RIP to Richard Williams. Easily one of the most important animators and filmmakers to ever live. On surface value, his work animating Roger Rabbit, creating the Pink Panther cartoon character, crafting his own film The Thief and the Cobbler, and writing the definitive animation textbook (The Animator’s Survival Kit) are legendary feats on their own, but between the lines there’s important history.
He personally hired the legends of Disney and Looney Tunes to teach him how to animate. He took their wisdom and techniques and anthologized it, and passed those lessons on to the next generation. It is no coincidence that animation reaches a second golden age in the 90s, and continues to be a powerful cultural force today. Without him, there’s none of that.
(note, the above clip was animated by the also-amazing Eduardo Quintana, based on a visual anecdote that appears in The Animator’s Survival Kit, based on Richard’s experience working with Milt Kahl.)
It doesn’t hurt that he was an amazing animator on his own too. He could draw any style, stylized or with perfect anatomy, any material, and with intricate layers of linear perspective that boggle the mind.
He’s the only person who could have lead the animation for Roger Rabbit, a film that juggles hundreds of unique characters from history existing in the physical world, interacting with actors, sets, props, lighting rigs, and moving cameras.
If I could share only one clip, the most effective one would be his character Zigzag from The Thief and the Cobbler (who inspired Jafar in Aladdin). He’s masterfully animated, but the dialogue also captures the power of Richard’s animation. His drawings were that of a magician, capturing everybody, both inside and outside the screen. Juggling stacks of animation pages like a deck of cards.
(apologies for not updating in a while. Reading about Williams’s passing reminded me of years back when I wrote on this blog more often, and I felt it warranted a post. I’ll try to share more stuff soon!)
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