John Musker

John Edward Musker (born November 8, 1953) is an American animator, animation director, screenwriter and producer. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.
==Life and career==
Musker was born in Chicago, Illinois, the second oldest of eight children in an Irish Catholic family. His father, Robert J. Musker, who worked for over 40 years at Illinois Bell Telephone, died in 2008 at the age of 84, and his mother, Joan T. Musker (née Lally), died in 2011 at the age of 81.
He attended Loyola Academy in Illinois and then graduated from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, where he majored in English and drew cartoons for the Daily Northwestern. After that, he served a two-year apprenticeship with famed animator Frank Thomas, a supervising animator of Disney films such as Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and The Aristocats (1970). Musker met Ron Clements during the production of The Fox and the Hound in 1981, where he worked as a character animator under Clements and Cliff Nordberg. Musker teamed up with Clements as story artists on The Black Cauldron before they were removed from the project.
Following the green-lighting of Clements's pitch for an adaptation of the children's book series Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus into an animated feature, Musker and fellow story artist Burny Mattinson were assigned as the original directors while Dave Michener was brought in as an additional director. Due to a shortened production schedule and multiple story rewrites, Roy E. Disney assigned Mattinson to serve as director/producer while Ron Clements was brought in as another director.
While working on The Great Mouse Detective, newly appointed Disney CEO and chairman Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg issued invitations to the animation staff for their first held "gong show" session. Demanding only five new ideas, Clements pitched an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid and a high-concept idea of Treasure Island in Space, which were both rejected by Katzenberg and Eisner. The next morning, Katzenberg approached Clements and asked him to expand his initial treatment.
With The Little Mermaid in production in 1986, Musker joined Clements in expanding the original treatment into a twenty-page rough script, eliminating the role of the mermaid's grandmother and expanding the roles of the Merman King and the sea witch, and were later joined by Off-Broadway musical composers Howard Ashman and Alan Menken who collaborated on the song and musical score. Released in November 1989, The Little Mermaid was praised as a milestone in rebirth of Disney animation by film critics and collected a domestic gross of $84 million, cumulatively receiving $184.2 million worldwide.
When work on The Little Mermaid was wrapped, Clements and Musker re-developed their idea for Treasure Planet, but the studio still expressed disinterest. Instead, the two directors were offered three projects in development: Swan Lake, King of the Jungle, and Aladdin. The directors eventually chose the latter, desiring a wacky, faster-paced, and more contemporary mood separate from the previous Disney animated films.
Working from Ashman and Menken's treatment and musical score, the two delivered a story reel to Katzenberg in April 1991, which was strongly disapproved of. Jettisoning multiple characters and story ideas and adding Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio as co-screenwriters, the production team restructured the entire story in eight days. Released in November 1992, Aladdin received positive reviews from critics, and became the first animated film to gross over $200 million domestically.
Following work on Aladdin, Clements, along with Musker, resumed their work on Treasure Planet, which was again turned down by Katzenberg in 1993, who disapproved of setting the adaptation of a classic adventure tale in outer space. A deal was struck with the two directors to create another commercial film before he would approve Treasure Planet. Rejecting projects in development such as Don Quixote, The Odyssey, and Around the World in Eighty Days, they were later informed of animator Joe Haidar's pitch for a Hercules feature, and signed onto the project.
During production on Hercules, in 1995, Clements and Musker signed a seven-year contract deal with the studio which stipulated following Hercules, the studio would produce Treasure Planet or another project of their choosing.
With Treasure Planet completed in 2002, Clements and Musker later inherited Fraidy Cat, which was originally a project developed by Dutch animation director Piet Kroon. Fraidy Cat, however, never saw its light of day, as David Stainton, then-president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, refused to green-light the project. It was soon followed with Clements and Musker's resignation from Walt Disney Feature Animation in September 2005.
When John Lasseter was appointed chief creative officer over Walt Disney Feature Animation in February 2006, he invited Clements and Musker back to Disney to oversee production on The Frog Princess, and were officially confirmed as directors in the following July. Later re-titled The Princess and the Frog, the film received positive reviews and grossed $267 million worldwide.
After directing The Princess and the Frog, Clements and Musker started working on an adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Mort, but obtaining the film rights prevented them from continuing with the project. To avoid similar problems, they pitched three new ideas, where by 2011, the two directors started developing the film based on an original idea. In late 2012, the duo announced that they will be directing a new film in the future, but they have their lips sealed for the title, the plot, and the animation style.
In July 2013, it was revealed that the film, titled Moana, would be "a Polynesian tale involving the island folk and the idols made famous the world over". On November 10, 2014, Disney confirmed Moana would be released on November 23, 2016.
In March 2018, having worked there for 40 years at Disney, Musker announced his retirement from Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is currently animating his own original short film by hand.
==Personal life==
Musker is married to Gale. They have twins sons, Jackson and Patrick, and daughter, Julia. He also has sisters by the names of Pat and Colleen.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position 	Notes
1979	The Small One 	Assistant Animator 	Uncredited
1981	The Fox and the Hound 	Character Animator 	
1985	The Black Cauldron 	Additional Story Contributions 	
1986	The Great Mouse Detective	Director / Story 	Co-directed with Burny Mattinson, Dave Michener, and Ron Clements
1989	The Little Mermaid 	Director / Producer / Screenwriter 	Co-directed with Ron Clements
1992	Aladdin 	Director / Producer / Screenwriter 	Co-directed with Ron Clements
1997	Hercules 	Director / Producer / Screenwriter 	Co-directed with Ron Clements
2002	The Sweatbox 	Himself 	Documentary
2002	Treasure Planet 	Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Story / Developer	Co-directed with Ron Clements
2008	Bolt 	Special Thanks 	
2009	The Princess and the Frog	Director / Screenwriter / Story 	Co-directed with Ron Clements
2010	Waking Sleeping Beauty 	Caricaturist 	Documentary
2014	Big Hero 6 	Creative Leadership 	
2016	Moana 	Director / Story 	Co-directed with Ron Clements
2017	Gone Fishing 	Director 	Co-directed with Ron Clements
2019	Aladdin 	Creative Consultant 	"Based on" credit (with Ron Clements, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio)
==Awards and nominations==
Ceremony 	Category 	Recipient 	Result
Edgar Allan Poe Award 	Best Motion Picture 	The Great Mouse Detective	
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award 	Best Animated Film 	The Little Mermaid 	
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award 	Best Animated Film 	Aladdin 	
Annie Awards 	Best Individual Achievement: Directing in a Feature Production	Hercules 	
Annie Awards 	Best Individual Achievement: Producing in a Feature Production	Hercules 	
Annie Awards 	Best Animated Feature 	Hercules 	
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award 	Best Animated Film 	Hercules 	
Academy Awards 	Best Animated Feature 	Treasure Planet 	
Academy Awards 	Best Animated Feature 	The Princess and the Frog	
African-American Film Critics Association Award	Best Screenplay 	The Princess and the Frog	
Academy Awards 	Best Animated Feature 	Moana 	
Alliance of Women Film Journalists 	Best Animated Feature 	Moana 	
Seattle Film Critics Awards 	Best Animated Feature 	Moana 	
==Collaborations==
John Musker and Ron Clements have cast certain actors in more than one of their films.
 	The GreatMouse Detective	The Little Mermaid	Aladdin	Hercules	TreasurePlanet	The Princessand the Frog
Charlie Adler 	 	 	 	 	 	
Jack Angel 	 	 	 	 	 	
Rodger Bumpass 	 	 	 	 	 	
Corey Burton 	 	 	 	 	 	
Jim Cummings 	 	 	 	 	 	
Keith David 	 	 	 	 	 	
Debi Derryberry	 	 	 	 	 	
Paddi Edwards 	 	 	 	 	 	
Patrick Pinney 	 	 	 	 	 	
Phil Proctor 	 	 	 	 	 	
Frank Welker 	 	 	 	 	 	
Category:1953 births
Category:Animators from Illinois
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:American animated film directors
Category:American animated film producers
Category:Animation screenwriters
Category:Living people
Category:Artists from Chicago
Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni
Category:Film directors from Illinois
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Category:Northwestern University alumni
Category:Annie Award winners
Category:American film producers