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Roger Allers

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Not to be confused with Roger Allam.
Roger Allers
Allers at the 34th Annie Awards in 2007
Born
Roger Charles Allers

(1949-06-29) June 29, 1949 (age 75)
Rye, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)Film director, writer, storyboard artist, animator, playwright
Years active1970–present
Known forThe Lion King
Open Season
Spouse
Leslee Allers
​
(m. 1965)​
Children2

Roger Charles Allers (born June 29, 1949) is an American film director, screenwriter, storyboard artist, animator, and playwright. He is most well known for co-directing the highest-grossing 2D animated film of all time, Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Lion King, and for writing the Broadway adaptation of the same name. He also directed Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length animated film, Open Season.

Life and career

Early life

Born in Rye, New York, but raised in Scottsdale, Arizona,[1] Allers became a fan of animation, at the age of five, after seeing Disney's Peter Pan. Deciding that he wanted to pursue a career at Disney and even work alongside Walt Disney himself, a few years later, he was sent off to Disneyland for a do-it-yourself animation kit.[1] However, Allers, by then a high school student, grew discouraged about achieving his dream when he heard of Walt Disney's death in 1966.[2]

Despite not getting the chance to meet Walt, Allers still pressed on to receive a Fine Arts degree from Arizona State University. But when he enrolled in a class at Harvard University, he realized his interest in animation had been revitalized. After receiving his degree in Fine Arts, he spent the next two years traveling and living in Greece.[1] While there, he spent some time living in a cave, and eventually met Leslee, whom he later married.[3] As a young adult, Allers accepted a job with Lisberger Studios, where he worked as an animator for projects such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Make a Wish, and various other commercials.

In 1978, he relocated to Los Angeles with Steven Lisberger to work on a feature film titled Animalympics to which he provided story work, character design and animation for the film. Three years later, Allers found work serving as part of the storyboard team for Tron, which was the first theatrical feature film he worked on. In 1980, Allers and his family moved to Toronto, Canada, where he worked for Nelvana Studios as an animator on a feature titled Rock & Rule. Following a brief return to Los Angeles, Allers provided character design, preliminary animation, and story development for the Japanese-produced animated feature, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland. For the next two years, he resided in Tokyo to serve as an animation director overseeing the Japanese artists.[1]

Disney

Returning to Los Angeles in 1985, he heard that Disney was looking for a storyboard artist to work on Oliver & Company. When he applied for the job, Allers was asked to draw some sample character model sheets as a tryout, and worked on a portfolio and was hired shortly thereafter.[1] Since then, he served as a storyboard artist on The Little Mermaid, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Rescuers Down Under before he was appointed as Head of Story on Beauty and the Beast. When story work on Beauty was finished, Allers assisted as a storyboard artist during the re-writing of Aladdin.[1]

In October 1991, Allers signed on to co-direct King of the Jungle alongside its initial director George Scribner. Allers brought on board Brenda Chapman, who would become the head of story. Afterwards, several of the lead crew members, including Allers, Scribner, Don Hahn, Chapman, and production designer Chris Sanders, took a safari trip to Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya, in order to study and gain an appreciation of the environment for the film. After six months of story development work, Scribner decided to leave the project, as he feuded with Allers and the producers on their decision to turn the film into a musical, as Scribner's intention was to make a documentary-like film more focused on natural aspects.[4] Following Scribner's departure and dissatisfied with the original story, Allers along with Hahn, Sanders, Chapman, and Beauty and the Beast directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale conceived a new story outline for the film over the course of two days in February 1992.[5] In April 1992, Allers was joined with Rob Minkoff who was assigned as co-director,[1] and the title was changed to The Lion King.

Following the release of The Lion King, Allers and writer Matthew Jacobs conceived the idea of Kingdom of the Sun,[6] and development on the project went underway in 1994.[7] Meanwhile, Disney Theatrical Group had begun production on the Broadway musical production of The Lion King as they had done with Beauty and the Beast.[8] At first skeptical,[9] Allers joined the Broadway production team, and together with Lion King co-screenwriter Irene Mecchi, they wrote the libretto for which they were both nominated the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical while the musical eventually won the Tony Award for Best Musical.[10] After nearly four years on Kingdom of the Sun, Allers asked to leave the project due to creative differences with co-director Mark Dindal, poorly received test screenings, and the failure to meet its promotional deadlines.[11] Ultimately, the project was reworked into The Emperor's New Groove, and Allers left to work on Lilo & Stitch as an additional story supervisor. In 2001, he was approached by Hahn to direct the short film, The Little Matchgirl.[12] The project underwent four years of work, and was accompanied as a bonus feature on The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD.[13][14]

Meanwhile, Allers pitched the Celtic folk ballad tale Tam Lin to Michael Eisner, who at the time was in a corporate struggle with Roy E. Disney. Once he recognized the project as Disney's "baby", he declined to green-light the project.[15]

Post-Disney

In May 2003, it was announced that Allers and Brenda Chapman would direct Tam Lin for Sony Pictures Animation.[16] However, one year later, Allers was recruited to serve as an additional director on Open Season alongside director Jill Culton and co-director Anthony Stacchi, featuring the voice talents of Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher.[17]

In January 2012, it was announced that Allers will oversee the narrative structure, as well as supervise the production of an animated adaptation of The Prophet.[18][19] In May 2014, a work-in-progress version of The Prophet was screened at the Cannes Film Festival,[20] and was given a limited release in August 2015.[21]

Personal life

In 1965, Allers dropped out of high school to marry his girlfriend, Leslee Allers. He lives in Venice, California and he has a daughter, Leah, and a son, Aidan.[1][2]

Filmography

Year Title Credits Notes
1980 Animalympics Character Development / Story / Animator Television film
1982 Tron Pre-production concepts
1983 Rock & Rule Animator
1988 Oliver & Company Story
1989 The Little Mermaid Story
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland Animator Uncredited
1990 The Rescuers Down Under Story
The Prince and the Pauper Story
1991 Beauty and the Beast Head of Story
1992 Aladdin Story
1994 The Lion King Director
2000 The Emperor's New Groove Story: Kingdom of the Sun
2002 Lilo & Stitch Additional Story Supervisor
The Sweatbox Himself Documentary
Return to Never Land Storyboard Artist
2003 Brother Bear Story Uncredited
2004 The Lion King 1½ Additional screenplay material
2006 Brother Bear 2 Additional storyboard artist Uncredited
The Little Matchgirl Director / Story Adaptation
Open Season Director
2007 Surf's Up Special Thanks
2010 Waking Sleeping Beauty Himself / Caricaturist Artist Documentary
2014 The Prophet Director / Screenplay
2019 The Lion King Thanks / The filmmakers would like to thank

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "The Lion King: Film Notes". lionking.org. May 25, 1994. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Roger Allers biography and filmography". Tribute Entertainment Media Group. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  3. ^ "Roger Allers Biography". Yahoo! Movies. Archived from the original on January 28, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  4. ^ The Lion King: A Memoir (Blu-Ray). The Lion King Diamond Edition: Walt Disney Home Entertainment. 2011.
  5. ^ Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, and Don Hahn (September 28, 2011). "Roundtable Interview: The Lion King". Blu-ray.com (Interview). Retrieved December 29, 2015.{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Laporte, Nicole (May 24, 2011). The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Tale of Moguls, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks. Mariner Books. pp. 208–9. ISBN 978-0547520278.
  7. ^ Kuklenski, Valerie (December 13, 2000). "Finding the Groove". Los Angeles Daily News. The Sun Sentinel. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  8. ^ Armstrong, Josh (October 8, 2011). "Allers & Minkoff: The Legacy of The Lion King". Animated Views. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  9. ^ Musical Origins (DVD). The Lion King Platinum Edition: Walt Disney Home Entertainment. October 7, 2003.
  10. ^ Shirley, Don (May 5, 1998). "'Ragtime,' 'Lion' Top Tony Nods". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  11. ^ Hill, Jim (May 8, 2001). "The Long Story Behind the Emperor's New Groove". The Laughing Place. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  12. ^ Marshall, George T. "Jump Cut" (PDF). Film Festival.org. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  13. ^ Barbagallo, Ron (2006). "Shedding Light on The Little Matchgirl". Animation Art Conservation. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  14. ^ Roger Allers (March 5, 2007). "Director Roger Allers on The Little Matchgirl" (Interview). Interviewed by Josh Armstrong. Animated Views. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  15. ^ Roger Allers (12 December 2014). "Intervista a Roger Allers, il regista de Il Re Leone". Fumettologica (Interview). Interviewed by Andrea Fiamma. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
  16. ^ Harris, Dana (May 8, 2003). "Sony tooning new animation unit". Variety. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  17. ^ DeMott, Rick (October 1, 2004). "Lion King Director Up for Open Season, Writers for Surf's Up". Animation World Network. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  18. ^ McLean, Tom (January 16, 2012). "'Lion King's' Roger Allers Joins Animated 'Prophet'". Animation. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  19. ^ C. Edwards (June 22, 2013). ""Lion King" Director Roger Allers and Salma Hayek Push Forward on "The Prophet"". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  20. ^ Setoodeh, Ramin (May 14, 2014). "CANNES: Salma Hayek On Producing 'Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet' (Exclusive)". Variety. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  21. ^ King, Darryn (March 26, 2015). "'Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet' Gets US Release Date". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
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