Mark Dindal

Mark L. Dindal
Born 1960 (age 55–56)
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.[1]
Residence United States
Alma mater CalArts
Occupation Film director, occasional voice actor, effects animator, character designer
Years active 1980–present
Notable work

Mark L. Dindal (born 1960)[1] is an American effects animator and director, who directed Cats Don't Dance (1997), The Emperor's New Groove (2000) and Chicken Little (2005).[2] He worked in many Disney projects as an effects animator, and also led the special effects for several classic films, such as The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990).

Biography

Early Years/Effects Animator at Disney

Growing up, Dindal was influenced by Disney films and Warner Bros. Saturday cartoons.[3] One of his earliest influence was Disney's The Sword in the Stone, which he saw with his grandmother at the age of three.[3] It also help him to go to a career in animation with help from his dad who took art as a hobby and taught Dindal to draw while growing up in Syracuse, New York.[4] As a high schooler, Dindal went to Jamesville-DeWitt High School, in which he attended most of the art classes that the school had offer. Dindal learned animation at CalArts. He began working at Disney in 1980. He worked on The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985), Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), and The Great Mouse Detective (1986), following a very similar animation style in all movies. This style consisted of similar backgrounds with delicated animation and complex character effects, and was well received.

Leaving and Returning to Disney

After these projects, Dindal left Disney around 1986 to briefly work on outside projects with Filmation, and worked on projects like BraveStarr and The Brave Little Toaster. He returned to the studio in 1987 and got his first head role as an animator for Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989). He later worked as head animator for the movie The Rescuers Down Under (1990). He directed the animated effects for the live-action film The Rocketeer (1991), and got a job in the animated film Aladdin (1992).

Dindal as the Director

Dindal's directorial debut was Cats Don't Dance, which was released in 1997, three years before The Emperor's New Groove was released in 2000. In Cats Don't Dance Dindal voiced Max. The film won the Annie Award for Best Animated Film and Dindal was nominated for directing. The Emperor's New Groove was initially expected to be a classic Disney musical feature called Kingdom of the Sun. However, the idea didn't work out, and Dindal, along with Chris Williams and David Reynolds, changed the script to a comedy. During the six-year production, he started to work on Cats Don't Dance, a Turner Broadcasting (since merged into Warner Bros.) animated musical production.

Chicken Little

Dindal worked on Chicken Little (2005), another Disney production, which needed a large animation team. Dindal voiced Morkubine Porcupine and Coach in the film. The movie was nominated to several Annies, although Dindal was not nominated as a director. During the movie's production, DisneyToon Studios produced Kronk's New Groove as a direct-to-video feature. As Dindal was working on Chicken Little at the time, he did not have a position on the staff. Later, Dindal created the TV series The Emperor's New School (2006-2008).

Recent Years

In March 2006, a day after the DVD release of Chicken Little, Dindal and producer Randy Fullmer left the company because they were reportedly tired of dealing with then-WDFA head, David Stainton.[5] In the next few years, Dindal was attached as a director to several live-action films, including Sherlock's Secretary,[6] Kringle,[7] and Housebroken,[8] with the latter two are still slated in development. In December 2010, DreamWorks Animation announced that Dindal was directing Me and My Shadow, a 3D feature film combining both computer and traditional animation.[9] In January 2012, it was reported that he was no longer directing the film, and that he was replaced by Alessandro Carloni.[10] As of January 2014, Dindal was working on a feature film, tentatively titled Tom.[11] In July 2014, he was credited as the illustrator for a documentary called Restrung, which is focused on Fullmer, a collaborator that worked with him at Disney and Filmation, with his career at Wyn Guitars from 2006. Today, he's mostly active on Tumblr posting drawings and caricatures [12]

Filmography

Title Year Role
The Fox and the Hound (uncredited) 1981 Effects animator (inbetweener)
Fun with Mr. Future 1982 Animator
Mickey's Christmas Carol 1983 Effects animator
The Black Cauldron 1985
The Great Mouse Detective 1986
Sport Goofy in Soccermania 1987
The Brave Little Toaster Effects animation consultant
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night Special effects animator
BraveStarr (1 episode) 1988
BraveStarr: The Legend
Oliver & Company
The Making of The Little Mermaid 1989 Himself (first time shown on screen)
The Little Mermaid Visual effects supervisor
The Prince and the Pauper 1990 Storyboard artist
The Rescuers Down Under Head effects animator
The Rocketeer 1991 Director: Nazi Invasion segment
Frozen Assets 1992 Animation sequence producer
Tom and Jerry: The Movie Effects animator
Aladdin
The Little Mermaid (TV series) Effects consultant (1 episode), effects animator (2 episodes), story board artist (1 episode)
Happily Ever After 1993 Special effects animator
Cats Don't Dance 1997 Director, story, character designer, storyboard artist, storyboard supervisor, voice of Max
The Emperor's New Groove 2000 Director, story, voice of Kitty Yzma (uncredited)
The Sweatbox 2002 Himself: interviewee
Chicken Little 2005 Director, story, character designer, voice of Morkubine Porcupine & Coach
Kronk's New Groove Based on characters (uncredited)
The Emperor's New School 2006-2008 Creator, writer
Hatching Chicken Little: The Making of Chicken Little 2006 Himself
Treasures Unfold: The Making of The Little Mermaid
Storm Warning: The Little Mermaid Special Effects Unit
Restrung 2014 Illustrator
Kringle TBA Director, co-writer (adaptation, with Jason Richman)
Housebroken Director

Awards and nominations

Nominations

Won

Collaborators

Cats Don't Dance The Emperor's New Groove The Sweatbox Chicken Little The Emperor's New School Restrung
Don Knotts
No
No
David Spade
No
No
Patrick Warburton
No
No
No
No
John Goodman
No
No
No
Eartha Kitt
No
No
No
Wendie Malick
No
No
Frank Welker
No
No
No
Randy Fullmer
No
No
No
No
David Reynolds (screenwriter)
No
No
No
Don Hall
No
No
John Debney
No
No
No
The Walt Disney Company
No
No
No
No

References

  1. 1 2 Hulett, Steve (June 13, 2011). "The Mark Dindal Interview -- Part I". TAG Blog. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ Lanpher, Dorse A. (2010-10-19). Flyin' Chunks and Other Things to Duck: Memoirs of a Life Spent Doodling for Dollars. iUniverse. pp. 176–. ISBN 978-1-4502-6099-2. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  3. 1 2 Strike, Joe (November 1, 2000). "Mark Dindal's Place in the Sun". Animation World Network. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ Hill, Jim (October 5, 2006). "A special "No nudes is good news" edition of Why For". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Mark Dindal to Direct 'Sherlock's Secretary'". MovieWeb. August 11, 2006. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  7. ↑ LaPorte, Nicole (February 27, 2007). "Paramount gets tough with Santa myth". Variety. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
  8. ↑ McNary, Dave (October 12, 2009). "Dindal draws 'Housebroken'". Variety. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  9. ↑ DreamWorks Animation (December 10, 2010). "DreamWorks Animation Pioneers Groundbreaking Combination of CG and Hand-Drawn Animation Techniques in Me and My Shadow for March 2013" (Press release). PR Newswire. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
  10. ↑ Kit, Borys (January 31, 2012). "DreamWorks Animation Sets Voice Cast for 'Me & My Shadow' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  11. ↑ Wielink, Nataschia (January 7, 2014). "'restrung' by mike enns". Nataschia Wielink Photo + Cinema. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
  12. ↑ Tumblr. "Mark Dindal". Retrieved October 4, 2016.

External links

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