Special present

[WiCKMaN]

Hello all!

I'm writing this message because of a very special request. I'd like to give my girlfriend a special gift because we are together for almost 4 years.
The Lion King has been one of her favourite movies, with Simba (especially adult Simba) being one of her favourite characters.
I got the idea of giving her a (signed) drawing of Simba standing on Pride Rock in a proud kingly pose. I was thinking of asking the supervising animator of adult Simba, Ruben Aquino, for help with this gift. The only problem is, that I have no clue on how to get in contact with mr. Aquino.

Is there anyway anyone could help me?

Thanks in advance!

Remco

[Prince Eric]

Wow, I think that's going to be very difficult to come by. In fact, I'd say it's a long-shot because I'm sure all the animators get tons of request every year. What I would do, however, is go to the Disney Land website and seach around their guest services. There should be a request for a signed picture of the character of your choice. Just send in an e-mail telling them her name and her choice of character(s), and you should get a nice black-and-white photo in the mail, signed! It's not a cell or anything from the movie, it's people dressed up as the characters standing in front of Cinderella's castle. Not nearly as great as what you're looking for, but it's really the only option I can see.

[Maerj]

Hello WiCKMaN and welcome to the boards!

At Walt Disney World, there are artists who draw black and white sketches of many of the Disney characters. I think they sell for about $20. These are done by Disney artists and look pretty darn good. I would contact them at:

WDW.mail.order@disneyworld.com

Tell them what you are looking for and they will try their best to find it for you. I've used this service before and they were very helpful. Just give them a good description of what you are looking for... there is an art store in Epcot that sold them and one inside Cinderella's Castle in the Magic Kingdom. Good luck!

[WiCKMaN]

I'd like to thank you both for the quick responses. As for the Walt Disney World Mail Order; do you think they also sent to countries outside the USA? And do you think it's possible to request for an animator of your own choice?

[Disney Princess Ariellen]

Some of my coworkers and I went to dinner with Disney historian Jim Korkis tonight, and I asked him if there was a way to get in touch with Mr. Aquino, and, unfortunately, he said that with the indefinite hiatus on feature animation, all of the Disney people are so spread out and overwhelmed with offers on what-to-do-next that it's difficult to keep tabs on everyone, so to speak, and that a lot of them are requesting their contact info be kept private because they are so overwhelmed.

When you contact WDW Mail Order, see if there's any way for them to connect you with any of the Art of Disney galleries and if you'd be able to speak to any of the artists. I can't say I've encountered any major animator names there, but some (not all) of the ones who do the sketches at those stores were working as animators at Disney and are doing the character sketches now; if you're able to contact any of them, you could always asked if they were involved with Lion King. They all have to follow certain models, so the poses of each character are pretty much set, but several of the characters have more than one pose, and most major characters from most of the animated features are represented. Hope this is at least a little helpful for you![/url]

[WiCKMaN]

Some of my coworkers and I went to dinner with Disney historian Jim Korkis tonight, and I asked him if there was a way to get in touch with Mr. Aquino, and, unfortunately, he said that with the indefinite hiatus on feature animation, all of the Disney people are so spread out and overwhelmed with offers on what-to-do-next that it's difficult to keep tabs on everyone, so to speak, and that a lot of them are requesting their contact info be kept private because they are so overwhelmed.]

Hi!

I like to thank you anyway for trying. I've taken your (and also the other 2 replies) advice for trying to contact the WDW Mail Order service and put my request there. Now the only thing i can do is wait and see what will happen.

I already guessed that it wouldn't be easy to reach an animator, so it would be a nice, exclusive present if it worked out!

[WiCKMaN]

I got the following reply from the WDW Mail Order service:

"Dear Guest,

I'm sorry, I am not familiar with a Disney artist that will do this. We
have an artist who does charcoal drawings at the Grande Floridian. Is
this what you are referring to?"

Is this a CM who probably doesn't know what is going on on the resort? Should I just reply, explaining where to find the artists I'm referring to?

[englishboy]

Your best bet is to find a production drawing on Ebay. I own two from the film. They will run you about $100 on Ebay, if you can find one. I'd look for rough drawings, as opposed to clean up, and make sure that the drawing fills most of the animation paper. Lion King was drawn in Florida. Much of it in blue graphite. The individual drawings look wonderful.

There is no way you will be able to contact a supervising animator for such a request.