Rhino of Bolt: Disney animator and voice actor visits Kaysville
Mark Walton, an animator and voice actor, talks with students at Kaysville Junior High School on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014. Mark's brother, Paul Walton, is a teacher at the school and invited Mark to speak about his career. (BENJAMIN ZACK/Standard-Examiner)
KAYSVILLE — Salt Lake resident Mark Walton has been living out his dream job as an animator for the last 18 years working for Disney, DreamWorks and Blue Sky. He told students as Kaysville Junior High Thursday about his experiences working on movies such as Tarzan, Emperor’s New Groove, Bolt, Meet the Robinsons, Tangled, Turbo and Epic.
Walton attended Utah State University in the early 1990s, graduating with a degree in animation. He applied for an internship at Disney thinking his chances of getting the work were slim, but was surprised to learn he had been accepted.
“I knew that I loved to draw more than anything else, so I thought it didn’t hurt to try applying (at Disney), even though I really didn’t think I had a chance,” said Walton. “I was in the right place at the right time when they accepted me for the position, and I have been living my dream ever since.”
Walton began working as a storyboard animation artist, creating story ideas, drawing different types of characters, and even writing up dialogue.
“I didn’t know anything about storyboard art, given my background in animation, but I soon learned that it was really fun because I could work at creating my own ideas, rather than working with one character for weeks, months, or even years,” said Walton.
In his years in the business, Walton has seen the storyboard process change dramatically. When Walton first started working for Disney, he used to draw all of his storyboard ideas on paper, which were then pinned up with dialogue on a big cork board, then changed around and photographed.
Now, Walton uses a tablet or touch-sensitive screen with a drawing stylus and emails his ideas to the directors. That allows him to live near his family in Utah while he does freelance animation work.
Walton said the highlight of his career was playing the voice of Rhino in the Disney movie Bolt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBwR1l-DUTs), a part he received out of luck. Often, Walton said, studios use some of their employees to help test out characters or fill in while they wait for the voice actors to be available. Disney was developing a new hampster character in the movie, and grabbed Walton to do some temporary voicing, but he ended up being so good, the producers kept him for the part.
“When I found out, I couldn’t believe it at first because it was a dream come true, and it ended up being my 15 minutes of fame and fortune,” said Walton, though he quickly learned doing voice acting isn’t always as easy as it looks. “Sometimes you get lucky and get it right the first time, but that didn’t happen very often for me. I usually got it on the third or fourth take, though for some of my longer monologues, it was close to 100 times before they were satisfied. I would try it quiet, loud, fast, serious, funny, and tearful.”
Sometimes he would even have sweat dripping down his face when he was jumping up and down with his arms waving as he recorded sections of the film where his character was bouncing down a set of stairs in an exercise ball. “My throat was so sore from screaming that I had to wait a week before I could do any of the other normal lines,” said Walton.
Walton feels that having had the chance to live out his dream, he wanted to give back in return. His brother, Paul Walton, has worked in the Davis School District for the last 16 years, so every year, Mark Walton visits with his brother’s students about life in the animation world.
“I feel very fortunate, so I want to give back and help kids know things I wanted to know about animation when I was growing up,” said Walton. “I love working on movies, but I feel like there is something great about making a difference in people’s lives.”
One of the disadvantages he told students about working in the film industry is the fact that the movie isn’t very exciting to watch when it’s done. “The curse of working on a movie is that it’s not a surprise because you have reworked the scenes for months and years, so you almost start to get sick of it,” said Walton. What is even harder is when scenes that artists get attached to will sometimes get changed or deleted out of the movie for whatever reason.
“As artists, we care about the storytelling and the character development, but I learned that it wasn’t my show and that I was helping them make their movie the best it could possibly be,” said Walton. Seventh-grader Jade Kelley said the best part of the presentation was hearing and watching Walton do his voice for Rhino on Bolt. “I thought it was really cool, and now when I watch that movie, I will picture his face doing the part,” said Kelley. “I can also see how happy he is doing this job. I want to do something that will make me that happy.”
Walton warned students that a dream job isn’t always perfect. “Work isn’t always a dream. If you put all of your energy into the job itself, ultimately you will be disappointed,” said Walton. “I get inspiration from my family and friends and live an interesting life, going out and meeting new people and seeing new places, which makes me a better storyteller.”