Randy Cartwright (born October 31, 1951, in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

) is an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

Career

Randy Cartwright graduated from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1974, where he made his student animated film, ''Room and Board'', which won several awards and was included in the

Fantastic Animation Festival ''Fantastic Animation Festival'' is a package film of animation segments, set mostly to music and released in theaters in 1977. It was one of the earliest of the sort of collections typified by Computer Animation Festival and Spike and Mike's F ...

. While going to school he worked at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

in the character department and portrayed

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

, Practical Pig, Dopey, Prince John and many other characters during the three years he worked there. In 1975 he was accepted into the Walt Disney Studios animation training program headed by the veteran Disney animator Eric Larson. He began his career as an inbetweener for Ollie Johnston on ''

The Rescuers ''The Rescuers'' is a 1977 American Animated film, animated adventure film, adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor respectively star as Bernard and B ...

'' and progressed to full

on '' Pete's Dragon''. Ollie asked Cartwright to work with him on ''

The Fox and the Hound ''The Fox and the Hound'' is a 1981 American animated buddy drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. It tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a r ...

'' in 1981. When Ollie retired to write the book, The Illusion of Life with co-veteran animator Frank Thomas, Randy inherited Ollie's supervising animator assignments for the characters of Chief and the adult Copper. After animating on '' Mickey's Christmas Carol'' and doing early experimental animation for ''

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 ...

'', he received an offer to work for TMS in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

training animators on '' Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland''. From there, he moved to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

as a directing animator on '' The Brave Little Toaster''. In 1986, he returned to Disney as the Artistic Lead for the Disney

CAPS Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

development team. He combined his knowledge of animation with an understanding of computers to help design and build the first fully digital animation production system. He won a Scientific or Technical Academy Award for this work. He animated Belle in ''

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 ...

'' and became the directing animator for the

Magic Carpet A magic carpet, also called a flying carpet, is a legendary carpet and common trope in fantasy fiction. It is typically used as a form of transportation and can quickly or instantaneously carry its user(s) to their destination. In literature On ...

in ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

''. He went on to animate on Zazu for ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Produced by Walt Disney ...

'' and moved into the story department for ''

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

''. He headed the story departments for the DreamWorks films, ''

Antz ''Antz'' is a 1998 American animated adventure comedy film directed by Eric Darnell and Tim Johnson from a screenplay written by Todd Alcott and the writing team of Chris and Paul Weitz. It was produced by DreamWorks Pictures, DreamWorks An ...

'' and ''

Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the 1990 children's picture boo ...

''. He also worked at Disney with

John Musker John Edward Musker (born November 8, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director Ron Clements and is best known for writing and directing the Disney animated films ''Th ...

and

Ron Clements Ronald Francis Clements (born April 25, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director John Musker and is best known for writing and directing the Disney animated films ...

storyboarding A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of Previsualization, pre-visualizing a film, motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The ...

and animating on ''

The Princess and the Frog ''The Princess and the Frog'' is a 2009 American Animation, animated musical film, musical Romance film, romantic fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Inspired in part by the 2002 ...

''. He filmed two Super 8 sound home movies of the Disney animation department in 1980, 1983 with

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter ( ; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, a ...

as his cameraman. He also filmed one more in 1990 on video tape which was 10 years to the day of the first movie with Joe Ranft as the cameraman. Excerpts of these movies have been seen in the documentary The Pixar Story and more extensively in Waking Sleeping Beauty.

Filmography

External links

*
Animation Guild Oral History

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cartwright, Randy 1951 births Living people American male screenwriters American storyboard artists Animation screenwriters Animators from Virginia DreamWorks Animation people Walt Disney Animation Studios people