Speakers

Gary Goldman Animator, Director and Producer

Gary Goldman Animator, Director and Producer

Gary Goldman’s first animation job interview was in February at Walt Disney Productions.  He had been raised in Watsonville, CA and earned his Fine Arts degree in Life Drawing with a minor in Art History from the University of Hawaii the December before, in 1971. Three days after the interview, he was hired into their animation training program. His first assignment was as a ruff inbetweener to supervising animator Frank Thomas, on the motion picture Robin Hood.
Gary’s contributions as an animator at WDP include the films Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974) and The Rescuers (1976). He was promoted to Directing Animator for Pete’s Dragon (1977) and also served in this capacity on The Small One (1978).

Gary is a producer, director and animator who shared public recognition with his artistic partners when he resigned from Walt Disney Productions in 1979 and co-founded Don Bluth Productions with Don Bluth and John Pomeroy. Since then he has animated, produced, co-directed and supervised post-production on 12 films and four video games, including, Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1979); The Secret of NIMH (1982); An American Tail (1986); The Land Before Time (1988); All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989); and Thumbelina (1994) and the hit video games Dragon’s Lair (1983); Space Ace (1983); and Dragon’s Lair II: A Time Warp (1989) and Dragon’s Lair 3D: Return to the Lair (2002).

In 1986 he, along with Morris Sullivan, Don Bluth & John Pomeroy, moved Sullivan Studios and 87 of its employees, their families and pets to Dublin, Ireland. They produced three of the films listed above and helped start an animation course at Dublin’s Ballyfermot Senior College, in association with Sheridan College, in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

The company’s financial backing collapsed in 1992, and the studio was forced to protect itself in receivership. In early 1993, the company was purchased by Media Assets, a subsidiary of Star TV, and continued operations as Don Bluth Entertainment, Ireland, Ltd.
Recruited by 20th Century Fox in early 1994 to assist with the creation of Fox Animation Studios, Inc, Mr Goldman, along with Don Bluth, was the creative leader of the new company. Within a year and a half of agreeing to work with Fox, the duo began production on Anastasia. Fox Animation Studio was in business for six years and employed 316 artists, technicians and administrative staff. Along with Anastasia (1997), Gary was producer/director, with Bluth, on Bartok the Magnificent (a feature-length, direct to DVD (1999) and Titan A.E. (2000).

Mr. Goldman continues to partner with Bluth under the moniker Don Bluth Films, developing intellectual properties for animated feature films, and giving seminars on production to animation professionals and students from around the world at venues in New York, Chicago, Savannah, Provo – BYU Center for Animation, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Mexico, Florence, Italy and Oulu, Finland.

Gary was ‘Artist in Residence’ at the Savannah College of Art & Design for the winter quarter of 2008, teaching three courses in 2D Animation, Advanced 2D Animation and Animation Production.

Gary Goldman has been a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1976.  He and his wife, Cathy, live in Phoenix, Arizona.  They have five children and seven grandchildren.

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