Acclaimed Animator who created Roger Rabbit dies aged 86 - The Great Richard Williams Is Dead

[The Pink Panther]

Acclaimed animator who created Roger Rabbit dies aged 86

Richard Williams, who worked on hit films such as The Pink Panther, won three Oscars and three Baftas

www.theguardian.com

Acclaimed animator who created Roger Rabbit dies aged 86
Richard Williams, who worked on hit films such as The Pink Panther, won three Oscars and three Baftas
PA Media
Sat 17 Aug 2019 09.34 EDTLast modified on Sat 17 Aug 2019 15.13 EDT
Shares
4,519


Richard Williams Photograph: Nick Beek-Sanders/PA

The acclaimed animator Richard Williams, who worked on hit films including Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Pink Panther, has died.
The 86-year-old triple Oscar and triple Bafta winner, who was born in Toronto, Canada, and moved to Britain in the 1950s, died at his home in Bristol on Friday, his family announced.

Richard Williams: the master animator


Read more
Williams was the animation director on the 1988 blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit – creating characters including Roger and Jessica Rabbit.
Williams won a Bafta as well as two Oscars for his work on the live-action animated film starring Bob Hoskins.
Williams also animated the title sequences for the 1970s comedy classics The Return Of The Pink Panther and The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and worked on Casino Royale.
Williams has previously credited Snow White – which he saw at the age of five – as having made a tremendous impression on him.
“I always wanted, when I was a kid, to get to Disney. I was a clever little fellow so I took my drawings and I eventually got in,” Williams told the BBC in 2008. “They did a story on me, and I was in there for two days, which you can imagine what it was like for a kid.”
After that he said he was advised to learn how to draw properly and admitted he “lost all interest in animation” until he was 23 – throwing himself into art.
He said he was drawn back to the craft because his “paintings were trying to move”.
His first film, The Little Island, was released in 1958 and won a Bafta. He won his first Oscar in 1971 for his animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.
During his lengthy career, Williams also wrote a how-to book called The Animator’s Survival Kit and was animating and writing until the day he died.

We lost a true man today, fellas. One of the last surviving specs that knew people from the Animation Renaissance. RIP.

F in the chat for a true legend of his craft.

 

[Trilby]

Take time out to watch a selection of his work....

 

[Edgeworth]

Aw man, F. He was a talented dude

 

[Rand /pol/]

Literally who?

 

[Mister Qwerty]

Not only was he a great animator, he was also great teacher. The Animator’s Survival Kit is a must have book/app for those who are serious about learning the principles of animation.

 

[BerriesArnold]

Just logged in to pay my respects to the guy. He was a massive influence in the animation world. Truly a master of his craft, an inspiration and a mentor who has personally made pivotal changes in my life. The world lost a one-of-a-kind man and there will never be anyone quite like him. No one will ever fill his shoes and it's truly heartbreaking to see one of the pioneers of traditional frame by frame animation go.

Rest in peace, Rich

 

[The Pink Panther]

Literally who?

A traveling animator.

 

[Desire Lines]

Amazing animator, rest in peace
If you haven't already, I HIGHLY recommend seeing his magnum opus "The Thief and The Cobbler". It has some of the most amazing animation I've ever seen. It was never completed by him, and got bastardized by another company, but most footage and the workprint were preserved, allowing a very dedicated fan to create his own fan cut called "The Recobbled Cut". You can read about the film's history on Wikipedia (trust me, it's interesting), and here are the links to the unofficial site of the fan cut and a Youtube playlist of it:

https://recobbled.neocities.org

 

[Dom Cruise]

That sucks, Roger Rabbit is one of my favorite movies.

 

[Gorgar]

Please fucking say sike right the fuck now.

 

[UQ 770]

I have a lot of fatigue from Hollywood old fucks dropping dead lately but this man was really a legend. If you happen to give a fuck about animation or even just non-traditional art in general you should at least read a summary on him. His magnum opus was an embarassing (though visually impressive) failure because he became so obessive and perfectionistic with his work, but the exstensive materials and information he produced on the subject influenced a whole generation of animators. This is the end of an era.

 

[$MY_COCK]

Amazing animator, rest in peace
If you haven't already, I HIGHLY recommend seeing his magnum opus "The Thief and The Cobbler". It has some of the most amazing animation I've ever seen. It was never completed by him, and got bastardized by another company, but most footage and the workprint were preserved, allowing a very dedicated fan to create his own fan cut called "The Recobbled Cut". You can read about the film's history on Wikipedia (trust me, it's interesting), and here are the links to the unofficial site of the fan cut and a Youtube playlist of it:

https://recobbled.neocities.org

Is that the former redlettermedia faggotsexual who’s been spending years photoshopping the original movie frames?

 

[The Cunting Death]

God this sucks, The Recobbled Cut is a visual masterpiece. Fuck everyone who helped ruin that movie, including the Weinsteins

Is that the former redlettermedia faggotsexual who’s been spending years photoshopping the original movie frames?

and yes that's the same guy


Thanks for editing my post, mod. Forgot to do that. Srry

 

[sasazuka]

A few commercials animated by Richard Williams Studio. To be honest, I don't know how much of the animation Richard Williams did personally and how much was done by his staff.

Spoiler: Cresta Bear Advert- It's changed / Rimsky Korsakov

(This specific 1970s British soda commercial was recently mentioned by Ashens when he attempted to drink a 40-plus-year old bottle of Cresta.)

Spoiler: Robertson's Golden Shred advert

(An early 1980s marmalade commercial featuring Robertson's beloved and in no way controversial mascot, Golly the Golliwog.)

Spoiler: Zellers Law of Toyland commercial featuring Batman and Robin

(These commercials were done for Zellers, the Canadian discount department store chain, for Christmas 1988. There's actually a double RIP here since Hudson's Bay Company recently announced that the final two Zellers stores are shutting down for good.)


Richard Williams also animated that weird Ziggy Christmas special from 1982 that's much better than anything based on the Ziggy comic strip has any right to be. Maybe it was too sincere for network television?

Spoiler: Ziggy's Gift

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Williams has previously credited Snow White – which he saw at the age of five – as having made a tremendous impression on him.

This hits hard. This is an important era for animation history, and we're even closer to losing everyone who remembers seeing Snow White in theaters. It fucking sucks.

I hope he's catching up with Vincent Price. Fingers crossed they'll be working on a new project together for the angels. Rest in peace, good sir, you deserved so much better, but the world was just too cruel to you and your beautiful vision.


EDIT: How in the fuck did I type in "Prince" instead of "Price"?

 

[vertexwindi]

Jesus, that's unbelievable. His last project was even called "I Hope I Live To Finish This".

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

I highly recommend a documentary on Williams called Persistence of Vision which tells all about his work on Thief and the Cobbler. Once you see it, you'll realize that the movie was probably doomed from the start. Williams considered it his magnum opus and just refused to compromise any part of his vision (or edit down the film in any way.) This film made me realize that sometimes letting an artist have full reign is a bad idea - a filmmaker must be willing to tell a story at a decent pace with just the right amount of salient detail. Too much and you have scenes that don't do much to advance the plot, but only exist to show off the skill of the animators. In other words, they bog the movie down because they don't serve much of a purpose in the story. Do we NEED to see a scene where a messenger with dozens of arrows in his back spends a full minute trying to travel back to his city of origin to warn of an invasion? Sure it's beautifully animated, but we don't need to see more than a few seconds of this journey at most. Thief and the Cobbler is light on story but full of these beautifully rendered, meandering scenes. No wonder it never got finished.

 

[Trilby]

A few commercials animated by Richard Williams Studio. To be honest, I don't know how much of the animation Richard Williams did personally and how much was done by his staff.

Spoiler: Cresta Bear Advert- It's changed / Rimsky Korsakov

(This specific 1970s British soda commercial was recently mentioned by Ashens when he attempted to drink a 40-plus-year old bottle of Cresta.)

I wouldn't doubt many ads done at Williams' studio were often done by other people working for him.

Spoiler: Robertson's Golden Shred advert

(An early 1980s marmalade commercial featuring Robertson's beloved and in no way controversial mascot, Golly the Golliwog.)

Love this!

Spoiler: Zellers Law of Toyland commercial featuring Batman and Robin

(These commercials were done for Zellers, the Canadian discount department store chain, for Christmas 1988. There's actually a double RIP here since Hudson's Bay Company recently announced that the final two Zellers stores are shutting down for good.)

I know an animator who worked on these!

Richard Williams also animated that weird Ziggy Christmas special from 1982 that's much better than anything based on the Ziggy comic strip has any right to be. Maybe it was too sincere for network television?

Spoiler: Ziggy's Gift

It did win an Emmy so that is something. Apparently his studio also did these little Ziggy shorts as well (some with Ziggy having a voice is done by Will Ryan).

This hits hard. This is an important era for animation history, and we're even closer to losing everyone who remembers seeing Snow White in theaters. It fucking sucks.

That is important to note as he was the right age when the film just came out in the late 30's. That film was definitely a landmark for it's time.

Around Twitter this piece of footage was shared of something he did when he was 12, he got a school teacher to shoot this on film for him.

I highly recommend a documentary on Williams called Persistence of Vision which tells all about his work on Thief and the Cobbler. Once you see it, you'll realize that the movie was probably doomed from the start. Williams considered it his magnum opus and just refused to compromise any part of his vision (or edit down the film in any way.) This film made me realize that sometimes letting an artist have full reign is a bad idea - a filmmaker must be willing to tell a story at a decent pace with just the right amount of salient detail. Too much and you have scenes that don't do much to advance the plot, but only exist to show off the skill of the animators. In other words, they bog the movie down because they don't serve much of a purpose in the story. Do we NEED to see a scene where a messenger with dozens of arrows in his back spends a full minute trying to travel back to his city of origin to warn of an invasion? Sure it's beautifully animated, but we don't need to see more than a few seconds of this journey at most. Thief and the Cobbler is light on story but full of these beautifully rendered, meandering scenes. No wonder it never got finished.

That is the impression one could make after watching this and realize how important story has to be in any film. This film is literally just moments strung together by a weak plot, it keeps going and going until you get to the climax and then wonder where has the day been! It's true there are moments that could've been cut back like the near-dead soldier getting on his horse to message the king, but Dick was just too empowered by where he could take the medium and story be damned.

 

[CIA Nigger]

Even if nobody knew him and anything he worked on, he'll be remembered for his published animation guidebook, which includes a famous story that's commonly passed around in image macros about art school being a scam.