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Animator Mark Henn is the genius behind some of Disney’s most popular characters. Claire Brine spoke to the artist about faith and Frozen…
Not many people are familiar with the name Mark Henn, but millions are fans of his work. In 33 years with Disney, Mark has animated a collection of famous characters.
Henn’s hand has worked on the likes of Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Tinkerbell, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Simba, Mulan, Tiana and, most recently, Anna and Elsa from the Oscar-winning film Frozen.
From his drawing desk in sunny California, Mark (pictured right) takes a short break to talk over the phone about his successful career and how faith in God helps him through it.
“I’m a supervising animator and my speciality is traditional hand drawn animation,” he explains. “I’m working on my 19th feature film, though I have also animated several other short films. It’s by God’s grace that I’m here, fulfilling my boyhood dream.”
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[/td_text_with_title][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]As a child, Mark loved to draw and was fascinated by Disney films. He decided that when he grew up, he wanted to be an animator for the company.
“The idea of drawing and then seeing those drawings come to life grabbed me,” he says. “It still does. Each character I work on challenges me in different ways.
“A large part of my career has been spent animating Disney’s leading ladies and I enjoy that because they are at the heart of the stories. Arguably the lead roles are also the more difficult characters to animate, because they’re not necessarily the funniest or the ‘bad guy’ – and everyone loves a villain.
“When The Lion King came up, I really wanted to animate Scar because I’d never done a villain before. So I told the director that I had lots of design ideas for the character. He said, ‘You would do a great Scar, but we have a number of people who could create that character. Simba is the key to this film. If Simba doesn’t work, the movie won’t work. We want you to work on Simba.’ I thought about it and decided to accept his challenge.”
Through his career, Mark has become an expert in drawing not only princesses and lions, but also mermaids, frogs, dogs and numerous other creatures. He thinks Disney’s style of storytelling has changed over the years.
“We tell deeper stories, these days,” he explains. “In the early films – such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella – the leading ladies were a lot more reactionary.
“Things happened to them, they felt woeful and then dwarfs or mice came along to help them out.
“But with The Little Mermaid that traditional model began to change. When things happened to the character of Ariel, she took matters into her own hands. Her decisions propelled the story forwards. It’s the same with Frozen. The audience doesn’t know why Elsa has the gift of turning things to ice, but, in her efforts to deal with it, she makes decisions that result in the freezing of her entire community. She then has to work out what to do next.”
Mark explains that creating a character can be a lengthy process. “When stories initially are put into production, it’s the job of the visual development artists to think about what the characters are going to look like.
“They draw their ideas, then as a supervising animator I may add some of my own. We start mixing and matching pieces and hold meetings with the director of the film.
“They look at what we’ve come up with and highlight the things that they like or don’t like.
“Later, we begin to test the character with the actor’s voice, to see if it looks and sounds natural. It’s a constant refining process.
“When I worked on The Lion King, I created Simba pretty quickly. I went to a meeting with the production team, put up some images and they said, ‘Yes. Looks good. Go and do a model sheet.’ The character was decided in an afternoon. But there are other characters that need a lot of experimental work before they’re ready.”
When Frozen hit cinemas, audiences across the globe were enchanted. Earlier this month, the film won Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (for Let It Go).
The story follows the journey of a young princess named Anna, who seeks to make peace with her sister Elsa, after her icy powers have frozen the kingdom of Arendelle…