Ollie Johnston, 1912 - 2008.

The animator Ollie Johnston, the last of the Disney "nine old men," as the studio's core group of senior animators was called, died on Monday in Sequim, Wash.

The AP.

I came along at a "best of times/worst of times" moment at Disney animation. The worst of times because the studio was creatively moribund and young people were not yet empowered to do anything to change it. The best of times because a few of the old masters were still around, still working, and still able to impart their wisdom to us eager students....

Ollie was one of the best that ever was and will be. He lives on as an entertainer, a teacher and inspiration for all generations to come. Needless to say, I'll miss him. But I plan on visiting him as I visit Milt, Eric, Frank and all the others who taught and/or inspired me - through their work... which will be around forever.

Brad Bird, Cartoon Brew. Bird paid homage to Johnston (right) and his close friend and collaborator Frank Thomas in The Incredibles.

What Johnston and his fellows took the most pride in was embuing their anthropomorphized animals with palpable human emotion. Nobody did it better before, or has done it better since.

Glenn Kenny, who also passes along a tribute from artist Joseph Failla.

Johnston was feted for his specific contributions to the Disney canon - the character of Mr Smee, Captain Hook's feckless sidekick, in Peter Pan; the evil stepsisters in Cinderella; Bad King John (eventually voiced by Peter Ustinov) in Robin Hood; and, perhaps most memorably of all, the taboo-breaking early scene in Bambi when Bambi's mother is shot dead by hunters. The Bambi aesthetic tends to be ridiculed as much as it is cherished these days - all those big, blinking, tear-moistened doe eyes designed to tug at our emotions seem more than a touch mawkish and manipulative.

At the time, though - the film came out in 1942 - the very achievement of bringing animal drawings to life and triggering an emotional response in a mass audience was little short of groundbreaking. Blame the cheesy aesthetics on Disney himself; the technical accomplishment was all Johnston's, along with the rest of the nine.

Andrew Gumbel, the Independent.

See also: Wikipedia; online viewing from Karina Longworth, Ben and Me, parts 1 and 2.

Online listening tip. Bob Mondello on NPR.

Posted by dwhudson at April 17, 2008 12:20 PM