Sometimes dreams do come true. When Disney legend Andreas Deja was 11 years old, “The Jungle Book” played at his hometown in Germany and after watching it, he was hooked. He remembers how it cast a spell on him and how he knew right there and then that he wanted to take part in the Disney magic.
With the help of his English teacher, he wrote to the Mouse House and to his surprise received a reply. Deja relates: “It basically said that if I was serious about the animation done at Disney, I first had to become an artist in my own right.”
From that day on, he began his deep dive into the world of animation, poring over magazines, newspapers and books and later enrolling in art school. While at school, he wrote to Eric Larson, one of the legendary Nine Old Men of Disney lore, who after looking at Deja’s work said he thought he “had what it took.”
“So, without an actual job, in August 1980, at the age of 23, I moved to the U.S. and entered a new training program at Disney, spending six weeks working under Eric. He helped me make my animation work so that it was good enough to get me that job,” he recalls, adding: “I worked at the Walt Disney Studios for the next 30 years.” He rose up the ranks to become animation supervisor where he worked on some of Disney’s most iconic villains, including Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast,” Jafar in “Aladdin,” and Scar in “The Lion King,” a role famously voiced by Jeremy Irons. Deja relates that Irons noticed his likeness in Scar, which was deliberate, but he didn’t seem to mind. “He told me after I bumped into him years later: ‘I never got another offer to voice an animation character after Scar.’ Irons did such a great job that his voice is forever associated with that iconic villain, he notes.
Deja dedicates his directorial debut “Mushka” to Larson. Opening his home studio toPvNew, he drew on an original animator desk used at Disney, a priceless piece of wood furniture with its circular backlit frame where he demonstrated the technique behind his 2D animation rendering of “Mushka.” The studio itself is a marvel, with high vaulted ceilings and books, papers, art tools, storyboards as well as memorabilia filling the room.
Inspired by the Disney animation of the ‘60s and Deja’s love for animals, “Mushka” is set in Russia where it follows young Sarah who raises an orphaned Siberian tiger cub she finds in the woods. Mushka is a Russian term of endearment that means ‘sweetheart.’
After Deja left Disney, all he knew is that he wanted to direct a sound story, and that it would be about an interaction between a tiger and a young girl. He reached out to Michael McKinney who presented him with a screenplay that “read like a novel.”
As it was made during the pandemic, production was at his studio with a limited crew and remotely with freelancers.
To Deja’s surprise, his dear friend, Academy Award-winning composer Richard Sherman who was behind many of the iconic songs in “Mary Poppins” and Deja’s childhood favorite “The Jungle Book,” offered to contribute the main theme and a song that plays on the end credits, ‘Mushka’s Lullaby.’ Composer Fabrizio Mancinelli applied Sherman‘s musical theme throughout his score, recorded in Vienna with a 60-piece orchestra.
In a previous interview, Sherman, who has just turned 95, said: “I thought it was wonderful, a very moving story. It had a wonderful flavor to it, which set me off thinking about music, and I felt a theme coming out. And it really inspired me. I think all the best work is always done from an inspiration.”
“My childhood dream and professional life came full circle with ‘Mushka,’ says Deja who has also curated a coffee table tome on the making of “The Jungle Book,” the last animated feature Walt Disney worked on before his passing.
The 28-minute “Mushka” had its world premiere at the San Francisco Int’l Film Festival, followed by theAnimayofestival in the Canary Islands, Spain and the Palm Springs Int’l Short Fest.
It was produced by Deja and his partner Roger Viloria who also handled post production and digital compositing.
Meanwhile, Deja is working on a new short, still under wraps. And he hasn’t completely put off the idea of expanding “Mushka” into a full-length feature.
