The Life and Times of Ward Kimball

The Life and Times of Ward Kimball
Author: Todd James Pierce
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2019-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1496820975

Besides Walt Disney, no one seemed more key to the development of animation at the Disney Studios than Ward Kimball (1914–2002). Kimball was Disney’s friend and confidant. In this engaging, cradle-to-grave biography, award-winning author Todd James Pierce explores the life of Ward Kimball, a lead Disney animator who worked on characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket, the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter. Through unpublished excerpts from Kimball’s personal writing, material from unpublished interviews, and new information based on interviews conducted by the author, Pierce defines the life of perhaps the most influential animator of the twentieth century. As well as contributing to classics such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Kimball established a highly graphic, idiosyncratic approach to animation alongside the studio’s more recognizable storybook realism. In effect, Ward Kimball became the only animator to run his own in-studio production team largely outside of Walt Disney’s direction. In the 1950s and 1960s, he emerged as a director and producer of his own animation, while remaining inside Disney’s studio. Through Kimball, the studio developed a series of nonfiction animation programs in the 1950s that members of Congress pointed to as paving the way for NASA. The studio also allowed Kimball’s work to abandon some ties to conventional animation, looking instead to high art and graphic design as a means of creating new animated forms, which resulted in films that received multiple Academy Award nominations and two awards. Throughout his life, Kimball was a maverick animator, an artist who helped define the field of American animation, and a visionary who sought to expand the influence of animated films.

Art Afterpieces

Art Afterpieces
Author: Ward Kimball
Publisher: Price Stern Sloan
Total Pages: 95
Release: 1975
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780843103663

The Art of Pixar: 25th Anniversary

The Art of Pixar: 25th Anniversary
Author: Amid Amidi
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2015-11-03
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1452147531

Over the past 25 years, Pixar's team of artists, writers, and directors have shaped the world of contemporary animation with their feature films and shorts. From classics such as Toy Story and A Bug's Life to recent masterpieces such as Up, Toy Story 3, and Cars 2, this comprehensive collection offers a behind-the-scenes tour of every Pixar film to date. Featuring a foreword by Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, the complete color scripts for every film published in full for the first time as well as stunning visual development art, The Art of Pixar is a treasure trove of rare artwork and an essential addition to the library of animation fans and Pixar enthusiasts.

Animation Anecdotes

Animation Anecdotes
Author: Jim Korkis
Publisher:
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2014-09-20
Genre: Animated films
ISBN: 9781941500132

Your Cartoons Will Never Be the Same. The history of animation in America is full of colorful characters - and that includes the animators themselves! Jim Korkis shares hundreds of funny, odd, endearing stories about the major animation studios, including Disney, Warner Brothers, MGM, Hanna-Barbera, and many more.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney
Author: Neal Gabler
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 914
Release: 2007-10-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0679757473

The definitive portrait of one of the most important cultural figures in American history: Walt Disney. Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination and obsessive perfectionism transformed animation from a novelty to an art form, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films–most notably Snow White, Fantasia, and Bambi. In his superb biography, Neal Gabler shows us how, over the course of two decades, Disney revolutionized the entertainment industry. In a way that was unprecedented and later widely imitated, he built a synergistic empire that combined film, television, theme parks, music, book publishing, and merchandise. Walt Disney is a revelation of both the work and the man–of both the remarkable accomplishment and the hidden life. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography USA Today Biography of the Year

Newsworld

Newsworld
Author: Todd James Pierce
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2006-09-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0822991144

News is "one of the few things that connects us as a nation" observes the protagonist in the title story of Newsworld, a new collection by Todd James Pierce that explores America's obsession with news and entertainment culture. The characters in "Newsworld" seek to design realistic theme park attractions, such as "OJ's Bronco: The Ride" and "Seige at Waco," that allow park guests to experience the complexities of contemporary news events for themselves. In the story "Columbine: The Musical," high school students stage a musical written as a means of discussing school violence, while their vice principal wrangles a 10 percent discount on a school security system in exchange for corporate sponsorship of the play. In "Wrestling Al Gore," a national wrestling federation uses costumed wrestlers to cast the Gore/Bush election recount into the ring. In an ironic twist, fans become sympathetic to the underdog Gore, champion his cause, and ultimately reflect on the fate of the real politician. In "The Yoshi Compound: A Story of Post-Waco Texas," the followers of the Dalai Yoshi amass weapons and riot gear in hopes of attracting media attention in order to spread their message of love and world peace. The characters in Newsworld, like many Americans, are engulfed in a life-imitating-art phenomenon caused by the hyperreality presented in the media, and they struggle with this overwhelming influence trying to understand whether their own lives fall within or outside its domain.

The Animated Man

The Animated Man
Author: Michael Barrier
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2008-04-07
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0520256190

Film and televsion.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney
Author: Marc Eliot
Publisher:
Total Pages: 358
Release: 1995
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

This biography of the man behind the magic reconciles the private 'monster' with the artistic genius of popular culture by showing that the disturbing problems of his own life provided the rich, dark side of the animated movies.

Three Years in Wonderland

Three Years in Wonderland
Author: Todd James Pierce
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2016-03-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1496803817

While the success of Disneyland is largely credited to Walt and Roy Disney, there was a third, mostly forgotten dynamo instrumental to the development of the park--fast-talking Texan C. V. Wood. Three Years in Wonderland presents the never-before-told, full story of "the happiest place on earth." Using information from over one hundred unpublished interviews, Todd James Pierce lays down the arc of Disneyland's development from an idea to a paragon of entertainment. In the early 1950s, the Disney brothers hired Wood and his team to develop a feasibility study for an amusement park Walt wanted to build in southern California. "Woody" quickly became a central figure. In 1954, Roy Disney hired him as Disneyland's first official employee, its first general manager, and appointed him vice president of Disneyland, Inc., where his authority was exceeded only by Walt. A brilliant project manager, Wood was also a con man of sorts. Previously, he had forged his university diploma. A smooth-talker drawn to Hollywood, the first general manager of Disneyland valued money over art. As relations soured between Wood and the Disney brothers, Wood found creative ways to increase his income, leveraging his position for personal fame. Eventually, tensions at the Disney park reached a boiling point, with Walt demanding he be fired. In compelling detail, Three Years in Wonderland lays out the struggles and rewards of building the world's first cinematic theme park and convincing the American public that a $17 million amusement park was the ideal place for a family vacation. The early experience of Walt Disney, Roy Disney, and C. V. Wood is one of the most captivating untold stories in the history of Hollywood. Pierce interviewed dozens of individuals who enjoyed long careers at the Walt Disney Company as well as dozens of individuals who--like C. V. Wood--helped develop the park but then left the company for good once the park was finished. Through much research and many interviews, Three Years in Wonderland offers readers a rare opportunity to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the men and women who built the best-known theme park in the world.

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men
Author: Don Hahn
Publisher: Weldon Owen
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-10-16
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781681884448

Celebrate the legacy of Disney’s core group of animators, with Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men: Masters of Animation, featuring original sketches from classic films such as Pinocchio, Bambi, and Peter Pan—including an exclusive look at the animators’ lives, with personal caricatures and fine artwork. In the mid-1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt coined the term “Nine Old Men” to describe the nine justices of the Supreme Court, who had seemingly lost touch with the ever-changing times. In jest, Walt Disney borrowed the term several years later to refer to his core team of animators—Les Clark, Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Frank Thomas—even though they were neither old nor out of touch, and in fact would together make history with their cutting-edge contributions to the world of animation. Produced in conjunction with The Walt Disney Family Museum’s 2018 exhibition of the same name, Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men: Masters of Animation features an array of fascinating artwork and family mementos from each of these accomplished gentlemen, such as sketchbooks, caricatures, and snapshots, as well as original art from the classic films Pinocchio (1940), Bambi (1942), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). Personal art, paintings, sculptures, flip-books, and hundreds of original animation drawings are all faithfully presented, alongside pencil tests and final color scenes that showcase their genius. In conducting his extensive research on the Nine Old Men, curator and celebrated producer Don Hahn sat down with each of the animators’ families for in-depth discussions, unearthing details about the unique personalities of the men behind iconic Disney characters and films. The result of this collaboration is a spectacular collection of personal artifacts and ephemera that have never been seen by the public, all of which help tell each animator’s individual story and reveal how they collectively elevated animation to an art form. After roughly 40 years of mentorship, the Nine Old Men were all named Disney Legends in 1989 in recognition of their lasting contributions, not only to The Walt Disney Studios, but to animation as a whole. This book offers a deep dive into their esteemed work and life stories—and a rich offering of the legacy they helped shape.