Will Finn, John Sanford

Will Finn was born in Geneva, New York, Finn studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in the 70s. There he met animation legend Eric Larson, who mentored him when he joined Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1979 as an animation trainee on THE FOX AND THE HOUND. Following that role, he left to serve as an animator and story artist for THE SECRET OF NIMH and for SPACE ACE AND DRAGON’S LAIR with the Don Bluth Production. He returned to Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1986 as an animator on OLIVER & COMPANY, THE LITTLE MERMAID, THE RESCUES DOWN UNDER and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, where he was awarded his first character lead role with the clock, Cogsworth. His next character was the parrot, Lago, in ALADDIN. Finn then turned his attention to story and joined the story department of POCAHONTAS. His success as a story artist led to his next role as head of the story department for THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. He makes his feature film directing debut on HOME ON THE RANGE.
John Sanford was born in Denver, after graduating in 1986, he attended the Rocky Mountain School of Art and Design. He went on to study animation at CalArts (The California Institute of the Arts) from 1990-93. Sanford’s student film caught the attention of Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale (the directors of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), who hired him as a story trainee at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Within a year, he was promoted to story artist on THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. This was followed by a stint on MULAN, and a promotion to head of story on ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. He worked on the story team for LILO & STITCH, before directing his first film HOME ON THE RANGE.

Directors’ statement

“Our goal with this film was to make it a lot of fun for ourselves and for the audience. When we came on board, we had a free hand. We knew we wanted to make un upside-down western where the cows are the heroes instead of the cowboys”.
John Sanford

“The good news was we could make it our own, in any shape or form we wanted. The bad news was we had to move the project along quickly. It was like jumping on a moving train”.
Will Finn