Animator and director was an Oscar nominee
For as long as anyone can remember, Bob Walker doodled: cartoon figures, faces, animals, Mad Magazine characters.
As a teenager, Walker covered his bedroom walls with doodles. His parents would sometimes paint over them just to give their son a new canvas on which to work.
“He was always drawing, drawing, drawing,” said his older sister, Sandra Walker, an Ottawa teacher. “That was his passion.”
Walker, who grew up in Ottawa and graduated from Gloucester High School, translated that passion into a career as a Walt Disney studio layout artist and director — a career that culminated with a 2003 Academy Award nomination for the animated feature Brother Bear, a film that earned more than $250 million worldwide.
Walker, who recently retired from the film industry, died suddenly at his California home last week from a suspected heart attack. He was 54. “He was just a down-to-earth, quiet, thoughtful guy who cared about the people around him,” said his younger brother, Jim. “He was unassuming: he went through life with untied shoes, jeans and a T-shirt.”
After graduating from Gloucester, he pursued a liberal arts degree at New York’s St. Lawrence University. One year later, he transferred to Oakville’s Sheridan College upon discovering the school offered a degree in animation. After Sheridan, Walker was hired at what was then one of the country’s premier animation studios: Atkinson Film-Arts in Ottawa. For five years, Walker worked on animated TV shows such as The Raccoons and Dennis The Menace; he left the firm — part of Crawley Films — just before it shut down in 1989.
Luckily, Walker had heard about a new Walt Disney animation studio being opened in Bay Lake, Florida. His father, an Ottawa car dealer, gave his son an old van that he drove to Florida to apply for the job. “He had a portfolio under his arm, went into the Disney trailer, and they hired him on the spot,” said Jim Walker.
The studio was built inside a Disney theme park.
Walker started as a layout artist on Roller Coaster Rabbit, a Roger Rabbit short, and later became head of layout for the Florida studio, overseeing scenes for feature films such as The Rescuers Down Under (1990), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Mulan (1998) and Lilo & Stitch (2002).
In 2003, Walker launched his directing debut. His Disney bosses warned him that he would have to talk more often in his new role.
“They said, ‘Bob, you’re ready to take this leap but you’re going to have to speak, you’re going to have to tell people what to do,’ ” recalled his brother, Jim.
Brother Bear, co-directed by Walker, was nominated for an Academy Award in the best animated feature category. The film, which Walker and Aaron Blaise codirected, tells the story of an Inuit boy, Kenai, who takes on the form of a bear after killing the animal. The film, which featured the voices of Hollywood stars Joaquin Phoenix, Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, was nominated for an Academy Award in the best animated feature category.
Walker recently retired to California to spend more time with his nine-year-old daughter and to work on his golf game, while pursuing more personal art projects.
“He just filled the room in a quiet, unassuming way,” said his sister. “He was so much fun to be around.”