David Bowers (director)
Encyclopedia
David Bowers is an animator and film director originally from Stockport
, Greater Manchester
in the UK.
at West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, but left during the first year to work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit
as an inbetweener under director Richard Williams.
and Duckula before moving to London to work for Steven Spielberg
's Amblimation studio. He worked as an animator on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
before going freelance to work on advertisments and features. Bowers later returned to Amblimation to work on early story development and as a Supervising Animator on Balto
.
With the founding of DreamWorks SKG, Bowers moved to Los Angeles
to work as a story artist on The Prince of Egypt
and The Road to El Dorado
. It was during this period that he met Aardman's Nick Park
and Peter Lord
, who asked him to help storyboard Aardman’s first feature-length film, the critically acclaimed Chicken Run
. He was ultimately credited as Storyboard Supervisor.
After Chicken Run, Bowers moved between Los Angeles and Bristol
, United Kingdom
, working on several DreamWorks
and Aardman projects, including the hit CG animated comedy Shark Tale
and the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
before directing his first feature Flushed Away
with Sam Fell
.
He directed a big-screen adaptation
of Osamu Tezuka's classic Astro Boy for Imagi Animation Studios
and Summit Entertainment
that was released in 2009.
Bowers directed Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
, his first live-action film, which was released in cinemas on 25 March 2011.
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
in the UK.
Early life
Bowers studied animationAnimation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
at West Surrey College of Art and Design in Farnham, but left during the first year to work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
as an inbetweener under director Richard Williams.
Career
After Roger Rabbit, Bowers worked at Cosgrove Hall on the cult-favourite television shows Danger MouseDanger Mouse
Brian Joseph Burton , better known by his stage name Danger Mouse, is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He came to prominence in 2004 when he released The Grey Album, which combined vocal performances from Jay-Z's The Black Album with instrumentals from The Beatles' White Album.He...
and Duckula before moving to London to work for Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Amblimation studio. He worked as an animator on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is a 1991 American animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio and released by Universal Pictures. It is the sequel to An American Tail, and the fourth installment in terms of the series' fictional chronology...
before going freelance to work on advertisments and features. Bowers later returned to Amblimation to work on early story development and as a Supervising Animator on Balto
Balto (film)
Balto is a 1995 American animated comedy-drama film directed by Simon Wells and produced by Amblimation, and the first of the overall trilogy. The film is based on a true story about the dog of the same name who helped save children from the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 serum run to Nome...
.
With the founding of DreamWorks SKG, Bowers moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to work as a story artist on The Prince of Egypt
The Prince of Egypt
The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated musical drama film and the first traditionally animated film produced and released by DreamWorks Animation. The film is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the...
and The Road to El Dorado
The Road to El Dorado
The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 American animated adventure comedy film by DreamWorks. The soundtrack features songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, the music team from Disney's The Lion King....
. It was during this period that he met Aardman's Nick Park
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan "Nick" Park, CBE is an English filmmaker of stop motion animation best known as the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep....
and Peter Lord
Peter Lord
Peter Lord CBE is a British film producer, director and co-founder of the Academy award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring plasticine duo Wallace & Gromit.-Biography:In cooperation with David...
, who asked him to help storyboard Aardman’s first feature-length film, the critically acclaimed Chicken Run
Chicken Run
Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...
. He was ultimately credited as Storyboard Supervisor.
After Chicken Run, Bowers moved between Los Angeles and Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, working on several DreamWorks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
and Aardman projects, including the hit CG animated comedy Shark Tale
Shark Tale
Shark Tale is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. In the story, a young fish named Oscar falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favour with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing...
and the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 British clay-mation animated comedy horror film, the first feature-length Wallace and Gromit film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation and Aardman Animations, and released by DreamWorksPictures...
before directing his first feature Flushed Away
Flushed Away
Flushed Away is a 2006 computer animated British film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. It is a partnership between Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame, and DreamWorks Animation, and is Aardman's first completely computer-animated feature as opposed to the usual stop-motion.The film...
with Sam Fell
Sam Fell
Sam Fell is a British film director, screenwriter, voice actor and animator.Sam started his career as director on the short film The Big Cheese for 3 Peach Animation...
.
He directed a big-screen adaptation
Astro Boy (film)
Astro Boy, also called in Japan, is a 2009 computer-animated film loosely based on the long-running Japanese series of the same name by Osamu Tezuka. It was produced by Imagi Animation Studios, the animation production company of TMNT. The studio announced the project in September 2006...
of Osamu Tezuka's classic Astro Boy for Imagi Animation Studios
Imagi Animation Studios
Imagi Animation Studios is an animation studio that was established in 2000 by Imagi International Holdings Limited , a listed company on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.-Background:...
and Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment LLC is an independent film studio headquartered in Santa Monica, California with international offices in London.-History:...
that was released in 2009.
Bowers directed Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 comedy film based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name. The film stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles...
, his first live-action film, which was released in cinemas on 25 March 2011.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit Who Framed Roger Rabbit Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters... |
Inbetween artist |
| 1989 | Count Duckula Count Duckula Count Duckula is a British animated television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall, and a spin-off from DangerMouse, a show in which the Count Duckula character was a recurring villain. The series first aired on September 6, 1988 and was produced by Thames Television for 3 seasons and... |
Animator (one episode) |
| 1991 | An American Tail: Fievel Goes West An American Tail: Fievel Goes West An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is a 1991 American animated film produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio and released by Universal Pictures. It is the sequel to An American Tail, and the fourth installment in terms of the series' fictional chronology... |
Animator |
| 1992 | Danger Mouse | Animator (four episodes) |
| 1992 | FernGully: The Last Rainforest FernGully: The Last Rainforest FernGully: The Last Rainforest is a 1992 Australian-American animated film directed by Bill Kroyer, produced by Peter Faiman and Wayne Young, and written by Jim Cox based on a book of the same name by Diana Young. It is a film with a strong environmental theme... |
Animator |
| 1993 | We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (film) We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story is a 1993 American animated film, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio, distributed by Universal Pictures, and originally released to theaters on November 24, 1993 for the United States. It was rated G by the MPAA... |
Animator |
| 1995 | Balto Balto (film) Balto is a 1995 American animated comedy-drama film directed by Simon Wells and produced by Amblimation, and the first of the overall trilogy. The film is based on a true story about the dog of the same name who helped save children from the diphtheria epidemic in the 1925 serum run to Nome... |
Storyboard artist, supervising animator: "Rosy" |
| 1998 | The Prince of Egypt The Prince of Egypt The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated musical drama film and the first traditionally animated film produced and released by DreamWorks Animation. The film is an adaptation of the Book of Exodus and follows the life of Moses from being a prince of Egypt to his ultimate destiny to lead the... |
Storyboard artist |
| 2000 | Chicken Run Chicken Run Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films... |
Storyboard artist |
| 2000 | The Road to El Dorado The Road to El Dorado The Road to El Dorado is a 2000 American animated adventure comedy film by DreamWorks. The soundtrack features songs by Elton John and Tim Rice, the music team from Disney's The Lion King.... |
Storyboard artist |
| 2004 | Shark Tale Shark Tale Shark Tale is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation. In the story, a young fish named Oscar falsely claims to have killed the son of a shark mob boss to win favour with the mob boss' enemies and advance his own community standing... |
Story artist |
| 2005 | Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit | Senior storyboard artist |
| 2006 | Flushed Away Flushed Away Flushed Away is a 2006 computer animated British film directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell. It is a partnership between Aardman Animations of Wallace and Gromit fame, and DreamWorks Animation, and is Aardman's first completely computer-animated feature as opposed to the usual stop-motion.The film... |
Director, screenplay, additional voices |
| 2009 | Astro Boy Astro Boy (film) Astro Boy, also called in Japan, is a 2009 computer-animated film loosely based on the long-running Japanese series of the same name by Osamu Tezuka. It was produced by Imagi Animation Studios, the animation production company of TMNT. The studio announced the project in September 2006... |
Director, writer, voice of Mike The Fridge |
| 2010 | The RRF in New Recruit | Director, voice of Mike The Fridge (short film) |
| Astro Boy vs. The Junkyard Pirates | Director (short film) | |
| 2011 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (film) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is a 2011 comedy film based on Jeff Kinney's book of the same name. The film stars Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick. Robert Capron, Rachael Harris, Steve Zahn, and Peyton List also have prominent roles... |
Director |
| 2012 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (film) Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days is an upcoming comedy film directed by David Bowers from a screenplay by Wallace Wolodarsky and Maya Forbes. It stars Zachary Gordon and Steve Zahn. It is the third film in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid film series and is based on the third and fourth book in the series,... |