Darrell Van Citters began his career in animation training at the prestigious California Institute of the Arts in the Disney-sponsored Character Animation program. While still at Cal Arts, he spent one summer working at Chuck Jones' studio as in-betweener/gofer. The next summer he spent as an assistant at Filmation Studios.
Disney years
After graduating, he went straight into the animation business and started at the Walt Disney Studio as a trainee in animation. He worked his way up to animator on The Fox and the Hound and, after working on story for a few TV specials, he was placed as director on Fun with Mr. Future. Van Citters continued as director and did much of the original development work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, including his personal choice for the voice of Roger. His final Disney project was directing the "Sport Goofy" film Soccermania in 1987.
Van Citters moved to Warner Brothers Classic Animation in 1987 as an animator, before being promoted as Creative Director a couple years later. His duties included overseeing almost every aspect of the classic Warners characters from the new shorts, to commercials to the comic strip and print work. He was asked to direct the first new Bugs Bunny short in over 26 years and, after bringing in a full animation staff, Box Office Bunny was produced and released with the Warner Bros. feature film, . While with Warner Bros., when Mel Blanc died in July 1989, Van Citters drew the famous "Speechless" drawing, which showed a spotlight on a microphone, as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, and Foghorn Leghorn somberly bowed their heads in a moment of silence.
Renegade years
In July 1992, Van Citters left Warner Bros. to strike out on his own, forming Renegade Animation along with ex-Warners' alumna Ashley Postelwaite. Since incorporation the company has produced a multitude of commercials, with highlights including: the "It ain't easy bein' cheesy" and “Dangerously cheesy!” campaigns featuring Chester Cheetah, NBA great Dennis Rodman's famous ad in which one of his tattoos is seen eating a burger for Carl's Jr., and the Bugs Bunny/Michael Jordan "Hare Jordan/Aerospace Jordan" commercials. Craving creative freedom and control, Darrell steered Renegade to be one of the pioneers in internet animation and won an Annie Awardin 2001 for the web series "Elmo Aardvark: Outer Space Detective". The following year, Renegade made its first foray into television series production with the "Captain Sturdy" shorts for Cartoon Network. Other series followed, including Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi and The Mr. Men Show, as well as the direct-to-DVD full-length animated filmChristmas Is Here Again.
