Category Archives: Disney

SAG and the Disney Strike – June 1941

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Art Babbitt

In the early days of the Disney strike, (probably within two days of the first picket,) chairman of the Screen Cartoonists Guild Art Babbitt, with Disney striker John McLeish, contacted the Screen Actors Guild and petitioned the SAG executive board … Continue reading →

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Ferdinand the Bull

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Art Babbitt

Ever the puckish trickster, Ward Kimball caricatured himself and his fellow animator as the parade of bullfighters in the 1938 Oscar-winning short, Ferdinand the Bull.  The two-page spread below is from a film magazine in Babbitt’s personal collection.  This bit … Continue reading →

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Disney Subversives: Ward Kimball and Walt Kelly

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Art Babbitt

Of all the real-life characters in Disney history, Ward Kimball (b. 3/4/14) is one of the most fascinating.  Among the “Nine Old Men” of Disney animation, i.e. the company loyalists, Kimball was the only one who unequivocally felt that the … Continue reading →

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Donald Duck says Disney is Unfair

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Art Babbitt

You’ve got to admit, the Disney strikers of ’41 knew how to design a flyer.

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Disney’s Art Models

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Art Babbitt

For the Disney artists of the 1930s and early 40s, a huge credit of their exponential growth is owed to the in-studio art classes.  And while teachers like Don Graham and Eugene Fleury deserve their due, this post is to … Continue reading →

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Babbitt’s Footage of the 1938 Oscars

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Art Babbitt

Happy Oscar season, everyone! The 10th Academy Awards was a unique event for the Disney Studios: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs received a nomination for best score, and The Old Mill won for best animated short. It was March 10th, 1938 … Continue reading →

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The Goldfish Story

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Art Babbitt

Perhaps the most well-documented Art Babbitt story is that of the goldfish. In Talking Animals and Other People (pp. 146-7), Disney animator Shamus Culhane wrote: In the mid-thirties, nobody in his right mind drank Los Angeles tap water.  It was … Continue reading →

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The Hyperion Horseflies Story

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Art Babbitt

It’s no secret that Chuck Jones and Art Babbitt were good friends from way back.  But in writing about Disney, Chuck borrowed one of Art’s own stories.  In Chuck Reducks (pp. 95-6) he writes: Disney animators were more likely to … Continue reading →

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The Disney Training Program of the 1930s

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Art Babbitt

Assembled here are some quotations from primary sources about the training program that was in place at Disney’s in the early 1930s.  (Art Babbitt was part of Sharpsteen’s trainee unit from mid-1932 to early 1933.)  “…There were two of us … Continue reading →

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The Third Disney Task

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Art Babbitt

By early August, 1932, Babbitt had successfully proven himself among the ranks of the novice animation talent.  Ben Sharpsteen was probably impressed with Babbitt’s Pluto work on the previous assignment, so he gave him a few more Pluto scenes in … Continue reading →

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