Ruben A. Aquino

Born: Ruben Azama Aquin
Birthday: December 18, 1953
Location: Okinawa, Japan
Alma mater: University of Pennsylvania
Occupation: Animator
Years active: 1975–present

Ruben began as a as a graphic artist in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1975 to 1979. His first job in animation was as a trainee for Farmhouse Films. Aquino moved to Los Angeles in 1980, working for Hanna-Barbera in visual development, character design, and layout duties, but was laid off after a year.

Not long after, Aquino earned a place in Walt Disney Feature Animation’s clean-up training program. Upon completion, he animated a 30-second test of Fflewddur Fflam in “The Black Cauldron,” resulting in his promotion to animating assistant.

Ruben worked at Disney until 2013 on such characters as Maurice in “Beauty and the Beast,” the adult Simba for “The Lion King,” Chief Powhatan in “Pocahontas,” both Li Shang and Fa Li in “Mulan,” Pleakly and David Kawena in “Lilo & Stitch,” Denahi in “Brother Bear,” Mildred and Mr. Willerstein for “Meet the Robinsons,” and Eudora and James in “The Princess and the Frog.”

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Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee has been creating animated cartoons online since 1999/2000 for his website flashcartoons.org. Many cartoons on the site have gained viral video status reaching millions of viewers online. In 2009, Lavalle started learning hand drawn animation from Don Bluth in his animation classes, as well as attending his Masterclasses in Arizona. He has also personally studied animation and visual effects from Veteran Disney animators in Orlando, FL.

Lavalle is widely known in the animation industry as the creator of the TraditionalAnimation.com website. After seeing that most animation sites were about all types of animation, not any specific to classical hand drawn animation, Lavalle knew Traditional Animation needed to be represented online. TraditionalAnimation.com has become the leading website and social media account for all things 2D. The website served as inspiration for “The Traditional Animation Show” in which Lavalle was both producer and host.

His partnership with Don Bluth began when he championed the Dragon's Lair Indiegogo campaign as lead project manager, editor, voice actor and in-betweener. The campaign reached $730,000 dollars to produce a 7-minute pitch video. In 2017, Lavalle brought the idea of creating a school to Don Bluth, and Don Bluth University was born. After a decade of learning from Don Bluth and working together on multiple pitches and business ventures, Lavalle accepted the position as Vice President of Don Bluth's new company Don Bluth Studios.

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