Show 019 – Burny Mattinson, Part Four

Burny Mattinson, Part Four

“And Joe always told me, he said, ‘Burny, keep drawing. Keep drawing. You know, because that’s where your ideas are all gonna come from.'”

In the fourth and final part of his interview, Burny Mattinson leads us through Disney’s second golden age of animation. He talks about his work on various films inlcuding Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, and Mulan, and he shares some great advice on story idea generation and pitching. Burny has worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios for close to 55 years as an animator, story artist, director, and producer.

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/animationpodcast/AP019.mp3]

Continue for Show Notes and audio file download links…

Get the MP3 here: Show 19: Burny Mattinson, Part Four
Animation Podcast Show 19 MP3

(19MB, 41:22 minutes)

Or get the enhanced version playable only with Quicktime, iTunes, or iPods. (Includes pictures and links in addition to the audio.)
Get the AAC here: Show 19: Burny Mattinson, Part Four
Animation Podcast Show 19 AAC

(20.1MB, 41:22 minutes)

  • 00:00: The Intro Voice
  • 00:04: Intro
  • 00:36 Story on Aladdin with Ed Gombert [Amazon LINK]
  • 06:21 Story from scripts vs. boards
  • 09:17 Lion King [Amazon LINK]
  • 15:02 The Hunchback of Notre Dame [Amazon LINK]
  • 15:33 Pocahontas with Joe Grant [Amazon LINK]
  • 17:17 Workflow with Joe Grant
  • 21:05 Where ideas come from
  • 23:52 Giving Pocahontas the cartoony treatment
  • 25:39 Hercules [Amazon LINK]
  • 26:33 Mulan [Amazon LINK]
  • 29:13 Pitching boards
  • 33:17 Current projects
  • 36:11 Conclusion of Part 4
  • 36:27 Voice messages [LINK]
  • 39:47 Requested guests
  • 40:05 Feedback info
  • 40:18 Walt’s People Volume 5 [LINK to Didier Ghez’s blog] [LINK to buy Vol. 5]
  • 0:50:43: Closing

19 Comments on “Show 019 – Burny Mattinson, Part Four

  1. Clay-

    I was so excited as I pulled up your website to see the final installment of the Burny interview. I have yet to listen to it, but I know that its going to have some wonderful words of wisdom for animators like me, working our brains out to make it in this crazy industry. Keep the good work coming as you find time, Clay! I hope you TRUELY know that your work and effort are appreciated by many fellow animators and animation lovers alike! Thanks!!!

    Lamont

  2. YEah! I just found out at this moment you upload your blog! I’ so excited 😀 I couldn’t wait anymore!

    THANKS I’m going to listen to it Right away 😀

  3. Another great podcast! All of the interviews have been fantastic but I think that these last few with Burny have been that extra bit special. It is amazing to hear from someone that has worked at Disney for so many years. If you ever have the chance to meet with him again then it certainly sounds like he has plenty more stories to tell. Thanks again for all of the hard work.

  4. What a welcome suprise this show was for me this morning! I was just about to leave for work and after checking my email, I pulled up your site on a whim to see if your status bars had at least been upgraded a bit to show some progress. But there it was! A brand new, finished show! Glad to see you’re back on a roll with these things again, Clay. It was long cold winter without you!

    Wonderful installment, too. I’ve listened to it twice already. I loved hearing Burny’s take on the very recent developments involving Lasseter and the new shorts division at Disney. With all the history we get in this interviews, it’s kind of nice to see it all come to a head to where we are today. Just makes it feel like the legacy truly is continuing!

  5. I was soo excited when I plugged my shuffle in this morning to see that there was a podcast loading! 🙂
    Thanks Clay

  6. These Burnie Mattinson podcasts were so much fun to listen to. Thankyou again for all your wonderful efforts, Clay!

  7. The advice Burny gives regarding story development and pitching boards is priceless. It really made me consider going in the story direction as opposed to animation. I love both.

    Great work Clay, no one interviews animators better than you.

    Thanks,
    Mark

  8. Wow! Listening to the history of Disney from a legend is totally inspiring! Bernie is such a wonderful storyteller. I can see why he is so good at what he does. Thanks for your hard work and taking the time to do these podcasts. You are doing a fantastic job.

  9. Yay! I’m in the podcast. Dude, You gotta to interview Brad Bird, after that amazing Ratatouille.

  10. I was so excited when I saw the new podcast was here. It’s all I’ve been listening to lately. It’s great to hear Burny’s views on the previous and current Disney regimes. It would be amazing if they actually put “The Bee Concert” back into production. Here’s to hoping they will. (fingers crossed)
    Burny is such an amazing character. He has one of the greates laughs I’ve ever heard.
    Don’t keep us in suspense Clay, who else do you have lined up?
    Thanks again. Keep up the EXCELLENT work!

  11. Excellent podcast! I love it! He speak about my favourite movie, Pocahontas and Aladdin! Wow!
    Thank you Clay for you great work!

  12. I just listened to these Burny interviews back-to-back. Wow! The wealth of information is going to make my head explode.

    I blame you Clay!

    (Excellent work with these podcasts)

  13. Excellent series of podcast on Burny’s career. Really informative on his working process and attitudes, as well as the creative process. Please continue these classic interviews as they will inform and inspire future generations.

  14. Oops! I just realized I spelled Burny’s name wrong. Sorry about the Burny 🙂

  15. Hey Clay
    Cheers for the latest in a long line of superb pocasts! BUT when are we going to hear the rest of Nik Ranieri and Ron/John!?!?!? I loved listening to them but we’ve been left hanging!!!!!!!!! Anyway – cheers for doing it!

  16. I know I’ve said in recent podcasts that comments will be replied to quickly. Well, this one’s gonna sting – there are so many of you to repsond to! That’ll teach me to wait so long.

    Lamont – Thanks for the kind words.

    Manuela – You must be the one leaving all those voicemails. Good for you for taking part in the shows!

    John Knowles – I’m glad you agreed with me about this one being my favorite. I don’t know, there’s just something about it, huh? For me, it’s the tips on the actual process of boarding that make it sing.

    Rob – Thanks for hanging in there for the cold winter. Looking at the dates of the shows, it really has been the year of Burny. I’d never complain about that though, I’m honored to share his stories. I’m looking forward to bringing more cool interviews to you guys.

    K.Borcz – My pleasure!

    Amanda – Thank YOU for commenting. I really do appreciate it.

    Mark DeRidder – Aw shucks! I was so proud, I read your comment to my wife over breakfast. Sorry about causing you some career confusion, but what a couple of great choices!

    Shawn – Nice hearing from you.

    Paulo – I couldn’t agree more. Ratatouille blew my mind. I went back the next night because I had to see it again.

    Rene in TX – I won’t keep you waiting too long. New show/guest coming this week. Shh.

    Ally – It’s like the interview was custom made for you! I aim to please, don’t I?

    ctd – The Animation Podcast takes no responsibility for exploding heads.

    Craig Clark – Thanks Craig. I’m glad you found it worthwhile. Fun site, BTW.

    shawn – no prob.

    ed – You’re totally right. I have been remiss with my unfinished guests. At the rate I’m going, we may not hear from Ron and John again for a while, but I DO want to get back in to the remainder of the Nik audio I have. There are a few more shows in there. Thanks for the reminder/nudge.

  17. I THINK HES WONDERFUL EVERYTHING I THOUGHT HE WOULD BE AND MORE THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ENJOYMENT…NICE TO HEAR A PART OF ONES PAST…PATTY

  18. Burny was married to my step sister, Sylvia, who was also a great artist. They won the Academy Award together for MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL. Also worked together on many other Disney productions. They were a team.

  19. What a great show! Burny sounds like the cosiest guy in the world:)

    But you guys talk alot about film in the measurement of “feet”. How much is a foot compared to frames?

    I work in Denmark (in Europe) and here we only use frames as the term for measuring the film length.

    If anyone knows the answer I’d appriciate it!
    Thanks!