A Minute with Andreas Deja
A brief interview with one of the world's best lead animators, by Jake Friedman. *Originally published January, 2007 on AnimatorsUnite.com
When the question arises as to the best character animator alive today, one unquestionably thinks of Andreas Deja. Following in the footsteps of the pioneers at Disney and learning from the “Nine Old Men” themselves, Deja has made a name for himself with the creation of such characters as King Triton, Jafar, Gaston, Scar, Hercules, Lilo and countless others. He could barely speak proper English when he came from Germany to animate on Disney feature films and was part of the resurgence of animation that started booming with The Little Mermaid. Recently, when all the drawing tables at Disney were being replaced with computers, Deja’s office was the one holdout to still use paper and a pencil-test machine, a decision that would otherwise the risk the company losing one of its greatest talents.
Deja visiting Germany, 2005
JF: What’s the hardest thing about being a Disney lead animator?
AD: The hardest thing is to live up to the expectation of pulling together important scenes of the films. You have to lead a group of animators and help them along to meet their footage requirements, and you have the least time of any animator. You have to work with the group, spend time with them, you have to do the most important pieces of film yourself because you are the lead animator on that character, and you are expected to do the most footage of them all. So it’s quite a challenge.
JF: What’s the biggest perk?
AD: Research trips, for example; lush wrap parties afterwards. Research trips have been an absolutely amazing experience. For The Emperor’s New Groove we went to Peru, for Beauty and the Beast we wined and dines in the Loire valley in France and we visited castles. It was all great.
JF: Why did you choose to be a lead character animator at Disney?