Darrell Van Citters interview
There is an entire book to be written about Disney’s “transition years,” from 1966 to 1984. Darrell Van Citters gives us a fascinating look at this seldom-discussed period of Disney history.
Didier Ghez: When and where were you born?
Darrell Van Citters: I was born in Michigan in 1956.
DG: What did you do before you joined Disney?
DVC: I worked about a year in a small commercial house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, painting cels and learning Xerox, and that kind of thing. Then I heard about the new animation program that Disney was starting at the California Institute of the Arts. This is back in ’74. And ’75 was the first year of the program. I applied and was accepted, and I was there on the ground floor with all the others like John Lasseter and John Musker and Brad Bird and people like that.
DG: Who among your teachers at the time was the one that was most memorable?
DVC: Bill Moore. He was a design teacher from the old days at Chouinard; he was a great teacher and a big influence. Jack Hannah was the head of the program. Elmer Plummer was a concept artist at Disney for years. He was my life-drawing teacher, and he was great. And Ken O’Connor was a layout artist at Disney who was our perspective teacher.
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Parent contents
- Parent entry
- 1 - The Diaries and Letters of Ferdinand Horvath (Ferdinand Horvath)
- 2 - A Short Autobiography by Ken Peterson (Ken Peterson)
- 3 - The Letters of Bob Givens to Hardie Gramatky (Bob Givens)
- 4 - The Letters of Sylvia Holland (Sylvia Holland)
- 5 - Tyrus Wong interview (Michael Barrier)
- 6 - John Hench interview (Christopher Finch, Linda Rosenkrantz)
- 7 - John Hench interview (Charles Solomon)
- 8 - Marc Davis interview (Christopher Finch, Linda Rosenkrantz)
- 9 - Alice Davis interview (EMC West)
- 10 - Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn interview (David Tietyen)
- 11 - Floyd Norman interview (Jim Korkis)
- 12 - Stacey Hartley, daughter of Paul R. Hartley (Didier Ghez)
- 13 - Bill Cottrell interview (Jay Horan)
- 14 - Lillian Disney, Diane Disney Miller, Jenny Miller interview - Recorded in October 1982 at EPCOT in Florida (Bob Allen, Jim Korkis (transcript))
- 15 - Glen Keane iInterview (Charles Solomon)
- 16 - Darrell Van Citters interview
Persons
Didier Ghez (author)Darrell Van Citters (interviewee)