Randy Haycock: Disney's Latest Prince-Maker

In Magic Kingdom mythos, there can never be a Disney Princess without a Prince. Following that logic, when it comes to the Mouse Works' return to traditional animation, The Princess and the Frog, one would be hard pressed to think of Tiana without her Prince Naveen.

Extending that even further, Disney did the right thing by making Mark Henn, the supervising animator of Tiana. As said elsewhere, Henn's supervised every Princess since Little Mermaid's Ariel, and Tiana's his sixth. Why mess with success?

This leads to who would animate Naveen. As it turned out, Disney went to another animation veteran, Randy E. Haycock, who's may not have been with them quite as long as Henn, but 17 years at one studio does mean something (his only outside animation experience was on the WB's Tiny Toons Adventures).

What was ironic about it all was even though Haycock had been a supervisor since Hercules, he felt an additional burden on his studio's return to traditional animation. After all, Disney hadn't ejected its pen and ink division back in 2004...and this was the studio that pretty much defined the 2D form since 1937's Snow White.

"There was some sense on this film but we all believe in animation as an entertainment art form," Haycock said in a teleconference last week, "and we felt like we had something to prove to those people who don't believe in it. We're not talking about the public. We're talking about those people in the industry that maybe didn't give it a fair shake in the past. We knew that we were going to make a great movie. We knew we could make a beautiful movie. We all felt like we really had something to prove with that. So, I think it gave us a sense of purpose that was maybe even stronger than we normally have on a movie. We were very, very determined and excited to do a great film."

Haycock's faith in the movie has more than been validated. Released during the last holiday season, the film did nearly $250 million at the box office internationally. The DVD came out last week, and informed sources in the home entertainment field expect it to top the charts with little difficulty.

"The difference in this film is that I think everybody was in agreement," says Haycock. "This is exactly the kind of film that Disney should be doing. It's something that Disney always did best. Nobody else was able to do these kinds of stories the way Disney did. So we needed to show everyone-the public and the industry-that we could still make the kind of movies that people grew up loving. Those characters became endearing and immortal for them. I think that's definitely the purpose behind these films."

Then again, as far as Haycock was concerned, Princess's success was a no-brainer. He' had proof it would be a success long before it was released.

"At the D23 [Disney's annual convention-ED], they showed the first 30 minutes of the film to the audience there," Haycock recalled. "I was sitting in the audience when they showed it. It's a singular experience to sit there, while I had the whole audience laughing at the scenes that I animated. I'm crying, because I'm so touched that they love it so much. That's why we do it. We don't do it because we love our own drawings so much. We do it because we want to move an audience. When we see the audience affected by our artwork, then that's the real reward. That's the final payoff for what we do. That's really the reason. It helped us appreciate the film on a deeper level. We understood that we had made something, to see the audience reacting so positively to the film."

Haycock gives an incredible amount of the movie's success to its co-directors, John Musker and Ron Clements.

"That is the genius of Ron and John," he said, "their ability to recognize what animators will bring. They have a clear vision of what they want from the character, and they're able to match the character with the animator, and say, 'He's the right one to do this character justice.'"

"I've never done a frog before. Even Mark Henn, who did Princess Tiana, had to animate her as a frog as well. So there is always something we're trying to learn and figure out. I think anyone who's in a creative field-actually, I think most everybody-I think they're interested in doing better than they have before. This is the best character I've ever gotten to do. So while I'm doing it, I'm thinking, "I really want to shine on this. I really want to be a better artist, a better entertainer. What can I do to make this character the best it can be?"

And Haycock was heavily involved in the creation of Naveen. He even had a say in deciding Bruno Campos (of Nip/Tuck) as the voice. According to the animator, Campos brought in the right mix of exotic sexiness and sly, fun-loving humor to the character.

"[Drawing the] The human was probably more challenging," Haycock admits. "I enjoyed the challenge of making this handsome, gregarious prince, and giving him a real personality. But, I did enjoy the frog quite a bit. I thought he was a lot of fun. I had a good time with that.

"Every step of the way, it just got better and better; from script, to story, to animation, to color, to music and voice and sound effects. Every step of the way, the film just got better and better. That's such a rewarding thing. When we got to see the film finally finished for the first time, people said, 'Oh, you've probably seen this film a million times, right?' 'No, I've only seen it once, finished!' It's like seeing it for the first time, really, when everything comes together. Watching everything working for the first time, that was really a great experience."

As for Haycock's future, it looks like he's in the process of creating another incredible experience. He's the supervising animator on Tigger in the next Winnie The Pooh movie. This film will hit the theaters in 2011.