Tony Bancroft was lucky enough to score a job with Disney right after he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, where he majored in animation. As a result, he was right in the middle of Disney's 'animation renaissance,' animating classic characters like Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast and Iago for Aladdin.
However, his next job was a leap up the ladder: Supervising Animator on Pumbaa, the lovable warthog from 1994's The Lion King, currently on top of the box office in a 3-D reissue and coming to Blu-Ray on October 4th.
In this roundtable interview, Tony Bancroft shares his experiences working on this classic film and his biggest challenge when animating Pumbaa.
Suite 101: How did you get started as an animator?
Tony Bancroft: "I loved to draw ever since I was a child. I used to draw with my brother as much as most kids go out and play sports. The love of drawing later combined with a love for movies that lead me to animation. I went to a great college called California Institute of the Arts (writer's note: Cal Arts is an arts college with a long association with Disney Animation) to study animation and was picked up by Disney right out of college. From there, the rest is history!"
S101: What was it like working at Disney Animation during that period?
Bancroft: "Boy, it was a great time. Many of us on The Lion King were young animators that just had no fear of trying new things and we were totally focused on making great films. There was not a lot of pressure on us at the time because the studio did not expect much from The Lion King at first so we felt creatively unharnessed."
S101: Did you ask to supervise Pumbaa? What drew you to the character?
Bancroft: "No, actually I asked to work on Zazu (the bird voiced by Rowan Atkinson) originally. Pumbaa and Timon, even at an early stage of the film, were the breakout popular characters and they seemed out of my reach to even request as a first time Supervising Animator.
"Having just finished animating Iago the parrot from Aladdin, I thought, 'Iago's a bird and Zazu's a bird...maybe I have a shot!' I was totally taken by surprise when directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff called to offer me the character of Pumbaa! It was one of the happiest days of my life."
S101: What were your visual inspirations for Pumbaa? How much was voice actor Ernie Sabella used as a reference?
Bancroft: "We animators always start with the real thing first. I spent almost 6 months in the beginning of the film just researching warthogs and African animals. It was a great time to soak in what the real animal looked like before I moved away from it and caricatured it. Besides reality, Ernie Sabella was a big influence. He has a very round and appealing smile that I knew just had to be a part of Pumbaa.
"Early in the process of making the film, I flew out to New York City with Mike Surrey, the animator on Timon, where both Ernie Sabella and Nathan Lane (who voiced Timon) were in Guys and Dolls together on Broadway. It was a great education for me to see Ernie performing, to study his movements and actions. Then when I got back to my animation desk I would try to incorporate as much as Ernie's acting style in my scenes. I think it really helped in bringing the character to life."
S101: Were there any rituals you would do (listening to a genre of music or watching a film) that helped you animate a character?
Bancroft: "I don't know why, but I remember Mike and I listened to a lot of Broadway musicals while animating Pumbaa and Timon. We shared an office, and we would sing along to Les Miserables or Miss Saigon while animating our characters. Maybe it helped when our characters sang 'Hakuna Matata'!"
S101: What was the most difficult aspect of animating Pumbaa, and why?
Bancroft: "Trying to make a warthog appealing. They are really the ugliest animals, so trying to make him cute was an ongoing battle. I'm pleased with the results though."
S101: Looking back at the character, is there anything you wish you had done differently?
Bancroft: "Not really. Since I was a first time Supervising Animator, my mistakes had to do with managerial things that I was learning about leading a crew but also the work on the screen of which I am most proud of. I learned so much on this movie and it really changed the kind of artist I am now."
S101: What's the sequence you're most proud of in this film, and why?
Bancroft: "That's a tough one, but I would have to say the sequence where Pumbaa is lying on his back looking up at the stars with Simba and Timon talking about what the stars are. I loved Pumbaa's response to Simba's thoughts on what the stars above really were.
"He says, 'Aw, gee... I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.' That scene really helped round out Pumbaa to be a more fully realized character. He’s not dumb, he's just an innocent animal that follows Timon's lead. Once I animated that scene, I felt like I knew who his character was."
(In Part #2 of this interview, Tony Bancroft shares more of his experiences making The Lion King and his thoughts on 3-D.)
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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