Biography
At a very young age, Brian Mitchell knew he wanted to be an animator. He grew up with a fondness for Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM Cartoons. With interests in movies, music, puppetry and drawing, he pursued that dream with a passion. By the time he was 19, Brian received a job offer from Don Bluth Studios to work on feature length cartoons. He refused it, focusing on strengthening his drawing ability. Another offer came shortly thereafter from Filmations' feature unit, which went sour quickly after-wards due to the shutdown of that division. A year later, Mitchell was hired by renegade animator, Ralph Bakshi, with a portfolio of ten drawings. Moving to Los Angeles, Brian worked on many beloved and influential television shows and movies. His credits include, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, Ferngully, The Last Rainforest, Casper, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, Rock A Doodle, Disney's The Prince & The Pauper, Little Dogs On The Prairie, The Pink Panther, Slimer and The Ghostbusters, Kissyfur, and many many more. Mitchell won a 1995 Emmy for 'Outstanding Achievement In Animation' for Animaniacs. Returning to New York in 1995, Mitchell founded The Center For Character Animation which offered classes in cartoon animation. A number of past students now work in the field. The school was been featured in many news stories and on Television in the New York Area. ABC Television, The New York Times, Newsday and The Daily News have all done stories on CFCA. The school closed in 2003. Mitchell also founded Brian Mitchell Productions, an animation studio based on Long Island. Mitchell developed projects for the studio and for other companies. Mitchell Productions also sub-contracted animation and design work. Brian Mitchell occasionally lectures on the subject of animation around the country. In Summer of 2000, 2001 and 2002, Brian lectured at the 3rd, 4th and 5th Annual Disney Animation Event in Walt Disney World, Florida. He was Key Note speaker at the Long Island Media Arts Show and was a featured speaker at The Animation Destination Event at The Art Institute Of Pittsburgh in November 2001. In 2004, Mitchell storyboarded on Christopher Reeve's CG final project, Yankee Irving, which was released in the late 2000's as Everyones' Hero. In 2006, he worked on episodes of WB's Tom & Jerry Tales, and even managed to animate on a popular Saturday Night Live 'TV Funhouse' segment. Mitchell is developing a series of original holiday cartoons to premiere sometime in fall of 2012 through the internet. Mitchell maintains a personal blog called Mitchell's Sketchbook where he posts sketches and material from past animation projects. The blog has proved to be popular among fans of animation and Mitchell promises to unveil new projects through the blog in the future.
