September 15, 2014

#DisneyTrivia – Eric Larson

Image ©disney.wikia.com

Walt’s Nine Old Men were a core group of supervising animators who created Walt Disney Studios’ most famous work – such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Rescuers. Walt jokingly called them his “Nine Old Men” (even though most of them were in their 20s when they first started at the studio) – referring to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s nine Supreme Court judges. All nine of these talented gentlemen were named Disney Legends in 1989.

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s #TiggerificTuesdayTrivia post! I’m joined as always by my dear friends Jodi from Magical Mouse Schoolhouse and Heidi from Heidi’s Head. This month we are sharing some great trivia revolving around Walt’s Nine Old Men. Today we are sharing some trivia about Eric Larson. Almost more important than the works he is credited with, check out the list of some of those animators that went through his training program!

Eric Larson from Utah (born 9/3/05) began work at the Disney Studios on June 1, 1933.
Larson started as an assistant animator on the shorts The Tortoise and the Hare and Two-Gun Mickey. By 1940, he was an animation director and had designed Figaro the cat for Pinocchio. He also animated the horses and centaurs for the “Pastoral Symphony” sequence in Fantasia. Larson assisted Marc Davis in creating the title character of the 1950 Cinderella and animated Caterpillar for the 1951 Alice in Wonderland. But his most famous sequence, is the flight to Neverland in the 1953 Peter Pan. After Walt’s death in 1966, Larson was placed in charge of finding and training new talent (along with animator Walt Stanchfield) – in addition to his character animating work (which ended as a consultant for the 1986 The Great Mouse Detective). Many well-known animators went through Larson’s training program, including Brad Bird, Don Bluth, Tim Burton, Ron Clements, Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, and John Lasseter. Larson retired in February 1986 after 52 years with Disney – making him the last of the 9 to retire. He passed away just two years later.

Thank you for stopping by today! Now, please go check out the other entries in our post this week, and have a great day!

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Bloggers, Disney History, Disney Legends, My Dreams of Disney, Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia, Walt Disney World

Andreas Deja, Eric Larson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Glen Keane, Heidi, John Lasseter, Pinocchio, The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studio, Walt Stanchfield

Mike Ellis

July 20, 2013

4 Comments

Remembering Disney Legends – Marc Davis

Disney Legend Marc Davis busy at work drawing.

Hello everyone, and welcome to a special series here at My Dreams of Disney. Over the next few weeks, we are going to spend a little time and take a look back at some of the great Disney Legends that Disney has produced. It is a special person who becomes a Disney Legend, and in my mind, there is no better person to start with than one of Walt’s Nine Old Men himself, Marc Davis.

Those of you that are truly into the history that Disney has will know his name, and probably know more about him than I know! However, if you haven’t heard of him before, that’s okay, because we’ll highlight some of his accomplishments during the course of his extraordinary career at Disney.

Marc Davis was hired as an apprentice animator for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He progressed through the ranks and worked on character design and other duties for Bambi and Victory Through Air Power. However, his biggest accomplishments in the animation arena came when he was the person behind some of the greatest woman in Disney lore — Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, and Tinker Bell from Peter Pan.

After a while Davis transferred to the department that would become Walt Disney Imagineering, and it was there that his signature work would be found on some of the great classic Disney attractions. All told, Davis worked on the following attractions at Disneyland:

Enchanted Tiki Room
It’s a Small World
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Jungle Cruise

Marc Davis was the last of the famed group of Disney employees dubbed the “Nine Old Men” by Walt Disney himself to be hired at Disney, but in my opinion, his accomplishments stand up to any. The term “Nine Old Men” was a play on words by Walt Disney as a reference to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Supreme Court. The funny thing about this was that all of the Disney “Nine Old Men” were only in their 20s when they started working with the company!

Marc Davis worked for Disney for 43 years, retiring from active work in 1978 — although he did help with the development of EPCOT and Tokyo Disneyland. Ironically, yesterday was the 24 anniversary of his induction (along with the rest of the Nine Old Men) as a Disney Legend.

Marc Davis passed away on January 12, 2000, at the age of 86.

Having seen much of his work up close, it is our opinion that some of the great attractions that Marc Davis worked on would not be the same if he hadn’t contributed to them, so My Dreams of Disney salutes him.

Next up on our list of Disney Legends: Ward Kimball, another of Disney’s Nine Old Men.

Bloggers, Disney History, Disney Legends, My Dreams of Disney

Disney, Disney Legend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Marc Davis, Victory Through Air Power, Walt Disney, Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Imagineers

Mike Ellis

November 12, 2012

4 Comments

Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia: The American Adventure!

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia, the Disney Trivia hope that I am pleased to participate in with Jodi from Magical Mouse Schoolhouse, Heidi from Heidi’s Head, and Jenn from Disney Babies Blog!

Today I’m taking a trivia question from the Walt Disney World Trivia Book, Volume II, by Lou Mongello! This book is a must own for anyone that loves Disney trivia, there are so many great questions to read and learn more about Walt Disney World with! So here’s the question:

“What two former U.S. Presidents are depicted by Audio-Animatronics figures during their presidential terms in The American Adventure show?”
a) George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
b) Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt
c) Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
d) Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy

This was a hard question for me — in fact, I got it wrong (So did my niece Stephanie and her husband Shane though too!) The problem is that I really enjoy the show, but I don’t see it very often so it’s hard to remember which Presidents have more face time. Have I given you enough time to Google the answer? If so, then here is the answer:

b) Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt are the only Presidents represented by Audio-Animatronics figures during their terms as President. Theodore Roosevelt is seen speaking with naturalist John Muir about the beauty of America and its destruction due to industries such as logging. Franklin D. Roosevelt is depicted giving his famous “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” speech in 1929. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are also depicted, but during times in their lives before they became President.

As a follow-up, Did You Know — that the scene in the American Adventure Show with George Washington was the scene at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War?

That wraps up my edition of Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia for this week! Make sure you check out the rest of the entries by clicking on the links below! Do you have any Disney Trivia to share, and a blog also? If so, why not write it up and link your post to the rest of the ones you see here? Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!