The Lion King by Ruben Aquino

This one literally had my name on it. But first, the journey of discovery.

After I got the Pocahontas piece and was playing around with write up ideas in my head, I decided to re-watch the movie for additional inspiration. For some reason, I don’t know why (play your choice of mystery theme music here), I decided to watch the MAKING OF feature instead. It was an interesting enough documentary, with a lot of information I already knew. But when they got to the animators, that immediately got my attention. Especially as it led off with perhaps my favorite Disney animator, the legendary Glen Keane. I knew Glen was the supervising animator for the title character, but had gotten a bit fuzzy on the rest of the animation team. When they got to the character of Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan, I was thrilled to learn that the supervising animator was Filipino. Surprisingly, I was able to contain myself and actually finished watching the featurette and then even watched the whole film again. But as soon as the end title appeared, I was on my laptop doing a search for Ruben Aquino.

HIs list of credits is truly impressive. So many of the modern classics I love. Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Tarzan, and more. But perhaps his most high-profile assignment was on the blockbuster Lion King, as the supervising animator for the adult version of the title character, Simba. As a huge Disney fan, and fellow Flip, I could not have been more proud and more excited. Of course the Disney fan/collector in me was as equally excited, and I immediately wondered about the possibility of finding any work by Ruben that might be for sale. At this point, I didn’t even care what movie it was from. I just wanted something drawn by this amazing Filipino artist/animator.

You can probably guess what I did next. Yup, another internet search. This time, with the words FOR SALE typed in. When the images of the search results appeared, I swear I almost dropped my laptop. The very first thing I saw on the screen were the words “TO ERIC.” Are you kidding me????? OMFG! I took off my reading glasses, rubbed my eyes, wiped the glasses clean on my shirt and put them back on. And there it was again, “TO ERIC.” I looked up from my laptop, turned to my left and then my right, almost as if someone was playing a huge prank on me. Then I looked back down and clicked on the BUY button, as the biggest grin formed on my face. For some stupid reason, the chorus from that Bebe Rexha song, “Meant To Be” kept playing in my head. LOL!

Most of the time, collecting is just fun. But every once in a while, it’s a rock concert, fireworks show, and game-winning shot, all rolled into one! HELL YEAH!