Very sad this morning to hear of the unexpected/sudden death of Philippe Vidal-Dumas (aka Philippe Vidal) at the age of 64. He was a giant in the French animation industry and a very nice, talented man who I had the honor of working with on five seasons of The Garfield Show. I was the Supervising Producer and I do not know what that title meant but I wrote most of the episodes, story-edited those by other writers, and cast and directed the American voice tracks.
Philippe was the Director and I know what that meant: He supervised and often drew and designed everything that made it into a TV series after it left me. I was delighted with just about everything that resulted and the few times I wasn't delighted were — I learned — instances where Philippe fought for something and lost. He was very good at his job.
The producers of the show kept trying to get me to fly over to France where all the heavy lifting was done and I kept refusing. But Philippe would come over every year and we'd hook up in Jim Davis's monster of a studio which was then in Muncie, Indiana. The show was done in such harmony that those few hours each year were all we needed. I could suggest something in one sentence and Philippe completely understood and made it work.
The first time we convened there, I had my dear friend Carolyn with me. Philippe was (of course) completely charming towards her and over a dinner meeting, included her in the discussion. Somehow — I forget how — mention of the Disney film Pinocchio came up and he turned to her and said, "I consider that the greatest animated film ever made." To which she replied, "Yes…and my father worked on it." I jumped in to explain that her father was the great Walt Kelly and he'd been one of the key animators on Pinocchio.
To Philippe, that was like hearing that he was in the presence of the daughter of some guy who'd helped Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I will always remember his joy and how he pumped Carolyn for anything she could tell him about her father. Philippe was truly a lover of great cartooning and animation…and you could tell that by the way he approached every single job he did in those art forms. We wanted to work together again on something and I am very, very sorry that will never happen.