Irene Mecchi

Last updated
Irene Mecchi
Born (1949-09-21) September 21, 1949 (age 74)
San Francisco, California, United States
OccupationScreenwriter, playwright, television writer
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley [1]
American Conservatory Theater [1]
Notable works

Irene Mecchi (born September 21, 1949) is an American screenwriter and playwright, whose prominent works include screenplays for several Disney animated films. She co-authored the screenplays for The Lion King (1994), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Hercules (1997). With co-author Roger Allers, she received a 1998 Tony nomination for writing the book for The Lion King stage musical.

Contents

Biography

Mecchi was born in the third generation of her family that lived in San Francisco, California. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in theater. [1] Early into her career, her aspirations to direct theater led her to study at the American Conservatory Theater, where her instructor, Joy Carlin, was impressed with her writing and encouraged her to pursue it on a full-time basis. She agreed. [2]

Her first work began when she wrote a series of children's programs for Nickelodeon such as By the Way . [3] Mecchi's first network writing assignment was on the Emmy Award-winning Lily Tomlin special, Lily: Sold Out. [2] Her later television credits also include Valerie, The Popcorn Kid , and My Sister Sam . Along with that, Mecchi researched and wrote a play drawn from newspaper columnist Herb Caen's witty observations of San Francisco. The play was "work-shopped" at the American Conservatory Theater that led Mecchi to edit two books of Caen's writings, which were published in 1992 and 1993. [2]

In March 1992, Mecchi began her association with Disney, when she wrote an animated educational short called Recycle Rex. The short film encouraged younger viewers to "recycle, reduce and reuse" waste materials. During the summer of 1992, Mecchi was brought on board to polish the script for The Lion King , which was pitched to her as " Bambi in Africa". [4] Several months later, she was joined by Jonathan Roberts during the rewriting process of the screenplay. [2] Together, both writers tackled the unresolved emotional issues in the script, and brought additional comedy with Timon, Pumbaa, and the hyenas. [2]

Following her work on The Lion King, she co-wrote the screenplays of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules. Also, she re-teamed with Roger Allers to co-write the book for the Broadway musical adaptation of The Lion King, to which they were nominated a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. [5] She would later re-team again with Allers to contribute additional screenplay material to The Lion King 1½ .

Mecchi served as the co-screenwriter for the Pixar film, Brave , which was co-directed by Brenda Chapman. In June 2013, Chapman stated she and Mecchi were developing Rumblewick at DreamWorks Animation, which went unproduced. [6] [7] In November 2014, it was announced Mecchi was co-writing the screenplay for Lucasfilm's animated musical film, Strange Magic . [8] That same year, she wrote the teleplay for NBC's Peter Pan Live! , [9] in which she revised the characterization of Captain Hook. [10]

Filmography

Films

YearTitleNotes
1994 The Lion King With Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton
1996 The Hunchback of Notre Dame With Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White, and Jonathan Roberts
1997 Hercules With Ron Clements, John Musker, Don McEnery, and Bob Shaw
1999 Fantasia 2000 Live-action segments
With Don Hahn and David Reynolds
2004 The Lion King 1½ Additional screenplay material
2005 Chicken Little Uncredited rewrite[ further explanation needed ], special thanks
2012 Brave With Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, and Brenda Chapman
2014 The Prophet Additional dialogue
2015 Strange Magic With Gary Rydstrom and David Berenbaum

Television

YearTitleNotes
1979 By the Way
1986 Valerie Episode: "One of The Kind"
1987 The Popcorn Kid Episode: "There She Is, Vic Damone"
1988 My Sister Sam Episode: "It's My Party and I'll Kill If I Want To"
1992 Hi Honey, I'm Home Episode: "Elaine Takes a Wife"
1999 Annie Television film
2014 Peter Pan Live!

Related Research Articles

<i>The Lion King</i> 1994 American animated musical drama film

The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. The film features an ensemble voice cast that includes Matthew Broderick, Moira Kelly, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, Rowan Atkinson, and Robert Guillaume. Its original songs were written by composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, with a score by Hans Zimmer. Inspired by African wildlife, the story is modelled primarily on William Shakespeare's stage play Hamlet with some influence from the Biblical stories of Joseph and Moses, and follows a young heir apparent who is forced to flee after his uncle kills his father and usurps the throne. After growing up in exile, the rightful king returns to challenge the usurper and end his tyrannical rule over the kingdom.

<i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> (1996 film) American animated musical drama film

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Tab Murphy, Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White. Featuring the voices of Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, and Kevin Kline, the film follows Quasimodo, the deformed and confined bell-ringer of Notre Dame, and his yearning to explore the outside world and be accepted by society, against the wishes of his cruel, puritanical foster father Claude Frollo, who also wants to exterminate Paris' Roma population.

<i>The Prince of Egypt</i> 1998 film produced by DreamWorks Animation

The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated musical drama film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by DreamWorks Pictures. The second feature film from DreamWorks and the first to be traditionally animated, it is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to a prophet chosen by God to carry out his ultimate destiny of leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. The film was directed by Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, and Simon Wells, and produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg, Penney Finkelman Cox, and Sandra Rabins, from a screenplay written by Philip LaZebnik. It features songs written by Stephen Schwartz and a score composed by Hans Zimmer. The film stars the voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Menken</span> American composer (born 1949)

Alan Irwin Menken is an American composer, pianist, music director, and record producer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Menken's music for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) has each won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), and Disenchanted (2022), among others. His accolades include winning eight Academy Awards — becoming the second most prolific Oscar winner in the music categories after Alfred Newman, a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. Menken is one of nineteen people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

The Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) was a proprietary collection of software, scanning camera systems, servers, networked computer workstations, and custom desks developed by The Walt Disney Company and Pixar in the late 1980s. Although outmoded by the mid-2000s, it succeeded in reducing labor costs for ink and paint and post-production processes of traditionally animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS). It also provided an entirely new palette of digital tools to the animation filmmakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Stanton</span> American filmmaker (born 1965)

Andrew Ayers Stanton is an American filmmaker and voice actor based at Pixar, which he joined in 1990. His film work includes co-writing and co-directing Pixar's A Bug's Life (1998), directing Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel Finding Dory (2016), WALL-E (2008), and the live-action film, Disney's John Carter (2012), and co-writing all four Toy Story films (1995–2019) and Monsters, Inc. (2001).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Theatrical Productions</span> Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company

Disney Theatrical Productions Limited (DTP), also known as Disney on Broadway, is the stageplay and musical production company of the Disney Theatrical Group, a subsidiary of Disney Entertainment, a major division and business unit of The Walt Disney Company.

Jonathan Roberts is an American screenwriter, television producer and author. He is known for having co-written Disney's The Lion King.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Allers</span> American filmmaker

Roger Allers is an American film director, screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist, and playwright. He is best known for co-directing Disney's The Lion King (1994), the highest-grossing traditionally animated film of all time, and for writing the Broadway adaptation of the same name. He also directed Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length animated film, Open Season (2006) and the animated adaptation of The Prophet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Chapman</span> American filmmaker

Brenda Chapman is an American animator, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and director. In 1998, she became the first woman to direct an animated feature from a major studio, DreamWorks Animation's The Prince of Egypt. In 2012, she directed the Disney/Pixar film Brave with Mark Andrews, becoming the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Hahn</span> American film producer and director (born 1955)

Donald Paul Hahn is an American film producer who is credited with producing some of the most successful animated films in recent history, including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

Linda Woolverton is an American screenwriter, playwright, and novelist, whose most prominent works include the screenplays and books of several acclaimed Disney films and stage musicals. She is the first woman to have written an animated feature for Disney, Beauty and the Beast (1991), which is also the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. She also co-wrote the screenplay of The Lion King (1994), provided additional story material for Mulan (1998), and adapted her own Beauty and the Beast screenplay into the book of the Broadway adaptation of the film, for which she received a Tony Award nomination and won an Olivier Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Andrews (filmmaker)</span> American filmmaker

Mark Elliott Andrews is an American filmmaker and animator. He is best known for the 2012 Pixar feature film Brave. He was the story supervisor for The Incredibles, directed the short film One Man Band and co-wrote the short films Jack-Jack Attack and One Man Band.

<i>Brave</i> (2012 film) American computer-animated fantasy film

Brave is a 2012 American animated fantasy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, co-directed by Steve Purcell, and produced by Katherine Sarafian, with John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and Pete Docter serving as executive producers. The story was written by Chapman, who also co-wrote the film's screenplay with Andrews, Purcell, and Irene Mecchi. The film stars the voices of Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd, and Craig Ferguson. Set in the Scottish Highlands, the film tells the story of Princess Merida of DunBroch (Macdonald) who defies an age-old custom, causing chaos in the kingdom by expressing the desire not to be betrothed. When Queen Elinor (Thompson), her mother, falls victim to a beastly curse and turns into a bear, Merida must look within herself and find the key to saving the kingdom. Merida is the first character in the Disney Princess line to be created by Pixar. The film is also dedicated to Pixar chairman and Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs, who died before the film's release.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney Renaissance</span> Period of Disney animated films, 1989–1999

The Disney Renaissance was a period from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Feature Animation returned to producing critically and commercially successful animated films. These were mostly musical adaptations of well-known stories, similar to the films produced during the era of Walt Disney from the 1930s to 1960s. The resurgence allowed Disney's animated films to become a powerhouse of successes at the domestic and foreign box office, earning much greater profits than most of the Disney films of previous eras.

The Lion King is a Disney media franchise comprising a film series and additional media. The success of animated original 1994 American feature film, The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, led to a direct-to-video sequel and prequel, a live-action remake in 2019, a television film sequel, two spin-off television series, three educational shorts, several video games, merchandise, and the third-longest-running musical in Broadway history, which garnered six Tony Awards including Best Musical. The franchise, led by the musical's box office at $8.1 billion, is the highest-grossing entertainment property. The franchise as a whole has EGOT-ed, meaning it has won the four biggest awards of American show business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristen Anderson-Lopez</span> American songwriter

Kristen Anderson-Lopez is an American songwriter known for co-writing the songs for the 2013 computer-animated musical film Frozen and its 2019 sequel Frozen II with her husband Robert Lopez. The couple won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Let It Go" from Frozen and "Remember Me" from Coco (2017) at the 86th and 90th awards respectively. She also won two Grammy Awards at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards.

"The Madness of King Scar" is a song written by English musician Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, which premiered in the musical The Lion King, a stage adaptation of Disney's 1994 animated feature film of the same name. "The Madness of King Scar" had been added to the musical along with two other songs. It is one of two tracks that more prominently features vocals from the character Nala. The title is a reference to the 1994 film The Madness of King George.

<i>The Hunchback of Notre Dame</i> (franchise) Disney media franchise

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a Disney media franchise, commencing in 1996 with the release of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The franchise is based on the 1831 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo.

Jim Capobianco is an American film director, animator and screenwriter. He has worked as a story artist and storyboard artist for films such as The Lion King (1994), Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Finding Dory (2016).

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Irene Mecchi". Stanford Center on Longevity. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Lion King: Production Notes". Walt Disney Pictures. May 25, 1994. Archived from the original on October 26, 2008. Retrieved August 30, 2019– via LionKing.org.
  3. ↑ By The Way- Ultra-rare/lost Nickelodeon show from 1979, Intro & Host Segments. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved August 30, 2019– via YouTube.
  4. ↑ "The Belles of Broadway: A Continued conversation with Irene Mecchi (The Lion King) and Winnie Holzman (Wicked)". No Meaner Place. Archived from the original on November 17, 2016. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  5. ↑ Shirley, Don (May 5, 1998). "'Ragtime,' 'Lion' Top Tony Nods". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  6. ↑ Schavemaker, Peter (June 11, 2013). "An Interview From Abroad with Brenda Chapman". Animation. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  7. ↑ Failes, Ian (September 26, 2016). "Life After Pixar: An Interview with Brenda Chapman". Cartoon Brew . Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  8. ↑ Wolfe, Jennifer (November 11, 2014). "Disney Announces George Lucas' Animated Musical 'Strange Magic'". Animation World Network . Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  9. ↑ Grady, Pam (December 2, 2014). "A dream takes flight for 'Peter Pan Live!' writer". San Francisco Gate . Retrieved August 30, 2019.
  10. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (November 26, 2014). "NBC Hopes 'Peter Pan Live' Can Fly to New Heights". Variety . Retrieved August 30, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.