Bruce W. Smith

Smith grew up in Los Angeles, California. At age 10, he made his first animated film based on designs of One Hundred and One Dalmatians.[1]

Smith studied animation in the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts.[2][3] He later stated that while at CalArts he became aware of the lack of Black characters in animated films which motivated him to create his own animated series.[1][4] In 1984, he was the key assistant animator on a TV short of Garfield in the Rough.[5] In the years that followed he would be a writer on episodes of the TV series ThunderCats.[6] In 1987, he would be an animator for Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night.[7][8]

He joined the Walt Disney Studios as an animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit[9][10] He also worked on various other Roger Rabbit shorts that the studio produced.[3][5] In 2022, Smith said that the "big old tree Afro" with lips is a caricature of himself that he drew while working on the show.[11]

He would also be an animator for the Back to Neverland short,[12] Michael & Mickey,[2] and Rock-A-Doodle.[13] Additionally, he would work on Rover Dangerfield as a storyboarder, character designer, character animator, and sequence director.[5] In 1997, Smith was a scenic artist for the film, The Peacemaker[14] and was an animator for The Indescribable Nth and Garfield in the Rough.[1] He also worked as a character designer for C-Bear and Jamal.[1]

Some years later, Smith was handpicked by producer/director Reginald Hudlin (House Party, Boomerang) to direct the Paramount Pictures animated film Bébé's Kids.[15] In years that followed, he would be a character designer for the A Cool Like That Christmas.[16] and A Goofy Movie television movies,[6][17] supervising animator of The Pagemaster[18] He would also work on the Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child TV Series in various roles.[6][19][20]

Smith also served as co-director on the Warner Bros. live action/animated film Space Jam[21] [22] before returning to Disney as supervising animator on such films as Tarzan (Kerchak and Baboons)[15][23] and The Emperor's New Groove (Pacha).[24][25]

While working animation on the feature film side, Smith started feeding into his love of television animation and created The Proud Family for Disney Channel. He co-founded Jambalaya Studios, with Hyperion Pictures for the production of the series and crafted over 50 episodes of the series along with The Proud Family Movie.[26][15][27] The name of the series, the first venture for Jambalaya Studio, came from something he told his co-founder, Tom Wilhite when he showed him the show's main characters drawn as though they were in a family portrait.[1]

In 2004, he would be the supervising animator for Home on the Range,[28][29] The same year, he be the executive producer and co-creator of the series Da Boom Crew.[30] Smith later described the series as mixing concepts of Star Wars and Boyz-N-The Hood, and argued that the series tries to recreate the "black experience in animated form."[31]

In 2009, Smith rejoined the Walt Disney Studios and Duncan Studio Production to supervise animation on The Princess and the Frog (Dr. Facilier),[6][3] the 2011 Winnie the Pooh movie (Piglet, Kanga and Roo),[32] and as the lead animator on the short Tangled Ever After.[6][33] Smith's knack for unique character design led him into the visual development of other projects at the studio such as Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen.[6][34]

In 2015, he would be part of the senior creative team of Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast in 2015.[35] In 2018, he would be an animator for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies[36] In 2019, he directed the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film winner Hair Love.[3][37]

He returned to The Proud Family with The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, which began airing on Disney+ starting on February 28, 2022.[38][39] This was spurred by the fact that on January 1, 2020, the original The Proud Family series began streaming on Disney+, and shortly thereafter Disney executives approached Smith and Ralph Farquhar about reviving the series[40] On February 27, 2020, the show was formally ordered on Disney+.[41][42] Smith concurred with Farquhar, saying that the "show never really went away" and called it the "perfect time to bring back this show."[43] Smith also argued that the series is "blazing a path...[in] this animated sphere," saying it has parts of the horror, sci-fi, and Western genres. The show is rated TV-PG making this the first Disney animated series to carry this rating.[44]

In December 2020, he signed an overall deal with Disney with Farquhar.[34]

On April 18, 2022, Disney+ renewed The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder for a second season.[45]

Smith is an animator and member of the production time for an upcoming hand-drawn indie animated steampunk film entitled Hullabaloo.[46][5]

• Bruce W. Smith at IMDb
• Bruce W. Smith on Twitter