Biography

Early Years/Effects Animator at Disney

Growing up, Dindal was influenced by Disney films and Warner Bros. Saturday cartoons. One of his earliest influence was Disney's The Sword in the Stone, which he saw with his grandmother at the age of three. It also help him to go to a career in animation with help from his dad who took art as a hobby and taught Dindal to draw while growing up in Syracuse, New York. As a high schooler, Dindal went to Jamesville-DeWitt High School, in which he attended most of the art classes that the school had offer. Dindal learned animation at CalArts. He began working at Disney in 1980. He worked on The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, Mickey's Christmas Carol, and The Great Mouse Detective, following a very similar animation style in all movies. This style consisted of similar backgrounds with delicated animation and complex character effects, and was well received.

Leaving and Returning to Disney

After these projects, Dindal left Disney around 1986 to briefly work on outside projects with Filmation, and worked on projects like Bravestar and The Brave Little Toaster. He returned to the studio in 1987 and got his first head role as an animator for Disney's The Little Mermaid. He later worked as head animator for the movie The Rescuers Down Under. He directed the animated effects for the live-action 1991 film The Rocketeer, and got a job in the 1992 animated film Aladdin.

Dindal as the Director

Dindal's directorial debut was Cats Don't Dance, which was released in 1997, three years before The Emperor's New Groove was released in 2000. In Cats Don't Dance Dindal voiced a minor character. Although the film wasn't publicly successful, it won the Annie Award for Best Animated Film and Dindal was nominated for directing. The Emperor's New Groove was initially expected to be a classic Disney musical feature called Kingdom of the Sun. However, that idea didn't work out, and Dindal, along with Chris Williams and David Reynolds, drastically changed the script to a comedy. During the six-year production, he started to work on Cats Don't Dance, a Turner Broadcasting (since merged into Warner Bros.) animated musical production.

Chicken Little

Dindal worked on Chicken Little, another Disney production, which needed a huge animation team. The movie was a moderate financial success, yet received negative reviews, and is currently the worst rated film of the Disney animated canon at Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 36%. Dindal had two small voice roles in the film. The movie was nominated to several Annies, but Dindal was not nominated as a director. During the movie's production, Disney produced Kronk's New Groove as a direct-to-video feature. Dindal was working on Chicken Little, so he didn't get a position on the staff. Later, Dindal created The Emperor's New School.

Recent Years

In March 2006, a day after the DVD release of Chicken Little, Dindal, and Disney employee Randy Fullmer, left the company due to the fact that he was "tired of dealing with then-WDFA head, David Stainton." In the next few years, he was attached as a director to several live-action films, including Sherlock's Secretary, Kringle, and Housebroken. In December 2010, DreamWorks Animation announced that Dindal was directing Me and My Shadow, a 3D feature film combining both computer and traditional animation. In January 2012, it was reported that he was no longer directing the film, and that he was replaced by Alessandro Carloni. As of January 2014, Dindal was working on a feature film, tentatively titled Tom. In July 2014, he was credited as the illustrator for a documentary called Restrung, which is focused on Randy Fullmer, a collaborator that worked with him at Disney and Filmation, with his career at Wyn Guitars from 2006.

Filmography

Title	Year	Role
The Fox and the Hound (uncredited)	1981	Effects animator (inbetweener)
Fun with Mr. Future	1982	Animator
Mickey's Christmas Carol	1983	Effects animator
The Black Cauldron	1985
The Great Mouse Detective	1986
Sport Goofy in Soccermania	1987
The Brave Little Toaster		Effects animator consultant
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night		Special effects animator
BraveStarr	1988	Special effects animator (1 episode)
BraveStarr: The Legend		Special effects animator
Oliver & Company		Effects animator
The Making of The Little Mermaid	1989	Plays himself (first time shown on screen)
The Little Mermaid		Visual effects supervisor
The Prince and the Pauper	1990	Storyboard artist
The Rescuers Down Under		Head effects animator
The Rocketeer	1991	Director: Nazi Invasion segment
Frozen Assets	1992	Animation sequence producer
Tom and Jerry: The Movie		Effects animator
The Little Mermaid (TV series)		Effects consultant (1 episode), effects animator (2 episodes), story board artist (1 episode)
Aladdin		Effects animator
Happily Ever After	1993	Special effects animator
Cats Don't Dance	1997	Director, writer, character designer, storyboard supervisor, voice of Max
The Emperor's New Groove	2000	Director, screenplay, story, voice of Kitty Yzma
The Sweatbox	2002	Plays himself
Chicken Little	2005	Director, story, character designer, voice of Morkubine Porcupine & Coach
Kronk's New Groove		Based on characters (uncredited)
The Emperor's New School	2006-2008	Creator, writer
Hatching Chicken Little: The Making of Chicken Little	2006	Himself
Treasures Unfold: The Making of The Little Mermaid
Storm Warning: The Little Mermaid Special Effects Unit
Restrung	2014	Illustrator

Awards and nominations

Nominations

• Best Individual Achievement: Directing in a Feature Production for Cats Don't Dance (Annie) (1997)
• Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production for The Emperor's New Groove (Annie) (2001)
• Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production for The Emperor's New Groove (Annie) (2001)
• Best Animated Feature for The Emperor's New Groove (Annie) (2001)
• Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature for The Emperor's New Groove & Chicken Little (Satellite Award) (2000; 2005)
• Best Animated Feature for Chicken Little (Critics' Choice Movie Awards) (2005)

Won

• Best Animated Feature for Cats Don't Dance (Annie) (1997)

Collaborators

	Cats Don't Dance	The Emperor's New Groove	The Sweatbox	Chicken Little	The Emperor's New School	Restrung
Don Knotts	N			N
David Spade		N	N
Patrick Warburton		N	N	N	N
John Goodman		N	N		N
Eartha Kitt		N	N		N
Wendie Malick		N			N
Frank Welker	N	N			N
Randy Fullmer		N	N	N		N
David Reynolds (screenwriter)		N	N	N
Don Hall		N		N
John Debney		N	N	N
The Walt Disney Company		N	N	N	N

What They Did

• Don Knotts: Cats Don't Dance (T.W. Turtle), Chicken Little (Turkey Lurkey)
• David Spade: The Emperor's New Groove (Kuzco), The Sweatbox (himself)
• Patrick Warburton: The Emperor's New Groove (Kronk), The Sweatbox (himself), Chicken Little (Alien Cop), The Emperor's New School (Kronk)
• John Goodman: The Emperor's New Groove (Patcha), The Sweatbox (himself), The Emperor's New School (Patcha; season 2 only)
• Eartha Kitt: The Emperor's New Groove (Yzma), The Sweatbox (herself), The Emperor's New School (Yzma)
• Wendie Malick: The Emperor's New Groove (Chicha), The Emperor's New School (Chicha)
• Frank Welker: Cats Don't Dance (Farley Wink), The Emperor's New Groove (Dragonfly, Black Panther), The Emperor's New School (Creepy Old Man, Skeleton Anteater, Homework, additional voices)
• Randy Fullmer: The Emperor's New Groove (producer), The Sweatbox (himself), Chicken Little (producer), Restrung (himself)
• David Reynolds: The Emperor's New Groove (writer), The Sweatbox (himself), Chicken Little (additional writer)
• Don Hall: The Emperor's New Groove (additional story), Chicken Little (character design, story)
• John Debney: The Emperor's New Groove, Chicken Little (composer), The Sweatbox (himself)
• The Walt Disney Company: The Emperor's New Groove, The Sweatbox, Chicken Little, The Emperor's New School (made)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]