Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi

**Paul** and **Gaëtan Brizzi** (born December 24, 1951 in Paris, France) are twin French artists, painters, illustrators, animators, and film directors.

## Career

The Brizzis first made their name working in commercials and short films, including the award-winning short *Fracture*. In 1985, the brothers directed the animated film *Asterix Versus Caesar* (*Astérix et la surprise de César*) for Gaumont Film Company, and started their own animation studio, Brizzi Films, the following year. Brizzi Films worked on several international television series, including *Babar* and its feature film adaptation, *Babar: The Movie* (1989). In 1989, the Brizzis sold their studio to The Walt Disney Company, who first turned the facility into a satellite shop for Walt Disney Television Animation. The Brizzis worked as unit producers on several Disney TV shows and two films based on Disney TV shows, *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp* (1990) and *A Goofy Movie* (1995).

In 1994, Walt Disney Animation France was placed under the Walt Disney Feature Animation division, and after completing work on *A Goofy Movie*, the Brizzis moved to Los Angeles to work as storyboard/concept artists and sequence directors on *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1996). They also worked extensively on *Tarzan* (1999), and developed and directed the *Firebird Suite* sequence in *Fantasia 2000* (1999).

The Brizzis left Disney in 2001, and the studio in France was closed down in 2002 during a massive downsizing of Feature Animation. The brothers continued to work on their personal art and painting projects, and were briefly signed to direct *Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs* at Sony Pictures Animation. Following work as story artists on the Tim Burton-produced *9*, the brothers had been working with Mick Jagger on a film entitled *Ruby Tuesday*, which will present animated interpretations of songs by Jagger's band The Rolling Stones.

In 2015 they released the comic book *La Cavale du Dr Destouches*, which they made in collaboration with Christophe Malavoy. The comic is based on Louis-Ferdinand Céline's novels *Castle to Castle*, *North* and *Rigadoon*, which form a trilogy about his experiences from the Sigmaringen enclave during World War II.

## Selected filmography

* *Fracture* (1977, short) – directors
* *Chronique 1909* (1982)
* *Asterix Versus Caesar/Astérix et la surprise de César* (1985) – directors
* *Babar* (1989, television series) – Unit producers
* *Babar: The Movie* (1989) – Unit directors
* *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp* (1990) – Unit producers
* *TaleSpin* (1990, television series) – Unit producers
* *Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too* – Unit producers
* *A Goofy Movie* (1995) – Unit producers, sequence directors
* *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1996) – storyboard artists, visual development, sequence director (Paul)
* *Tarzan* (1999) – storyboard artists, visual development
* *Fantasia 2000* (1999) – storyboard artists, visual development, directors: *Firebird Suite*
* *Enchanted* (2007) – storyboard artists
* *9* (2009) – storyboard artists
* *Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet* (2015) – storyboard artists, segment directors
* *Space Jam: A New Legacy* (2021) - storyboard artists

## See also

* Jerusalem 2111
* Walt Disney Animation France