Richard Williams
A prominent artist and animator who got his start training under veterans from The Golden Age of Animation such as Disney's Nine Old Men, as well as Warner Bros. animator Ken Harris and industry drifter Grim Natwick. Totally crazy about silky smooth, seamless animation.
He has done work several projects, most famously Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the Raggedy Ann and Andy film, and his tragic attempt to make "the greatest animated film" called The Thief and the Cobbler.
These days, Richard is now semi-retired, at least from the industry side of animation, although he still takes up personal animation projects and teaches animation via his acclaimed masterclasses.
He has also published an acclaimed book on animation, "The Animator's Survival Kit." A 16 DVD set version of it also exists, but costs over $1,000. It also exists as a live class.
No relation to Robin Williams, by the way.
Films he has been involved with:
- The Little Island (1958)
- Love Me, Love Me, Love Me (1962)
- Raggedy Ann and Andy A Musical Adventure (1977)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
- The Thief and the Cobbler (1993, 1995)
Tropes Related To Him
- Artistic Title: Williams did these for several films, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express, and two Pink Panther films.
- Berserk Button: The guy is such a perfectionist that if he caught so much as a speck of dust photographed along with a cel, he would chew out the cameraman for allowing it to happen.
- Deranged Animation: Some... nah, ALL of his work is pretty surreal in one way or another.
- Doing It for the Art
- He Also Did: The poster art for The Graduate.
- Money, Dear Boy: He did Raggedy Ann and Roger Rabbit only because he hoped he could gain funding for his pet project, The Thief.
- Prima Donna Director: As mentioned already, Richard is the definitive example of a perfectionist, and has such ridiculously high standards of animation, that during the production of Thief, he had a whole revolving door of staff, firing hundreds of artists throughout it's production--some of them didn't even set foot inside the studio before they were kicked off!
- Shown Their Work: Richard is a walking encyclopedia of animation techniques from the Golden Age. His book is proof of this.
- The Twelve Principles of Animation: Knows these and a lot more.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: He did animation for the Chuck Jones produced Christmas Carol special. That said, it's considered one of the best adaptations of the story done to date, with animation that looks like it was ripped out of an 18th century illustration.