March 8 - Bruce Broughton

Image courtesy magazine.scoreit.org

On this day, in 1945, Bruce Broughton was born in Los Angeles, California. As the grandson of a composer, the nephew of a songwriter and the son of musicians, you might think it natural that Bruce has become an award winning composer himself, but he laughingly calls it more of a default position, not one he aspired to. He wanted to be an animator when he grew up but since there wasn’t a lot of support for that dream in the family, he dutifully studied music when he entered the University of Southern California. His act of rebellion was, since he felt he was already a good enough piano player, to study composition instead of piano. But it wasn’t until one day, after listening to a song that riled him up and he realized that he could write music to make people feel things, that composing started to become a lifelong passion. It helps that he had plenty of talent to back that passion up.

Image courtesy hulu.com

Bruce began his professional career in television, a medium he admits most composers don’t like because of the quick turnaround time (but he really enjoys). His first credits came in the early Seventies on shows like Gunsmoke and Hawaii Five-O.  He’s worked steadily on the small screen since then. Some of his longest running gigs include Quincy (64 episodes), Dallas (52 episodes) and Tiny Toon Adventures (11 episodes as well as the main theme). Over the years, he’s been nominated 22 times for an Emmy, winning ten of them. His latest work can be heard on the current Fox show The Orville (Bruce composed the main theme and scored the first several episodes).

Bruce made the leap to the big screen in 1983, scoring The Prodigal. Two years later, he earned an Oscar nomination for his work on the Western Silverado (he lost to Out of Africa). Since then, his work has been heard on dozens of projects as diverse as the remake of Miracle on 34^th Street to the experimental Michael Jackson film Moonwalker.

Image copyright Disney

Bruce is no stranger to the symphony concert stage either, even though he feels it’s harder to engage the audience with nothing visual to help out. He’s written 12 full orchestral pieces, 32 compositions for chamber groups and another dozen concertos and the like for symphonic band ensembles.

For his first Disney score in 1990, Bruce was given the task of creating music for the first theatrically released animated sequel in the company’s history, The Rescuers Down Under. This meant he not only had to incorporate elements of Artie Butler’s work from the first movie but then had to translate it into a sweeping adventure set in another country. He was more than up to the task and began a long relationship with the studio.

Image copyright Disney

For the silver screen, Bruce has scored Disney pictures including Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Homeward Bound II, Betsy’s Wedding, Shadow Conspiracy, Krippendorf’s Tribe, The Three Musketeers (the animated version with Mickey, Goofy and Donald) and Bambi II (which technically was a direct to video project but is still feature length). For Fantasia 2000, Bruce was conductor and musical supervisor for the Rhapsody in Blue segment.  He also scored two episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney and both made-for-television movies based on the Eloise books (winning an Emmy both times, thank you very much).

Image copyright Disney

Bruce’s most often heard compositions, though, were the pieces he did for various Disney theme parks (even if, sadly, most of them are no longer operational). If you ever experienced any of the following attractions, you’ve heard one of Bruce’s scores: The Timekeeper (known as From Time to Time in Paris and Tokyo), Cinemagique (Paris), The Making of Me (Wonders of Life pavilion, Epcot), Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (Imagination pavilion, Epcot), Ellen’s Energy Adventure (Universe of Energy pavilion, Epcot), One Man’s Dream (Disney’s Hollywood Studios), Seasons of the Vine (Disney’s California Adventure) or Golden Dreams (Disney’s California Adventure). The one place you can still hear his work is on Spaceship Earth in Epcot (so I suggest you run right over there and take a listen before they change everything on us).

In between all his composing, Bruce has managed to find time to be the Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscar people), the Governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the Emmy folks), President of the Society of Composers and Lyricists (they don’t give out any awards) and is currently on the board of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). He is also a lecturer at USC and still actively writes music. Who knows, the next time you find yourself in a darkened theater, you just might see the words Music by Bruce Broughton.

December 29 - Duncan Marjoribanks

Image courtesy animationguild.org

On this day, in 1953, Duncan Marjoribanks was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Duncan grew up in a liberal family and was considered a far-out hippy type in high school. Painfully introverted, he was also incredibly smart and extremely talented at drawing. His talents would take him to the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Canada’s premiere school for animation located in Oakville, Ontario. Following his graduation from Sheridan in 1978, Duncan became part of a group that was hired by Hanna-Barbera prompting a move to Los Angeles, California. Duncan quickly became one of the studio’s top animators, working on shows like Scooby and Scrappy Doo and Godzilla. Then the great Animator’s Strike of 1982 happened. 

Image copyright CBS

The strike began as the union protested how much work was being sent overseas (where it was much cheaper to produce) and lasted for several months. The end result, ironically predictable, was that most US animation production disappeared. Duncan changed his career focus to designing characters and began freelancing for several studios. One of the projects he would work on, and his first as animator in a decade, was a short lived television series called Family Dog. It was created and directed by a guy named Brad Bird who was thoroughly taken with Duncan’s style and talent. Brad recommended Duncan to a friend of his, John Musker. John was starting a little project over at Disney about a mermaid and hired Duncan as the first animator on the team.

Image copyright Disney

Duncan became supervising animator for Sebastian the Crab on Disney’s 28^th animated feature, The Little Mermaid. He took Samuel E. Wright’s marvelous vocal performance and the basic character designs that had already been done and created one of the most endearing and enduring characters that had been seen in decades. Don’t believe me? Just watch the scene when Sebastian finally decides to help rather than hinder Ariel and get back to me.

The success of The Little Mermaid led to Duncan staying on with Disney and supervising again for the next feature film, The Rescuers Down Under, this time for the villain, McLeach. While this film did end up being less successful, it was the grueling schedule that really took its toll on Duncan. By the time the last frame had been drawn, he needed more than a vacation and actually took a year off to live in England. Which doesn’t mean he didn’t work. He provided some character design for a short-lived Hanna-Barbera show called The Pirates of Dark Water.

Image copyright Disney

In 1991, Duncan returned to the states, and Disney, to begin supervising work on another great sidekick, Abu in Aladdin. As if his previous work wasn’t impressive enough, now he would create a memorable character without using words at all. His work in the film can also be seen in the opening sequence with the shady salesman. Duncan went right from Aladdin onto the team for Pocahontas and once again supervised a villain, Governor Ratcliffe. His portrayal of Ratcliffe was more cartoonish than the other characters, which give him more of a presence, but still this side of overly flamboyant, so he remains believable. Duncan was then slated to supervise Megera for Hercules but that never happened.

Image copyright Dreamworks SKG

Around this time, Jeffrey Katzenberg was making his spectacularly messy exit from Disney and starting his own studio, Dreamworks SKG, with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. With big plans to stick it to his former employer, especially in the animation department, one of the first big talents Katzenberg poached was Duncan. The relationship didn't blossom the way anyone hoped. Duncan started out as supervising animator on Moses for Prince of Egypt but struggled with the job so much his only credit on the picture is plain old animator. He did some work on The Road to El Dorado, animating a few scenes with Tzekel-Kan and contributed some story ideas to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron before leaving Dreamworks for good. He spent a year over at Warner Brothers, working on the animated parts of the box office bomb Osmosis Jones (he did pretty good work on the movie but left before it was finished, unhappy with the direction it was taking), before returning to the fold at Disney in 2000.

Image copyright Disney

Unfortunately, Duncan's return to Burbank came at a time when the studio was producing its worst picture since The Black Cauldron. As supervising animator for Mrs. Calloway on Home on the Range, Duncan managed some moments of greatness but the movie was a critical and financial failure. Following that disaster, he was trained in computer animation and contributed to the Bowler Hat Guy for Meet the Robinsons. Duncan then got the privilege of working on Disney's last hand drawn feature, The Princess and the Frog, as head animator for Big Daddy La Buff. 

In 2009, Duncan and Disney parted ways once again. The company had decided to stop using traditional animation techniques and Duncan didn't feel comfortable working with CGI. The only thing he's really done since then was a hand drawn short utilizing the characters from Kung Fu Panda. Which is really a shame. Hopefully some day the talent behind Sebastian and Abu, who has inspired so many animators still working today, will himself find inspiration in some new project and give us all a reason to smile again.

November 16 - The Rescuers Down Under

Photo lifted from imbd.com

On this day, in 1990, Walt Disney Pictures' 29th animated feature, The Rescuers Down Under, opened in theaters. The movie was the second film released during the so called Disney Renaissance, but is rarely seen as being on par with the pictures surrounding it. The Rescuers Down Under is notable for a number of reasons, though. It was the first time a sequel to a Disney animated movie had been produced. It was the first film to be done entirely using the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). This means it was the first completely digital Disney animated feature. Everything was still hand drawn, but it was scanned into a computer to be inked, painted and sequenced. No cameras were used in the production. Down Under was also the first Disney movie since Bambi to promote the environment and advocate for animal rights.

The Rescuers Down Under faced an uphill battle from its conception. America went crazy for movies either set in Australia or featuring Australians after the success of Crocodile Dundee in 1986. Unfortunately, by the time this movie opened, the craze had pretty much disappeared. Couple that with the fact that it premiered the same weekend as Home Alone and it's not hard to see why it had to fight for every dollar of 3.5 million it opened with. The studio was so disappointed, Jeffrey Katzenberg killed all further advertising and let the movie limp along to a 27.9 million dollar finish. The fact that Down Under was also a non-musical (and not just in that characters didn't sing songs but that there were no songs period) didn't help, especially coming after The Little Mermaid.

Photo courtesy of villains.wikia.com

The critical reception wasn't actually too bad. Most reviewers agreed that the story was nothing special but was still an improvement over the original film. They generally liked the production values, especially the action sequences and thought the voice talent was good. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor, in her final film role, reprised their roles. George C. Scott was brought in as the villain McLeach and John Candy replaced the late Jim Jordan as the flying albatross.

The company's disappointment with The Rescuers Down Under, however, has continued in the handling of the film in the home video market. The first release on VHS saw the original film being included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, but not Down Under. It did make it into the Gold Classic Collection for the DVD release, but by the time Blu-ray came along, Down Under would get tacked on to the same box as its older sibling.  It apparently wasn't worth getting its own packaging. The lasting legacy of this, like it or not, mostly forgotten movie, is that sequels can be economically viable.

October 31 - John Candy

On this day, in 1950, comedian John Franklin Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. After graduating high school, John enrolled at Centennial Community College to study journalism. Instead he was bitten by the acting bug.

In 1973, John made his big screen debut in a completely forgettable film, Class of '44 (the only notable thing about the film is, in fact, that it's John's debut). Several other bit parts in Canadian films would follow that one, the most impressive of which would be in The Silent Partner starring Elliott Gould. John's career wouldn't really get started until 1976 when he joined the Toronto branch of a little theater group called Second City.

Performing alongside the likes of Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis and many others, John began to gain national acclaim. When the television series SCTV hit the airwaves, and NBC began broadcasting it in 1981, he gained international acclaim. John's gift for mimicry led to dozens of impersonations on the show, everyone from Julia Child to Orson Welles to Tip O'Neill. His original characters, like Leutonian clarinetist Yosh Shmenge, would not only delight on television but occasionally spill over onto the big screeen. John would also share in two Emmy wins for his writing contributions to the show.

During the run of SCTV, John's film career also ramped up. He made appearances in 1941, The Blues Brothers, Stripes, National Lampoon's Vacation and Going Berserk. After SCTV's last curtain fell, John's television days would be few and far between as he  moved onto the big screen almost exclusively. The remainder of the Eighties would be busy for John, if not always successful. His better roles would include Spaceballs, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck. His misses include Speed Zone, Hot to Trot and Volunteers.

John's contributions to the Disney family were consistently good. His first role for the studio was in 1984 for the very first film to be released under the Touchstone Pictures name, Splash. Playing Freddie Bauer, the womanizing older brother of Tom Hanks, John provided some of the best humor in the movie (I'm thinking of the scene where he impersonates a Swedish scientist). In 1990, he would be the voice of Wilbur in The Rescuers Down Under. Wilbur was the brother of Orville, the albatross in the original Rescuer movie who had been voiced by the late Jim Jordan. John's last turn with Disney was also the last film released during his lifetime: Irv Blitzer, the disgraced coach of the Jamaican bobsled team, in 1993's Cool Runnings.

Throughout the early Nineties, John's career kept chugging along. From small roles in films like Home Alone and JFK, to starring in Only the Lonely, he kept trying to prove he was more than just a lovable oaf. Unfortunately, his final two films wouldn't successfully prove that. On March 4, 1994, John's body would be discovered one morning during the filming of Wagon's East! in Mexico. Having suffered from weight issues his entire life, John had apparently had a fatal heart attack, although an autopsy was never performed. The makers of Wagons insist that they were nearly done filming John's parts, but, if you've ever had the misfortune to see it, he's barely in it and his character is mostly seen from far away and from the rear. The minute bits with John in it are fine; the film as a whole is so terrible it enjoys a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. John's final film to be released, Canadian Bacon, was only marginally better (a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and basically convinced its director, Michael Moore, to stick to documentaries. Thankfully, John's legacy was already cemented by this point and we'll all fondly remember him as a shower curtain ring salesman or as the Polka King.