ADVENTURES IN ANIMATION, by Richard Williams (and Imogen Sutton)



‘Adventures in Animation: How I Learned, Who I Learned From, and What I Did With It’ is a book written by Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton. It was published in August 2024 by Faber & Faber.

Milt Kahl was Richard Williams’ animation hero and Williams considered writing a book on Milt Kahl for a very long time. Another animator with great admiration for Milt Kahl is Disney Legend Andreas Deja. When Deja was in London in 1987-1988, working for Richard Williams on ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, they discussed their mutual interest in Milt Kahl and considered writing a book together.

Deja eventually did write a book, but the scope of his book expanded to cover all of Disney’s Nine Old Men. ‘The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, and Inspiration from Disney’s Greatest Animators’ was published in 2015 by Routledge. Deja has also curated several exhibitions at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

In a similar way, Williams’ memoir expanded in scope to include discussions on Milt Kahl and his other animation heroes and mentors. The first portion of the book provides an interesting account of Williams’ early life and art education in Toronto and his re-location to London, England, by way of Ibiza. This portion is full of photos and insights… and was hand-lettered by Williams.

Richard Williams was collecting material and making notes for this book in the year before he died (in August 2019). The balance of the book was written by his wife and collaborator, Imogen Sutton – using Williams’ notes and her own experience of working with Williams on ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’ masterclasses, book, DVD series, and, now, a streaming version. Sutton was also the producer on Williams’ film opus, ‘The Thief and the Cobbler.’

Check out Andreas Deja’s blog, DEJA VIEW, at http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com

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