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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.8 - NOVEMBER 1999
Not Just Your Average
Joe:
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Joe Grant.
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The dedication to
John
Canemaker's book, Before the Animation Begins, reads:
"For Joe Grant, who continues to inspire us all."
Truer words were never written. At age 91, Joe Grant serves as a
bridge between Disney's illustrious past and their current successes.
He began his career at the Disney studio in 1933 as a conceptual
artist and story man and still works there today!
During the studio's first Golden Age, Grant was head of the Character
Model Department. He worked on the studio's first feature, Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as Saludos Amigos,
Make Mine
Music and Alice in Wonderland. With Dick Huemer,
Grant was in charge of story for Fantasia and Dumbo.
Grant left Disney in 1949, but returned to the studio in the '90s,
to contribute conceptual art for today's seemingly endless string
of Disney blockbusters. In fact, one of Grant's conceptual ideas
became the basis for "Carnival of the Animals," a segment
in the upcoming Fantasia 2000.
This makes Grant the only Disney artist to have worked on both Fantasia's.
Joe Grant, who was honored as a Disney Legend in 1992, recently
took time out for a very "animated" interview.
Mike Lyons: Well, first off, if someone had told you, back
in the late Thirties, when you were working on the original Fantasia,
that sixty years later, at the turn of the century, you'd be working
on the sequel, what would your reaction have been?
Joe Grant: Surprise [laughs]. But, Fantasia
was, more or less, destined to be repeated sometime again, because
it was an extraordinary adventure. I think Roy Disney has done a
remarkable job [with Fantasia 2000], which is very faithful
to "the Disney plan." The original had a different approach.
This one is a little more lighthearted. I'd like to see these things
continue on. There's a chance that we could help to immortalize
some great music, as well as some of the more modern stuff.
ML: For the first Fantasia, Walt Disney placed you
and Dick Huemer in charge of, not only story direction, but also
charged you with picking out the music. How did you decide which
pieces of music to use?
JG: We played and played music, just short of lunacy [laughs].
It was really quite difficult. It worked back and forth. Either
something was suggested by the drawings, or by the music itself.
But, there's always a good story in a good piece of music.
ML: You worked extensively with Dick Huemer at the studio.
You once drew a caricature of the two of you -- it depicts a head,
that's half of your face and half of Dick Huemer's face. Does that
caricature sum up your working relationship with him -- sharing
the same brain, so to speak?
JG: Definitely. I think that explains it quite well. For
Fantasia, Dick had a background in music and so did I. My
grandfather was the first violinist in the L.A. Symphony. Music
was played at all hours in my house. If my dad came home a little
"swacked," he'd play Chopin until three or four in the
morning. I had music all over me.
ML: You and Dick Huemer worked on the story for Dumbo
together. Where did that concept come from?
JG: It came from outside the studio, in that, it was a little
book that was done up in the form of a scroll. There was something
like six or eight pictures in it. Walt gave it to us and said, "See
what you can do with this." We took it into a room and figured
that it can't be a bad idea, although it's skimpy. There was a handicapped
elephant and a circus background, so we knew that there had to be
a story in there somewhere. That was really how it began.
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