Interview: Doeri Welch-Greiner on Disney Shorts
Glago's Guest Associate Producer Talks Disney Animation
Oct 6, 2008
One of the biggest news of John Lasseter's return to Disney Animation (he was fired from Disney in 1983) was his re-introduction of the shorts program. 2007 saw the debut of the Goofy short "How to Hook Up Your Home Theatre," and this year sees "Glago's Guest," a Chris Williams-directed short about a Russian soldier who receives unexpected visitors. It precedes Bolt into theatres on November 21st.
Suite 101 chatted with "Glago's Guest" associate producer Doeri Welch-Greiner about the new shorts program, and working with John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Williams.
Let’s talk a bit about the shorts program. This has been big news, that you’ve been bringing back animated shorts to Disney.
“Ed and John have a fantastic vision for the studio. One of the first messages we got from John was this idea he has about over-delivering. He loves that: you come to see the movie and you get a short, and you get a short when you get your DVD, and there’s all that excitement about this extra thing you got.
"So he re-instated the shorts program that had been pretty much dead since Fantasia 2000. They were thinking about Fantasia 2006: there was a series of shorts made going towards that goal that we released on DVDs or as bonus material. But Fantasia 2006 never happened, so there wasn’t a lot of focus on shorts. But John and Ed said, ‘We want to do this to develop new talent, to develop new technology, and to really push our envelope in terms of storytelling,’ and it’s such a great entertainment form that they wanted to get it back into play.”
You mentioned the change in atmosphere ever since John and Ed took over. Can you get into that a little bit more?
“Sure. John Lasseter’s very hands-on. He comes into your story meetings and he’s like a dose of Vitamin B, it’s just fantastic. His notes are always exactly what the team needs to hear. He’s really passionate about the work, and he inspires that in other people.
"When Ed Catmull came in I thought, ‘Oh, he’s the computer science guy and he’s going to have this engineering approach.’ But wow, he’s so multi-faceted and really concerned about process, not just the technology part of it. He’s really concerned with how we’re approaching the movies, and how we make movies, and how we ensure that our division is a viable thing going forward. It’s a really exciting time.”
I read in Steve Hulett’s blog that he was really impressed with how the animators are now bringing their work to other animators, instead of suits.
“Yeah, yeah! And even what that’s done to different groups within the studio. There are all these little task forces going on, of people really taking ownership of their own areas, and trying to make it their own little paradise and making the tool set what they want, and the work atmosphere what they want and that’s a different kind of ownership, I think.”
How did everyone react to the news that Chris Williams was replacing Chris Sanders on Bolt?
“Well, I’m not working on Bolt, but I know John Lasseter totally believes in him, and that Chris really turned that story around. It’s such a fun movie, I think it’s going to be hugely successful. Chris and his co-director, Byron Howard – the two of them together with Chris’s strong story sense and Byron’s animation background – makes them a really great team.”
How would you characterize Chris Williams as a director?
“He’s so committed to the project that he makes it so much fun to work on it. He’s completely passionate about it. We were just getting into the meat of “Glago’s Guest” when this other thing came up. But it's been fun for him to come and work with us and a little less daunting than dealing with Bolt and having the movie on his shoulders and all that. But he’s an extremely passionate guy and he loves animation and he loves the studio, so he gets people really rallied around him. Plus, the story was just so good that everybody was dying to work on it.”
So what’s next for you?
“I’m going back to pick up my production manager reins again on Rapunzel. It’s in story phase right now. We’re designing and building elements around the first of next year, and starting animation somewhere around next summer.”
I believe it was originally called Rapunzel Unbraided. How much has it changed?
“I was on the movie at that point, and (director) Glen Keane decided that he really wanted to make the classic fairy tale. The original version was that a girl got pulled from the modern world and replaced Rapunzel, and Rapunzel got turned into a squirrel. But we’re on a clearer, more classic fairy-tale sort of track right now with Dean Wellins as co-director; he was one of the story guys on Iron Giant and a Disney animator for a long time. They’re a great team, and Dean has a great story sense.
“We don’t have any actors cast, and we can’t tell you about the story except that it’s really great! (laughs) It really plays on the mystery of the girl in the tower, and I think it’s really going to be great with Dean’s story sense and sense of staging, and the artistry that Glen brings to it, we hope we can bring the artistry of the movie to a different place.”
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