Animation pioneer, Ollie Johnston, has passed.
Growing up the son of a former Disney animator had its drawbacks, including having your cartoons critiqued as you watched them. Does a six year-old care about keyframing and line quality or whether or not his favorite character is about to wallop the other guy with a trash can? Nonetheless, there is a good side to the story. I was well-versed in the classics, growing up. “The classics” meaning the days when animation was created by human hands. From timing sheets to rough storyboards to masterwork keyframing to ink and paint to museum-quality background art, I learned to appreciate the artistry that goes into the process from a young age.
When that era came to an end, works became prized pieces of art selling for thousands of dollars, being transformed from forgotten stills of commerce to framed gems. Ollie Johnston, one of Disney’s legendary “nine old men” (a popular political term of the day that they picked up while still in their twenties), was the last surviving member until a week ago Monday. Sad to say that animation as an art form has died with him, because in today’s commodified, bottom-lined machine, art doesn’t stand a chance.
With the rise of the computing machine in the 80’s and 90’s, the organic process started its death march into the Museum of Eras Past. While murmurs of resuscitating the hand-drawn approach have been tossed around, including Disney’s return to form with the 2009 release of “The Princess and the Frog,” there has been no sincere industry-wide return to form. Johnston was a pioneer in the hand-drawn area, having helped charter a course for Disney’s legendary high quality output and dominating status in the industry. His work lives on in the characters and visuals he helped create for films like Bambi, Pinocchio, Fantasia (my personal favorite), and Snow White. He will be missed, but his work will remain a legacy to a craft that draws a clear line of distinction from its modern predecessors.
Tags: animation
