Unsung Disney Legends: Andreas Deja

We all know the characters, the movies and the songs but it is easy to forget that we are not watching actual characters.  Many people designed and worked on them.  I am starting a series of retrospectives on Disney Legends that are easy to overlook.  Today's is Winsor McCay Award winner Andreas Deja.

Roger Rabbit

Deja had already worked on Gurgi in The Black Cauldron and Queen Moustoria in The Great Mouse Detective, but his first supervising animator’s credit was not at Disney in Burbank but over in London as part of Richard Williams’ staff on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  Deja animated the titular character, showing depth and emotion in a classically inspired wacky cartoon character.

 

Mickey Mouse

Deja was Disney’s go to Mickey Mouse expert, working on the character several times.  Initially in the character’s famous, but brief cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  Deja also was supervising animator on the character in his two roles in Prince and the Pauper.  Deja’ association with the mouse continued as an animation supervisor on Runaway Brain, animator on Fantasia 2000 and animation consultant for Epic Mickey.

 

Gaston, Jafar and Scar

Deja was a supervising animator on the initial success of the Disney Renaissance, animating King Triton in The Little Mermaid.  But with Beauty and the Beast he started a run on three consecutive Disney villains: Gaston (who he based on ‘90s beach buffs), Jafar from Aladdin and Scar from the Lion King.  He was also the initial supervising animator on Yzma back when Emperor’s New Groove when it was in production as the Sting musical, Kingdom of the Sun (Deja was excited about animating a character that the great Eartha Kitt would voice).  He naturally was also the supervising animator of Queen Narissa in Disney’s Menken fairy tale throwback/subversion Enchanted.

 

Hercules

After animating three of Disney’s greatest villains he was naturally offered more evil characters, but the diverse animator did not want to become typecast so he chose to stretch himself by animating the lead.  This was reportedly more strenuous as Scarfe’s designs required many more drawings than a traditional animated feature.  Deja does include a nice reference to his previous character, Scar, whose skin Hercules wears in a portrait.

Lilo

It is interesting to note that the Disney animator who specialized in bad guys and cartoony characters such as Roger Rabbit and Mickey animated what is arguably Disney’s most human character.  The small, innocent and broken lead of Lilo & Stitch is both tragically and hilariously expressive in her small, chubby frame.  My all time favorite Dejas scene is Lilo trying to get away from her older sister Nani and just giving up and collapsing.  It is timed perfectly enough to be funny but still continues the story’s emotional arc.

 

Mama Odie

Traditional animation was getting less and less exciting and ended for a while with Home on the Range, in which Deja was the supervising animator on the minor character Wesley.  After Disney switched to solely computer animation (a field Dejas experimented in but felt he had nothing to add to) he found work on the character of Atka in the direct-to-video Brother Bear 2.  But once Disney brought back in house 2D animation with Princess and the Frog Deja was of course involved.  He had said that, “I always thought that maybe we should distinguish ourselves to go back to what 2D is good at, which is focusing on what the line can do rather than volume, which is a CG kind of thing.”  Deja animated the lively Mama Odie for her memorable, optimistic number.

 

Tigger

Andreas Deja may just be the best thing to ever happen to the character of Tigger in 2011’s Winnie the Pooh.  Tigger proved to be much more effective in his limited screen time than he was in his recent starring roles.  Deja is a perfect fit for his angular, slender design and exuberance (calling to mind his earlier animation on Roger Rabbit).  This may unfortunately be Deja's last Disney character as he has left the studio, which has again given up on traditional animation.  But it is clear that he has left a great legacy for audiences and animation aficionados.

The Most Fun Successes in Pop Culture

Just did a post on characters that specialize in failing, here is the flip side of that.  Characters that constantly succeed are often less interesting than the failures.  Success is a one way street, failure can happen in many different ways.  There are few characters you can call flat out successful in their respective universes.  Kermit, Mickey and even the gang from Sesame Street, despite their innocent personas are constantly struggling with something.  Out of the characters that do not fail they are often not interesting.  Dora the Explorer always wins.  Casper the Friendly Ghost always makes a friend.  So here are the ten exceptions, the pop culture icons that can constantly succeed but still be interesting.

10. Bullwinkle

Clueless often leads to success and consistency.  Bullwinkle never knows he is in danger and never knows that he saved the day.  He can play with wrong hats and still be in the right.  Bullwinkle is the star and the hero of his universe, despite not intentionally doing anything to deserve it.  He is just a well-meaning moose that is rewarded for being well-meaning.

9. Tigger

Tigger is always going to bounce.  The rest of the Hundred Acre Wood has static personalities but none as successful as Tigger's jovial, carefree attitude.  Tigger is an interesting example because he keeps being pressured to change or learn a lesson, but he won't.

8. Mr. Magoo

He is a danger to himself, he is a danger to society, he should be locked up.  But no matter how much property damage or misunderstandings he causes he always walks away scot-free and happy.  Mr. Magoo causes bad things to happen, but nothing bad ever happens to Mr. Magoo.

7. Glinda the Good Witch

Always smiling, always manipulating.  Glinda is in control of Oz and nobody seems to notice or care.  Nobody gets frustrated with her and she is never in any danger.  She is beloved and acts like the definition of perfection.  She has no character arc and just shows up to be loved and do good things (although the audience's opinion of her as a saint is definitely debatable).

6. Oscar the Grouch

Oscar is one of the most emotionally consistent characters ever created.  Sure he is always grouchy, but he wants to be grouchy.  He isn't looking for happiness or warm feelings, he intends to be crabby and difficult and he succeeds.  Sure he has helped others out countless times, but that is never going to last.  Oscar is a grouch he meets his goals.

5. R2-D2

Well if C-3PO ended up on my list of pop culture failures, it makes sense for his counterpart to end up here.  I tend to get frustrated with R2-D2, mainly because he is practically worshipped by the entire galaxy while C-3PO is always a butt monkey.  But Artoo is endearing.  He is a deus ex machina with a lot of heart and personality.  He is basically more important than The Force in Star Wars.

4. The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat is a character with no consequences, he does whatever he wants in other people's houses and never learns a lesson from it.  No matter what jerk thing he does he is still charming.  He even gets to be the face of early literature.  The character is versatile and likable and even though he does bad things he is never seen as a bad guy.  Getting away with things seems pretty successful to me.

3. Homestar Runner

I could have filled this slot with happy, oblivious characters such as Bullwinkle or Tigger.  But Homestar is the lead character that is wired so perfectly to be a lead character.  Bad things happen to him a lot, sure, but he is very resilient.  Strong Bad once said, "even when we win, he wins."  Homestar is comfortable with everything revolving around him and even calls out his star status on many occasions.  Even if he is not as popular as Strong Bad or The Cheat he always functions as a the hero.  He can be the dumbest guy in the room, but he lives in own world where he is always happy.  Success story.

2. Bugs Bunny

Bad things have happened to Bugs before.  He was arrested for speeding in a race with a tortoise and has been the butt of a joke once or twice.  But on the average Bugs is in the right.  He can die in a cartoon and still win, he can manipulate Daffy Duck cartoons (ain't he a stinker?) and outwit any foe he encounters.  Bugs is the most interesting hero ever.  He is a perfect, versatile showman that even critics can't bad mouth.

1. Mario

The greatest success in pop culture ever.  Could make the case for video game heroes in general being static successes, but the plumber is the most prolific.  Mario is practically the mascot for winning.  He is constantly saving the same princess from the same dragon.  He allows the audience to experience the same victories over and over again.  He is always going to be the hero and a success.