Movie Musings: Disney and More

Disney’s Greatest Pairs: Part 3

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Marc Davis was the “Laurence Olivier of Animation,” given his accomplishments. If that is true, than Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy of Animation. Like Davis, they were also two members of Walt’s “Nine Old Men.” They met each other at Stanford University as art majors. Thomas came to the Disney Studios in 1934 while Johnston came in 1935 and both retired in 1978. Their friendship developed throughout their time at Disney, and their assignments were unusual, in that they always seemed to be animation of characters who were sidekicks, both heroes and villains-a fitting combination, since they were real-life sidekicks.

Frank Thomas made his debut at the Disney studios animating the scenes between Mickey Mouse and the King in the short, The Brave Little Tailor (1938). Next, he animated scenes between Mickey Mouse and the Bear in the short, The Pointer (1939). Thomas’s first Disney “ feature length film” assignment was the scene in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) where the dwarfs are all mourning over Snow White’s “dead” body. He also animated Pinocchio singing and dancing in Pinocchio (1940), Bambi and Thumper ice skating in Bambi (1942), and Lady and Tramp eating spaghetti together in Lady and the Tramp (1955)-a favorite of many. Prior to Marc Davis’s animation of the Disney villains, Frank Thomas served as the supervising animator of Lady Tremaine/Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella (1950), the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1951), Captain Hook in Peter Pan (1953), and Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp (1955). He did, however, continue to animate supporting characters as well, including the three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty (1959), the Penguin Waiters in Mary Poppins (1964), and both King Louie and Baloo dancing in the “I Wanna Be Like You,” sequence from The Jungle Book (1967). In addition to being one of the studio’s most renowned animators, Frank Thomas was the Piano Player for the Dixieland Jazz Band who often played at Disneyland: “Firehouse Five Plus Two.” He passed away of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 8th, 2004.

Ollie Johnston worked one many of the studios’ films, though he never worked on any of their shorts. He served as an assistant animator on “Snow White.” He joined Thomas, working on Pinocchio in “Pinocchio,” Bambi and Thumper in “Bambi,” the three Good Fairies in “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as Baloo and Bagheera in “The Jungle Book.” He animated the Evil Stepsisters (“Anastasia and Drizella”) in “Cinderella,” the King of Hearts in “Alice,” and Mr. Smee in “Peter Pan.” Before retiring from Disney, Johnston animated the characters of Bernard, Bianca, the Mouse Chairman, Orville the Albatross, and Rufus the Cat in The Rescuers (1977). Johnston animated Rufus the cat as a caricature of himself. Johnston was the very last member of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” to pass away. He died of natural causes on April 14th, 2008 at the age of 95.

After retiring from Disney, Thomas and Johnston went on to co-author Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life which was published in 1981. Their Disney careers were documented in the documentary Frank and Ollie (1995) which was written, produced and directed by Frank Thomas’s son Theodore “Ted” Thomas (Ted Thomas’s wife, Kuniko Okubo co-produced the film as well). Ted Thomas also went on to write, produce, and direct two other documentaries for Disney, including Growing Up with Nine Old Men (2013) in which he paid visits to each of the children of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” and talked to them about what it was like to have “Nine Old Men,” as fathers. He also produced and directed Walt & El Grupo (2008), which chronicled Walt Disney’s trip to South America in 1941 at the time of an unfortunate studio strike. (Thomas’s wife co-produced these films as well.) Thomas and Johnston both went on to provide the voices of caricatured versions of themselves in The Iron Giant (1999) and the Disney/Pixar Academy-Award-Winning Classic, The Incredibles (2004), both of which were under the direction and screenwriting of Brad Bird.

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston had a friendship and partnership unlike any two animators. Together, their talents brought many of the more memorable scenes from Walt Disney Animation to life. It’s fun to think of their real0life friendship, and easy to understand how it made their work great!