Adventures in Animation: How I Learned Who I Learned From and What I Did with It

Triple-Oscar-winning, world-renowned animator – and author of the seminal book The Animator’s Survival Kit – Richard Williams’ legendary career in the world of animation is brought to the page here for the first time.

Written with his wife and collaborator, Imogen Sutton, Adventures in Animation follows the life and career of this pivotal figure in animated features, from the influential moment when, aged five, Williams saw Snow White, right through his career of more than sixty years. Over those decades, Williams created full-length features, short films, title sequences for films and hundreds of commercials – all of which were graced by his characteristically elegant, sinuous lines and magnificent imagination. Williams’ place in animation history is assured: he directed the Academy Award-winning 1971 adaptation of A Christmas Carol and perhaps most famously worked as Director of Animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for which he won two Academy Awards. Serving as the linkman between the original creators of the world of Disney (Snow White, Dumbo, The Jungle Book) and the current generation of digital animators (Toy Story, The Incredibles and Ice Age), it is fair to say that his like will not be seen again.

Williams’ first book, The Animator’s Survival Kit, and the masterclasses he ran, saw him pass on his hard-won craft to future generations of animators. In Adventures in Animation, the story of the man behind the images will inspire them all over again, bringing more animators and fans of animation to the life and work of this master of the artform.