Only in animation could one find an analogy between TARZAN and A GOOFY MOVIE. “If you really look at the movies, they’re about the same thing,” said Kevin Lima, who directed GOOFY and co-directed TARZAN with Chris Buck. “Ultimately, they’re about family and patching relationships. All of those themes sort of play through. For me, no matter what genre I go into, I always bring who I am to it.”
Lima, a Rhode Island native who graduated from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) remembers animation’s bleakest days. “When I was in school, Disney suddenly said, ‘We’re not taking any more people.’ Here you were, at school, wanting to work at Disney your whole life and you’re told, ‘Sorry the inn is closed.””
Lima did eventually make it into the studio in 1985, but found that opportunities at Disney were limited at the time. So he left to pursue other projects, such as THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER and THE CHIPMUNK ADVENTURE. Lima said that these experiences, “showed me that there was a world outside of Disney, which is great, because you bring experiences beyond the Disney experience to the making of a film.”
Lima made his way back to Disney, where, before directing A GOOFY MOVIE, he developed the characters of Ursula in THE LITTLE MERMAID and Lumiere in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. He also storyboarded sequences for ALADDIN and THE LION KING, and animated the characters of Fagin in OLIVER AND COMPANY and Frank the lizard in THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER.
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