The Lion King Legacy: A Conversation with Mark Henn – Episode 3
Welcome to Talking Movies. This week we begin episode three of ‘The Lion King Legacy: A Conversation with Mark Henn’, one of the most prolific and respected animators in the industry and a leading figure within hand-drawn animation at Disney since 1980.
What would you say are some of the biggest misconceptions about the process of making an animated film?
Well, one of the things that people always used to ask me about is, “don’t you get tired of drawing the same thing over and over again?” And I’m like, “well, if I was doing that, I would”, because I don’t… I mean, I don’t draw the same thing over and over again. I may draw the same character, but every scene is different.
Every motion that you have to create is different. So it isn’t just that tedious to where I’m just drawing the same thing over and over again. I think a lot of people are surprised at how long it’s still a multiple year process in terms of when an idea is pitched to when it’s finally released in the theatres.
And it takes as long as it does and as many people as it does. And as far as hand-drawn, you’re talking hundreds of thousands of actual individual pieces of artwork that are being created. And even in a computer animation, you don’t have the paper stacked up, but you still have individual frames involved.
I’m always amazed at the length of the credits at the end…
Exactly. I mean, there’s a lot of people involved and they’re very good at what they do. And thank goodness for them, because one person obviously couldn’t do it all.
I wanted to find out, looking back at your career, which one of your characters brings you the most pride? And then also, which character do you wish you’d created? That isn’t yours.
I’ve enjoyed all the characters that I’ve worked on. Somebody, Frank Thomas, used to say, that’s like asking, who’s your favorite child? Well, Mulan’s very special to me because that was our first feature film out of the Florida studio. And so I was there to see the studio grow and get to the point where we could be given the opportunity to do our own feature. But I’ve been very pleased and proud to work on all the princesses that I’ve done, Mickey Mouse, having started my animation, doing Mickey Mouse for Christmas Carol.
They’re all a lot of fun. As far as a character I didn’t get to do, actually, when I started looking at Lion King, I wanted to do Scar. I went to the producer and told him, I said, I really would like to do Scar. I wanted to try to get out of my box a little bit. I mean, starting with the fact that they’re animals was the first step. But I wanted to, you know, maybe step away and do something very different.
But the director in his infinite wisdom kind of just sat me down and just said, that’s great. And we have a number of people that, you know, you would do a good Scar, but we have a number of other folks that could do Scar. And he told me how important Simba was. The story hinged on Simba. If Simba didn’t work, the story didn’t work. How do you say no to that? So I agreed.
And I’m happy, because even though he wasn’t the villain in this particular case, he was kind of the hero, he was still out of my box. He was a different character. He wasn’t a princess. That was a lot of fun. But I’ve enjoyed — Tiana was a real challenge. Not only creating another princess, but having that princess appear as a frog. And I was very pleased with the challenge of having her appear as a frog, but maintain the character. I mean, that was a really fun challenge.
And what advice would you give to aspiring animators, particularly in Africa, who dream of working on projects like Disney films?
You need to, I think, be true to your… what you know. I mean, I’m sure there’s some amazing myths and stories that are out of the African culture that would be wonderful to tell and be animated. So I would just say, you know, be true to your heritage and your culture and finding those stories and being able to develop them.
What are your hopes for the future of animation?
Future of animation is entirely dependent on the filmmakers and the stories they want to tell and the characters they want to create. So, I mean, that’s what our generation was faced with as we took the baton from the first generation that worked with Walt.
We recognized the importance of continuing the legacy and tradition, but we also were excited about putting our stamp on things and telling our stories and that we were interested in. And I think that’s what the next generation is already starting to do and has proven over the last several years.
But that’s what it’s going to take is filmmakers, artists that have ideas, stories they want to tell that are new and fresh and that are filled with really interesting and fun characters.
It’s been such a pleasure talking to you, Mark. Thanks so much. Just to close, your favorite animated film?
Lady and the Tramp’s always up there as far as, you know, one that I didn’t work on, but I’ve enjoyed most of the films that I’ve worked on. Yeah, Lady and the Tramp’s a very special film. I’ll leave it at that.
Thank you so much.
You’re very welcome.
