--- name: "Aaron Blaise" canonical: "https://film.one/person/aaron-blaise" fi1m_id: "aaron-blaise" imdb_id: "nm0086431" tmdb_id: 61952 wikidata_id: "Q22115062" roles: ["Animation","Director"] born: "17 February 1968" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 74 average_over: 4 updated: "2026-10-05T03:04:40.461206+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Aaron Blaise ## Identity Aaron Blaise - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/aaron-blaise - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** aaron-blaise - **IMDb ID:** nm0086431 - **TMDB ID:** 61952 - **Wikidata ID:** Q22115062 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Blaise, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22115062, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0086431/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/61952 Animation and director. Born 17 February 1968 in Burlington, Vermont, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Animation, Director - **Born:** 17 February 1968, Burlington, Vermont, USA - **Active:** 1992–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 1 directing, 4 crew - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 70 (3), 2000s 56 (1), 2020s 84 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 74 to 70 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Genres:** Adventure 4, Animation 4, Family 4, Fantasy 2, Romance 2 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $1,156m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Blaise, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q22115062, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0086431/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/61952 ## Streaming the US now - **Disney+:** [*Brother Bear*](https://film.one/film/brother-bear.md) (56) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Aaron Blaise > Aaron Blaise gives drawn animals believable movement and feeling. We respect his care, though *Brother Bear* shows how easily a director's wish to teach understanding can get in the way of an interesting story. In *Brother Bear* (2003), humans can look monstrous when a bear does the looking. That reversal gives Aaron Blaise and co-director Robert Walker a promising way to make a familiar plea for understanding feel uncomfortable. We were touched by Joaquin Phoenix's warmth and the expressive drawing, even when the lesson had become obvious. The frustration is how often the film reassures us that understanding others is good, rather than making that change of mind difficult. His earlier work helps explain where that feeling comes from. As supervising animator on *Aladdin* (1992) and *The Lion King* (1994), Blaise worked on Rajah and young Nala respectively. His approach starts with animal anatomy and observed behaviour, and places particular weight on what a character is thinking or feeling. Those are useful instincts for a director: an audience needs to believe in the creature before being asked to care about it. *Brother Bear* was his feature directorial debut. The film's expressive hand-drawn animation is its strongest reason to stay, but the familiar story keeps it from becoming absorbing. Blaise and Walker have an idea that could accommodate humour, unease and a proper reconsideration of human behaviour. Too often they settle for restating the virtue of sympathy, while the over-insistent songs leave too little room for the pictures to work. We can admire the care in the drawing without recommending the whole film on the strength of it. With *Snow Bear* (2025), Blaise returned to directing in a smaller form: an eleven-minute, wordless, hand-drawn short about loneliness and connection. He wrote, directed and animated it himself, making around 11,000 drawings over three years. That move makes sense for an artist so interested in the feeling carried by an animal's movement. A wordless short puts more responsibility on the drawing and removes the option of spelling out every lesson in dialogue. That is the direction we would like to see him pursue, provided the animals are allowed to do more than illustrate good advice. ## Biography Aaron Blaise is an American animator, film director, painter and art instructor. Born on 17 February 1968 in Burlington, Vermont, he graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in 1989. He worked as an animator and supervising animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios on films including *Beauty and the Beast* (1991), *Aladdin* (1992), *The Lion King* (1994), *Pocahontas* (1995) and *Mulan* (1998). From 1997 he served as a director for twelve years, co-directing *Brother Bear* (2003) with Robert Walker; the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. After leaving Disney he founded the online art school Creature Art Teacher and has directed short films including *Snow Bear* (2025). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) ### Directed (1) - *Brother Bear* (2003), Fi1m 56, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/brother-bear.md) ### Crew (4) — the average rests on these - *Wolfwalkers* (2020), Fi1m 84, Concept Artist — [page](https://film.one/film/wolfwalkers.md) - *Mulan* (1998), Fi1m 74, Supervising Animator — [page](https://film.one/film/mulan.md) - *Pocahontas* (1995), Fi1m 54, Animation — [page](https://film.one/film/pocahontas.md) - *Aladdin* (1992), Fi1m 82, Animation — [page](https://film.one/film/aladdin.md) ## Complete filmography (16) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Snow Bear* (2024), Director, Writer, Editor, Storyboard, Character Designer, Animation, Background Designer, Story - *Beyond The Glass: The WDW Animation Building* (2024), Actor - *Wolfwalkers* (2020), Concept Artist — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/wolfwalkers.md) - *Mum* (2017), as Painter - *Brother Bear* (2003), Director — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/brother-bear.md) - *How to Haunt a House* (1999), Director - *Mulan* (1998), Supervising Animator — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/mulan.md) - *Pocahontas* (1995), Animation — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/pocahontas.md) - *The Lion King* (1994), Supervising Animator — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-lion-king.md) - *Trail Mix-Up* (1993), Animation - *Aladdin* (1992), Animation — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/aladdin.md) - *Beauty and the Beast* (1991), Animation — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/beauty-and-the-beast.md) - *The Rescuers Down Under* (1990), Animation - *The Prince and the Pauper* (1990), Animation - *Roller Coaster Rabbit* (1990), Animation - *The Hidden*, Director ## Gallery - ![Aaron Blaise](https://film.one/media/person/399865/gallery-e4bad94f67d9.jpg) Aaron Blaise — CaseyJNewell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Aaron_Blaise_at_Animation_Y%27all_2026-10.jpg/1280px-Aaron_Blaise_at_Animation_Y%27all_2026-10.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Aaron Blaise](https://film.one/media/person/399865/gallery-c8a837cb86c5.jpg) Aaron Blaise — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 2004: Best Animated Feature (nominated), for *Brother Bear* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/aaron-blaise