The Ballad of Little Joe (2003)
© Big Idea Productions 

All for about 10 drawings or so done by Tom Owens, I single handedly storyboarded Little Joe. It was very satisfying to take all my boards and see them through final production. It was also very painful to have to cut some very funny moments for time and pacing consideration. (Sigh)

By the way, Tom storyboarded and designed the Mayor’s dream of the seven cows.

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Brother Bear (2003)
© Walt Disney Feature Animation  

This is a strange phenomenon. You see, I worked on Brother Bear for about a year before I left Disney in early 2000. I even went on the research trip to Alaska! Now here it is over three years later and it’s finally hitting the screen. I worked on the bear hunt in the beginning before Kenai’s transformation. I was happy to see that my boards remained virtually intact. I also worked on some early exploration that got cut. There was a crow character (Loki) that was Kenai’s antagonistic mentor. She tried to teach him the ways of being a bear. I had a gruesome, but funny, sequence where Loki tried to goad Kenai the bear into dining on a rotting caribou carcass.  

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The Star of Christmas (2004)
© Big Idea Productions

I had a great team storyboarding this show (Tod Carter, Luis Contreras and Tom Owens). I didn’t have to do much on this show, but I think it’s worth mentioning that one sequence I did was the jail scene. And I only mention it because I was the voice of the prisoner, Charlie Pincher. It was very helpful for me to be able to plan the emotion of the scene knowing that was going to perform in it as well.

3-2-1 Penguins: Trouble on Planet Wait-Your-Turn (2000)
© Big Idea Productions

The premiere episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! Though I was hired as Story Supervisor, I came on this show to assist Tod Carter in finishing up. I did the sections where the kids discover the telescope up until Jason and the Penguins get ready to land. This was my introduction to working at Big Idea and their introduction to working with me. Having come from Disney, I took it for granted that a script was meant to be changed and improved upon in storyboard. It came as a bit of a shock to some that I had taken it upon myself to remove or rewrite gags that I thought needed improvement. I guess I did good. I’ve been here for over three years so far!

Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen (2000)
© Big Idea Productions

I came in on the end of this show and mostly just to add some clarity to a couple of scenes and to assist in some editorial work because the show was running about 10 minutes too long. After all, I was hired as “Story Supervisor”. This show was mostly handled by Luis Contreras and Neal Strernecky.

John Henry (2000)
© Walt Disney Feature Animation

This was an incredibly enjoyable yet frustrating film to work on. The best things usually are. I love the legend of John Henry and so many facets of the tale were made more real as the story crew visited the actual site of the Great Bend Tunnel in Talcott, Wv where he died. (I plan to post production photos so check back soon!) Our original intent was to make the story more of a Christ tale; one who lays down his life for his fellow man. But as production went on, it shifted to "if you can dream it, you can do it." The film is beautiful and I love it. I just still wish some of our original themes could have made it through.

One of the highlights, though, was working with the group, The Sounds of Blackness. What a talented team of people! Music Producers/Composers Gary Hines and Billy Steele were incredibly dedicated to this project. It's not on store shelves anymore, so you'll have to go to Amazon.com to find it.

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Mulan (1998)
© Walt Disney Feature Animation

This was my first venture into feature storyboarding. I had started at Disney in 1992 on Trail Mix-Up and Lion King. I had every intent of becoming and animator as a career, but I found myself gravitating to the story department as time went on. I couldn’t have asked for a better, more talented crew to start this phase of my career with. Working with Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois, Chris Williams, Burny Mattinson and John Sanford was an incredible education. I will never forget all the lessons I learned there.My biggest contribution to this movie was the “A Girl Worth Fighting For” song.

Link to storyboard examples