A Disney Animator Shares Her Journey Working For The Prestigious Animation Studio

Since she was three years old, Kira Lehtomaki has known that she wanted to be an animator at Walt DisneyDIS
Animation Studios. Through hard work, and a bit of a strange path, Lehtomaki made that dream a reality and has worked at the animation studio for a little over 15 years now, working on beloved films like Tangled, Zootopia, and Ralph Breaks the Internet.

“I came in at the kind of entry-level, and I’ve been able to grow over my career. Right now I’m an animation supervisor, but I’ve been head of animation on a couple of films. I’ve just had a magical journey,” says Lehtomaki.

When it comes to milestones in her career, one that stands out to Lehtomaki was working on Tangled, which was the first film where she was a credited animator. “Before [Tangled] I worked on Bolt as a fix animator, but I was just out of the training program, but on Tangled I got to be a full-fledged animator,” she says.

Tangled follows the journey of Rapunzel, a princess who’s stolen at birth because of the magical properties that her hair possesses, as she breaks free from her tower and lives out her dreams. Similar to Rapunzel seeking to see dreams come to life, Lehtomaki fulfilled one of her own dreams while working on this movie. “I got to work with Glen Keane, who was one of my heroes. Growing up I always admired his work and I felt like everything had aligned and all of my dreams were coming true in that moment,” says Lehtomaki.

While working on Ralph Breaks the Internet, Lehtomaki got to meet another one of her childhood heroes, Jodi Benson, who is the voice actress for Ariel from The Little Mermaid. “[On] Ralph Breaks the Internet, I got to work on the princess scene and I got to meet Jodi Benson,” she says.

For Lehtomaki, Ariel and Aurora, the latter of which is from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, are the characters that made her want to be an animator. “So here I was, head of animation on Ralph Breaks the Internet, and I was getting to not only animate these characters but meet Jodi Benson,” she explains.

The Disney fan inside of Lehtomaki is quite evident as she shares what it’s like to walk into the studio every day and see legendary Disney animators and directors at their desks working, knowing that she is also working on films that will shape the childhood of kids from around the world.

“Every day I walk into my office, [which] I share with the other supervisors, and we’re all working on Wish, which is coming out this Thanksgiving. And I walk past Eric Goldberg’s office, [and think] this is magical,” says Lehtomaki. Goldberg is most well known for his work on Genie from the animated feature Aladdin and Phil from Hercules.

Like most animators, Lehtomaki is inspired by those who have come before her. “One of the very first women that I was aware of and felt like I had a special connection with was Retta Scott,” she says. Scott was the first female animator at the company and received screen credit for Bambi, which was released in 1942.

Another touchstone moment for Lehtomaki happened while she was visiting Walt Disney World as a kid. “At that time, they had a Florida studio at MGM Studios, now [Disney’s] Hollywood Studios. At the park, you would walk through and take a tour to look into the glass of Disney animators working, and like every good tour, it always ended up in the gift shop,” she explains. That gift shop is where Lehtomaki bought the book The Illusion of Life by legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston that continued to spur her onward to work as an animator.

Another book that has brought a full circle moment for Lehtomaki is Disney’s Art of Animation by Bob Thomas, where Lisa Keene is profiled. “Lisa supervised the backgrounds on Beauty and the Beast, which I was just so enthralled with. And even though she wasn’t an animator, I just saw her picture and I saw the work she was doing and the excellence that was there,” she says.

Because of Keene, Lehtomaki saw someone like her working in a job that she wanted. “It is important to see people that you feel like some sort of kinship with. It was something where I was like, oh here’s this successful woman that is working at Disney Animation. I want to be like her,” Lehtomaki explains.

When Lehtomaki started as a trainee at Disney, she and her fellow cohorts would take drawing classes. “One of our very first classes was a meet-and-greet with Lisa, and she couldn’t have been lovelier. And fast forward 15 years, and now we’re working together,” Lehtomaki says.

In Lehtomaki’s eyes, it’s not just the animators and behind-the-scenes women like Disney legends Mary Blair and Alice Davis that have shaped the company, but it’s also the characters that people connect with through a screen. “Cinderella, Snow White, The Little Mermaid, a lot of these films are being driven by these leading ladies. They have different personalities, but there’s always something that we can see ourselves in,” explains Lehtomaki.

For her, seeing and interacting with Disney fans is a highlight. At recent D23 expos, Lehtomaki has had the opportunity to meet fans who have watched movies that she’s worked on. “I see these little girls or boys come up and they’re dressed as their favorite character, or even adults come up and they’re in tears sometimes because such and such movie meant so much to them,” she says.

When a young fan asks her for advice about how to get into animation, Lehtomaki says there are two things to always remember. “Don’t be discouraged. Sometimes the path that you think will lead you to your dream is not the path that will lead you to your dream. So take advantage of every situation that you’re in,” she says.

The other big piece of advice she has for young animators is to find someone that already has the job that you want, and “get them to give you feedback on work.” “None of us do this on our own. We’re all striving to make the best movie and the best piece of art that we can. Having somebody that you trust that is in the position that you want to be in to give you advice and critique your work is really, really important,” she says.

As she continues to work on Wish, Disney’s animated feature for its 100-year anniversary, Lehtomaki laments, “What an honor and privilege it is to work on things that have that kind of impact on people’s lives.”