Hey everyone, I’m Mike, and she’s Sophie, and We’re on the Road with Mickey! This is Season 2, Episode 6 for February 8, 2021, and our feature topic today is Walt’s Nine Old Men, Part 3! This week, we’re joined again by friend of the show Brenda from Pixie Vacations, and this is final week in looking at Walt’s Nine Old Men! Grab a drink, relax, and join us as we talk about all the things that we came up with! Here’s our rundown of what we talked about:

• Cheddar from the Big Cheese
  
  • Mike: Exciting news! The Liberty Square Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island re-opened early! They opened last Friday, February 5th! 
    
  • Sophie: Over at Disney+, the streaming network received Golden Globe nominations for Hamilton, The Mandalorian, and Soul!
    
  • Brenda: In refurbishment news, the Mad Tea Party and Swiss Family Treehouse are closing for short refurbishments. Mad Tea Party will be closed from February 22nd – March 4th, and Swiss Family Treehouse will be closed from March 12th – 25th.
    
  • Mike: Over at Universal, Volcano Bay Water Park is reopening on February 27th!
    
  • Brenda: Disney has released new Key to the World card designs! A set of six, they feature Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, and Daisy!
    
  
  
• Connect with us! Here’s how: 
  
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OnTheRoadwithMickey
    
  • YouTube: On the Road with Mickey
    
  • Instagram: On the Road with Mickey
    
  • Email: info@ontheroadwithmickey.com
    
  • Phone Voicemail: 919-799-8390
    
  
  
• Feature Topic: Walt’s Nine Old Men, Part 3
  
  • Mike’s Selection: Eric Larson
    
    • Born September 3, 1905, was from Utah.
      
    • Third of the Nine old Men, started on June 1, 1933, the same day as Woolie Reitherman.
      
    • Started as an assistant animator on The Tortoise and the Hare and Two-Gun Mickey.
      
    • Other achievements:
      
      • Animation Director and designed Figaro the cat for Pinocchio, and he also animated the horses and centaurs for the “Pastoral Symphony” sequence in Fantasia.
        
      • Assisted Marc Davis in creating Cinderella and animated Caterpillar for the 1951 Alice in Wonderland.
        
      • Perhaps his most famous sequence though is the flight to Neverland in the 1953 movie Peter Pan.
        
      • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
        
      • Bambi
        
      • So Dear to My Heart
        
      • Mary Poppins
        
      • Bedknobs and Broomsticks
        
      • Last character animation work was as a consultant for the 1986 movie The Great Mouse Detective.
        
      
      
    • In my opinion, though, the greatest legacy for Eric Larson’s career as a member of the Nine Old Men was that, after Walt passed away in 1966, Eric Larson (along with Walt Stanchfield) was placed in charge of finding and training new talent. Some of those names that came through his program are household names:
      
      • Brad Bird (Directed The Incredibles, Incredibles 2, Ratatouille, Tomorrowland)
        
      • Don Bluth (The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon)
        
      • Tim Burton (The Nightmare before Christmas)
        
      • Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog)
        
      • Andreas Deja (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King)
        
      • Glen Keane (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Tangled)
        
      • John Lasseter (Toy Story Franchise, Cars Franchise, Pixar)
        
      
      
    • It is because of that training program that he earned the nickname “The Beloved Mentor”
      
    • Eric Larson retired in February, 1986 after 52 years with Disney — making him the last of the Nine Old Men to retire. Sadly, he passed away just two years later.
      
    • “No one was more concerned with passing on the Disney legacy than Eric.” -animator Andreas Deja
      
    
    
  • Brenda’s Selection: John Lounsbery
    
    • Born:  March 9, 1911      Birthplace:  Cincinnati, OH (but raised in Colorado and loved the outdoors)
      
    • Died: February 13, 1976  (at the age of 64)
      
    • College:  The Art Institute of Denver AND Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles.
      
    • One of his instructors was very impressed with him and he sent him to interview with Walt Disney.
      
    • As the 8th hire of Walt’s Nine Old Men he was hired by the Walt Disney Company on July 2, 1935 beginning as an assistant animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Working under Norm Ferguson he quickly became a star animator.
      
    • Personal
      
      • John was shy by nature but very light-hearted. It was said that he probably had more pencils than words. He was quiet, modest, self-sacrificing, helpful, unselfish and had no trace of either anger or a temper.
        
      • “John was a quiet, shy person with a circus inside of him”, according to his honoree John Pomeroy.
        
      • Frank and Ollie said, that as a draftsman Lounsbery was ideal for animation. He was a terrific “cartoon actor”. They also said that “no matter how bad a situation might be, John could always make “some funny observation to lighten the situation.”
        
      • John was affectionately known as “Louns” by fellow animators. He was respected for his incredibly strong draftsmanship, versatility, and ability to animate broad, cartoony characters in a believable way put together with a very solid drawing style.
        
      • No one else could animate a Ward Kimball character and a Milt Kahl character equally well.
        
      
      
    • Animation Career
      
      • For several years, John specialized in the “Pluto shorts”
        
      • His animation was known for its squashy, stretchy feel
        
      •  Popular characters and scenes he animated:
        
      • There is a VERY long list of characters within John Lounsbery’s career at the studios.
        
      • One of his favorites was Ben Ali Gator – Fantasia; Dance of the Hours
        
      • Horse, Bruno the dog, Lucifer, Gus and others – Cinderella
        
      • Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, Rose and the Flowers, Mad Hatter – Alice in Wonderland
        
      • George Darling – Peter Pan
        
      • Tony, Joe, Bull and Tramp – Lady and the Tramp
        
      • The Kings – Sleeping Beauty
        
      • Owl, Eeyore and Gopher – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
        
      
      
    • Animation Director:
      
      • In the 1970s, John was promoted to Director and co-directed Winnie the Pooh and Tigger too!
        
      • Just to name a few more on which he served as Animation Director, there are:
        
      • Dumbo
        
      • Song of the South
        
      • Alice in Wonderland
        
      • Peter Pan
        
      • Lady and the Tramp
        
      • Sleeping Beauty
        
      • 101 Dalmations
        
      • His last film was The Rescuers. He was still directing at the studios when he died of heart failure during heart surgery.
        
      
      
    • Other professional accomplishments:
      
      • Annie Award: Winsor McKay Award 1986
        
      • Named a Disney legend in 1989. 
        
      
      
    • Family life:
      
      • John’s wife was Florence Louise Hurd.
        
      • He had 3 children: Kenneth, Andrea and John Keith
        
      • John moved his family out to the country. He drove 25 miles each way to work at the studios.
        
      • In the daytime he was an animator, but at night and on weekends he was stringing barbed wire, medicating large animals, laying bricks, pouring concrete.
        
      • Ken described him as a renaissance worker and so imaginative with his fingertips.  But at home, John always carried pliers in his pocket.
        
      • He enjoyed farm life – chickens, lambs, horses. The kids showed their animals then took them to auction and got ribbons and then tried to get the best price for their steers.
        
      • They knew all about butchering day.
        
      • “Jake”, the youngest, had go-carts.
        
      • Andrea was an equestrian. John wrote to Andrea while she was at college. Once he wrote her a letter  from their pug dog and told her everything that had been going on at home. He even drew sketches in it.
        
      • He drove a 1951 Chevy pickup truck (forest green)
        
      • John was the shortest lived of Walt’s Nine Old Men and the first to die. He was truly missed by his fellow animators.
        
      
      
    
    
  • Sophie’s Selection: Wolfgang ‘Woolie’ Reitherman
    
    • Born June 26, 1909 in Munich, Germany
      
    • He moved to America with his family as a child, and after attending Pasadena Junior College, he was a draftsman for Douglas Aircraft before going to Chouinard Art Institute and graduating in 1933.
      
    • He was invited to Disney Studios after a Mr. Phillip L. Dike showed his drawings to Disney, who suggested that Reitherman should be an animator, instead of a watercolorist. He was hired by the studio on May 21, 1933. His first project was the Silly Symphony “Funny Little Bunnies”. He animated the Magic Mirror in Snow White, Monstro from Pinnochio, the dinosaur scene from Fantasia, and Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo.
      
    • With the coming of WWII, Woolie leaves Disney Studios to serve in the Air Force, earning him the Distinguished Flying Cross after serving in Africa, China, India, and the South Pacific. He was discharged in February 1946 with the rank of Major.
      
    • After coming home, he married Janie Marie McMillan, and rejoined Disney in 1947, where he animated one of my favorite disney antagonists, the Headless Horseman from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
      
    • In the late 1950’s Woolie served as the sequence director for many movies, like the Dragon fight in Sleeping Beauty, and the Twilight Bark in 101 Dalmatians. He became the first sole director in the Disney Studios with “The Sword in the Stone.”
      
    • Near the end of his career, he was slated to direct The Fox and the Hound, but after some creative disputes with his co-director, Art Stevens, he was taken off the project, and went on to direct some other projects, none of which came to fruition. He retired in 1981.
      
    • Reitherman died unexpectedly in a car crash in 1985, he was 75 years old. He was named a disney legend in 1989. All three of his sons with his wife, Janie, contributed voice lines in many Disney films, including Mowgli from the Jungle Book, Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh, and Arthur in the Sword in the Stone.
      
    
    
  
  
• Disney Who’s Who Character: The Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland
  
• Walt Disney Quote
  
  • “Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.” -Walt Disney
    
  
  
• Coming Next Week: Our Favorite Disney Memories!
  
• Sponsorship
  
  • On the Road with Mickey is sponsored by Pixie Vacations by Mike Ellis and Tech Solutions NC.
    
  
  

As always, thank you for listening. We are having a lot of fun talking Disney, and I’m glad you are enjoying it as well! Remember, you can reach us in many ways — by email to info@ontheroadwithmickey.com. You can also talk to us on our Facebook Page, On the Road with Mickey or in our On the Road with Mickey Group. Feel free to join us! Have a great week, and we’ll be back to talk with you again next week!