Glen Keane Talks Tangled
Tangled, indeed. Glen Keane has been on quite a long and difficult journey to make CG animation behave as warmly as hand-drawn. He started his directorial debut seven years ago with an ambitious adaptation of Rapunzel (first called Rapunzel Unbraided then Rapunzel and then Tangled). It was a struggle both artistically and technically, but when Pixar merged with Disney in 2006 and Keane was reunited with his old CalArts pal, John Lasseter, the project finally got greenlit and started showing promise, despite the ongoing challenges. That is until Keane suffered a heart attack two years ago and turned the reins over to Nathan Greno & Byron Howard (Bolt). But Keane stayed on as animation director, and now that Disney's 50th animated feature is finished and awaiting its Nov. 24 release, he spoke to AWN about his experiences.
Glen Keane: Yeah, these films aren't just made by big corporations; they're life and blood stories. And I don't I ever could have contributed what I did to this film without stepping back from the directing. For one thing, I don't think we would've done this film had I not started it. At a certain point, handing it over to Byron and Nathan was really, really wonderful. Both of those guys were so personal -- they just invested themselves in this film, these characters. When they would issue scenes to the animators, they would talk about their own moments in their lives and we'd be in tears; they'd be in tears.
BD: Like what?
GK: Their own experiences growing up and their own childhoods; painful moments; trying to connect with the animators so they drew on their own experiences to make it as real as possible. They really took the reins of the film with passion, and it allowed me to focus on the animation. And because I was working with John Kahrs and Clay Kaytis as this little triumvirate (John's background is in CG but loves hand-drawn; and Clay's background was in hand-drawn but loves CG). I don't know how to animate on CG, but I felt there was something really to pass on.
BD: You said your original goal was to break down the computer and make it more like hand-drawn. Did you accomplish it to your satisfaction?
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I wouldn't expect much if I were you!
No joke.
Those people have years of experience. By now if they cared about the crew they should know how to scheduled thing in a human way.
But they don't give a damn, it's about money and next movie will be just the same asking more with less time. The artist love their work and give their best and as a rewards they get a "thank you soooo much" and here a free pizza for working at night.
I know I lived through it.
Thank you for posting. It's a point of view few people hear. I wish I could know what it's really like to work on a production today. I'm happy to hear that the managers have recognized the sacrifices of the artists and are planning to make changes.
As a spouse of one of the animators I'll tell you, they put in a ton of overtime. So much that after the movie ended the higher ups promised to make the schedules more forgiving in the future so as to not take such a physical and emotional toll on them. They gave it everything they had and then some and never compromised on the high level of quality. The animation really shines on this one.
Good interview.
I'm wondering how they got 60% of the movie animated between "May" and "July".
interesting. but it sounds just like any other interview from any other movie, talking about how everythin is new, how everybody learned, how people cried telling their life stories (i hardly believe that)...
NICE! Always a treat to read through these interviews with those closely tied to the project. It provides another dimension to the project at hand and allows us to sit first-row in the minds of these great artists and creators.
Its always enlightening to hear from this master.
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Great interview and insight. Keep them coming please.
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