June 6 - Dr. John

Image courtesy musicfeeds.com.au

On this day, in 2019, Dr. John passed away in New Orleans, Louisiana. Born on November 20, 1941 in the same city, his given name was Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr. His father owned a store that sold and fixed appliances and sold records as well. Through the store, the young Malcolm was exposed to various jazz musicians as well as the minstrel type songs his aunts and uncles would sing at family gatherings. When he was thirteen, he met Professor Longhair, a New Orleans blues singer and pianist, and began performing with him soon afterward as a guitarist. Even though he was getting paid, it wasn't until a few years later, when he was able to join the Musicians Union in 1957, that he considered himself a professional musician. At that time he was struggling with his studies at Jesuit High School (the late gigs at nightclubs weren't helping). The school told him he needed to choose between school and his band. It didn't take long for Malcolm to choose his music.

Image courtesy treblezine.com

In 1957, Malcolm was hired as a producer at Ace Records and began working with artists like James Booker and Jimmy Clanton. He continued to play clubs around New Orleans and by the age of seventeen had written his first rock and roll song, Lights Out, that became a regional hit. In 1960, his musical career was temporarily derailed by an incident in Jacksonville, Florida. A band mate was being pistol whipped and Malcolm tried to save him. Malcolm's finger was over the barrel of the gun when it went off, removing part of a finger on his left hand, effectively ending his time as a guitarist. He returned to New Orleans and refashioned himself as a pianist and remained one for the remainder of his career. Unfortunately, he also got involved in the narcotics trade upon his return (both as a user and a dealer). This illegal activity resulted in another career derailment when he was arrested and spent two years in prison.

Image courtesy flashbak.com

While he was incarcerated, New Orleans decided to clean up its image by closing many of the clubs Malcolm used to perform in. When he was released in 1965, he couldn't find work locally and moved to Los Angeles, California where he became a studio musician. While playing with the likes of Sonny and Cher and Frank Zappa, Malcolm began developing a persona he named Dr. John, fashioned after a Haitian voodoo healer popular in New Orleans. Initially, Dr. John was supposed to be for one of Malcolm's friends, Ronnie Barron, but when Ronnie dropped out of the project, Malcolm took the persona on and released an album, Gris-Gris, in 1968.

Image courtesy music-bazaar.com

Over the next few years, Malcolm gained a cult following as Dr. John. He toured around the country, releasing several albums. While Dr. John performed for the growing crowds, the name Malcolm Rebennack continued to get the writing and producing credits. With the release of Dr. John's Gumbo, a 1972 album that mostly consisted of covers of New Orleans R&B songs, Dr. John became a mainstay of Louisiana music. It also marked the end of the overtly voodoo portions of his act. Going forward, he modeled his stage presence as a Mardi Gras revue, only occasionally bringing in voodoo influences. In 1973, he released the funk album In the Right Place, which contained the single Right Place Wrong Time, his only song to break into the Billboard Top Ten.

Over the next 46 years, while he would only break into the Top 100 list once more, Dr. John enjoyed immense success as a studio performer and much beloved collaborator. He recorded with The Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Aaron Neville, Harry Connick, Jr., Ringo Starr, Lou Reed, Greg Allman, LeAnn Rimes, Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin, just to name a few of his over 2,000 credits. He was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in 1977, sang the jingle for Popeye's Chicken, performed the theme songs for the television series Blossom and Curious George, was king of the Krewe du Vieux for the 2010 Mardi Gras season and kicked off the 2017 NBA All-Star Game. Oh, yeah, he also released over forty more albums of his own. During his career he won six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

Image courtesy youtube.com

Dr. John made several contributions to Disneyana over the years. His version of the song Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive was used in 1992's The Mighty Ducks. He sang Cruella de Vil for the live action version of 101 Dalmatians. He joined Steve Tyrell for a duet of You've Got a Friend In Me for Steve's Disney Standards album. In 2009, he sang the opening song of The Princess and the Frog called Down in New Orleans. The Randy Newman written song was nominated for an Academy Award. And, in 2016, he sang a version of Bare Necessities for the live action Jungle Book.

While Dr. John stopped trafficking in narcotics after his stint in prison, he did not stop using them, especially heroin. After battling his addiction for a good chunk of his life, he was finally able to get sober after spending time in rehabilitation in 1989. His decades of drug use took their toll, however. He suffered a fatal heart attack on this day, shortly after recording a farewell album. He was 77.

April 25 - Ron Clements

Image copyright mtishows.com

On this day, in 1953, Ronald Francis Clements was born in Sioux City, Iowa. After graduating from Bishop Heelan Catholic High School, Ron hightailed it to Southern California to become a student at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His professional career actually began in 1974 at Hanna-Barbera, but he was only there a few months before getting word that he'd been accepted into Disney's Talent Development Program. At that point, it was goodbye Scooby Doo, hello Mickey Mouse (even though not much animation was being produced with Mickey at that point) and he's never looked back.

Image copyright Disney

Ron came to Disney at a perfect time. For his first two years, he apprenticed under none other than Frank Thomas, the last of Walt's Nine Old Men to still officially haunt the studios. His first work, totally uncredited of course, made it into Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. By 1977, Ron was working on his own as a Character Animator, contributing to both Pete's Dragon and The Rescuers. For The Fox and the Hound, he'd been promoted to Supervising Animator and worked with John Musker, a Character Animator on the film, for the first time. Ron and John really hit it off, and became writing collaborators on Disney's next project, The Black Cauldron.

Image courtesy wikipedia.com

The Black Cauldron's production process is notorious for its controversies within the company. A growing number of animators were horribly unhappy with the direction the project was taking, Ron and John among them. Only a few years before, Don Bluth had led a walkout of a whole group of employees over the same kind of complaints. Not wanting another mass exodus, Ron and John proposed to then head of the studio Ron Miller that an adaptation of the children's book series Basil of Baker Street be added to the production slate as an 'alternate' movie for staff to work on if they could no longer stomach Cauldron. Miller agreed, putting Jon and and famed storyboard artist Burny Mattinson in the director's chairs and giving Ron the task of adapting the story. When schedules shifted and became a whole lot tighter (mainly after Cauldron tanked), Burny was moved into more of a producer role and Ron became co-director for the first time.

Image copyright Disney

The Great Mouse Detective opened to positive reviews and financial success. Coming only one year after the disastrous Cauldron, Ron and John's little-movie-that-could literally saved the animation department by convincing the powers that be that they could still generate income (in spite of the fact that they let Vincent Price sing). As Detective was wrapping up production, the new bosses, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, held a meeting with all the animators to generate new ideas for films. Ron brought a two page synopsis of an adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid and a quick concept piece about setting Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island in space. Eisner rejected both. Within days, however, Katzenberg quietly asked Ron to expand on his treatment of Mermaid, eventually giving Ron and John the green light to write and direct it.

Image copyright Disney

When The Little Mermaid opened on November 17, 1989, it was a smash hit, earning over $200 million in worldwide box office receipts and ushered in the era that became known as the Disney Renaissance. It also cemented the partnership between Ron and John as a co-directing powerhouse. For their follow-up film, they reworked and resubmitted their idea for a space themed Treasure Island. It was rejected again. Instead they were given the helm of an adaptation of a story from 1001 Arabian Nights called Aladdin.

Image copyright Disney

The duo struck gold again in November 1992, as Aladdin went on to become the first animated picture to gross over $500 million. For a third time they submitted what was now being called Treasure Planet as their next film and, for the third time, the studio said no, thanks, why don't you two direct this Greek mythology project we're developing. They said fine, but when the time came to sign new contracts during the production of Hercules, they made sure that one of the stipulations was that their science fiction adventure flick was guaranteed to be their next project. Despite mostly positive reviews (and near universal acclaim for James Woods' performance as Hades), Hercules failed to score at the box office like its predecessors, taking in a paltry $253 million. While still a moneymaker, the Disney Renaissance was starting to wind down.

Image copyright Disney

Following the wrap of production on Hercules, Ron and John finally got to go to work on Treasure Planet, more than a decade after first coming up with the idea. In retrospect, the fact that the movie had been rejected so many times (and that they had to kind of force the studio into making it at all), should have been an omen for everyone involved. Changing the genre of established classics is not only hard but doesn't make people already familiar with the story happy. Treasure Planet opened in November 2002 to tepid reviews and dismal sales. It became the first Disney animated movie since The Black Cauldron to fail to make back its budget. It's not a bad film, but you'd also be hard pressed to call it a good film. The Renaissance was over.

Image copyright Disney

Ron and John inherited a concept called Fraidy Cat as their next project but the production was fraught with problems. When David Stainton, then president of animation, refused to green light the movie in September 2005, both of the co-directors resigned from the company in protest. The successful duo's absence wouldn't even last a year, though. By the spring of 2006, John Lasseter installed as the new chief creative officer of animation and he asked Ron and John to return to Disney to helm an adaptation of The Frog Princess.

Image copyright Disney

As the entire industry was embracing fully computer generated animation, Lasseter was willing to give traditional animation another shot. Ron and John were a perfect duo to head 2D animation's last hurrah. Their direction, along with Randy Newman's blend of zydeco and jazz, pushed The Princess and the Frog to the highest box office receipts in years, over $270 million, but still far short of what had been realized during the Renaissance. It didn't help that Princess opened a week after Avatar (Princess is clearly the superior movie, but there really is no accounting for taste). The 2009 film managed to earn four Oscar nominations (getting edged out by Up in most of them) but is, as of right now, the last film put out by a major studio using traditional techniques. Hand drawn animation is over.

Image courtesy animationmagazine.net

Traditional storytelling, however is not. After The Princess and the Frog, Ron and John became quite secretive about what they were working on. All they would say is yes we're working. After a couple of years of development, they finally came clean about the fact that, yes, they were moving into the realm of computer animation and their next story was inspired by Pacific Island cultures. The movie that came out in November 2016, Moana, became their biggest hit yet. With songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda and overwhelmingly positive reviews, Moana brought over $643 million in box office receipts to the table. The directing team was back on top of the animation world.

Since the release of Moana, John Musker, who obviously felt like walking away a huge success was the way to go,  has retired from Disney and the animation business. Ron hasn't made that decision quite yet. Despite the fact that his long time partner in crime has folded up his directing chair, Ron may (or may not) have another epic story in him just crying out to be told. Whether he goes for it or just spends a few more years, like his old mentor Frank did, guiding the new guys at the start of their journeys, Ron has undeniably spent the last 45 years creating the highlights of two generations worth of childhoods.And for that alone, he deserves a tip of the mouse ears. Happy Birthday, Ron!

January 11 - Pres Romanillos

Image courtesy jimhillmedia.com

On this day, in 1963, Priscillano Antonio Romanillos was born in Zamboanga City, Philippines. When he was 6, Pres and his family moved to Queens, New York. At some point, his older brother, Bob, started to take a correspondence course in art. Bob quickly lost interest but the lessons, already paid for, kept coming. Pres began looking at his brother’s lessons, loved them and finished the course for him. When he grew older, Pres attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, eventually earning himself an MFA.

In 1989, as the Disney Renaissance was starting and the company was actively recruiting animators for the first time in years, Pres was hired on as an animation trainee. He cut his teeth on The Little Mermaid, impressing one of the supervising animators, Ruben Aquino, with his draftsmanship and passion. He continued to hone his skills on The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. By Pocahontas, Pres had been promoted to animator and worked under supervising animator Glen Keane on the title character. Pocahontas co-director Eric Goldberg said he was in awe of the sheer beauty that was Pres’ work.

Image copyright Disney

Pres made minor contributions to The Hunchback of Notre Dame but came into his own on Disney’s 36^th animated feature, Mulan. As supervising animator for the films villain, Shan-Yu, as well as the villainous sidekick, Hayabusa the falcon, Pres really threw himself into his work, albeit mostly subconsciously. He said in an interview once that he left work feeling sexy during production on Pocahontas, but when he shifted to Mulan, his wife kept asking why he was so angry all the time. Feelings below the surface or not, Pres managed to create a menacing figure in Shan-Yu that no one felt too bad about when he met his explosive demise at film’s end.

Image copyright DreamWorks

Once Mulan was finished, Pres became another Disney casualty in the animation war of the time, when he followed Jeffrey Katzenberg to his newish studio, DreamWorks SKG. He came in during production on The Road to El Dorado as an animator. By Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, he was once again a supervising animator as he also helped design the Native American character Little Creek. Pres continued as a supervisor for Dunbar’s Crew on DreamWork’s 2003 film, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. Unfortunately for Pres (and Jeffrey and DreamWorks) none of those movies were a financial success. Following Sinbad, DreamWorks would abandon traditional animation altogether in favor of CGI. Fortunately for Pres, he was able to make the transition to computer animation and contributed to films like Shrek 2 and Madagascar.

Image courtesy lifeisapickle.blogspot.com

In 2007, Pres travelled to Spain, where he established the Enne Animation Studio with his artist friend, Scott Johnston. While there he completed a short film, The Old Chair, using characters from a blog he’d started in 2006, Life as a Pickle. Tragically, while in Spain, Pres would be diagnosed with leukemia. He returned to the States, underwent a bone marrow transplant and seemed to be on the road to recovery. He actually returned to work at Disney in July of 2009 as an animator on Prince Naveen for The Princess and the Frog.

Pres might have angered the voodoo gods through his work on Princess, though. In March of 2010, he not only suffered a relapse of his cancer, but the leukemia was much more aggressive this time around. Pres passed away on July 17, 2010. Following his death, Steve Hulett, a representative of the Animation Guild, declared that of all the animators who deserved a few more decades of artistic success, Pres was at the top of that list. He was only 47 years old.

November 28 - Randy Newman

Image courtesy of Twitter.com

On this day, in 1943, Randall Stuart Newman was born in Los Angeles, California. Born on his father's 30th birthday, Randy spent some of his youth living in New Orleans before his family returned to Los Angeles at the age of 11. You could say that he later went into the family business: three of his uncles (Alfred, Lionel and Emil) and four of his cousins (Thomas, Maria, David and Joey) are also film composers. Although Randy didn't start out that way.

At the ripe old age of 17, Randy became a professional songwriter. He released a single, Golden Gridiron Boy, in 1962 as a performer but it was a flop and he wouldn't perform again for several years because of it. The same year, Randy gained exposure (and the royalties that come with it) when The Fleetwoods released his song They Tell Me It's Summer as the B-side of one of their hits. For those of you kids who don't know what a B-side is, go ask your grandparents. Throughout the rest of the Sixties, Randy's songs were recorded by such artists as Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney and Petula Clark. He even saw several of songs become top 40 hits in the United Kingdom during this time.

Photo lifted from Wikipedia.com

In 1968, Randy released his first album as a performer, the self titled Randy Newman. It didn't catch on with audiences but was a critical success and many of its songs were covered by other groups, so he still made money. The track I Think It's Going to Rain Today became something of a standard (the best known version is perhaps Bette Midler's on the Beaches soundtrack). Throughout the Seventies, Randy continued to write songs for other groups (like Mama Told Me Not to Come for Three Dog Night) while occasionally putting out albums of his own. The early albums never really became great commercial successes, but Randy built a large following anyways.  In 1974, he had his first success when the album Good Old Boys reached number 36 on the charts. Three years later, he cracked the top ten with Little Criminals featuring the hit song Short People.

Image copyright HBO Films

Randy's work composing for film actually began in 1971 when he penned the score to Norman Lear's Cold Turkey. It would be ten more years, though before he did it again. The wait was worth it. For 1981's Ragtime, Randy was nominated for two Academy Awards. Thus began his second career of composing both film scores and songs used in those films. His work can be heard on such movies as Pleasantville, Awakenings and Meet the Parents. Not only did he write songs for The Three Amigos, he co-wrote the script and provided the voice for the singing bush.

Image copyright Disney

Randy has become a staple for Pixar releases. Starting with their first feature, Toy Story, Randy has not only scored a total of eight Pixar films so far, but also written and performed songs for some of them: A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2 and 3, Monsters, Inc., Cars, Monsters University and Cars 3. He will return next year as the composer on Toy Story 4. His work on those eight movies garnered him several Oscar nominations, including two wins for Best Original Song for Monsters, Inc and Toy Story 3. The win for Monsters, Inc. actually ended his unwanted distinction for the most nominations without a win after losing 15 times. He still quips that his percentages aren't great as he's only won twice in 20 nominations.

Image copyright Disney

Randy also has the honor of scoring the last traditionally animated Walt Disney Pictures feature, 2009's The Princess and the Frog. Set in Louisiana, the mix of jazz, zydeco and blues was perfectly suited to Randy's style and he even got an animated version of himself in the film, albeit as a firefly. Two more Oscar nominations came his way for the songs Almost There and Down in New Orleans. Randy had previously written the music for Disney's version of James and the Giant Peach as well.

At the age of 75, Randy continues to write new songs, provide the scores for new movies and perform. He released an album just last year called Dark Matter. He scored last year's The Meyerowitz Stories and has at least one coming out next year.  In 2002, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, became a Disney Legend in 2007, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree in 2013. In short, he shows no signs of slowing down much. And for fans of his quirky songs and style, that's a very good thing.