Each chapter in this book is a mini biography on each of the Nine Old Men, Walt Disney's personal favorite animators. The nine old men were: Les Clark, Eric Larson, Marc Davis, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, John Lounsbery, Wolfgang Reitherman, and Ward Kimball. Each of these men had a unique style and approach to animation. All of them were with Disney from the 1930's until their retirements (or deaths) in the 1970's. Each chapter talks about their early lives and families, how they came to Disney's, how they developed their style, their relationships with Walt and other animators, other accomplishments, and what they did after their retirements.
There are problems with the Nine Old Men myth, which have resulted in misleading perspectives of the history of Disney Animation. It has overlooked the contributions of so many other animators that made major impacts at the studio. The nine old men largely didn't start coming into their own until the late 1930's and early 40's, when the studio had already established itself. This title was the result of Studio Politics and favoritism by Walt (Jack Kinney briefly discusses this in his memoir). Another problem is that there were only three films where they are all credited together as directing animators, which were released in the early 1950's. After that, majority of them started to work in different capacities in the company. Only Kahl, Thomas, Johnston (arguably the strongest animators of the nine) remained consistent in animation for their entire careers.
It's nice that there's a book that talks discusses John Lounsbery's career, because he isn't talked about as much as the other animators are, largely due to his untimely death.
Canemaker has written two other books about the storymen and sketch artists at the studio, much in the same fashion as this book. I'd like to see a book about the directors (such as Wilfred Jackson, Clyde Geronimi, Dave Hand, and Ben Sharpsteen) and one on the "earlier" generation of Disney animators.
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The book was in great shape and my niece was so surprised I found it. I only wish the library name wasn't stamped all over it.
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