Labels

Richard Williams

Richard Williams
Richard Williams was born 1933 in Canada. He was able to meet Walt Disney when he was 14 years old. Richard studied art and supported himself as an artist before returning to animation in the 50s.

Richard then worked in London with commercial tv companies making ads and working on passion projects like The Little Island. In the 1960s, as the great animators of the 30s and 40s were beginning to retire, Richard hired them for his won company. He was boss and assistant to Ken Harris (Bugs Bunny), Milt Kahl (Shere Khan), Art Babbit (Goofy), and Grim Natwick (Snow White and Betty Boop).

Richard created The Charge of the Light Brigade 'titles' (1968), The Pink Panther Strikes Again 'titles' (1975), Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) and Animator's Survival Kit: Animated (2008). After directing the animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Richard continued working on a film he had been working on for the past 25 years (since 1964).

Related imageRichard self-funded the film with money he earned from making different commercials and animated sequences for live action films like Charge of the Light Brigade and The Pink Panther films. Richard wanted the film to be his masterpiece and to be regarded as an animation classic, but his obsessive attention to detail resulted in his undoing. In 1990, Richard signed a deal with Warner Bros. to pay for the film to be finished but Richard failed to deliver the finished by 1991 as agreed, due to remaking scenes repeatedly. The was was going to be called The Thief and the Cobbler.

Image result for Arabian Knight filmWarner Bros. pulled out and the film was taken away and finished without him. The film got released in the USA under the title Arabian Knight. Arabian Knight was massively changed from the version Richard was working on, with characters cut, cheaper songs inserted, voices dubbed over parts meant to be silent, and most of the climatic battle taken out. Arabian Knight only made back a small amount of it's 24 million budget and was at one point given away as a free DVD with a cereal packet. Richard retired from animation and disappeared from public view for a while. He still refuses to talk about the film.

I watched The Persistence of Vision documentary about Richard before he failed to come though with finishing the film The Thief and the Cobbler in 1991. My review from watching this is that Richard is a perfectionist with his own work but not when working for others. This is quite common due to the fact that with our own work, you are really passionate about it. The work you do is a part of you so he wanted it to be perfect. He could have taken a step back and it would have been just fine. He could have first finished all the scenes and then go back and review them all so that he would have something to give to the Warner Bros. and he would have been able to show the world his amazing work. As sad as it is that the film was taken away from him, it might have been healthier for him due to his pure obsessiveness with his work. It would have taught him a very good lesson, though it would have been very hard.


References, episode 1 to 5

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts