Fred Moore

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Robert "Fred" Moore (born September 7, 1911 in Los Angeles , California , † November 23, 1952 in Burbank , California), often just called Freddie Moore , was an American animator . He became known as the youngest character animator to ever work for the Disney studios and responsible for the redesign of Mickey Mouse for the sorcerer's apprentice sequence in Fantasia (1940) in 1938, which still exists today in almost unchanged form.

Life

Moore attended Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles and developed his passion for drawing. At this point, he was frequently posting works to a children's and youth edition of the Los Angeles Times , many of which were published. Fred Moore had no plans for a career in animation; his job at Walt Disney came about by accident. A friend of Moore's could not attend an interview, so he went there instead and was hired as an animator in 1930 at the age of 19. He had previously received no professional training other than evening classes at the Chouinard Art Institute .

In the following years Fred Moore worked on almost 35 cartoons by the studio, his breakthrough came in 1933 with the short film The Three Little Pigs , which won an Oscar . Disney became aware of the young man who had been responsible as a draftsman for the three pigs and had thus contributed a large share of the winning of the award. Walt Disney began at this time, against the opposition of his brother Roy O. Disney and his wife Lillian , to plan a first full-length cartoon with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . So he put Moore on as chief draftsman in 1934 and handed him responsibility for the dwarfs. In their 1981 book The Illusion of Life , known as the "Bible of Animation", Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas wrote : "There have never been more memorable characters in the public eye than the dwarves."

After the film was completed, Fred Moore embarked on the next two big projects Disney's, Pinocchio and Fantasia . In both cases he was involved as a directing animator . For a sequence of Fantasia, he was asked to modernize Mickey Mouse , who is now ten years old . The result of this work in 1938 was a figure that has remained largely unchanged to this day. However, Moore's work is largely unknown; in the copy of Mickey Mouse mostly only the name of Ub Iwerks is mentioned .

Fred Moore was known for the deep emotionality his characters exuded. He passed this on to his assistant, Ollie Johnston, who years after his death became known for precisely this in his work. In the circles of his colleagues, Moore was also notorious for his ability to draw largely shrouded women both in the style of an animated film and in a lifelike manner. These so-called "Freddie Moore Girls" can be found in the Centaurs from Fantasia and a group of teenage girls in Make Mine Music (1946). In fact, some see Fred Moore as the one who shaped the look of the Disney films the most.

Fred Moore was married twice, the second marriage ending with his death.

death

The circumstances of Fred Moore's early death are told in two versions to this day. It is now clear that one must be a legend. This speaks of the fact that Fred Moore was released in the early 1950s because of a heavy alcohol problem and is said to have been drunk in a car accident shortly afterwards. He is said to have been taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was unable to pay the medical bill. When he asked his former colleagues in the Disney studios for help, they refused, because they supposedly thought Moore was lying and only wanted to use the money to buy new alcohol. He reportedly succumbed to internal bleeding after he was discharged from the hospital.

In reality there was also a dismissal of Moore, but in 1946, when Disney was on the verge of ruin after a few flops such as Pinocchio or Bambi due to the disappearance of the European film market, so that Fred Moore became a victim of rationalization. In 1948, at the urging of Walt Disney's leading animators, he was reinstated from among the Nine Old Men to work on Peter Pan . On November 22, 1952, a car accident occurred in front of the Disney Studios, in which Fred Moore's second wife, while sitting behind the wheel, turned the couple's car and thus caused an accident. She herself was not seriously injured, her husband was brought to St. Josephs, which is directly on the street, with life-threatening injuries. Despite receiving treatment, he succumbed to the consequences of the accident and died at the age of 41. Some of the drafts of characters and sketches were reused in later animated films, including Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Furthermore, the following points speak decisively in favor of the latter variant of Fred Moore's last days:

  • Ollie Johnston (1912–2008), his longtime assistant and Disney chief draftsman, claims that the dying Moore never called for help, nor was he aware of a drinking problem.
  • Fred Moore had health insurance, so would have been treated.
  • St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital would not have sent a dying patient home.
  • The accident happened right in front of the Disney studios. There is no reason to explain why Moore should have been there had he been released earlier.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: disney-legends , original translation: "In the public's mind there have been no more memorable characters than the Dwarfs."
  2. ↑ Biography. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 24, 2015 .
  3. ↑ A summary of the events can be found here
personal data
SURNAME Moore, Fred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Moore, Robert Fred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American animator
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Los Angeles , California, United States
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1952
Place of death Burbank , California, United States