Randy Fullmer, an effects animator, visual effects supervisor, artistic coordinator and producer who worked at Disney for almost 20 years, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 73.
Over his nearly two decades at Disney, he did everything from work on the Toon Town portion of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (his first gig at the studio) to working as an artistic coordinator on “The Lion King” to producing full Disney features like “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “Chicken Little.” A key and unsung player in the Disney Renaissance of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Fullmer’s legacy will live on.
Fullmer, who died July 10, in Woodland Hills, California, attended the California Institute of the Arts, a school co-founded by Walt Disney. After Fullmer graduated in 1974, he spent time working with Don Bluth, the Disney hotshot whose departure from the studio nearly crippled the animation department. Fullmer joined Bluth on his then-groundbreaking videogames “Dragon’s Lair” and “Space Ace.” Fullmer also worked on animated segments for “Sesame Street” and provided effects animation for Tobe Hooper’s live-action space vampire epic “Lifeforce.”
After working on the Disney-adjacent “The Brave Little Toaster” (which Disney didn’t produce but ultimately released), he was hired to work on the animation-heavy climax of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” It was meant to be a three-month contract job but he was soon working as an effects animator on “Oliver & Company,” the next Disney animated feature and the first one overseen by the company’s new leadership team of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg. By 1990’s “The Rescuers Down Under” he was an effects supervisor, which is even more impressive if you consider that the “Rescuers” sequel was working with a new, largely unproven technology called CAPS, co-developed by Pixar and meant to revolutionize the way traditionally animated movies are put together and colored. In 1994, Fullmer transitioned to being the artistic coordinator on “The Lion King,” a role he also filled for “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” released in 1997.
After “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” Fullmer got to produce his first feature – “Kingdom of the Sun,” an ambitious and ultimately doomed feature directed by Roger Allers, one of the “Lion King” directors. While the animation was beautiful, the story was unwieldy, and the movie was taken away from Allers and handed to his co-director, Mark Dindal, who came up with an off-the-wall take on the same material. That movie, “The Emperor’s New Groove,” was released for Christmas 2000. It didn’t make much of a splash but over the years has garnered a strong cult appreciation, mostly for its singular sense of humor and gonzo characters.
The struggle of “Kingdom of the Sun” was documented by Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, in the rarely seen film “The Sweatbox.” In the documentary Fullmer is seen attempting to keep the train on the tracks, even though at every turn that train is threatening to derail.
Dindal and Fullmer reunited for 2005’s “Chicken Little,” the first fully computer animated film from what is now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios. The movie was also difficult but Fullmer and Dindal finished the movie. After “Chicken Little” he turned his attention to Wyn Guitars, focusing on making handcrafter guitars. (His life and his love of guitars were the subject of a 2014 documentary called “Restrung.”)
Veteran Disney Animation producer Roy Conli said (in an official statement), “Randy was a generous, kind, and trusted colleague. When I arrived at Disney 30 years ago and began working on ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ I was so lucky to have him as our artistic coordinator. Coming from theater, he taught me so much about the process of animation. He was a master.”
TheWrap reached out to producer Don Hahn, who was working alongside Fullmer during the same transformative period, said this: “Randy was a rare artist that already had proven himself as a visual effx artist on productions like Mermaid and Lion King. He was one of the forces behind the Renaissance at Disney animation. He made the leap into producing with cult hits like Emperors new groove and still had more to give creatively so unbelievably turned to making exquisite, one-of-a-kind bass guitars for the last decades of his life. The instruments, made by hand, by himself, were sought after by recording artists everywhere, and his love of arts and crafts antiques, plein aire painting and making things with head, hand and heart inspired and affected all of us who knew him. “
Fullmer is one of those figures in the Walt Disney Animation story who are easy to overlook but whose impact, particularly toward the end of his time at Disney, is profound. He weathered what is arguably the biggest – and most public – debacle in the history of the studio and created something lovely and bespoke and (now) utterly cherished from it. He spearheaded difficult technical challenges with aplomb and grace. And while he was rarely applauded like he should have been, he was a creative and artistic stalwart, during a time of transformation at Disney Animation.
Fullmer is survived by his wife, Diana; a sister, Cathy, step-children, Becky and Nick; and a step-brother, Scott.
