LOS ANGELES: Animator Mark Henn, who has helped breathe life into lovable characters like Jasmine from Aladdin and Ariel from The Little Mermaid since over last 30 years, says he is amazed by the growing popularity of the animation industry across the world.

Henn, who has worked as a supervising animator is films like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog, also said he would like to animate Indian elephants.

“Animation is all over the world now and it is amazing to see how it has exploded across the world. Recently, I have seen a lot of stuff and a lot of animated films coming out of China and India as well as from the studios of United States, Canada and Europe.

“Animation is alive and is all over the world,” Henn told IANS over a candid interaction at the D23 Expo 2015, which concluded last week in Anaheim.

Henn, whose liaison with The Walt Disney Company dates back to 1980s, also shared his fondness for Indian elephant, which entered into his heart at an young age straight from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a tale of adventurous encounters of a boy in an Indian forest.

“If I have to animate something from India then it will probably be an elephant. When I was a small kid I was enamoured with the elephants from The Jungle Book,” he added.

According to Henn, the magic of animation lies in detailing as he notes that each movement in the film is backed with a reason.

“The focus in terms of animation is on characters. It’s not about moving something just to move it. The movement has a reason based on what the characters are thinking and how they are feeling.

“And it’s responsibility of animators to work hard to make sure that the characters are believable and audience can identify with them,” said Henn, who has also worked on Disney’s classics like The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company and Enchanted.

For Henn, a good story and compelling characters are the basic ingredient

of an animated film as he said, “You have to find a good story and once you have a good story then you have to find talented animators, who will bring characters to life”.

“We learnt these things and are trying to pass on that to the next generation with our computer animation film,” he added.