ROB MINKOFF
Animation director Rob Minkoff was born and raised in Palo Alto, California.
In his youth his interest in drawing and animation was magnified while
watching his 8mm film collection, which included Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959). Slowing the films down, he studied the action one frame at a time. He furthered his personal education on the subject after discovering the book The Art of Walt Disney at a friend's house.
While his head wasn't swimming in animation, Minkoff worked in theater,
performing for numerous groups including the Palo Alto Children's Theater,
Theater Works and his high school dramatic group. Following graduation, the
decision to attend CalArts in Valencia and pursue his dream of becoming an
animator was coming into fruition.
In 1982, he served an internship at Disney and had a chance to train with
one of the studio's legendary "nine old men," Eric Larson. A year later,
Minkoff was hired by Disney and began to work on his first assignment, The
Black Cauldron (1985), followed by The Great Mouse Detective (1986). The next few years he worked on various aspect of Disney's feature films such as developing and writing for a variety of animated features, including a song for Oliver & Company (1988), character designs for The Little Mermaid (1989), and an early treatment for Beauty and the Beast (1991).
He made his directing debut on a couple of animated shorts starring Roger
Rabbit, such as Tummy Trouble followed by Roller Coaster Rabbit. He landed the chance to direct a feature film in the early 90's with Disney's The Lion King (1994).
Following the success of The Lion King, Minkoff left Disney to work with Columbia where he released the popular Stuart Little films (1999 and 2002), based on a mouse who lives as an equal family member with a group of kindly humans. The films mix live action and computer animation.
Filmography (director):
The Forbidden Kingdom(2008)
The Haunted Mansion(2003)
Stuart Little 2 (2002)
Stuart Little (1999)
The Lion King (1994)
Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990)
Tummy Trouble (1989)