Richard "Rick" Rich (June 15, 1951-) is an American animator and director best known as the creator of The Swan Princess and the director of the Disney Cult Classic, The Black Cauldron. More recently, he produced Alpha and Omega.
Though he never became particularly famous, he is notable for being the youngest director in Disney history, having made The Fox and the Hound when he was less than 30 years old. He is also one of the few animators in the industry without any formal schooling on the subject, instead having a degree in Musical Theater. He is also a close friend of Don Bluth, having worked as his assistant during production of The Rescuers.
Not to be confused with Richie Rich.
Filmography
- Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974): Assistant Director
- The Rescuers (1977): Assistant Director
- Pete's Dragon (1977): Assistant Director
- The Small One (1978): Assistant Director and Songwriter
- The Fox and the Hound (1981)
- The Black Cauldron (1985)
- Animated Stories from the Book of Mormon (1987-1992) - 12 episodes
- Animated Stories from Church History (1988) - One episode
- Animated Stories from the New Testament (1987-2005) - 24 episodes
- Animated Stories from the Bible (1992-1995) - 12 episodes
- Animated Hero Classics (1991-2005) - 20 episodes
- The Swan Princess (1994)
- The Swan Princess: Escape from Castle Mountain (1997)
- The Swan Princess: The Mystery of the Enchanted Kingdom (1998)
- The Swan Princess Christmas (2012)
- The Swan Princess: A Royal Family Tale (2014)
- The Swan Princess: Princess Tomorrow, Pirate Today (2016)
- The Swan Princess: Royally Undercover (2017)
- The Swan Princess: A Royal Myztery (2018)
- The Swan Princess: Kingdom of Music (2019)
- The Swan Princess: A Royal Wedding (2020)
- The King and I (1999)
- The Scarecrow (2000)
- The Trumpet of the Swan (2001)
- Muhammad: The Last Prophet (2002)
- Animated Stories of Islam (2002) - Three episodes
- Kids' Ten Commandments (2003) - Five episodes
- Arthur's Missing Pal (2006): Producer and Art Director (Yes, really.)
- Happily N'ever After 2: Snow White: Another Bite at the Apple (2009): Producer only
- Alpha and Omega (2010): Producer only
- Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure (2013)
- Alpha and Omega 3: The Great Wolf Games (2014)
- Alpha and Omega: The Legend of the Saw Tooth Cave (2014)
- Alpha and Omega: Family Vacation (2015)
- The Little Engine That Could (2011): Producer only
Tropes Involving Richard Rich:
- Animated Musical: His favorite type of work, considering his extensive background in musical theater.
- Creator Backlash: He is not fond of Swan Princess 3 (possibly to the point of Canon Discontinuity) and avoids talking about The Black Cauldron.
- Creator Killer:
- The Black Cauldron did so badly that Rich was fired from Disney and had to start his own animation studio to stay in business.
- The critical and financial failure of The King and I, as well as the Rodgers And Hammerstein estate barring any additional animated adaptations of their works, effectively ended any chances of Rich being able to make a name out of being a master animator.
- Doing It for the Art: His claimed reason for why he keeps making Swan Princess sequels; he just loves writing stories about Odette and Derek.
- Only Six Faces: The religious-themed video series produced by his studio post-The Swan Princess feature characters that are almost visual clones of that movie's characters.
- Promoted Fanboy: He wanted to help write songs for animated musicals since he was a kid. He's made a career directing them.
- Talking Animal: Chances are, if he's involved with a movie there's going to be at least one of these.
- Orson Scott Card worked with Richard Rich on a few of the religious animation videos he made (aimed at the Mormon market). Though there were no talking animals in those films, Card still complains that Richard Rich wanted them and told Card to include them in the films.
