Ben Gluck | |
---|---|
![]() Gluck with Frank Thomas (one of Disney’s Nine Old Men) | |
Born | Benjamin Gluck St. Louis Missouri, U.S. |
Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts |
Occupation(s) | storyboard artist, screenwriter, director. |
Years active | 1996–present |
Known for | Peanuts , Walt Disney Feature Animation |
Ben Gluck is an American storyboard artist, film director, and screenwriter. Gluck was a director and head of story at Disney Animation Studios.
Benjamin "Ben" Gluck was born in St. Louis, Missouri. As a teenager, he showed his art portfolio to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston during their book tour for Bambi: The Story and the Film. Impressed by Gluck’s work, they encouraged him to apply to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). [1] After being accepted, Gluck earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Character Animation from CalArts. Gluck's second year student film Man's Best Friend was awarded the Walter Lantz Animation Prize [2] at the CalArts Producers Show, where Gluck had the opportunity to thank Thomas and Johnson personally.
Following this recognition, Gluck's film premiered on MTV's network, [3] and was featured in Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation. After submitting his portfolio, Gluck received a rare offer from Walt Disney Feature Animation that included both funding for his education and a storyboard artist contract.
Upon graduating from CalArts, Gluck immediately obtained a job as a storyboard and visual development artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Gluck contributed to several theatrical films, including Dinosaur , The Emperor's New Groove , and Home on the Range . Before Disney, Gluck was part of DreamWorks Animation’s first summer story internship, working on The Prince of Egypt .
Gluck transitioned to Disney Television, after being invited to join the division from Walt Disney Feature Animation’s President. At Disney Television, Gluck served as the divisions first Head of Story for Bambi II and helped adapt A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner into Piglet's Big Movie both of which received theatrical releases. [4] Gluck also directed Brother Bear II, [5] animated at Disney’s Sydney studio. After a successful first storyboard screening, the studio moved the project into production. During a 12-month development and production schedule--being the fastest ever for a direct-to-video release--Disney closed the Sydney studio and informed its 250 employees. [6] The film was completed even with the studio’s shutdown. [7]
After Disney, Gluck pursued opportunities to explore different genres and advance animation storytelling. [8] He became Head of Story on the Tim Burton-produced 9 for Focus Features, where he shaped characters and oversaw the story animatic. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four, contrasting it with the works of Hayao Miyazaki and saying that, the visuals are entrancing." [9] Gluck was also a segment storyboard artist on the acclaimed adaptation of Kahlil Gibran's, The Prophet .
Gluck served as Head of Story for the Peanuts holiday special Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne , where he significantly influenced the plot and depicting Lucy’s character with greater introspection. Chuck Wilson from The Village Voice praised the special, saying, "Lucy is transformed from a character of nostalgia into a girl as self-reflective and searching as any young person watching the special might be. Her crisis of self is sure to resonate." [10]
Gluck also served as Head of Story for the award-winning Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), With Love . For this holiday special, Gluck played a key part in promoting the theme that all families deserve celebration, which contributed to the special’s nomination for a Humanitas Prize. [11] Both specials were produced for Apple TV +.
Gluck has emphasized the significance of diverse representation and content in family entertainment. [12] Throughout Gluck's career, his body of work has consistently demonstrated his commitment to exemplifying related themes. [13] [14] [15]
Year | Title | Credits | Awards |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), With Love | head of story | Kidscreen Awards: Best Special Holiday Production and Humanitas Award nominee. |
2021 | Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne | head of story | Annie Award nominee: Best Animated Special Production |
2015 | Strange Magic (film) | story consultant | |
2014 | Kahlil Gibran's, The Prophet | storyboard artist | The Visionary Award |
2013 | Battle of the Planets | development | |
2010 | Yogi Bear | storyboard artist | |
2009 | 9 | head of story | VES Award Nominee: Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture |
2006 | Brother Bear II | director | Annie Award: Best Screenplay |
2006 | Bambi II | head of story /voice actor: Baby Possum | Annie Award: Best Home Entertainment Production |
2004 | Home on the Range | storyboard artist | |
2003 | Piglet's Big Movie | storyboard artist / story by | |
2001 | The Emperor's New Groove | story | |
2000 | Dinosaur | story | |
2000 | Clerks (TV) Season 1/Episode 2: Wherein Dante and Randle are Locked in the Freezer | storyboard artist | |
2000 | Rugrats (TV) Season 8/Episode 3: Don't Poop On My Parade | storyboard artist | Daytime Emmy Award |
1998 | The Prince of Egypt | story trainee | |
1998 | Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation Man’s Best Friend | creator / voice actor: serpent | |
1996 | MTV's Cartoon Sushi Man's Best Friend | creator | Walter and Gracie Lantz Award /Best Animated Short: NY Independent Film Festival |
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios.
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez was an American animator, director, producer, and voice actor. Melendez is known for working on the Peanuts animated specials, as well as providing the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock. Before Peanuts, he previously worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, and UPA.
John Alan Lasseter is an American film director, producer, and animator. He has served as the Head of Animation at Skydance Animation since 2019. Previously, he acted as the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Jerry W. Rees is an American film director and animator, best known for the Emmy-nominated animated feature film The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and creating many of the visual effects for the cult classic Tron (1982).
Zachary Thomas Moncrief is an American artist, producer, director, and writer in the animation industry. He's currently a co-executive producer on Netflix's pre-school series Ghee Happy. His titles have included supervising producer, writer, supervising director, storyboard artist, designer, and songwriter. In 2009, an episode from Phineas and Ferb, which he directed entitled "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein", received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the category for Outstanding Special Class Short-format Animated Programs.
Floyd E. Norman is an American animator, writer, and cartoonist. Over the course of his career, he has worked for various animation companies, among them Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar.
Gary Trousdale is an American animator, film director, screenwriter and storyboard artist. He is best known for directing films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). He frequently works with Kirk Wise and Don Hahn.
William Everett "Bud" Luckey was an American artist, cartoonist, illustrator, musician, singer and voice actor. He worked at the animation studio Pixar, where he worked as a character designer on a number of films, including Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars and Ratatouille. Luckey was also the voice of Rick Dicker in The Incredibles, Chuckles the Clown in Toy Story 3 and as Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh (2011).
This is a list of adaptations in film, television, musical theater, and video games, based on characters from the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz.
Ralph Eggleston was an American animator, art director, storyboard artist, and production designer at Pixar Animation Studios. He won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for For the Birds.
Nancy Beiman is a director, character designer, teacher, animator, author and comic strip creator. She attended the Character Animation program at CalArts.
Rubén Procopio is an American animation and comic book artist, animator and sculptor. Long affiliated with Walt Disney Feature Animation as an animator and sculptor, Rubén is credited with restoring the maquette process to feature animation film production in the early 1980s. He is the founder of Masked Avenger Studios, whose clients include Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Studios, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Electric Tiki and DC Comics. He is known for his versatile sculpting and illustration style in both cartoony and realistic characters, with an emphasis on Disney characters, superheroes, and the masked heroes of yesteryear.
Kirk Wise is an American film director, animator and screenwriter best known for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Wise has directed Disney animated films such as Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He also directed the English-language translation of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. He frequently works with Gary Trousdale and Don Hahn.
Francis Glebas is an American keynote speaker, writer, film director, storyboard artist, and teacher. He also directed in Fantasia 2000 (1999) and Piglet's Big Movie (2003). He worked in films such as Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Dinosaur (2000), Treasure Planet (2002), The Incredibles (2004), Space Chimps (2008), Rio (2011) and Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012).
Jorgen Klubien is a Danish animator, storyboard artist, writer and musician. He has worked on Disney films, including The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), The Lion King (1994), A Bug's Life (1998), Cars (2006) and Frankenweenie (2012).
Mark Daniel Walton is an American storyboard artist and voice actor who has worked for Walt Disney Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation, Blue Sky Studios, Warner Animation Group, and other companies. He currently works for Illumination, as of 2023. Walton also voiced Rhino the hamster in the 2008 animated film Bolt.
William Charles Littlejohn was an American animator and union organizer. Littlejohn worked on animated shorts and features in the 1930s through to the 1990s. His notable works include the Tom and Jerry shorts, the Peanuts television specials, the Oscar-winning short The Hole (1962), and the Oscar-nominated A Doonesbury Special (1977). He was inducted into the Cartoon Hall of Fame and received the Winsor McCay Award and garnered lifetime achievement awards from the Annie Awards and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Director Michael Sporn has called Littlejohn "an animation 'God'."
The Peanuts Movie is a 2015 American animated comedy film based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts, produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. The film was directed by Steve Martino from a screenplay by Cornelius Uliano and Craig and Bryan Schulz. Uliano and the Schulzes also serve as producers alongside Paul Feig and Michael J. Travers. It stars the voices of Noah Schnapp as Charlie Brown and, via archival recordings, Bill Melendez as Snoopy and Woodstock. The film sees Charlie trying to improve his odds with his love interest, the Little Red-Haired Girl, while Snoopy writes a book where he is a World War I Flying Ace trying to save his fellow pilot and love interest, Fifi, from the Red Baron and his flying circus. It was the fifth full-length Peanuts film and the first in 35 years.
Daniel Chong is an American animator, storyboard artist, writer, director, and producer. He is best known as the creator of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears (2015–2019). He also directed, wrote and executive produced We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020). He is also directing the upcoming Pixar film Hoppers (2026).
Events in 1974 in animation.