Glen Keane, the celebrated Disney animator whose work helped shape beloved films including “The Little Mermaid” and “Tangled,” recently had the chance to personally thank the first responders who rescued him from an Arizona mountaintop during a family hike.
Roughly a week after the emergency, Keane, 72, said he remained deeply grateful to the rescue team that brought him to safety.
“I think it’s the most difficult thing for somebody to say: I can’t, I need help. And I got to that point, and I was so thankful there was somebody I could call,” Keane told KPNX in Phoenix. “I’ve done a lot of animated fairytales, but this was a real life one, and I really wanted to see the crew who were responsible for that.”
As a gesture of appreciation, Keane presented the department with an original drawing commemorating the rescue. The artwork depicts the first responders and helicopters involved in the operation and includes the message, “Our family helping your family.”
“I can’t just go off into the sunset and be happy, I felt like I really needed to say thank you to what you guys did, thank you all of you,” he said.
The rescue unfolded on July 29, when Keane was hiking Mummy Mountain in Arizona with his grandchildren and realized he could not continue without assistance. A helicopter was dispatched, and crews lifted him from the mountainside before flying him to a nearby landing zone. His daughter and grandchildren were unharmed and made it safely back down the trail.
“I mean I’ve animated dramatic wonderful moments at the end of ‘The Little Mermaid,’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ ‘Tarzan,’ and ‘Aladdin,’ that’s nothing compared to being the object of such self-sacrifice,” Keane said.
Thanks to the coordinated effort of the rescue crews, Keane was safely brought down from the mountain.
“We could tell he was in a weird spot,” said Phoenix Fire Captain Patrick O’Neill. “They were only maybe 30 feet above us, usually they’re a lot higher, so our concerns there were rotor wash, wind blowing us around, we just made sure all the guys were in a safe location so nobody slipped.”
O’Neill added that his crews are used to these kinds of rescues.
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“His rescue was no different than the ones that we do, it was just on a different mountain and a different position,” O’Neill said.
