Richard Mithouard
- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Production Designer
Richard Mithouard, one of the kingpins of the excellent animation studio "La Fabrique" (Princes and Princesses (2000), Eleanor's Secret (2009) from 1985 on, was born in Bayonville-sur-Mad, a village 25 km from Metz. His father, a native of Lorraine, was a dredger-man on the river Moselle while his mother, of Italian origin, stayed at home where she was kept more than busy by the ten children she had to bring up, among whom... two pairs of twins.
The family was not rich enough to afford to let Richard continue his studies and nothing apparently predestined his future as a teacher, an artist, let alone a cartoon designer. His leaving school at 14 was in the nature of things considering his parents' station in life. That he afterwards found himself helping with farm work, working in the woods, or being a handy boy in a food store in an American base was also dictated by logic. But chance sometimes vies with social determinism and blossoms into good luck. The fact is that in the mart where he worked, Richard would take advantage of break times to indulge in his passion, drawing. Someone who happened to notice the quality of his work advised him to apply for the entrance exam of the Metz School of Applied Arts, which he did successfully. With the support of his mother and through working on weekends and during the holidays as a night watchman in a four star hotel, he managed to study for three years and graduate from the school with honors. Two more years and Mithouard obtained a state diploma allowing him to teach art in schools. He did the job for four years but resigned to devote all his time to his career, for he was first and foremost (and still is) an artist: engraving, organizing exhibitions as well as designing posters and stage sets for the Caveau des Trinitaires in Metz took all his time.
In the mid 1980's, luck struck again. Richard Mithouard was taking a vacation in the Cévennes where he met Jean-François Laguonie (the acclaimed director of the very odd Rowing Across the Atlantic (1978)) , the founder of "La Fabrique", an animation studio that would later become a very active production company. The two men got on well and Richard was hired as a layout artist, a job he was to do, for three decades, on many an animated film, short or long, whether designed for the big or the small screen. He also worked as character or background designer on several La Fabrique productions.
In a way, it can be wondered how come an artist of his quality decided to spend so much time and so many efforts drawing characters and sets for children's movies. The answer may lie in the following anecdote: a nine-year-old Richard got it into his head to amuse his brothers, sisters and friends. And what did he resort to to entertain them? Animation! Or at least something that came as close to it as could be. Courtesy of... a shoe-box, in the narrowest part of which he had cut a hole, of grease-proof paper on which he had drawn "stories" and of a flashlight lit placed at the bottom of the box. Scrolling down the images he had created one by one, he literally enchanted his siblings and pals on Thursday afternoons in the semi darkness of a barn. Blood would out!
These days, Richard Mithouard has said farewell to the monkeys and their castle, to princes and princesses and to the animals of Farthing Wood and gone back to his first passions, namely engraving, art drawing and exhibitions of his recent works.
Two careers, two lives for the price of one!