Simon Wells

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (January 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Wells on the set for Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1987

Simon Joseph Wells (born 1961) is an English film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great-grandson of author H. G. Wells, and is best known for directing The Prince of Egypt with Brenda Chapman and Steve Hickner.

Early life and education

Born in Cambridge, he attended The Perse School and De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design. Upon graduating he found a job at Richard Williams's studio where he animated commercials and other projects. Wells later supervised the animation on Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Career

Wells began his film career by joining Richard Williams Animation, where he served as a supervising animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. After the closing of Richard Williams Animation, Wells became a member of Amblimation, a studio owned by Steven Spielberg, where he served as director on their only three films: An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Balto. Wells was set to direct a sequel to Casper, but the project was cancelled.

After the closing of Amblimation, Wells joined DreamWorks where he worked as storyboard artist on many animated projects, and also directed The Prince of Egypt which was nominated for an Annie Award.

In 2002, Wells directed his first live-action film, a film adaptation of his great-grandfather's book The Time Machine.

Wells went back to DreamWorks Animation, where he continued as a story artist for films such as Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), Shrek 2 (2004), Madagascar (2005) and Flushed Away (2006).^[1]

In 2011 he co-wrote and directed Mars Needs Moms using motion-capture technology during the filming.

Filmography

Story artist

• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
• Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)
• Madagascar (2005)
• Over the Hedge (2006)
• Flushed Away (2006)
• Shrek the Third (2007)
• Kung Fu Panda (2008)
• The Croods (2013)
• Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)
• The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017)

Additional story artist

• Antz (1998)
• The Road to El Dorado (2000)
• Chicken Run (2000)
• Shrek 2 (2004)
• Shark Tale (2004)
• Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

Other credits

References

External links

• Simon Wells at IMDb

This article relating to an animator is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

• v
• t