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[GCX]

I'm surprised no one has made a thread.

His full resignation letter:

March 23, 2012 Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Walt Disney Animation Studio,

After long and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to leave Disney Animation.

I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist it’s siren call to step out and discover them.

Disney has been my artistic home since September 9,1974. I owe so much to those great animators who mentored me—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—as well as to the many other wonderful people at Disney whom I have been fortunate to work with in the past nearly 38 years.

Over these four decades I have seen so many changes, but the one thing that remains the same is that we all do this because we love it.

I am humbled and deeply honored to have worked side by side so many artists, producers and directors during my career here at Disney, and I am tremendously proud of the films which together we have created. I will deeply miss working with you.

With my most sincere and heartfelt good wishes for your and Disney’s continued artistic growth and success,

Glen

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/the-full-text-of-glen-keanes-resignation-letter.html/

A living legend, Disney won't be the same without him. I hope has some great projects lined up in the future.

You can see his full flimography here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Keane

 

[Buckethead]

Very very sad.

Disney needs to get it's shit together.

 

[watkinzez]

Oh wow. I wonder if he'd want to get back into a more hands on role considering his health issues. Either way, good luck to him. One of the best.

 

[Leeness]

I was going to make one earlier but I didn't know if anyone would care.

My heart is broken. He's my idol and it was always my (never going to actually happen) dream to intern at Disney and get to talk to him.

Still could "happen" but not at Disney

 

[GCX]

Oh wow. I wonder if he'd want to get back into a more hands on role considering his health issues. Either way, good luck to him. One of the best.

Could be, or maybe he just doesn't feel like he has any future left at Disney. He worked for so long on Tangled and perhaps there aren't any new "classic" Disney movies like that coming out anytime soon.

 

[Anticitizen One]

This was a long time coming. You knew it was the end of the line when he slaved away on various takes of rapunzel for ten years only to be removed from the project by his old pal John Lasseter.

 

[FelixOrion]

Some animation studio out there is gonna get a huge boost in the near future.

 

[Krev]

This was a long time coming. You knew it was the end of the line when he slaved away on various takes of rapunzel for ten years only to be removed from the project by his old pal John Lasseter.

Yeah, what I was thinking.

Could be, or maybe he just doesn't feel like he has any future left at Disney. He worked for so long on Tangled and perhaps there aren't any new "classic" Disney movies like that coming out anytime soon.

I would have thought Frozen (the long in development Snow Queen movie) would be along those lines.

 

[GCX]

This was a long time coming. You knew it was the end of the line when he slaved away on various takes of rapunzel for ten years only to be removed from the project by his old pal John Lasseter.

He wasn't removed from the project. He was reassigned from director to animation director due to his health problems that were caused by stress.

 

[Rookje]

 

[GamerSoul]

I can't believe I never looked up the great animators at Disney in my drawing days. I wish him the best of luck. A living legend indeed.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

I wish this was the first response.

I love you Glen.

You are the reason I feel in love with the resurgence of Disney Animation in the late 80s, early 90s.

You and Andreas Deja.

 

[Korey]

its

 

[Puddles]

He designed Ariel; did he also design Belle?

 

[GCX]

He designed Ariel; did he also design Belle?

Iirc his main job in Beauty & The Beast was to animate the beast so I don't think he had much to do with Belle.

 

[Puddles]

Which characters did he do the original concept art for?

 

[GCX]

Which characters did he do the original concept art for?

Hard to say really, many characters in The Rescuers, Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company, Pocahontas, Aladdin, Tangled, etc.

In Tangled for example he did the original character designs for pretty much the whole main cast but with some movies it's really hard to say. Making movies is a team effort after all.

 

[Xun]

A loss for Disney, but he deserves a break.

Anyone know what his health issues are?

 

[ShinobiFist]

I still owned most of those amazing Disney artbooks from hyperion books. Amazing quality and detail. No artbooks from any publication comes close. That Mulan and Tarzan artbook........Sooooooooooo good.

 

[Black-Wind]

Big loss to Disney ... big gain for someone else. Like when Genndy decided to leave CN after SBT got bathroom-shanked.

He's been talking about this last year. He said that seeing how a movie can take years to do ... he wants to spend the rest of his career doing what he wants and that's apparently not happening at Disney. I was shocked to read that apparently Tangled was far from his original vision.


Like when Genndy decided to leave CN after SBT got bathroom-shanked.

 

[Mistle]

Damn I somehow missed this news, but came across this thread accidentally through search.

Horrible news. I was optimistic Disney were finally getting back to their glory days of animation, especially after Tangled, but this is a huge blow. Hopefully he will still work and create within the animation industry.

 

[Duderz]

He really was (and is) among the best of the best. I'm sad to see him go, but 38 years is a long time to stay in a single studio, and is almost unheard of in this day and age. I'm very excited to see what's next for him.

 

[UrbanRats]

A fucking master.

 

[mrkgoo]

a true legend.

 

[jett]

Oh man, news to me! One of the greatest character designers at Disney of all-time. I always felt really bad with how he was treated on Rapunzel, probably why he left.

 

[sky]

Wow. Such an incredible talent... I wonder what he's gonna do?