Mark Walton (story artist)

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Mark Walton (born October 24, 1968) is an American story artist and voice actor at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Walton is best known for voicing Rhino the hamster in the 2008 animated film Bolt.

Video Mark Walton (story artist)

Early life

Mark Walton was born on October 24, 1968 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the oldest of seven children. Although he is not a professional actor, Walton said in an interview, "I liked acting in high school and college. I enjoyed it. I think at some point I decided that if I was really going to be a professional actor that it would take at least everything that I would have emotionally or physically and I knew that I really wanted to pursue art." He graduated from Utah State University in 1998 with a degree in illustration.

Maps Mark Walton (story artist)

Career

He was employed at the Disney Studios in 1999 on Tarzan as an additional writer. Throughout the 2000s, he became a storyboard artist on Home on the Range, "The Zit" for the TV series, Independent Lens, Return to Neverland, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, Chicken Little, Bolt, and Meet the Robinsons. In 2004, he started his voice actor career on Home on the Range as Barry & Bob, the Longhorns. The next year, he was the voice of Goosey Loosey for the computer-animated film, Chicken Little and its video game. In 2008, he was the voice for Rhino the hamster in Bolt for which he was nominated for an Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production, and the short film spin-off Super Rhino.

Numerous positive reviews came from film critics. CNN noted "Walton's Rhino steals every scene he's in.", while Enewsi stated "Walton has perfect comedic timing as Rhino". Another reviewer noted "The hamster alone is enough to make this movie worth seeing", with other positive reviews featured in the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, where Walton contemplated Rhino's popularity as, "he imagines he's actually something bigger and more powerful to match his big heart and big dreams -- which can't be contained by his little hamster body."