If you own a copy of The Art of Ratatouille or if you’ve seen the end credits for the film, you should know about Dan Lee. He was a Canadian animator who worked at Pixar, and he is known for creating the character Nemo. Tragically, this talented artist’s life was cut short at the age of 35. He died of lung cancer, although he was a NON-SMOKER.
Scanning my Art of… books is a difficult task, so I took photos of some of Dan’s best drawings I wanted to share with you guys. I’m sorry if the photos are a bit blurry.
And this is my message to everyone. Please don’t smoke. Even if you live long as a smoker, you might do more damage to those surrounding you, and the consequences are totally unfair.
I had no idea who this person was until I got into this topic. Now I see that he was such a beautiful artist and a good guy. He’s in a better place now.
I also recall passing by the very last page at the end of the Art of Ratatouille book that credited Mr. Lee. I knew that he designed some of the characters in Ratatouille, but I didn’t realize that he contributed to other films such as Finding Nemo and the like…until now.
I remember in 2005 when I opened the San Francisco Chronicle in the obituary section to find an article all about Dan Lee. I had no idea that he worked on Ratatouille until I saw the “Art Of” book. He was an amazing artist and I’m glad he could use his life to share his talents through Pixar.
EDIT: I found the article, after a quick search on SFGate.com
His art looks incredible…It’s so sad when something like this happens to such a talented person, let alone such a young talented person! And the fact that he died of lung cancer, yet never even smoked…That’s just so unfair. RIP, Dan Lee. You’re dearly missed.
Even though it was a little late, it was nice of them to pay tribute to this truly great artist (and a fellow Canadian, eh!) with a dedication on Ratatouille (even if it was a small one, compared to the ones to Glenn McQueen and Joe Ranft). We’ll all miss your awesome work, Dan!
I met Dan in a backpackers in Seattle in November 2000. I had recently done some IT work for Aardman here in Bristol and we got talking about animation. When I met up with him later in the bay area and did some mountain biking, I noticed in his flat (which included lots of Aardman posters and merchandise) that he was drawing seahorses. A few years later I found out why, but typically modest, he never mentioned he created Nemo. We kept in email touch a few times over the following years and then lost contact. I hope I can find the drawing of him and his rat that he emailed one Christmas. Being in the UK, Ratatouille is not yet out, and, not being involved in animation any more I only heard about the film this morning. Pixar and Rats? I thought I bet Dan is involved - and so this evening looked on IMDB to see if he was credited. And then I found out the news. I’m lost for words. Why?
frstep - That’s wonderful that you got the chance to meet him in person, and it’s even more fantastic that you witnessed him sketching out character designs for Finding Nemo. Amazing…
