Jacques Muller (August 13, 1956 – November 4, 2018) was a French animator who worked on many animated films during the Second Golden Age of Animation including ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace
''Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'' (also known simply as ''Star Wars: The Phantom Menace''), is a 1999 American Epic film, epic space opera film produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was written and d ...
'', ''
Space Jam
''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel Weingrod. The first film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation ...
'' and ''
The Emperor's New Groove
''The Emperor's New Groove'' is a 2000 American animated fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Mark Dindal and produced by Randy Fullmer, from a screenplay writte ...
''. Jacques Muller at IMDB Muller was born in France but spent much of his career working in the United Kingdom and the United States, working for studios such as The Walt Disney Company, Disney,
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
,
Amblin
Amblin' Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are lo ...
and ILM. He died in November 2018 following heart complications.
Early life
Jacques Muller was born on August 13, 1956, in
Saint-Aignan, Loir-et-Cher
Saint-Aignan (), also unofficially ''Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher'' (, literally ''Saint-Aignan on Cher (river), Cher'') is a Communes of France, commune and town in the Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, administra ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
Career
Muller began his animation career in France and Australia, moving to London in September 1987 to work on ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...
'', which was crewing up in
Camden Town
Camden Town () is an area in the London Borough of Camden, around north-northwest of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is identified in the London Plan as one of 34 major centres in Greater London.
Laid out as a residential distri ...
in North London. He began work as assistant animator to
Phil Nibbelink
Phil Nibbelink (born June 3, 1955) is an American animator and film director as well as comic book writer and illustrator known for his work on films as the Academy Award-winning ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' and the 1991 cult animated sequel ''An ...
, under animation director Richard Williams, described by Muller as "extremely picky...and rightly so" about the standard of animation done at the studio. Later, frustrated with his assistant status, Muller completed a lengthy animation test, and was promoted to animator by Williams: "Jacques, pick up your things and follow me: you are an animator".
In January 1989 Muller joined the Walt Disney Studio in
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city located primarily in the Verdugo Mountains region, with a small portion in the San Fernando Valley, of Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is located about north of downtown Los Angeles.
As of 2024, Glendale ha ...
, working in a former warehouse building on Airway, the former site of the
Glendale Airport
Glendale Regional Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located west of the central business district of Glendale, a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for ...
. Muller began work on the
Roger Rabbit
Roger Rabbit is a fictional animated anthropomorphic rabbit. The character first appeared in author Gary K. Wolf's 1981 novel, '' Who Censored Roger Rabbit?''. In the book, Roger is second banana in a popular comic strip, "Baby Herman". Roger ...
short film
Tummy Trouble
The ''Roger Rabbit'' shorts are a series of three live-action/animated short films produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation from 1989 to 1993. They feature Roger Rabbit, the animated protagonist from ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' (1988), being enli ...
, as the studio prepared for work on ''
Beauty and the Beast
"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales'').
Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...
''.
Later, Muller worked on ''
The Rescuers Down Under
''The Rescuers Down Under'' is a 1990 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to ''The Rescuers'' (1977). In ''The Rescuers Down Under'', Bernard and Bianc ...
'', where he also lent his voice to the character of Francois the Cockroach. However, Muller was unhappy at the working conditions at the Disney Airway Building in Glendale, which lacked natural light. As a result, he left the Disney Studio to return to France, starting a new contract as character art manager for Disney in Paris, a move which he described as "the biggest mistake of my professional life".
Memoirs
Muller was the author of the book ''40 Years of Animated Cartoons'', published by
Partridge Publishing
Author Solutions, LLC is the parent company of a number of vanity presses, including AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, Xlibris, Palibrio, and Booktango. The company is headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, and has been owned by Naj ...
in Singapore, on 19 April 2018.
Health problems
Muller first began suffering from heart problems in December 2001, when he found himself hospitalised in
Jarnac
Jarnac (; ; Saintongese: ''Jharnat'') is a commune in the Charente department, southwestern France.
Partridge Publishing
Author Solutions, LLC is the parent company of a number of vanity presses, including AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Trafford Publishing, Xlibris, Palibrio, and Booktango. The company is headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, and has been owned by Naj ...