Well, not officially, but I thought I'd call it that since I am posting some cool Lion King related links (below). As I've mentioned before, my twin brother, Tony (he did Pumbaa), is doing lots of Lion King 3D publicity right now. (If you are keeping up with our co-Facebook page "The Bancroft Brothers", then you saw some pics of him on the red- uh- GREEN carpet at the premiere this last weekend.) Anyway, he sent me a bunch of links from interviews he did (some with Mark Henn, my pal and supervising animator of Young Simba -and others from the production).
One was a French interview which looks good but I can't read it. What's great about it are some of the photos from when they brought in the lions for the animators to draw AND a great video at the end of Ruben Aquino and how he designed Adult Simba:
[link]Ever want to know how to draw Pumbaa? Tony does a step by step (well, marketing probably put this together from a sketch he did on the model sheet, but those are his words, I'm sure). I hate these step by steps, btw, because you don't learn ANYTHING but how to draw one stiff pose. I think it was Tony that made him cross-eyed in the orginal drawing too, so I'll have to mention that to him. NYAH, NYAH!
[link]Some semi-interesting trivia you may not know about the making of Lion King (and no Tony interview, yah!)
[link]Here's on in Spanish- but it has an ENGLISH VIDEO of Tony drawing- and discussing the design process- of PUMBAA. Its a good one. (I've heard all the jokes before.) I can't read the interview but I think its funny how many ways they spell his (and my) last name: Tony Bancofort, Tony Bancfrot and finally, Tony Bancroft.
[link]That's all for now. Enjoy!
~bmaras and I bought 2 Pumbaa drawings off of ebay and we suspect they are Tony's, but of course we don't know for sure. If we bump into him we'll be sure to check
But seriously, thanks sooo much for these links. I'm gonna have a field day now!