Eric Goldberg Interview 05

8/13/2019 Eric Goldberg Interview 05

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Talking With The Genies Right Hand ManAn Interview With "Aladdin" Animator Eric Goldberg

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William !alla

With his animated charm, Eric Goldberg may have easily been one of Walt Disneys Nine Old Men,legendary veteran animators who produced some of the studios classics lie !"now White #nd $he "evenDwarfs! %&'()* and !+antasia! %&'-*. /es an animator whos had the ability to churn out laugh out0loudcomedy found in !#laddin! %&''1*, to serious and brilliant animation in !2ocahontas! %&''3*, which he co0directed with Mie Gabriel. 4n other words, a Disney aficionado might mistae Goldberg for having been atthe Disney "tudios forever. 4ts hard to believe that in Disneys land of longtime resident animators, designersand writers, Goldberg is a relatively new id on the bloc with nearly &3 years of wor at the studio. 5ut hissills in animation and charisma helped him fit right into the landscape of Disney.

Goldberg came to Disney from doing animation for commercials and feature films. /is studio, 2i6a662ictures, was successful in 7ondon. /e eventually came on0board at Disney to wor on their newestanimated feature called !#laddin.! $he film was done in a relatively short amount of time of three years andcame on the heels of two blocbuster hits, !$he 7ittle Mermaid" %&'8'* and !5eauty #nd $he 5east! %&''&*.$hough the animated division of Disney produced !$he 9escuers Down :nder! in &''-, most audiences andcritics alie agreed that Disney animation was bac on trac with !Mermaid! and !5east.! 4n fact, !5east!earned a 5est 2icture nomination in &''1, a first for any animated feature film. 4t also earned over ;&30million at the bo< office. /ow would it be possible for Disney to top that=

Waiting in the wings was a comedic, almost slapstic0style animated feature called !#laddin.! :sing songswritten by /oward #shman> ? #lan Menen, and 9obin Williams as the voice of the Genie, there were highhopes that film would be successful. Of course, no one e


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four years. #fter that, 4 too a little brea and then came out to @alifornia. 4 also met my wife on vacation inNew For woring at an animation company called anders #nimation 2arlor. "usan was the bacgrounddepartment at the time. #nd we traveled out to @alifornia and 4 did the animation direction on !iggys Gift!B&'81C which won an Emmy and was produced through 9ichard Williams 7.#. studio. 4 went bac to 7ondon,wored freelance for some companies and then opened my own place with two other e


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&'()C. /es still at the studio. #nyway, he calls animation Hmons wor.I #nimation is mons wor. "it in themonastery and eep drawing. Fou dont come up for air very often.

#$T&(4n a little dar room all by yourself, pretty much.

BlaughterC

Goldberg($he other thing that was mind0blowing to me is that after about nine months worth of mon woron this character, they had a screening at the Museum Of Modern #rt for all sorts of wor0in0progress benefitscreenings. $hey invited all sorts of New For luminaries. We got to go. #nd to have a house full of peoplerocing with laughter at this stuff, 4d never e


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Goldberg($he supervising animator on a Disney film is lie the eeper of that particular character. "o 4mthe Genies eeper. What it means is with my crew, which we have the chance to select of the people whoare at the studio, we develop the way the Genie loos and the way the Genie moves. #s the supervisinganimator, 4m the go0to guy. $he animators would bring me a drawing and say, H4m having trouble thise


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#$T&(#bsolutely. $hats the same with the Genie, too. Fou hear people taling about 9obin Williamsperformance as the Genie, which is fantastic. 5ut 4m wondering how much of your personality is actuallyinstilled in the Genies character=

Goldberg(Without trying to sound immodest, 4 would say its a 3-R3- proposition. $he voice trac is half theperformance, and the animation performance is the other half. #nd 4 would say that of any animationperformance. $he other thing that was nice, and even though it sounds lie 4m tying to tae something away

from 9obin, 4m about to give something right bac to him. 9obin and 4, with very little discussion, newwithout even saying so, that we were on the same wavelength. "o we could do certain things when he riffedand he new that 4 would pic up on it or the animators would pic up on it. $he nicest e


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people use the word cartoon Blie its badC IWell its Aust a cartoon, but wedont do cartoonsTwe do animation.I #nd 4 love the word cartoon. /ehad these great cartoony, very curvy environments that he had painted.5eing the first animator and getting my feet wet on character designduring that time, 4 thought what ind of characters fit in a curvyenvironment= @urvy characters, ergo, /irschfeld. "o that was really theimpetus for me, plus the fact that prior to that, HangularI had been all the

rage in television commercials in 7ondon up until that point. 4 ind of hadmy fill of angular which is not franly animation friendly design concept.Fou can do it and it can loo beautiful. 2robably the pinnacle at Disneywas !"leeping 5eauty! B&'3'C. 5ut its not animator friendly, whereasround shapes are. "o 4 had a personal desire to get bac to round again.9ound suared, if you will, because of the e


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5etween those two animators at Disney, they were huge, huge influences on the Genie for the ind ofuicsilver changes and fluidity of drawing. 4ts always scary for a big studio to ind of change gears and trysomething theyve never tried before. $o a certain e


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Eric Goldberg Interview 05