Bruce W. Smith

Bruce William Smith (born 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an American character animator, film director, and television producer, best known as the creator of Disney Channel's The Proud Family, and as the supervising animator of Kerchak in Tarzan, Pacha in The Emperor's New Groove, Dr. Facilier in The Princess and the Frog, and Piglet, Kanga, and Roo in Winnie the Pooh.

He studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts.

One of the few Black animators working in the industry, Smith got his start as an assistant animator for Bill Meléndez's 1984 Garfield television special Garfield in the Rough. He went on to animate for Baer Animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and in 1992 directed his first feature, Bébé's Kids. Other notable work for Smith during the mid-1990s included supervising the animation for The Pagemaster, serving as director and character designer for Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, designing the characters for A Goofy Movie and C Bear and Jamal, and co-directing the animated segments of Space Jam. He was also the creator of Da Boom Crew along with John P. White and Stiles White.

In 1998 he joined Walt Disney Feature Animation, Smith served as a supervising animator on four of its films: Tarzan, The Emperor's New Groove, Home on the Range and The Princess and the Frog. In 2000 when he still worked for Hyperion Pictures, he piloted his series The Proud Family to Nickelodeon, who passed on it. Disney Channel eventually picked the series up the following year and ran it until 2005. The series was the first to be produced by his production company Jambalaya Studios.

Smith grew up in Central Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Notes
1987 Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night Animator
1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit Additional Animation
1991 Rover Dangerfield Storyboard Artist/Character Designer/Character Animator/Sequence Director
1992 Rock-A-Doodle Character Animator
Bébé's Kids Director/Principal Character Designer
1993 Happily Ever After Animator
1994 The Pagemaster Supervising Animator
1995 A Goofy Movie Character Designer
1996 Space Jam Animation Director
1997 Cats Don't Dance Character Designer/Supervising Animator: "Sawyer", "Max"
1999 Tarzan Supervising Animator: "Kerchak", "Baboons", "Baby Baboons"
2000 The Emperor's New Groove Supervising Animator: "Pacha"
2004 Home on the Range Supervising Animator: "Pearl"
2005 The Proud Family Movie Director/Executive Producer
2009 The Princess and the Frog Supervising Animator: "Dr. Facilier"
2011 Winnie the Pooh Supervising Animator: "Kanga", "Roo", "Piglet"
2012 Wreck-It Ralph Additional Visual Development
2013 Frozen Additional Visual Development

References

External links

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