Glen Keane
Keane in 2017
Born	Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupations	Animator author illustrator cartoonist
Years active	1973–present
Employer(s)	Filmation (1973) Walt Disney Animation Studios (1974–2012)
Spouse	Linda Hesselroth ​ (m. 1975)​
Children	Claire Keane Max Keane
Parents	Bil Keane (father) Thelma Keane (mother)
Relatives	Jeff Keane (brother)
Awards	Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film Dear Basketball (2017)
Signature

Glen Keane is an American animator, director, author and illustrator. As acharacter animator atWalt Disney Animation Studios for 38 years (1974–2012), he worked on feature films includingThe Little Mermaid,Beauty and the Beast,Aladdin,Pocahontas,Tarzan andTangled. He received the 1992Annie Award for character animation and the 2007Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to the field of animation. He was named aDisney Legend in 2013, a year after retiring from the studio.

In 2017, Keane directedDear Basketball, an animated short film based onKobe Bryant's retirement poem inThe Players' Tribune, for which Keane and Bryant received theAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the90th Academy Awards.

Keane was born inPhiladelphia, the son of cartoonistBil Keane, creator ofThe Family Circus, and Australian-bornThelma Keane (née Carne). He grew up inParadise Valley, Arizona next toScottsdale, as aCatholic.^[1][2]

Keane's interest in art developed from observing his father's work as a cartoonist.^[3] (Keane's father based hisFamily Circus character of Billy on Glen's younger self.) To encourage Glen to draw, his father gave him a copy ofBurne Hogarth'sDynamic Anatomy, and recommended he observe body forms and practice creative approaches to life drawing.

After graduating from high school atBrophy College Preparatory inPhoenix in 1972,^[4] Keane applied to theCalifornia Institute of the Arts School of Art inSanta Clarita, southwest ofPalmdale, rather than accepting a football scholarship to another college. His application was accidentally sent to the Program in Experimental Animation (then called Film Graphics), where he was mentored byJules Engel.^[3]

Keane left CalArts in 1974 and joined Disney the same year, where he spent three years working with veteran animatorOllie Johnston on the charactersBernard andPenny inThe Rescuers. He then animated Elliott the Dragon inPete's Dragon, and the climactic bear showdown inThe Fox and the Hound.

In 1982, inspired by the groundbreaking filmTron, Keane collaborated with animatorJohn Lasseter (Toy Story,Toy Story 2) on a 30-second test scene ofMaurice Sendak'sWhere the Wild Things Are, which was optioned for them by Disney executive Tom Wilhite.^[5] The test integrated traditional character animation and computer-generated backgrounds (Video onYouTube), and, likeTron, was a collaboration withMAGI. It was Disney's first experiment with digitally-drawn characters.^[6] Although the project was revolutionary (and became a predecessor to the famous ballroom scene inBeauty and the Beast), Disney declined to invest further in the featurette due to its cost.

In 1983, Keane left contract employment with Disney and worked as a freelance artist.^[3] He animated the character Professor Ratigan in Disney'sThe Great Mouse Detective; the "Boys and Girls of Rock n' Roll" and "Getting Lucky" inThe Chipmunk Adventure; and the charactersFagin,Sykes,Jenny Foxworth, andGeorgette inOliver & Company.

He became a lead character animator, one of the group of young animators mentored by "Disney's Nine Old Men". Keane animated some of Disney's most memorable characters in what has been called the "New "Golden Age" of Disney Animation.^{[7][self-published source]} He designed and animated the character ofAriel in the filmThe Little Mermaid (1989), and the eagleMarahute inThe Rescuers Down Under. He was supervising animator for the title characters of the three Disney hit featuresBeauty and the Beast,Aladdin, andPocahontas. While living with his family inParis for three years, Keane completed work on Disney's 1999Tarzan, for which he drew the eponymous character. He returned to Disney's studio inBurbank, California as the lead animator forJohn Silver inTreasure Planet.

In 2003, he began work as the director of Disney's animated filmTangled (based on theBrothers Grimm storyRapunzel), released in November 2010, where Keane and his team strove to bring the style and warmth of traditional animation to computer animation. In October 2008, due to "non-life-threatening health issues", Keane stepped back as director ofTangled, but remained the film's executive producer and an animating director.^[8]

On March 23, 2012, Keane left Walt Disney Animation Studios after 37 years there. In a letter to his coworkers, he said, "I owe so much to those great animators who mentored me–Eric Larson,Frank Thomas, andOllie Johnston –as well as to the many other wonderful people at Disney whom I have been fortunate to work with in the past nearly 38 years. I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist its siren call to step out and discover them."^[9] He later said that one of the reasons he left Disney was his experience during the production ofTangled, which underwent several storyline and title changes. He felt that in a big studio like Disney, there were too many conflicting interests, with management pulling people "in too many different directions".^[10]

In December 2013, it was announced that Keane joinedMotorola's Advanced Technology and Projects Group to help its engineers create interactive hand-drawn animation.^[11][12] He released his first animated short,Duet, at theGoogle I/O Conference inSan Francisco on June 25, 2014. It is the first hand-drawn cartoon made at 60frames per second,^[13] and the third in a series of shorts, called the Spotlight Stories, designed to explore spatial awareness and the sensory inputs of a mobile device to create distinctive storytelling experiences.^[14] When Google sold its Motorola subsidiary in early 2014, Keane and his group remained there.^[15]

In 2015, it was revealed that Keane and 16 other prominent artists and filmmakers had been hired by theParis Opera to work on their 3rd Stage project. Keane is the creator of the animated shortNephtali (a reference to Jacob's blessings and Psalm 42), on which he collaborated with choreographer and ballet dancerMarion Barbeau.^[16]

In addition to his work as ananimator, Keane has written and illustrated a series ofchildren's books based onBible parables, featuring the characters Adam Raccoon and King Aren the Lion. Keane directed the Chinese animated filmOver the Moon, about a girl who builds a rocket and flies to the moon to meet a legendarymoon goddess. Written byAudrey Wells, produced byPearl Studio, and animated bySony Pictures Imageworks, it was released onNetflix on October 23, 2020.^[17][18][19]

At the2018 Academy Awards, Keane shared theAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film withKobe Bryant forDear Basketball, which was based on a poem Bryant wrote on his retirement.^[20] On May 26, 2018 Keane received the 2017 Reuben Award for the Cartoonist of the Year^[21] in his hometown of Philadelphia.

In 1975, during the production of his debut film, Keane married Linda Hesselroth. They are the parents of author and illustratorClaire Keane and animatorMax Keane.^[22]

Keane has been cited as an artist withaphantasia, a condition characterized by an inability to form mental images.^[23][24][25] He is aChristian.^[26][27]

• Keane, Glen (1986).Adam Raccoon and the King's Big Dinner. Colorado Springs, Col.: Chariot Victor Pub.ISBN 978-0-7814-0039-8.OCLC 49002064.
• Keane, Glen (1987).Adam Raccoon at Forever Falls. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-087-9.OCLC 14588033.
• Keane, Glen (1987).Adam Raccoon in Lost Woods. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-088-6.OCLC 14905950.
• Keane, Glen (1987).Adam Raccoon and the Circus Master. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-090-9.OCLC 14931727.
• Keane, Glen (1989).Adam Raccoon and the Flying Machine. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-287-3.OCLC 18050595.
• Keane, Glen (1989).Adam Raccoon and the Mighty Giant. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-288-0.OCLC 19397210.
• Campbell, Stan; Vogel, Jane; Duckworth, John; Townsend, Jim; Glen Keane (ill.) (1992).Quick studies: Philippians–Hebrews. Elgin, Ill.: D.C. Cook Pub. Co.ISBN 978-0-7814-0028-2.OCLC 28687078.
• Campbell, Stan; Duckworth, John; Townsend, Jim; Glen Keane (ill.) (1992).Quick Studies: James–Revelation. Elgin, Ill.: D.C. Cook Pub. Co.ISBN 978-0-7814-0029-9.OCLC 28687002.
• Keane, Glen (1993).Adam Raccoon and the Race to Victory Mountain. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-363-4.OCLC 25367425.
• Keane, Glen (1995).Adam Raccoon and Bully Garumph. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-1-55513-367-2.OCLC 32745892.
• Keane, Glen (1995).Cookie time: a first lesson in obedience. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-0-7814-0206-4.OCLC 37453329.
• Keane, Glen (1995).Follow the king: A first lesson in trust. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Books.ISBN 978-0-7814-0207-1.OCLC 37453329.
• Keane, Glen; Taylor, Samii; Yakovetic, Joe (1995).Parables for Little Kids. Elgin, Ill.: Chariot Family Pub.ISBN 978-0-7814-0258-3.OCLC 33440835.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: Forever Falls. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-219-3.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: Lost Woods. Irvine, CA.: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-221-6.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: The Circus Master. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-217-9.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: The Flying Machine. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-218-6.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: The Mighty Giant. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-222-3.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: The King's Big Dinner. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-220-9.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: Race to Victory Mountain. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-223-0.
• Keane, Glen (2016).The Adventures of Adam Raccoon: Bully Garumph. Irvine, CA: Green Egg Media.ISBN 978-1-93721-216-2.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toGlen Keane.

• "Glen Keane Productions" Official Website
• Glen Keane atIMDb
• Glen Keane lecture at CalArts onYouTube
• "The Art of Glen Keane" Blog
• Glen Keane interview for the Animation Podcast
• Interview with Glen Keane about 'Tangled', April 18, 2011

• Original illustrations from his children's books atAdamRaccoon.com

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