Published between 1982 and 1995
“I had an old friend, Gregory LaCava. I had gone to art school with Greg. He had moved to New York and was working for the Hearst organization. Hearst was crazy about comic drawings. He had his newspapers filled with them. Somehow, LaCava, still in his 20s, convinced Hearst that he was the best animator … Read more
“I also very much admired Marc Davis. He did fine work on Snow White, and was probably the best craftsman in the studio.” After several years with Disney, where he worked on a number of short subjects, Natwick was recruited once again by the Fleischer brothers. For financial reasons, they had moved their studio to … Read more
Set against the skylines, streets and subways of modern day New York City, Walt Disney Pictures 27th full-length animated feature, Oliver & Company is a contemporary re-telling of Dickens’ classic story. Oliver follows the misadventures of an orphaned kitten (Oliver) who is taken in by a pack of pickpocket dogs, headed by Dodger, the coolest … Read more
Perhaps the biggest help to the animators in rendering authentic animal movements was the steady parade of dogs that were brought to the studio each week for scrutiny. Dogs of every shape and size were recruited and given free run of the Glendale animation facility as animators feverishly filled up pads with rough sketches and … Read more
In terms of complexity, the most difficult object created for the film was Fagin’s trike, an odd-looking motorized vehicle which is composed of 18 separate moving parts. With each part subject to 15 different motion controls, the animators were able to give the trike a personality of its own even though it was generated on … Read more
Mickey Mouse celebrates his sixtieth birthday on 18th November. He grants a rare interview to Brian Sibley. He stands beside the pool, looking rather taller than I had imagined and casually dressed in slacks and a sports shirt with a Betty Boop motif. “Hi, there!” he calls in a sharp Brooklyn accent that takes me … Read more
His eyes sparkle, and I know that – for a moment – he’s back there, in front of the cameras and loving every moment of it. Then he sighs. “I used to think I was pretty well set up for life – especially when I won the Oscar in 1932 – but then along came … Read more
I mention a picture in the album showing Mickey with Dopey and Grumpy outside the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. “Oh, that must have been ‘thirty-seven, the premiere of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I gate-crashed! Walt and I were going through a rather rocky spell around then. Donald was making picture after … Read more
Brian Sibley reviews Channel 4’s documentary about veteran Disney animator, Art Babbitt. For years his name languished in obscurity: official Disney historians ignored his existence, while those who wrote about Disney in critical, iconoclastic terms only ever referred to him darkly as the animator who led the Disney studio strike of 1941. Having reached the … Read more
Fifty years ago, this year, the cinema shifted course, slightly perhaps, but nevertheless shifted, because the first American animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was produced in Hollywood, writes Robin Allan. Not only was Snow White a product of the studio system itself but it would in turn influence that system and … Read more