A research trip to China for the animation team of Mulan was extremely worthwhile and contributed greatly to the film’s fantastic overall look and stylistic integrity. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

Have you ever watched a beautiful animated feature film and wondered, “How did this vision become so unified, and so appealing?” If you are like me, these kinds of thoughts have been bouncing around in your head ever since the first time you were hypnotized by an animated feature film. For me, it was when I was watching Disney’s The Sword in the Stone as a child back in the early ‘60s, that I first got an inkling of how much good design could hold a film together. Something about The Sword in the Stone made every character design, background design and special effects design, feel like it was created by the same force, or the same artist.

As a result the film was more successful at pulling me in to its magical, mystical world of wizardry. This was no accident of course, but a result of the director and artistic leadership of the film being on the exact same page stylistically, and seeing to it that the aesthetic vision was followed through by every artist working on the film.

Thirty years later, I found myself at Walt Disney feature animation in Florida engaged in trying to adapt an ancient style of Chinese artwork into a contemporary version of the legend of Mulan. Months earlier the studio had sent a team of artists (myself not included) on a research trip to China. There was quite a buzz about whether or not it was worth it to spend so much money sending a large group to China, when much research material was readily available in books, films and documentaries. As far as the film’s art director, Ric Sluiter, was concerned, the research trip was extremely worthwhile, and contributed greatly to the film’s fantastic overall look and stylistic integrity. And I have to agree.

Although Mulan was ultimately an American film, and many were quick to point out where it failed in its authenticity, it was an extremely, elegantly designed film. Every little detail in that film reflected something real that had been absorbed during the trip to China. From uniquely shaped flowers and trees that reflect the Chinese countryside, to a uniquely Chinese approach to story-telling, Mulan carried with it an authenticity that the naysayers simply couldn’t fully appreciate from their popcorn littered, caffeine addled, western point of view.

Getting the flora and fauna right was one of the benefits of a Hawaiian research trip by the creative team of Lilo & Stitch. © Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.

As a special effects animator on the film Mulan, along with my gifted colleague Garrett Wren, I was given the privilege of animating the majority of the special effects in the epic avalanche sequence, in which an army of marauding huns is wiped off of the side of a mountain by an avalanche. Months were spent perfecting the design of the effects drawings so that they reflected the same designs inherent in the Chinese art of some 4,000 years ago, which are found in their paintings, sculptures, clothing, architecture, and even their hairstyles.

Was it worth it? Well, almost eight years later, I can’t tell you how many people have remarked to me what an incredibly beautiful film Mulan is, and I attribute it greatly to the wisdom of sending a group of immensely talented artists to China to get a “feel” for the real thing.

Luckily for me, years later I was fortunate enough as the supervisor of visual effects, to join the directors and creative leads on a research trip to Hawaii to inspire us for the feature film Lilo & Stitch. Once again, many people saw the trip as a frivolous romp in Hawaii, but the payoff was that we were intimately familiar with the Hawaiian reality, and thus far better equipped to portray it artistically. Making the flora and fauna in the film truly reflective of the actual location, added a lot to the appeal of the film, and it certainly wasn’t lost on the residents of the island of Kauai, who loved the final product!