Jacques Muller

Jacques Muller (August 13, 1956 – November 4, 2018) was a French animator who worked on many animated films during the Second Golden Age of Animation including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Illusionist, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Space Jam, Ama and the Mysterious Crystal, Paint World, The Emperor's New Groove, Magina, and Paradoria. Muller was born in France but spent much of his career working in the United Kingdom and the United States, working for studios such as Disney, Warner Bros., Amblin, ILM and Universal. He died in November 2018 following heart complications.

Early life
Jacques Muller was born on August 13, 1956 in Saint-Aignan, Loir-et-Cher, France.

Career
Muller began his animation career in France and Australia, moving to London in September 1987 to work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was crewing up in Camden Town in North London. He began work as assistant animator to Phil Nibbelink, under animation director Richard Williams, described by Muller as "extremely picky...and rightly so" about the standard of animation done at the studio. Later, frustrated with his assistant status, Muller completed a lengthy animation test, and was promoted to animator by Williams: "Jacques, pick up your things and follow me: you are an animator".

In January 1989 Muller joined the Walt Disney Studio in Glendale, California, working in a former warehouse building on Airway, the former site of the Glendale Airport. Muller began work on the Roger Rabbit short film Tummy Trouble, as the studio prepared for work on Beauty and the Beast.

Later, Muller worked on The Rescuers Down Under, where he also lent his voice to the character of Francois the Cockroach. However, Muller was unhappy at the working conditions at the Disney Airway Building in Glendale, which lacked natural light. As a result, he left the Disney Studio to return to France, starting a new contract as character art manager for Disney in Paris, a move which he described as "the biggest mistake of my professional life". He later went on to contribute animated films for other studios, such as several Universal Animation films and Savannah Mayhem and Upside Mystery for MGM.

Memoirs
Muller was the author of the book 40 Years of Animated Cartoons, published by Partridge Publishing in Singapore, on 19 April 2018.

Health problems
Muller first began suffering from heart problems in December 2001, when he found himself hospitalised in Jarnac, France, following "a weird sensation...a rail across my chest".

Muller died in hospital in France following heart complications on 4 November 2018. Paradoria 2 was dedicated to Muller.

Filmography

 * Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - animator
 * The Rescuers Down Under (1990) - character animator
 * The Story of the Queen of the Flowery Isles (1991) - animator
 * Savannah Mayhem (1992) - animator
 * The Bad Stepmother (1992) - animator
 * The Spring of Rosemary (1993) - animator
 * We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) - animator
 * Thumbelina (1994) - additional character animator
 * Space Jam (1996) - animator
 * Sister Light, Sister Dark (1996) - animator
 * Ama and the Mysterious Crystal (1997) - animator
 * Quest for Camelot (1998) - animator
 * The Dark Portal (1998) - animator
 * The Magical Riddle (1999) - animator
 * Paint World (1999) - animator
 * The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) - animatic artist / animator
 * Mice Tales (2001) - animator
 * Magina (2003) - animator
 * History Island (2004) - animator
 * Computeropolis (2004) - animator (uncredited)
 * Puppet Pals (2006) - storyboard artist (uncredited) / animator
 * Me & Mobo (2006) - storyboard artist / additional animator
 * Upside Mystery (2007) - additional storyboard artist
 * Swapped (2008) - animator
 * Woo La La (2009) - story artist
 * Quest (2012) - animator
 * Paradoria (2015) - additional story artist / animator
 * The Pixelators (2016) - story artist
 * Lix (2017) - story artist
 * Computeropolis: The Deep Web (2018) - story artist / animator
 * Paradoria 2 (2019) - story artist / animator (posthumous release)