Brian Pimental
Graduating class: 1982
Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2017
Hall of Fame Category: Lifetime Achievement
This year’s inductee as a Lifetime Achiever is Brian Pimental. Brian is being honored in recognition of his lifelong achievements as an artist, director and screenwriter of animated films including his outstanding work in many notable Disney productions.
Brian knew from an early age that he wanted to pursue the arts as a career and was particularly drawn to the Disney characters. His 7th grade Art Teacher Susan Hinchliffe at Ford Junior High School in Acushnet was the one who pointed him towards the California Institute of the Arts because of that school’s direct connection to the Disney Co. Brian now had a goal attached to his dream.
Brian graduated from Fairhaven High School in 1982, joining his parents Dennis and Kathy (Lewis) Pimental ’61 as F.H.S. alums, and then set out to the west coast to pursue his dream. The student films that Brian created at Cal Arts caught the attention of Disney and earned him his first professional job working on Disney’s Sport Goofy and later on Universal’s An American Tail while he was still an undergraduate student. After four years of intense study and training Brian earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1986, and was then hired full-time by Disney to work as an animator on Oliver and Co. and Little Mermaid.
But Brian’s real passion was for story, and after a great deal of hard work and determination he was promoted to a Story Artist position on Beauty and the Beast for which he created the “Be Our Guest” sequence as well as the “Human Again” sequence, the latter of which was featured in both the Broadway play and the extended version of the film. He also worked as a Story Artist on Aladdin. Brian went on to become one of the screenwriters on A Goofy Movie and he was also the Head of Story and earned his first ASIFA Award nomination for his storyboarding on this film. His second nomination was for the film Tarzan, for which he once again led the story team as Head of Story.
Brian’s directorial debut came on Bambi II, which went on to win the ASIFA award for best non-theatrical feature. He conceived the original story, co-wrote much of the screenplay and created the voices for the grouchy Porcupine and a neurotic Groundhog in that film. Most recently Brian served as the Head of Story for the third time on Dreamwork’s Monkeys of Mumbai. He is still chasing his dream that he first had back at Ford Junior High and Fairhaven High School. He is currently working independently as a director/writer of animated films, and resides in West Hollywood, California.