Glen Keane is an American animator, author and illustrator. Keane is best known for his
character animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios for feature films including The Little
Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled. Keane received the 1992 Annie
Award for character animation, the 2007 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to the
field of animation and in 2013 was named a Disney Legend.
Life and career Keane was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
the son of cartoonist Bil Keane, creator of the The Family Circus, and Australian-born
Thelma "Thel" Carne Keane. He was raised in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Keane's interest in art developed as a child by observing his father's work as a cartoonist..
In his early attempts to draw, his dad gave him a copy of Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy,
and instructed him to analyze the body forms and the creative approach to life drawing.
After graduating from high school at Brophy College Preparatory,Glen applied to the California
Institute of the Arts-School of Art, opting out of accepting a football scholarship from
another college. In a lucky twist of fate, his application was accidentally sent to the
Program in Experimental Animation, where he was mentored under the now-renowned animation
teacher Jules Engel. Keane left CalArts in 1974 and joined Disney
the same year. His debut work, which was created over a 3-year period, was featured in The
Rescuers, for which he was an animator for the characters of Bernard and Penny, alongside
the famed Ollie Johnston. In 1975, during the production of his debut film, Keane married
Linda Hesselroth, and they are the parents of design artist Claire Keane, and computer
graphics artist Max Keane. After "The Rescuers" was completed, Keane
went on to animate Elliott the Dragon in Pete's Dragon. Keane also animated the climactic
bear showdown in The Fox and the Hound. In 1982, after being inspired by the groundbreaking
film Tron, Keane collaborated with fellow animator John Lasseter on a 30-second test
scene of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, which was optioned for them by Disney
executive Tom Wilhite. The test integrated traditional character animation and computer-generated
backgrounds, and, like Tron, was a cooperation with MAGI. It was also Disney's first experimentation
with digital inked and painted characters. But, the project turned out to be too expensive,
and the studio was unwilling to invest further in the planned featurette. The test for Where
the Wild Things Are was revolutionary for its time, and a predecessor to the famous
ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast. In 1983, Keane left Disney as a contracted
employee and worked as a freelance artist. During this time, he worked on the character
of Professor Ratigan in Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. He also did some work on
The Chipmunk Adventure where he did the sequences of "Boys and Girls of Rock N' Roll" and "Getting
Lucky". He returned to Disney to work on the characters of Fagin, Sykes and Georgette for
Oliver & Company. Keane rose to lead character animator, becoming one of the group of young
animators who were trained by and succeeded "Disney's Nine Old Men". Keane animated some
of Disney's most memorable characters in what has been referred to as the "New "Golden Age"
of Disney Animation. Keane designed and animated the character of Ariel in the 1989 film The
Little Mermaid, then the eagle Marahute in The Rescuers Down Under. Subsequently, Keane
worked as the supervising animator on the title characters for three Disney hit features:
Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas. While living with his family in Paris, France
for three years, Keane completed work on Disney's 1999 Tarzan for which he drew the eponymous
character. Keane then returned to Disney's Burbank studio as the lead animator for John
Silver in Treasure Planet. In 2003, Keane began work as the director of Disney's CGI
animated film, Tangled, which released in November 2010. In Tangled, Glen and his team
hoped to bring the unique style and warmth of traditional animation to computer animation.
In October 2008, due to some "non-life threatening health issues", Keane stepped back as director
of Tangled, but remained the film's executive producer and an animating director.
On March 23, 2012, having worked approximately 37 years at Disney, Glen Keane left Walt Disney
Animation Studios. Keane said in a let­ter sent to his co-workers, “I owe so much to
those great ani­ma­tors who men­tored me – Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston
– as well as to the many other won­der­ful peo­ple at Dis­ney whom I have been for­tu­nate
to work with in the past nearly 38 years. I am con­vinced that ani­ma­tion really
is the ulti­mate form of our time with end­less new ter­ri­to­ries to explore. I can’t
resist its siren call to step out and dis­cover them.”
On December 2013, it was announced that he had joined Motorola's Advanced Technology
and Projects Group and is cooperating with its engineers to create interactive hand-drawn
animation. Keane released his first animated short- Duet- at the Google I/O Conference
in San Francisco on June 25, 2014. It is the third in a series of shorts called the Spotlight
Stories that are designed to explore spatial awareness and the sensory inputs of a mobile
device to create a distinctive storytelling experience.
In addition to his work as an animator, Keane is the author and illustrator of a series
of children's Bible parable books featuring Adam Raccoon and King Aren the Lion.
Quotes "People are who they are by the way they react
to things." Filmography
Publications Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon and the King's Big
Dinner. Colorado Springs, Col.: Chariot Victor Pub. ISBN 978-0-7814-0039-8. OCLC 49002064.
Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon at Forever Falls. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-087-9.
OCLC 14588033. Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon in Lost Woods. Elgin,
Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-088-6. OCLC 14905950.
Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon and the Circus Master. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-090-9.
OCLC 14931727. Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon and the Flying Machine.
Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-287-3. OCLC 18050595.
Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon and the Mighty Giant. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-288-0.
OCLC 19397210. Campbell, Stan; Jane Vogel; John Duckworth;
Jim Townsend. Quick studies: Philippians–Hebrews. Glen Keane. Elgin, Ill.: D.C. Cook Pub. Co.
ISBN 978-0-7814-0028-2. OCLC 28687078. Campbell, Stan; John Duckworth; Jim Townsend.
Quick Studies: James–Revelation. Glen Keane. Elgin, Ill.: D.C. Cook Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-7814-0029-9.
OCLC 28687002. Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon and the Race to
Victory Mountain. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-363-4. OCLC 25367425.
Keane, Glen. Adam Raccoon and Bully Garumph. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-1-55513-367-2.
OCLC 32745892. Keane, Glen. Cookie time: a first lesson in
obedience. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-0-7814-0206-4. OCLC 37453329.
Keane, Glen. Follow the king: A first lesson in trust. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books. ISBN 978-0-7814-0207-1.
OCLC 37453329. Keane, Glen; Samii Taylor; Joe Yakovetic.
Parables for Little Kids. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Family Pub. ISBN 978-0-7814-0258-3. OCLC 33440835.
References
External links Glen Keane at the Internet Movie Database
Glen Keane lecture at CalArts on YouTube "The Art of Glen Keane" Blog
Glen Keane interview for the Animation Podcast Interview with Glen Keane about 'Tangled',
April 18, 2011 Duet at the Big Cartoon DataBase