December 30 - Bill Tytla

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On this day, in 1968, Vladimir Peter Tytla passed away at home on his farm in Flanders, Connecticut. Bill, as he was known, came into this world on October 25, 1904 in Yonkers, New York as the son of Ukrainian immigrants. Supposedly at the age of nine, he saw Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur and instantly fell in love with the medium of animation. While in high school, Bill started taking night classes at the New York Evening School of Industrial Design. It wasn't long before his love of art began to win out over his love of pretty much every other subject and he didn't bother going to high school anymore. By the time he was 16, Bill worked at the New York branch of Paramount Studios doing the lettering for their title cards.

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Bill soon moved over to the Raoul Barre Studio and began working on the Mutt and Jeff shorts. He then sign on with John Terry and eventually ended up at John's brother Paul's studio, Terrytoons. By this time, Bill was making a good living as an animator but the medium was a little simplistic and crass for his taste. He still dreamed of becoming a master artist. He enrolled in classes again, this time at the Art Students League of New York. Then, in 1929, he relocated to Paris, France and studied painting and sculpture. Unfortunately, being surrounded by the works of the old masters didn't help his confidence any. He ended up destroying most of his work from this period because of its inferiority and hightailed it back to America.

Determined that his studies would make him a master animator if not painter or sculptor, Bill resumed working for Terrytoons. He became good friends with a fellow artist there, Art Babbitt. When Art left New York for Hollywood and the Walt Disney Studio, he would spend the next two years trying to entice Bill to follow him. Bill resisted. He was making great money during the Great Depression after all. But finally, he decided to make a visit to his old friend Art. He was so impressed by the city and the studio, he took a pay cut to move there.

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Starting in 1935, Bill worked on Silly Symphonies like The Cookie Carnival and Mickey shorts like Mickey's Fire Brigade. His work was so filled with passion that he reportedly tore holes in his paper with his pencil. His work was also so incredibly good that Walt was quickly throwing money at him to get him to stay. Bill and Art became the studio's top money makers and even became roommates again, like they'd been while working at Terrytoons. That arrangement would stand until Bill's 30 year marriage began in 1938.

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When work began on Disney's first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bill was one of the first animators assigned to the project. Working closely with Fred Moore, he designed the look of the whole film and helped define each of the dwarfs personalities. One of the best scenes in the film where you can experience Bill's talent is watching Grumpy's transformation after Snow White kisses him. Following the success of Snow White, Bill's next assignment was the villain of Pinocchio. His ability to express the strong inner feelings of the somewhat crazy kidnapper makes Stromboli marvelous to watch.

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Bill's followup to Stromboli would be the Giant in Brave Little Tailor. Ollie Johnston, one of Walt's Nine Old Men, rightly argues that the look, feel and personality of giants in cartoons was set once Bill had done it. The short was nominated for an Oscar but lost to another Disney short, Ferdinand the Bull. Bill then moved on to animating the sorcerer, Yen Sid, in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Once that became part of the larger project of Fantasia, though, Bill would get assigned perhaps the most iconic character of his career, Chernabog. The fierce, domineering and downright scary demon is clearly only that way because Bill Tytla was his animator. Growing tired of drawing "heavies," as he put it, his next assignment was decidedly more light hearted. He got to become the title character of 1941's Dumbo, which he modeled partly on his baby son.

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Then came the infamous Disney Studio Strike of 1942. Even though he was one of the best paid animators, Bill sympathized with his friends and, to the consternation of Walt, joined them on the picket line. Even though he returned to work once the strike was over, it was never the same. The war economy meant much less stimulating assignments. For Saludos Amigos, Bill animated Pedro the airplane and Jose Carioca, neither much of a challenge for him. He lent his talent to a couple of wartime shorts, but his growing dread of a Japanese attack on California led him to make a decision he would regret for the rest of life. On February 24, 1943, Bill resigned from the Disney Studio and went to live on a farm he owned in Connecticut.

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For a while, Bill went back to work for Terrytoons as an animator but soon left to become a director at a Paramount owned studio, Famous Studios. Over the next decade he directed shorts featuring Popeye, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey. In the early Fifties, he joined Tempo Productions, a studio formed by former Disney compatriots David Hilberman and Zack Schwartz, and began producing animated television commercials for the likes of Camel cigarettes, Plymouth cars and Tide. His last project was on the 1964 Warner Brothers film The Incredible Mr. Limpet, which starred future Disney Legend Don Knotts.

During production on Limpet, Bill's health began to decline and, shortly after it wrapped, he suffered a series of small strokes that left him blind in one eye. Near the end of his life, he tried several times to return to Disney, but, since Walt had passed a couple of years before, he was told there wasn't a place for him anymore. The excuse was given that there wasn't enough work for the animators the company already had, but Bill's heart just became even heavier with regret. He would pass away in 1968, mere weeks after his final rejection. Thirty years later, in recognition of his animation genius he was made an official Disney Legend.