Rhett Wickham: Rapunzel Gets Second Director
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RAPUNZEL GETS SECOND DIRECTOR
LAUGHING PLACE EXCLUSIVE - Story By RHETT WICKHAM
It's official, the upcoming animated
feature RAPUNZEL has a second director working as an equal alongside Glen Keane
- Annie Nominated Animator and Story Artist DEAN WELLINS.
Dean first came to Disney Feature Animation on "Treasure Planet", where he was
part of Keane's team on John Silver, before becoming Head of Story on "American
Dog", a post he left to take the helm on "Rapunzel" alongside Keane.
Wellins studied character animation at CalArts, and earned his stripes first as
an intern and later as a breakdown animator on Turner's "The Pagemaster." From
there he moved to Rennegade animation where he was a writer on the Darrell Van
Citters directed WB short "Pullet Surprise" among other projects. He then moved
over to work as an assistant and story artist on Brad Bird's IRON GIANT over at
Warners Feature Animation.
After a search for talent that could meet the demanding deadlines of production
and the quality standards of director Bird, Tony Fucile singled out Wellins for
a swift promotion to Directing Animator. He was, in fact, nominated for an Annie
Award later that year for Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character
Animation for his work on Hogarth and Ken Manly (also nominated that year was
Glen Keane for Tarzan. Both animators went home empty handed, as Wellins'
colleague Steve Markowski went home with the zoetrope for his work on "The Iron
Giant".)
Dean came to Disney after completing work on the overlooked but enormously
entertaining animated segments of "Osmosis Jones" where he was the directing
animator of Thrax, a job he took over when animator Ken Duncan left the project
and headed over to DreamWorks. Thrax is the villain voiced by Laurence Fishburne.
No news on exactly how the breakdown of responsibilities will work between Keane
and Wellins, who came on board the CG animated fairy tale within the past few
weeks, sans any fanfare. But Wellins' outstanding sense of story clearly comes
in to play in helping keep this feature on track for the success WDFA guru John
Lasseter is seeking, after having already declared that he "cant remember ever
seeing a movie that has such a powerful beginning as Rapunzel."
- Rhett Wickham
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Rhett Wickham is a regular editorial contributor to LaughingPlace.com. and the publication Tales From The Laughing Place. He works as creative development and story consultant in Orlando and Los Angeles where he lives with his husband, artist Peter Narus, and their adopted "sonâ€?, Cooper. Mr. Wickham is the founder and principal of Creative Development Ink © ® doing creative consulting and writing for animation, film and themed entertainment. Among his recent projects is "I'm Reed Fishâ€? for Executive Producer Akiva Goldsman, which debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and the upcoming feature "Love Easy.â€? Prior to working in feature animation production, Mr. Wickham worked as an actor and stage director in NYC. He is a Directing Fellow with the Drama League of New York and in 2003 he was honored with the Nine Old Men Award from Laughing Place readers, "for reminding us why Disney Feature Animation is the heart and soul of Disney.â€?eaders, "for reminding us why Disney Feature Animation is the heart and soul of Disney.â€?
The opinions expressed by our Rhett Wickham, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted April 12, 2007
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