Disney animations have been a part of people's childhoods for generations. Fairy tales, adventure and fictional princesses are brought to life by a team of artists and animators 鈥� including University City native Marlon West.
West has led the charge for visual special effects on some of the most popular Disney movies of this generation, including 鈥淢oana,鈥� 鈥淓ncanto,鈥� and 鈥淭he Princess and the Frog,鈥� as a visual special effects supervisor for Walt Disney Animation Studios.
West got his start with Disney animation as a trainee on the beloved and award-winning film 鈥淭he Lion King.鈥� At the time, West had already spent 10 years in the animation industry. He told St. Louis on the Air: 鈥淭he thing about movies or any film 鈥� the worst film that you've ever seen [had] people [that] worked really hard on [it]. No one ever kind of takes the day off, or works three or four days a week or six hours a day, on a bad film. They work really hard on everything.鈥�
Growing up, West would call himself a producer because he would create homemade Super 8 films on a camera he got for his 12th birthday. He recalled: 鈥淢y parents were very working people. They had jobs their entire life. When I was talking about trying to be an animator 鈥� they went along with it. They had a lot of faith.鈥�
The faith from West鈥檚 parents combined with his own tenacity took him from University City to Burbank. He鈥檚 now working on a new project titled 鈥� a collaboration between Disney and Kugali, a Pan-African comic book and entertainment company.
鈥淚t's the first time I've worked with folks outside of [Disney Animation] completely. [Kugali are] first-time filmmakers. And you know, and I'm a longtime filmmaker. So it's also kind of helping teach them the craft of animation.鈥�
To hear more about Marlon West鈥檚 time in the House of Mouse and how he would animate a film set in St. Louis, listen to St. Louis on the Air on , , , , or by clicking the play button below.
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by , , , and . is our production assistant. The audio engineer is . Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
