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, writer, director. |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Known for | Peanuts , Walt Disney Animation Studios , 9 . |
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 to Walt Disney Feature Animation, Gluck received an offer that included continued educational sponsorship and a position as a storyboard artist.
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 where he was 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. [6] [7]
After Disney, Gluck pursued opportunities to advance the animation art form. [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 representation in animation. [12] His body of work has demonstrated his commitment to related themes. [13] [14] [15]
| Year | Title | Credits | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), With Love | writer/ head of story | Kidscreen Awards: Best Special Holiday Production and Humanitas Award nominee. |
| 2021 | Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne | writer/ head of story | Annie Award nominee: Best Animated Special Production |
| 2015 | Strange Magic (film) | 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 | writer/ head of story | VES Award Nominee: Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture |
| 2006 | Brother Bear II | writer/ director | Annie Award: Best Screenplay |
| 2006 | Bambi II | writer/ head of story | Annie Award: Best Home Entertainment Production |
| 2004 | Home on the Range | storyboard artist | |
| 2003 | Piglet's Big Movie | storyboard artist | |
| 2001 | The Emperor's New Groove | storyboard artist | |
| 2000 | Dinosaur | storyboard artist | |
| 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 | ||
| 1996 | MTV's Cartoon Sushi Man's Best Friend | writer/ creator | Walter and Gracie Lantz Award /Best Animated Short: NY Independent Film Festival |
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a 1965 animated television special. It is the first TV special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, and features the voices of Peter Robbins, Christopher Shea, Kathy Steinberg, Tracy Stratford, and Bill Melendez. Produced by Lee Mendelson and directed by Melendez, the program made its debut on the CBS television network on December 9, 1965. In the special, Charlie Brown (Robbins) finds himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. After Lucy van Pelt (Stratford) suggests he direct a neighborhood Christmas play, his best efforts are ignored and mocked by his peers when he chooses a puny Christmas tree as a centerpiece.
Bambi is a 1942 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods, the production was supervised by David D. Hand, and was directed by a team of sequence directors, including James Algar, Bill Roberts, Norman Wright, Sam Armstrong, Paul Satterfield, and Graham Heid.
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.
Jim Reardon is an American animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15. He has been described by Ralph Bakshi as "one of the best cartoon writers in the business".
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.
Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! is the 30th prime-time animated television special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It aired on the CBS network on January 1, 1986, at 8:30 p.m.
Jules Engel was an American filmmaker, painter, sculptor, graphic artist, set designer, animator, film director, and teacher of Hungarian origin. He was the founding director of the experimental animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where he taught until his death, serving as mentor to several generations of animators.
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.
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). He's also active as a Disney comics artist.
Retta Scott was an American artist. She was the first woman to receive screen credit as an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios.
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'."
Karen Beth Disher is an American film director and storyboard artist. Disher is best known for her work at MTV Animation, where she was the chief character designer and supervising director for the animated series Daria (1997–2002) following her previous work as a layout artist for Beavis and Butt-Head (1993–1997).
Mel Shaw was an American animator, design artist, writer, and artist. Shaw was involved in the animation, story design, and visual development of numerous Disney animated films, beginning with Bambi, which was released in 1942. His other animated film credits, usually involving animation design or the story, included The Rescuers in 1977, The Fox and the Hound in 1981, The Black Cauldron in 1985, The Great Mouse Detective in 1986, Beauty and the Beast in 1991, and The Lion King in 1994. He was named a Disney Legend in 2004 for his contributions to The Walt Disney Company.
Carole Holliday is an American animator, storyboard artist, director, and founder of Crowded Metro Films. She initially wanted to be a theatre actress, but went into animation instead to avoid compromising her Christian faith. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in animation. Combining her love of theatre and drawing, she found a passion in story boarding. Holliday worked as an animation assistant on several films, such as Oliver and Company (1988) and The Little Mermaid (1989), before she began a career in story boarding on A Goofy Movie (1995). She was also a story artist on the DreamWorks feature film The Prince of Egypt (1998) and Disney's feature films Tarzan (1999) and The Jungle Book 2. Additionally, she worked as a character design supervisor on the Disney short John Henry (2000). In 2004, she moved up to directing Donald’s Gift with DisneyToon Studios as part of Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas
Snoopy Presents: For Auld Lang Syne, or simply For Auld Lang Syne, is a 2021 American Peanuts animated special. It is the first Peanuts special produced for Apple TV+, the first Peanuts special since Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown ten years prior, and the first Peanuts holiday special since I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown eighteen years prior. The special was released exclusively on Apple TV+ on December 10, 2021. It was nominated for Best Animated Special Production at the 49th Annie Awards.