counts. I had the pleasure of meeting Lance and his family and you couldn't ask for a classier guy. Unlike some voice talent, he seemed genuinely interesting in the project as well as the process.

Alice Greystoke

Towards the end of the film I was asked to pull double duty on Alice Greystoke, Tarzan's human mom. Talk about switching gears! In the morning I'm drawing a hulkng gorilla, in the afternoon draw a pretty girl. In a way, it was a chance to work with Bill Berg once again( he was the uncredited lead on John Greystoke) and animator Stephan St. Foi in Paris gave me great stuff to work with . My good buddies in Florida pulled much of the weight in helping finish her up. I have a ton of respect for clean up artists on female characters for theirs is truly a daunting task.

The unfinished drawing would soon be finished by the "baby Tarzan" unit.

Please remember that the above images are ©DISNEY.