Brother Bear - Crew Biographies
THE FILMMAKERS
AARON BLAISE (Director) makes his directing debut following an impressive career as a top Disney animator. A 14-year veteran of Disney’s Florida Animation Studio, Blaise has contributed to a variety of features with supervising roles on “The Lion King” and “Mulan,” and animation assignments on many others.
Born in Burlington, Vermont, Blaise moved to Naples, Florida with his mother and stepfather at the age of eight. Following high school, he attended the Ringling School of Art and Design, where he trained in painting and drawing. From the age of five, he expressed a strong affinity and desire to draw animals. As an illustration major in school, he aspired to create illustrations for natural history magazines such as National Geographic or Smithsonian.
When recruiting season arrived at Ringling, Blaise got leads on two companies that were coming to visit: Hallmark and Disney. Deciding to focus his efforts on painting backgrounds, he prepared his portfolio to show to the team from Disney. The greeting card industry’s loss became the animation world’s gain, and Blaise won an animation internship at Disney. In 1988, he and five other illustrators relocated to Los Angeles to study with mentor animators as part of an experiment to see if artists with strong drawing backgrounds but no animation experience could adapt to the animation world. Blaise was paired with star animator Glen Keane, and after a frustrating initial two weeks, things suddenly “clicked” and he was hooked.
Following the internship, Blaise was offered a position at Disney’s Florida Studio, set to open the following year.
Blaise was an assistant animator on “Roller Coaster Rabbit” and “The Rescuers Down Under” (both 1990), and a character animator on “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) and “Trail Mix-Up” (1993). He served as supervising animator for Rajah on “Aladdin” (1992), Young Nala on “The Lion King” (1994), and for Yao on “Mulan” (1998).
Blaise and his wife Karen have two children. He is the older brother of Travis Blaise, an animator on the Koda unit.
BOB WALKER (Director) brings his vast expertise in the field of layout to his first directing assignment. He has been a key player on Disney’s Florida Animation team since it began in 1989.
Walker was born in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. His father worked for General Motors, and the family lived in Kitchener and London before finally settling in Ottawa. He remained focused on art throughout high school, and after taking a year off after graduating he enrolled in New York’s St. Lawrence University. He took more art classes and eventually determined that a general liberal arts degree wasn’t for him. A friend of the family had worked in animation and she directed Walker to Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario.
Following three years’ study at Sheridan, Walker was hired as an apprentice layout artist at Atkinson Film Arts in Ottawa, where he worked on the series “The Raccoons” as well as various specials. He soon determined that the area of layout was more appealing to him than animation. He enjoyed the role of selecting the shots, staging the characters, and drawing the backgrounds.
After five years with Atkinson Film Arts, Walker discovered that Disney was hiring for their new Florida studio, and he applied. He was hired in April 1989, and remembers meeting his current co-director Aaron Blaise for the first time on April 17. He started out as a journeyman layout artist under layout department head Jim Biehold, working on the Roger Rabbit short “Roller Coaster Rabbit.” Walker subsequently moved up to head of layout for the Florida Studio, overseeing scenes for features including “The Rescuers Down Under” (1990), “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin” (1992) and “The Lion King.”
Walker supervised the layout department on Florida’s first feature effort, “Mulan” (1998). After that, he took a brief break from production to do visual development for “Brother Bear” for six months, before directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois tapped him to do layout for “Lilo & Stitch” (2002). Walker is the middle of three brothers.
CHUCK WILLIAMS (Producer) makes his feature producing debut on “Brother Bear” following a distinguished 14-year career at Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida. He has worked in a variety of production capacities at the Studio with credits on such films as “Roller Coaster Rabbit,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Lion King,” among others.
Williams was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. His family settled in Starke, Florida when he was in sixth grade where he graduated from high school. He attended Florida Southern College in Lakeland, as well as University of London, where he studied theatre, and Florida State, where he earned a communications degree with filmmaking emphasis. He first delved into animation while in college, working with an artist on a short claymation film; between classes he worked in television news. After graduating in 1987, he worked as an assistant ADR editor on the popular TV series “Miami Vice,” and edited music videos for 2 Live Crew, as well as national and regional commercials.
Williams joined Disney’s Florida Studio the year it opened in 1989. His expertise in live-action and video production proved useful to the Studio, which was looking to bring new technology to the role of the editor. He made the transition smoothly, and in short time brought a new innovation to the fore by using Avid harddisk- based technology in the editing of an animated feature.
Williams edited the Studio’s debut project, “Roller Coaster Rabbit,” and did second-unit work on “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King.” Following “The Lion King,” he shifted to Feature Animation’s Special Projects unit, working as editor and eventually producer on projects including the “Voyage of the Little Mermaid” attraction, the “Lion King” and “Aladdin” video games, the “Hercules” storybook, the Walt Disney World attraction “Legend of the Lion King,” as well as original animation for Disney’s California Adventure. In 1998, Williams took on the role of developing feature projects for Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida. This led to the development of “Brother Bear” and his role as producer of the film. Williams and his lovely wife Kim, are the proud parents of two children and he is proud to be a middle brother of three.
PHIL COLLINS (Songwriter/Composer) follows up his Oscar® winning success on Disney’s “Tarzan” with this latest musical collaboration. In addition to writing six new songs for the film, he makes his debut in the film score department, working with co-composer Mark Mancina.
Collins is one of today’s most popular vocalists, songwriters and performers, and has been hailed by fellow musicians as one of the best drummers in the world. In his stellar career he has won seven Grammy awards and released solo albums with sales totaling more than seventy million copies. Factoring in his work with Genesis, Brand X, and a gallery of star groups and performers (including Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, John Cale, Quincy Jones, and Tony Bennett), Collins has left his mark on some 200 million records worldwide.
His hit songs, including “In the Air Tonight,” “One More Night,” “Sussudio,” “Take Me Home,” “Two Hearts” and “Another Day in Paradise” have worked their way into the collective unconscious of radio listeners everywhere.
Collins has also pursued an acting career from an early age, beginning at 13 when he played the Artful Dodger in the 1964 West End production of “Oliver!” His film acting credits include “Calamity the Cow” (Children’s Film Foundation, 1967); “Miami Vice,” in which he guest-starred in 1985; “Buster” (1988), in which he starred as train robber Buster Edwards and contributed three songs; Steven Spielberg’s “Hook” (1991); the HBO telefilm “And The Band Played On” (1993); and Stephan Elliott’s “Frauds” (1993). He has also contributed voices to the animated productions “Balto” (1995) and “The Jungle Book 2” (2003), in which he essayed the role of Lucky the Vulture.
Among his other accomplishments, he fulfilled a lifetime ambition by going on the road twice with his own 20-piece big band which made its debut in London’s Royal Albert Hall in the company of conductor Quincy Jones and guest vocalist Tony Bennett. The band went on to play seven other European concerts including two shows at the Montreaux Jazz Festival.
Collins embarked on his enormously successful solo career after taking a break from being frontman and drummer for the band Genesis, with whom he played for 25 years. His solo albums include Face Value (1981), Hello, I Must Be Going (1982), No Jacket Required (1985), …But Seriously (1989), Serious Hits…Live! (1990), Both Sides (1993), Dance Into the Light (1996), Hits (1998), Hot Night in Paris (1999) and Testify (2002). In 1999, he contributed songs to the Grammy-winning soundtrack of Disney’s “Tarzan,” including “You’ll Be In My Heart,” which was nominated for a Grammy and won the Academy Award® and Golden Globe for Best Song.
Phil is the youngest of a brother and sister.
MARK MANCINA (Composer) is a threetime Grammy-winner who has composed scores for such diverse films as “Training Day, “ “Tarzan,” “Speed,” “Bad Boys,” “Twister,” “Moll Flanders,” “Con Air,” and Disney’s upcoming “The Haunted Mansion.”
Mancina arranged and produced three Elton John songs for “The Lion King.” His efforts on “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King,” and “Hakuna Matata” were rewarded with a Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children, two American Music Awards for Best Pop Album, and multi-platinum status for a record that has sold over ten million copies worldwide. As producer, he has also been awarded Grammys for “The Lion King Cast Album,” and “Tarzan.”
On Broadway, Mancina wrote, produced and arranged additional music for the Tony Award-winning stage production of “The Lion King,” which features his song, “He Lives in You.”
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