James Baxter (animator)

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James Baxter is a British character animator. He was first known for his work on several Walt Disney Animation Studios films, including various characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, Rafiki in The Lion King, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

After The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Baxter moved over to DreamWorks Animation working on films such as The Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Shrek 2, and Madagascar. Early in 2005, Baxter left DreamWorks and set out on his own as an independent animator. He became the head of his own studio, James Baxter Animation in Pasadena, California where he has directed the animation for the 2007 film Enchanted and the opening credits to DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda. In 2008, Baxter closed his studio and returned to DreamWorks as a supervising animator. While at DreamWorks, Baxter worked on films including Monsters vs. Aliens, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Croods. In 2017, Baxter left DreamWorks once again and went to work for Netflix.