Lessons from “Quest For Camelot”: 1 Nov 2025

Gary Oldman: The Voice of “Ruber”

Gary Oldman

One of the most memorable parts of the production was working with Gary Oldman, who was voice of the villain, Ruber.

As animators, we share our performance with the actor who delivers the lines – and their job comes first.  Gary Oldman‘s vocal performance was full of energy, precision, and menace.

As the lead animator on Ruber my role was to capture Oldman’s performance on screen, and I was invited to attend the recording sessions, and was able to draw Oldman acting out his lines.

I filled a sketch book with scribbles; later on I was able to use these sketches as thumbnails for the animation of Ruber, getting Oldman’s performance organically into the animation on screen.

“I’m so glad you noticed” – The Ruber Twitch

Creating a Memorable Character
Quest for Camelot taught me the importance of collaboration between actor, director, and animator to create a memorable character.

When all three align — the voice, the vision, and the performance — the character comes alive.

It was also a lesson in how much the success of a scene depends on listening: to the director, to the audio track, and to the story itself.

“The Ruber strut”

One important element of Ruber’s character was his walk. How would he move? And what would his walk tell us about him?

The answer I came up with was a kind of arrogant bar room strut, a peacock walk with rolling shoulders and a head wobble.

Ruber was a villain completely convinced of his own importance, chest puffed out and walking like a self-important cockerel in a henhouse.

I had an idea that Ruber’s insanity might be exposed by a nervous twitch in his eyes.

For this I was inspired by the character of the police chief played by Herbert Lom in Blake Edwards classic comedy “The Return of The Pink Panther“.  In the film, Lom is gradually driven mad by Clouseau, and the twitch betrays his insanity.

Director Frederik Du Chau liked the idea, and let me run with it. Looking back, I probably overplayed my hand, and overused the device, but it did work to create a villain who looked like they were on the edge of insanity.  It gave Ruber his character, a psychopath on the brink.