Widely considered one of the two best animators at the Disney Studio -- the other being headline-nabbing Glen Keane -- Andreas Deja has animated some of the most memorable characters in recent animation history. In his 23 year career at Disney, he's been responsible for animating such characters as Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast," Jafar, Scar, Hercules, and the groundbreaking Roger Rabbit. His most recent credit was lead animator of Lilo in Disney's wonderful hit "Lilo & Stitch."

With the 15th Anniversary release of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Vista Series" on DVD (March 25), I sat down with Andreas to talk about his "Roger Rabbit" experience, working with Richard Williams, tips for aspiring animators, and what the future holds for animated feature films.

Stephen Wong: So tell us a little bit about your role in Roger Rabbit?

Andreas Deja: I was one of the four supervising animators on the movie, and one of the two who were sent from Disney Studios to London, because we opened up the studio there just to produce the movie. So the rest of the crew was pretty much European. I did a lot of the scenes with Roger, but just about everybody did. There was so much Roger footage to animate, that it was kind of spread out. But it allowed me to do other characters.

So one of the other characters I animated was the bouncer Gorilla at the club. I animated a lot of the Disney cameo characters, like the Fantasia characters (Mickey Mouse and some of those). Also, I helped set up the leader of the weasels: Smart Ass.

You also animated that crazy final sequence where all the animated characters break through the wall of the acme factory?

Yes, when they break through the wall and all these characters come running towards where the villain head just melted away. And Richard Williams was telling me, 'we have all these different characters from different studios, but they have to all be in character. They can't just hop over toward the camera.' So I said, 'Okay, this might take a little while.' I looked at the Road Runner and Bambi and Mickey and all of those, to see how they run. So that's what I tried, to have them run in character.

So was there a moment where you thought, 'there's no way I can get this done in the time frame they've give me'?

It was a pretty crazy experience. I said 'Look, this is a very unique scene. If there ever was a crowd scene, this is one.' I had to pay attention to the personality of each character. So the roadrunner zips through from one point to another. And Betty Boop, very girlie like, comes running forward. They all needed to be paid attention to, but I got it done eventually. In the scene, I did pretty much the first two rows [of characters]. There were some way in the back that followed that were assistant-animated.

So what was it like working with Richard Williams?

It was a complete blast. I mean, the man is so enthusiastic about the medium, and he just kind of pumps you all up again with his enthusiasm. So, you get infected by it. I mean, I was nuts about animation in the first place, but then working with him was great. We have similar taste. We like the same things, the same kind of art, so I was lucky enough to become friends with Dick, and it was just great to work with him.

He was really grounded in traditional art. Are you sort of the same way?

Oh, absolutely. There are basic things you have to know about animation. Weight is always a big issue. If character moves without weight, you don't have any believability, so how do you get that in there. And this is very important with Roger, because he's standing next to live actors who have weight and move with weight, so he has to have that too. But in animation you have to caricature that and go a little further. So all of this was talked about and analyzed, and you have to apply those principles.

So how would you rank the difficulty in animating Roger Rabbit among the other characters you've animated?

That's an interesting question. In one way, he was very easy to animate because he's so surreal, and his design is not subtle. You know, he's got these big bug eyes, sort of a low crotch with big feet, and that kind of cartoony design makes it easy to handle. So from that point of view he was maybe the easiest character to draw. But to lock a character like that into live action, to a point where it really sits there in the scene, even when there is a camera move. If you don't plug in the character accurately, you can have his feet dangling on the ground a little bit. So that made it very difficult technically, to lock in the character.

I heard that you have a graphics design background. Would you say that's helped your design skills as an animator?

I don't know. It was just art school that focused on graphics design and illustration. We had life drawing constantly, and that was extremely useful. You can never have enough of that. And this goes back to the letter that Disney sent me in response to questions I had about "How do you become an animator? What kind of training do I need?" They said, you have to know the human figure. You have to take life drawing for years. And you have to spend a lot of time at the zoo and draw the animals, so I just made time during those art school years doing that, which was helpful because it improved my draughtsmanship and it got me into the studio eventually.

That actually sort of answers my next question. I was going to ask you what you would suggest aspiring animators to study in art school.

I think it would have to be the same answer I got from Disney. Just that it's fun to draw cartoon characters, but there needs to be a focus on the foundation of, I don't want to call it academic studies, but I guess that's what it is. Just really know the human figure. And know a lot about animals, their bone structure and how they move. But they can be a really fascinating study, thanks to video. You can look at wildlife specials, because let's face it, when you go to the zoo the animals are basically asleep, and there's only so much you can get out of that. There was a show that was just breathtaking, called "Ultimate Enemies," filmed by the Jouberts. They're a couple in Africa that do the best wildlife specials. I mean their films are like art films. This was about the rivalry between elephants and lions, and it was just incredible what they captured. I'm fascinated by that kind of footage. I freeze frame it, and go frame after frame just to see what happens. I just never stop looking at things like that, so I would highly recommend that as well, as part of your studies.

What do you think is the reason that traditionally animated films are having such a hard time competing against computer-animated films like "Toy Story" and "Shrek"?

I personally think that it all has to do with the stories. That the stories we've done recently in the hand drawn medium didn't quite connect with the audience. And that whoever was directing and producing CG films, they were just more clever, creating characters that did connect. I think that's the only reason. I think we did connect with "Lilo & Stitch." I'm very, very proud of that film, and it came through. So I don't think people are through with drawings yet. I think we just have to do it right.

So you think it's as viable a medium as it was ten years ago?

Absolutely. There's something about a hand crafted product. You know, everything is being computerized and manufactured, and there's just something personal about drawings, about moving drawings. I can't really put it any other way. You see the artist's hand on the screen. You don't really see that in a computer film. [Traditional animation] has its own aesthetics and values.

And a personality.

Yes. The animator's statement comes through more in a hand drawn film, because you see the artist's drawings on the screen. More so than computer animation. Computer animation is very close to stop-motion, puppet-animation. These characters still look a lot like puppets, manipulated by the computer animator. Their range of motion and expressions is a little different. If [traditional animation] is done well, we can be more subtle with our performance. But I'm biased, what can you say.

I'm looking into computer animation as well. I'm taking classes right now, to see if I can make that a bit more personal than it has been.

What's your next project coming up?

It's called "My Peoples" and it's going to be a mix of computer-animated characters and hand drawn characters.

Best of luck with that, and thanks for your time.

Thanks for your interest.

Stephen Wong