By Andie Hagemann
“I wanted to be able to tell kids that you can do it,” animator Gabby Capili said about her decision to participate in Sketchbook, a brand-new instructional documentary series coming to Disney+. Whether you’re interested in pursuing animation or simply want to learn how to doodle your favorite characters, the series is beneficial for every skill level. “Don’t stand in your own way and don’t count yourself out,” she added.
Capili is one of six talented animators from Walt Disney Animation Studios starring in the series that dares the young and young at heart to pick up the pencil and draw. In each installment, an animator provides step-by-step instructions on how to draw a beloved Disney character—one that the instructor was either integral in creating or has a special connection to. From Olaf (Frozen) and Genie (Aladdin) to Mirabel (Encanto) and Simba (The Lion King), the unique series demystifies the animation process as the animators step from behind the camera to guide you along the way—while also sharing their own journey to pursuing a career in animation.
All six episodes of Sketchbook debut on the streaming service on Wednesday, April 27.
Capili joined her fellow Sketchbook stars Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn, Jin Kim, Hyun Min Lee, and Samantha Vilfort, along with series executive producer and director Jason Sterman, at an in-person press junket to discuss how the show reveals the magic behind the animation process.
While all six animators boast impressive resumes, Goldberg, Henn, and Kim have contributed to the creation of so many iconic animated characters for Walt Disney Animation Studios that even some of their fellow artists were starstruck to be featured with them in the series. “[Their] art is what inspired me to want to become an animator, so being here is a dream come true for me,” Lee said about her fellow artists. For her first project with the studio, Lee worked under the supervision of animator and director Goldberg on Louis, the jazz-playing alligator from The Princess and the Frog. Talk about a full-circle moment.
And when it came time to select a single character to animate, the animators each chose characters instrumental to their careers; Goldberg selected Genie from Aladdin, while Henn picked Young Simba from The Lion King, and Kim chose Captain Hook from Peter Pan. As highlighted in his episode, Genie is the first project Goldberg worked on after signing on with the studio in 1990. He later co-directed Pocahontas, animated Phil from Hercules, and served as head of animation for 2013’s Oscar®-nominated short, Get a Horse! Henn supervised the animation for several of Disney’s iconic princesses and heroines and worked on legendary animated films including The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, and Aladdin. “One of the comments I get a lot these days is people coming up to me—and they are so happy—saying, ‘You animated my childhood.’ That means a lot.” Henn said.
Kim didn’t work on Peter Pan, but Captain Hook does have a special place in his heart, because the well-dressed villain “got me here.” As part of his animation test for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Kim was required to animate Captain Hook. “The first time I saw the model sheet, I freaked out, but my wife encouraged me by saying, ‘You can do it,’” Kim said. “For about two weeks, I tried my best and sent back the animation test—it was done on VHS tape. Then, finally I got a call from Disney.”
Now, Kim is known fondly as “The Father of Elsa” for his creation of Frozen’s ice princess; he also made major contributions to Tangled, Bolt, Wreck-It-Ralph, and Zootopia. One hallway alone at Walt Disney Animation Studios is emblazoned with Kim’s concept art from these films and others. Kim heeded the advice of his wife once again after she suggested he select his old pal Captain Hook for Sketchbook. “It’s been 22 years since I drew Captain Hook, so I needed a little more practice to get the muscle memory back,” Kim joked.
Capili joined Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2019 as a storyboard apprentice, contributing in that capacity to the award-winning film Encanto. Like Kim, she chose to demonstrate a character that she has a strong tie to: Emperor Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove. Growing up with a big, Disney-loving extended family, each girl selected a favorite princess they identified with, but Capili confessed she never felt a strong connection to a Disney Princess like her cousins did. After seeing The Emperor’s New Groove on her birthday—her first time watching a Disney movie in a theater—she found the relatability she was searching for in Kuzco.
She jested that Kuzco does meet all the princess stereotypes and is royalty. “When they asked me to do Sketchbook, I immediately said ‘I want to do Kuzco,’” Capili said. “At first they said, ‘People don’t really care about Kuzco that much. Could you pick somebody else?’ And I said, ‘I cannot. It has to be Kuzco.’ He’s very special to me, a very important character to me, and I love him.”
In each artist’s episode, the viewer will learn more about these deep connections to animation that goes beyond the content that each animator worked on themselves. “What really struck me more than anything else was just how far-reaching these films are that we are involved in,” Goldberg said. “Animation enjoys a very healthy shelf-life compared to many live action films, and if you do them well enough, they can last for decades and decades... it’s very profound, the effect that Disney films have on a world audience.”
Lee said the admiration for animation is credited to the characters’ ability to connect with the young and young at heart, despite the magical and fantastical worlds in which they live in. In her episode, Lee instructs viewers on how to draw Olaf, who she worked on for Frozen and worked on as a supervising animator on Frozen 2, contributing to both visual development work and CG character animation.
“When we were animating them, I think that really touched down deep inside us to where we were always trying so hard to bring out our own selves into them,” she said. “It’s just that relatability where, with Olaf, he gives us that permission to say things or see things in the more truthful and more joyful light that we often forget to do after we are no longer children.”
As the beloved characters encourage viewers to tap into their inner child, Sketchbook aims to inspire artists of all levels to grab a sketchbook and draw. Vilfort, who served as a story artist on Encanto and helped shape and design the film’s heroine, Mirabel, confessed to endlessly spending her childhood watching instructional clips on animation. Participating in a project like Sketchbook, she said, is surreal, because it’s the content that she craved as a child itching to learn more about animation.
Vilfort and the other artists hope the series will inspire the next generation of animators and aspiring creatives. “I think a lot of people feel like if they’re not masters of a craft, that it’s not for them,” Vilfort said. “What’s really crazy is we go to work every day and I still make bad drawings all the time. But it’s about expressing something … about expressing a feeling, a motion, something that you can’t get out in words, or you can’t explain to a friend.”
Let the artists be your guide when all six episodes of Sketchbook launch on Wednesday, April 27, on Disney+.