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“font-family: Verdana;”>Next Friday one of Disney’s most recognized and beloved characters will head back to the big screen and engage an entirely new generation of young people, as Winnie The Pooh has done for decades.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN;” lang=”EN” xml:lang=”EN”>The film marks the first time a Winnie the Pooh film will hit theaters since the 2005 film Pooh’s Heffalump Movie.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>And while all ages can once again expect to be inspired, encouraged and humored by directors Steven Anderson and Don Hall’s interpretation of Winnie and his lovable gang of animal misfits, the young people of St. Louis will have a unique reason to feel pride and admiration.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing,” said St. Louis’ own Marlon West, who served as animation supervisor for the new
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I used to staple the pages of my drawings together to create comic books, and in kindergarten I had my own comic book stand. But I couldn’t count, so when people paid me I wouldn’t give change.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>On his 12th birthday, Marlon West received a Super 8 camera from his parents, Charles and Pauline West. From that moment on, he explored his University City neighborhood from a filmmaker’s perspective.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>The neighborhood, his family and later University City High School all became part of his support system. He credits them for a successful career in film animation that has spanned more than 20 years.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“Everybody treated me like I was a filmmaker, and I convinced myself that I was,” West said. “And fortunately, no one suggested otherwise. My parents were supporters and believers. They never said, ‘You can do this for awhile and then get a real job.’
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>At U. City High School, a couple of supportive teachers even set him up in a corner behind the teachers’ lounge to do his film editing.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>His dream was to create films featuring children from the neighborhood. But he quickly learned that directing his friends and getting them to comply with the rigorous demands of creating a feature film was much more difficult than he imagined. Animation didn’t work, because he couldn’t keep the paper steady to feature his drawings, so he used action figures and G.I. Joes.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>He began to develop as animator as a student at Columbia College in Chicago. Then, after a steady stream of freelance work in Chicago, he said goodbye for Hollywood.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“I came out here with $1,200 and everything that I could fit into my car,” West said.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>After working on Rover Dangerfield and the cult classic BeBe’s Kids, West knocked on Disney’s door. According to him, they didn’t like what they saw.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They were unimpressed, but offered me a trainee position,” West said. “I had been working as an animator for years, but I swallowed my pride and accepted. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made professionally.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>West said he was only a trainee “for a few weeks” before solidifying his position as a professional animator at Disney with sequences he created for the blockbuster film The Lion King.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“They gave me an opportunity, and I didn’t mess up,” West said. “It’s about seizing the opportunities and being able to deliver on them when they come.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>West has worked on Disney classics such as
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>Pocahontas, Mulan, The Emperor’s New Groove historic film The Princess and the Frog – which featured Disney’s first African-American princess.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>West’s latest challenge was bringing Winnie to a new generation of young people.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“You know your film is going to stand with the others in history,” West said. “So you have to get it right, from getting the right backgrounds and layouts, and try to make it look modern too.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>West’s journey from child filmmaker to premiere animator falls directly in line with the underlying message of his latest film –follow your dream and do what you need to do to make your dreams come true.
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>“It’s nice to have things that go out over the world that people enjoy, and these films go on forever,” West said. “It’s really cool to be a part of that, but you have to put in work and do your research. When it’s when your turn to deliver, you have to deliver.”
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“font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: Verdana;”>Winnie the Pooh opens in theatres nationwide on July 15. The film is rated G with a running time of 69 minutes.
