Life and Career
Lima studied film and animation at the California Institute of the Arts, during the mid-80's. After graduation, he went to Taiwan for half a year to work on The Brave Little Toaster. Then he worked on The Chipmunk Adventure, where he met Glen Keane, one of many artists, who had left Disney after The Black Cauldron's box office failure. Keane persuaded Lima to apply at Disney, where he got a job, despite the fact that he was turned down three years earlier. Lima worked at Disney as character animator on the film Oliver & Company, as a character designer on The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and as a story editor for Aladdin. Wanting to direct, he left Disney for Hyperion Pictures, where he worked on TV series Itsy Bitsy Spider and films such as Bébé's Kids.
Lima finally got his opportunity to direct at Disney, where he directed two animated films, A Goofy Movie, and Tarzan. Wanting to direct live-action films, Lima once again left Disney, but soon returned. Thanks to Glenn Close, who voiced a character in Tarzan, Lima was offered to direct her on 102 Dalmatians, which had just lost its director. After directing his first live action film, he went on to direct two TV films starring Julie Andrews, Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. Since 2000, Lima had wanted to make the film Enchanted, but he was repeatedly turned down because of the script being too dark, and that he was not "funny enough to do this film". Toned down script finally got green-lit, and in 2007 Enchanted was released to a great critical reception.
Since directing Enchanted, Lima has been set to direct several projects including a live-action feature adaptation of the classic tale of Tom Thumb entitled Thumb, a film based on the popular Candy Land board game, a remake of the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, a comedy film starring Hugh Jackman titled Avon Man, and an untitled live-action/CG film for Sony Pictures Animation. In July 2011, DreamWorks Animation announced that Lima will direct Monkeys of Mumbai, a Bollywood-style animated musical adventure inspired by the Indian epic tale Ramayana, and told through the point of view of its monkeys. A. R. Rahman is composing the music and Stephen Schwartz is writing the lyrics for the film. In September 2012, it was announced that the film with a working title Mumbai Musical will be released on December 19, 2015.
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