As a Disney Feature Animation intern, I enjoyed having free reign of the Disney Theme parks on the weekend to sketch.
On the week this was done, Barry Cook came to the Disney’s MGM Studios and pitched the idea for the next feature animated film which was called at the time China Doll, or FaMulan.
There was one section of the animation building which had a tall soundproof glass wall behind which tourists could watch the animation artists at work. Barry stood on a desk and told us the story of a daughter who joined the Chinese army as a man to save her father from conscription. Barry had a knack for storytelling and I was fully engrossed and hoped that one day I might work on the film which would later be called Mulan.
I also learned that as an intern I would have a chance to do some production drawings for the film the studio was now working on called The Lion King. The story of Lion King was built around the themes of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.