Celebrating animators and the magical art of animation is a good thing, but please let’s stop going on and on and on about Disney’s Nine Old Men. Doing so suggests nobody was as good before or since which is just not true.
The nine old men (and I’m not going to name them yet again) were talented and inventive but they did stand on shoulders of giants:
Emile Cohl (France, 1857-1938) - Fantasmagorie
Winsor McCay (USA, 1867-1934) - Gertie the Dinosaur
Max Fleischer (invented Rotoscope) (USA, 1883-1972) - Boop-Oop-A-Doop
Otto Messmer (USA, 1892-1983) - Felix (the Cat) Revolts
Lotte Reiniger (Germany, 1899-1981) - The Adventures of Prince Ahmed
Walt Disney (USA, 1901-1966) - Laugh-O-Grams “Jack, The Giant Killer” (Walt was one of the animators)
Friz Freleng (USA, 1906-1995) - The Pink Panther
Tex Avery (USA, 1908-1980) - Dumb Hounded
Chuck Jones (USA 1912-2002) - What’s Opera, Doc?
Just as today’s animators stand on the shoulders of the Nine and future greats will stand on these shoulders:
James Baxter (UK) - Spirit
Silvain Chomet (France) - l’Illusioniste
Andreas Deja (Germany/USA) - The Lion King: Scar pencil tests
Ken Duncan (Canada/USA) - Tarzan: Jane
Glen Keane (USA) - Beauty and the Beast pencil test Ken Duncan (Canada/USA) - Tarzan: Jane
Caroline Leaf (Canada/USA) - The Street
Hayao Miyazaki (Japan) - The Genius and Wonder of Hayao Miyazaki
Richard Williams (Canada) - The Thief and the Cobbler
Kathy Zeilinski - (USA) Hunchback of Notre Dame: Frollo
Photo: Kathy Zielinski
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ANIMATION, CARTOONS, DISNEY, EMILECOHL, MIYAZAKI, FLEISCHER, ANDREASDEJA, KENDUNCAN, DICKWILLIAMS, WINSORMcCAY