#Andreas Deja

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Hercules model sheets by Andreas Deja

[kuzcoskingdom]

Early Yzma sketches by Andreas Deja, from when The Emperor's New Groove was in development as "Kingdom in the Sun". He envisioned her as "a sultry, seductive and power hungry diva", and was inspired by supermodel poses he saw in fashion magazines.

[wisteria-lodge]

Sorting Gaston

Up until now, all the Disney villains in my little project been criminals, loners, weirdos, or some combination of all three. Gaston is notable for being none of those things. He is a popular community leader, extremely Establishment, always surrounded by people. He’s also our first explicitly sexist villain (“It’s not right for a woman to read. Soon she’ll start getting ideas and… thinking.”) Belle is, of course, disgusted by this. And that’s the problem. The question here is why has Belle specifically gotten under Gaston’s skin so badly that he has to marry her… when he probably could’ve married all three of his blonde groupies at the same time. Like... Belle isn’t THAT much more beautiful. 

At first I thought it could be an insecurity thing… but... Gaston isn’t insecure. So I think it’s more ideological than that. Belle is a rebel who mocks and rejects Gaston's idea of an ideal community, and that is incredibly disturbing, and threatening to him. In kind of a twisted way, the best way to deal with this is to marry Belle and you know - slot her into the established system. Bring her in line. Gaston handles “crazy old Maurice” the same way, by getting corrupt authority to throw him in the insane asylum. 

I separated this out from my other, goofier Disney villain sorting, because when talking about Gaston I really wanted to bring up Howard Ashman, the creative force behind the film, who died of AIDS before it was finished. And it’s easy to see some of his experience in the ‘monstrous,’ ‘unlovable,’ shunned Beast, and the rule-breaking “peculiar” Belle who just wants out. Ashman drops lyrics like “We don't like / What we don't understand / In fact it scares us” during Gaston’s villain song, and that’s some pretty real stuff. Andreas Deja, who designed and animated Gaston, is also gay, and I think it’s so interesting that Gaston’s design went from REALLY queer coded at the beginning of production.

To the much *straighter* macho outdoorsman we have today. 

(also I want to throw in this amazing drawing I found on Andreas Deja’s website, where he’s shipping Gaston with another character he designed/animated.) 

But I’m still slotting Gaston into my system here, and for all those reasons - the community, the Establishment - I want to say that he is a Badger primary villain, and goes hard with Badger primary dehumanization in the way he interacts with Maurice and the Beast. He’s also a Lion secondary. Round up the troops, give them a rousing speech, charge in at the head of the forces. “Surprise Wedding” is also a comically Lion secondary beat. It’s actually kind of fun that he is a Badger Lion, since that is typically the Hero sorting. That’s the point of Gaston. He looks good. He looks like the hero at first… and then you think about him for five seconds.  

[acmeoop]

Sensational News “The Lion King” (1994)

[marcanimation]

Andreas Deja

[mikyapixie]

My favorite roles he played were Brock Samson from The Venture Bros. & Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove!!!

[tomoleary]

Andreas Deja - The Black Cauldron Character Design/Concept Art (Walt Disney, 1985)

[elijones94]

🦁 “Mufasa, quick! Stampede in the gorge! Simba’s down there!”~ Scar 🐾

[tangledbea]

Do you have a favorite hand drawn animator that’s still alive?

Glen Keane.

Though Andreas Deja is up there, too. And lest we forget James Baxter!

[dancyrilkingston]

Original concept designs of Yzma for Disney’s unproduced Kingdom of The Sun (character design by Andreas Deja)

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Character designs for Hercules by Andreas Deja

[artofwinniethepooh]

Original Tigger introduction for Winnie the Pooh (2011) animated by Andreas Deja (with Pooh animated by Mark Henn in the last shot), which calls back to the character’s introduction in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)

[princess-ibri]

Disney Parent Backstory for Belle's Parents

(Since I already did the Beast's here)

Original painting by François Boucher “Shepherd and Shepherdess”

Maurice and Gabrielle

Maurice de Beaumont was born to a well to do merchant family who lived in Paris, the dreamy young son with less than stellar people skills, who would have much rather spent his time inventing then learning the family trade

His elder sister Marguerite had a much better head for both people and finance and would have enjoyed running the family business if she'd had the chance, and always rather resented the fact that Maurice didn't appreciate the opportunity he had to do so

Despite the fact he had no desire for the trade Maurice was resigned to taking over the family business and leaving his dreams of inventing as dreams only--until he met a beautiful young shepherdess one day while out a trip to the countryside 

Little did Maurice know that the kind (and surprisingly knowledgeable about the latest advancements in science) shepherdess Gabrielle was actually a fairy, sent out by the Fairy Court to do good deeds and help inspire mortals in fulfilling their worthy dreams.

As  in her journey she had wandered into Our World, a place that was less used to open magic, Gabrielle had disguised herself as a simple country shepherdess tending her flock in the south of France. She was delighted to have discovered the enthusiastic mind of Maurice, working to inspire him in actually creating his inventions 

Maurice was soon spending each day of his trip sneaking out to speak with Gabrielle, and the friendship began to quickly turn to deeper feelings, though both felt conflicted over their new feelings 

Maurice because he knew his already disapproving family would certainly disapprove even more of his infatuation with a common shepherdess 

And Gabrielle because she knew she was an ageless fairy and Maurice was all too mortal

But finally Maurice told her that he was willing to risk his family's wrath and possible disavowal if she was willing to have him, he'd rather live happily in a pasture with her then miserably in a mansion without her

And Gabrielle realized she too would rather  live only a few years with Maurice then an eternity without him

And so she approached the Fairy Queen and asked her to take away her immortality so that she could live out a full mortal life with Maurice.

 Several of her friends, ( including s prickly Enchantress she had befriended during her time in Our World) tried to talk her out of it, saying it was foolish to throw away her immortality for a mere mortal. Many of them had loved mortals but they hadn't given up their powers for them. There were always a few mortal children underfoot in the Court and they held them dear, but after all mortals came and went so  quickly.

But Gabrielle persisted, she had lived a long life, centuries, but she'd never felt as fully alive and happy as she did with Maurice. She knew that despite his cleverness he had no latent talent for magic and so could not hope to gain immortality for himself, and so she would give up hers to be with him

And so Gabrielle relinquished her immortality and accepted Maurice's hand, marrying at the end of the summer and journeying back to Paris with him

His family, true to Maurice's predictions, were livid at first, but Gabrielle was so well spoken and charming and clever that they found themselves won over despite themselves, and she was eventually welcomed into the family--she even helped her new father-in-law see sense and give Marguerite control of the business's finances, and the business flourished like never before

For several years Maurice and Gabrielle were incredibly happy, Maurice inventing, Gabrielle inspiring many people, her salons becoming a sought after event. And they were eventually blessed with two daughters, Belle and later Clarice 

Unfortunately tragedy ended up touching them, and when Belle was 14, one of the waves of sickness that passed through the city over the last few years carried away most of Maurice's family, including Gabrielle and Clarice 

The tragedy left Maurice and Belle devastated both emotionally and financially, but miraculously they discovered among their ruin that they still had the deed to a small cottage in a far off provencal town, where they could start a new life away from the site of their loss…( a little gift from the Enchantress, the least she felt she could do after failing to sense her friend was so ill) 

Images of Marguerite and Clarice by Andreas Deja, both deleted characters from an earlier draft of BatB

She's such a cutie I'm so sad she was cut :(

(Also incredibly small detail, but the house that Maurice and Belle move into is what's left of the old mill that was Corinne's home)

[wtstsgalor]

Puss In Boots by a Disney Animator

The art by former Disney animator Andreas Deja for this children's book is astonishing!

[fearbiterrr]

Andreas Deja's illustrations for "Puss In Boots"

More at his blog: