Animated Short and Feature Films: The Wardrobe (1958) – co-directed and co-animated by Richard Williams and George Dunning The Little Island (1958) – written, directed, animated, and produced by Richard Williams Love Me, Love Me, Love Me (1962) – directed, animated, and produced by Richard Williams A Lecture on Man …
It is almost impossible to discuss Richard Williams without discussing The Thief and the Cobbler (or, The Thief). It is a project that consumed much of his career and for which there still remains mystery, intrigue, and cautionary tales. The Thief had its origins in the mid-1960s, when Richard Williams …
A Christmas Carol is Richard Williams’ 1971 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella. Chuck Jones was the executive producer. The animation was drawn in the style of the original ‘A Christmas Carol’ illustrator, John Leech. It was hand-drawn directly onto cels with grease pencil. Alistair Sim reprised his role of …
The Apple (1963) – designer What’s New Pussycat? (1965) – title designer The Liquidator (1965) – title designer A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) – title designer The Spy With the Cold Nose (1966) – title designer Casino Royale (1967) – title designer Prudence and …
The selection of commercials (below) created at Richard Williams Animation shows the wide range of styles of which the studio was capable. Of particular note in reference to Who framed Roger Rabbit is the Long Life Beer ‘9 Lives’ commercial. It was the zaniness of this commercial that impressed Spielberg and Zemeckis …
Roy Naisbitt’s specialty was technical animation. He worked on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ (1968). Richard Williams Animation was doing the title sequence for ‘Charge of the Light Brigade‘ at the time and he needed somebody to animate a paddle-wheel ship engine. His cameraman, Ted Gerald, was a water polo colleague of …
Many people passed through the Roger Rabbit universe. Warwick Davis was at Elstree Studios, in the Traffic Department, for his school ‘gap year’ work term. Davis was 11-years-old when his grandmother heard a radio appeal for people under four-feet tall. It was a casting call for ewoks for ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Davis’ …
Richard Williams Animation was located at 13 Soho Square. Williams built a powerful reputation in British animation, using the proceeds of television and movie theater commercials and animated film titles to fund his personal animation projects. He was on a journey of mastery and invited animation luminaries such as Art Babbitt …
A second portion of the proof-of-concept test involved Jessica. It utilized the technique of tonal and shadow mattes that had been developed by Chris Knott for commercials at Richard Williams Animation. The test-of-concept with Roger Rabbit was presented on the 2003 2-disc Vista Series DVD release of ‘Who framed Roger …
Both Bob Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg had been aware of Disney’s Roger Rabbit project in its early stages, but the first formal meeting between Disney and Amblin was in October 1985. The Amblin team of Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy, and Steven Spielberg were Executive Producers. Robert Watts was chosen …
