Gary Trousdale’s gift, clearest in his partnership with Kirk Wise, is to keep character at the centre of animated spectacle. We rate their musical storytelling highly, though the eagerness to entertain can crowd out quieter feelings.
Fi1m perspective
In Beauty and the Beast (1991), the castle can be busy with comedy without making us forget Belle. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise keep their bookish heroine at the centre of the spectacle, while the songs reveal character and move the story along. We were moved by the romance because the singing and voice performances made its tenderness convincing. We recommend it just as readily to a household without children.
Trousdale’s background in effects animation and storyboarding helps explain that concern for a story we can follow through the pictures. His contribution to The Lion King (1994) was in story, not direction, so we would be careful about crediting him with the finished film’s achievements. Its expressive animation and voice performances give the family drama weight, even when the lessons become overbearing. It is worth including here as another reason to take his story work seriously, without pretending a shared credit tells us who thought of what.
The directing partnership with Wise continued through the darker material of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and then Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), their final Disney feature together. We find the most persuasive case for their work in the way Beauty and the Beast lets songs carry emotion. Our reservation is with the interruptions: the castle’s comic business sometimes breaks into a feeling that deserves longer. We wanted more time with the romance and less effort spent assuring us that nobody would get restless.
His move to DreamWorks Animation in 2003 shifted the work towards shorts and holiday specials, among them The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005) and Shrek the Halls (2007). We would still send a newcomer to Beauty and the Beast first. Allow for a little comic overcrowding, and give the songs your attention rather than waiting for the talking to resume.
Biography
Gary Trousdale is an American animator, director and storyboard artist. Born on 8 June 1960 in La Crescenta, California, he studied animation at the California Institute of the Arts before entering the industry.
He began at Walt Disney Feature Animation as an effects animator on The Black Cauldron (1985). Trousdale co-directed Beauty and the Beast (1991) with Kirk Wise; the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. He contributed to the story of The Lion King (1994) and later co-directed The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) with Wise.
In 2003 Trousdale moved to DreamWorks Animation, where he directed the short The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper (2005) and the television specials Shrek the Halls (2007) and Scared Shrekless (2010).
