Jim Kammerud

Like so many kids, Jim Kammerud grew up as an avid consumer of cartoons -- Disney's 1967 animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" made a particularly strong impression on him. During his undergraduate years at Ohio State University in the mid-1980s, Kammerud was a cartoonist for the student newspaper. It was there that he met another aspiring animator, Jeff Smith. Following graduation, the two joined forces and created the Character Builders animation studio. Through that enterprise, Kammerud became involved with some of the most popular cartoons of the é90s, including "Rover Dangerfield" and "Bebe's Kids," for which he was both character animator and storyboard artist. For "Space Jam," the 1996 blockbuster blend of Michael Jordan and a host of cartoon characters, Kammerud was supervising animator. Kammerud's association with the Walt Disney Company began when he worked on "Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World." That would lead to a series of co-directing assignments for other sequels to established Disney hits, starting with 2000's "The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea." "The Fox and the Hound 2" in 2006 was Kammerud's first solo directing effort. Kammerud played a major role in the story development of the movies he has produced and/or directed; he received screenplay credit for the sequels to both "Tarzan" and "101 Dalmatians."