Ruben A. Aquino

Ruben Azama Aquino is a Filipino-Japanese American character animator and supervising animator who formerly worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios. His work has included several Disney characters, including Ursula in The Little Mermaid, Maurice in Beauty and the Beast, Simba as an adult in The Lion King, Chief Powhatan in Pocahontas, Shang in Mulan and Denahi in Brother Bear. In March 2013, it was announced that Aquino had been laid off, as well as 8 other animators who worked at the studio, including Nik Ranieri.
His style is easily recognized by his powerful figures and his extremely geometric facial movements.
==Early life==
Ruben Azama Aquino was born in 1953 in Okinawa, Japan. His father is a Filipino while his mother is Japanese.
He studied in Christ the King International School in Okinawa from kindergarten to high school and graduated in 1971. He attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and majored in Architecture.
==Professional career==
From 1975 to 1979, Ruben worked as a graphic artist in Honolulu, Hawaii. He worked for Farmhouse Films as a trainee, which was his first job in animation.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1980, he worked for Hanna-Barbera Studios in visual development, character design, and layout. He was laid off after a year.
Months later, he was able to enter Walt Disney Feature Animation's clean-up training program and after completing it, he worked on a 30-second animation test of Fflewddur Fflam from The Black Cauldron and submitted it to the review board. He was promoted to animating assistant and has been working for Disney since 1982.
==Filmography==
Year	Title 	Credits 	Characters
1981	Laverne & Shirley in the Army (TV Series) 	Character Designer - 1 Episode 	
1981	The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (TV Series)	Character Designer - 11 Episodes 	
1983	Mickey's Christmas Carol (Short) 	Inbetween Artist - Uncredited 	
1985	The Black Cauldron 	Animator 	
1986	The Great Mouse Detective 	Character Animator 	
1988	Mac and Me 	Alien Designer 	
1988	Oliver & Company 	Supervising Animator 	Francis and Rita
1989	The Little Mermaid 	Directing Animator / Supervising Animator	Ursula
1990	The Rescuers Down Under 	Supervising Animator 	Jake
1991	Beauty and the Beast 	Supervising Animator 	Maurice
1994	The Lion King 	Supervising Animator 	Adult Simba
1994	The Lion King (Video Game) 	Special Thanks 	
1995	Pocahontas 	Supervising Animator 	Chief Powhatan
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame 	Additional Animator 	
1998	Mulan 	Supervising Animator 	Li Shang and Fa Li
1999	Tarzan 	Additional Animator 	
2000	Fantasia 2000 	Additional Animator 	
2002	Lilo & Stitch 	Supervising Animator 	Pleakly and David Kawena
2003	Brother Bear 	Supervising Animator 	Denahi
2007	Meet the Robinsons 	Supervising Animator 	Mildred and Mr. Willerstein
2009	The Princess and the Frog 	Supervising Animator 	Eudora and James
2011	The Ballad of Nessie (Short) 	Supervising Animator 	
2011	Winnie the Pooh 	Animator 	
2013	Frozen 	Additional Visual Development 	
==References==
==External links==
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Category:Living people
Category:1953 births
Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:Animators from Hawaii
Category:Disney people
Category:Animators from California
Category:People from Okinawa PrefectureCategory:Pages stolen off Wikipedia