John Musker is a 40-year veteran of Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he was an animator, writer, director, and producer. He worked on films such as “The Fox and the Hound,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “The Princess and the Frog,” and “Moana.”
Read Musker’s full bio at AcademyArt.edu.
Musker was bestowed an honorary doctorate by Academy of Art University at this year’s Commencement ceremony on Thursday, May 14. He delivered the following speech to this year’s class of graduating students.
Thank you so much to the Academy of Art University and to President Stephens for this lovely honorary degree. Although I have to confess, wearing this outfit, I am not quite sure if I represent Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
Based on my 50-year career in animation, I’d like to talk to you graduates about three important qualities that can shape your art. They all start with the letter “P.” Let me sneak up on the first one.
After getting my B.A. in English from Northwestern, I set my sights on the new in-house animation training program at the Disney Studio. They wanted applicants to send sketches of animals, and the only animals I could find to draw that wouldn’t make me sneeze ( because, like all Irish people, I am allergic to every known mammal) were in dioramas at the Field Museum of Natural History. So, I drew them there and sent those drawings off to Disney, where I was promptly REJECTED!
Their only comment: My animal drawings were too STIFF! What can I say, those animals were STUFFED! Disney later suggested I might try and send my portfolio to the brand new Character Animation program at CalArts. I did and was accepted there, and after a year of study, the Disney Review Board, which looked at the student work that I and others produced, [they] amazingly offered me a job!
So, the first of the three P’s: Perseverance. Your career in the arts may very possibly, like mine, not follow a straight line. But if you persevere, if you work tirelessly to improve your skills, magic can happen!
The second of my three P’s: Panache. The panache was originally the colorful plume on a helmet. It was Cyrano de Bergerac’s guiding principle. Panache is “flair, brio, expressiveness.” I suggest that you fill your art, whatever form it may take with “panache.” Be daring, bold, passionate, throw caution to the winds!
And lastly, the word Playful. All children, I think, embrace drawing and playfulness. But for many children, this spark, sadly, gets extinguished, at times by institutions that fail to recognize the value of playfulness. So, to all you graduates, please continue to nurture your unique sense of play. Put playfulness into everything you create. Play is neither trivial nor juvenile. It will fuel your art.
Finally, I look forward to seeing the films you graduates will make, the buildings and games you will design, the performances, characters, and stories you and your collaborators will bring into this world that needs them now more ever. Celebrate not just our differences, but the common humanity we all share and sometimes forget. It takes insightful, hardworking, and playful artists to, in the words of lyricist Steven Schwartz, teach us “things we never knew we never knew.”
You can do it! You are already on the journey. I, for one, can’t wait to see and taste the fruits of your labors. God bless you all. Thank you.