James Baxter (born in May of 1967 in Bristol, England) is a character animator well known for his contribution to the animation of several Disney works, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lion King (1994), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Following Hunchback, he moved to DreamWorks Animation, working on several films there such as The Prince of Egypt and The Road to El Dorado. After a short period of working at his own animation company, James Baxter Animation, he returned to DreamWorks as a supervising animator and has been there ever since.
If you are looking for the Adventure Time character named James Baxter the Horse (who this James Baxter animated and voiced) or the episode introducing him, please see here or here.
Works James Baxter has contributed to include:
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (also did work on a short based on the film, Tummy Trouble)
- The Little Mermaid (1989) (King Triton)
- DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
- The Rescuers Down Under
- Beauty and the Beast (Belle)
- The Lion King (1994) (Rafiki)
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Quasimodo)
- The Prince of Egypt
- The Road to El Dorado
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
- Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
- Shrek 2
- Madagascar
- Curious George (2006)
- Enchanted (supervising animator)
- Kung Fu Panda
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
- Gravity Falls (animated the opening sequence and the Pterodactyl from "Land Before Swine")
- The Croods
- Adventure Time (animated and voiced James Baxter the Horse in "James Baxter the Horse" and "Horse and Ball")
- How to Train Your Dragon 2
- Regular Show (animated a scene in "A Regular Epic Final Battle")
- Samurai Jack (animated a scene in "Episode XCV")
- Mary Poppins Returns (animator)
- Steven Universe (animated a scene in "Change Your Mind")
Tropes associated with his work
- Animation Bump: Scenes and characters animated by James Baxter are known for being ridiculously fluid and smooth, even within works with an already high frame rate.
- Signature Style: The aforementioned incredibly fluid movements, but also the 'camera' rotating around characters often during the ridiculously smooth movements and with little to no CG assistance.
- You know that ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast where the camera pans and tilts around Belle and the Beast? Yeah, this guy animated that. By hand.
