Disney's Nine Old Men
Disney's Nine Old Men is the name of a series of cartoon legends who started working in the Walt Disney studios in the late 1920s to mid-1930s . This title was jokingly given to his nine closest employees by Disney, but is still used today as a designation for the intended people. The term originally came from Franklin D. Roosevelt , who used it to abuse the judges of the Supreme Court .
When exactly Walt Disney first used the term is not clear. Although some sources speak of the late 1930s or 1940s, it can be assumed that this happened around 1950 at the earliest. This is based on the fact that at the end of the 1930s, draftsmen like Ollie Johnston had not even achieved any in-studio fame and instead other draftsmen determined the events. In the 1940s, some of the Nine Old Men did their military service , including Frank Thomas and Wolfgang Reitherman .
The twelve principles of animation also go back to the Nine Old Men:
- Squash and stretch: Artificial or exaggerated deformation of bodies when interacting with other bodies
- Anticipation: movements preliminary preparations
- Staging: productions
- Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
- Follow Through and Overlapping Action
- Slow in and slow out
- Arcs
- Secondary action
- timing
- Exaggeration
- Solid drawing
- Appeal
The "Nine Old Men"
- Les Clark (born November 17, 1907, † September 12, 1979)
- Ollie Johnston (October 31, 1912 - April 14, 2008)
- Frank Thomas (born September 5, 1912 - † September 8, 2004)
- John Lounsbery (March 9, 1911 - February 13, 1976)
- Ward Kimball (March 4, 1914 - July 8, 2002)
- Milt Kahl (March 22, 1909 - April 19, 1987)
- Marc Davis (March 30, 1913 - January 12, 2000)
- Wolfgang Reitherman (born June 26, 1909 - † May 22, 1985)
- Eric Larson (born September 3, 1905 - † October 25, 1988)
Others
Good animators who worked at Disney during the making of the Nine Old Men were often referred to as Tenth Man , including John Sibley , the long animator of Goofy , and Fred Moore , who, among other things, was the modern Mickey Mouse crafted.