Frank Thomas (animator)
Encyclopedia
Franklin M. "Frank" Thomas (September 5, 1912 – September 8, 2004) was an American
animator
. He was one of Walt Disney
's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men
.
Born in Fresno
, California
, Frank Thomas attended Stanford University
, where he was a member of Theta Delta Chi
fraternity and worked on campus humor magazine The Stanford Chaparral
with Ollie Johnston
. After graduating from Stanford, he attended Chouinard Art Institute
, then joined The Walt Disney Company
on September 24, 1934 as employee number 224. There he animated dozens of feature films and shorts, and also was a member of the Dixieland
band Firehouse Five Plus Two
, playing the piano
.
His work in animated cartoon
shorts included The Brave Little Tailor, in which he animated scenes of Mickey Mouse
and the king; Mickey and the bear in The Pointer
, and German dialogue scenes in the World War II
propaganda
short Education for Death
(shortly before Thomas enlisted in the Air Force).
In feature film
s, among the characters and scenes Thomas animated were the dwarfs crying over Snow White
's "dead" body, Pinocchio
singing at the marionette theatre, Bambi
and Thumper on the ice, Lady and the Tramp
eating spaghetti, the three fairies in Sleeping Beauty
, Merlin and Arthur as squirrels and the "wizard's duel" between Merlin and Madam Mim in The Sword in the Stone
(in which he was paired with animator Milt Kahl
to great effect), King Louie in The Jungle Book
(the song number "I Wan'na Be Like You" featuring King Louie and Baloo the Bear re-teamed him with Kahl), the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins
, and Winnie The Pooh and Piglet
in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. Thomas was directing animator for several memorable villains, including the evil stepmother Lady Tremaine in Cinderella
, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland
, the Pink Elephants on Parade
in Dumbo
(which he was uncredited), and Captain Hook
in Peter Pan
. He also provided work on Fantasia
.
He retired from Disney on January 31, 1978.
Thomas co-authored, with fellow Disney legend Ollie Johnston
, the comprehensive book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life
, first published by Abbeville Press in 1981. Regarded as the definitive resource book on traditional hand-drawn
character animation
(particularly in the Disney style), the book has been republished numerous times, and is widely considered "the bible" among character animators. The book summarized the Disney approach to animation through the so-called 12 basic principles of animation
.
Thomas and Johnston were also profiled in the 1995 documentary
Frank and Ollie
, which screened at the 20th Toronto International Film Festival
, directed by Thomas's son Theodore Thomas
. The film profiled their careers, private lives, and the personal friendship between the two men.
Thomas's last appearance in an animated film before his death was in The Incredibles
(directed by Brad Bird
), although he voiced a character, rather than animating one. Frank and his friend and colleague Ollie Johnston voiced and were caricatured as two old men saying "That's old school..." "Yeah, no school like the old school." The pair had previously been heard, and caricatured, as the two train engineers in Bird's The Iron Giant
. Frank Thomas died in Flintridge, California at age 92.
The 2001 biography Walt Disney's Nine Old Men & The Art of Animation by John Canemaker
(ISBN 0-7868-6496-6) chronicles Thomas' life.
On the Animation Podcast, Disney director John Musker
discussed Frank Thomas, and mentioned that at one time, fellow animation great Chuck Jones
had christened Thomas the "Laurence Olivier
of animators."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
. He was one of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men
Disney's Nine Old Men
Disney's Nine Old Men were the core animators at The Walt Disney Company who created some of Disney's most famous works, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs onward to The Rescuers. Walt Disney jokingly called this group of animators his "Nine Old Men," referring to Robert S...
.
Born in Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Frank Thomas attended Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, where he was a member of Theta Delta Chi
Theta Delta Chi
Theta Delta Chi is a social fraternity that was founded in 1847 at Union College. While nicknames differ from institution to institution, the most common nicknames for the fraternity are Theta Delt, Thete, TDX, and TDC. Theta Delta Chi brothers refer to their local organization as Charges rather...
fraternity and worked on campus humor magazine The Stanford Chaparral
Stanford Chaparral
The Stanford Chaparral is a humor magazine published by students of Stanford University since 1899.-History:...
with Ollie Johnston
Ollie Johnston
Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr. was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death. He was recognized by The Walt Disney Company with its Disney Legend Award in 1989...
. After graduating from Stanford, he attended Chouinard Art Institute
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
, then joined The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
on September 24, 1934 as employee number 224. There he animated dozens of feature films and shorts, and also was a member of the Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
band Firehouse Five Plus Two
Firehouse Five Plus Two
The Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland jazz band, popular in the 1950s, consisting of members of the Walt Disney Studios animation department;-Members:Danny Alguire — cornetHarper Goff — banjo...
, playing the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
.
His work in animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
shorts included The Brave Little Tailor, in which he animated scenes of Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
and the king; Mickey and the bear in The Pointer
The Pointer
The Pointer is a 1939 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon follows Mickey Mouse as he tries to teach his dog Pluto to be a pointer dog during a quail hunt...
, and German dialogue scenes in the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
short Education for Death
Education for Death
Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an animated short film produced by Walt Disney and released on January 15, 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the anti-Nazi propaganda book by Gregor Ziemer, directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Ward Kimball...
(shortly before Thomas enlisted in the Air Force).
In feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, among the characters and scenes Thomas animated were the dwarfs crying over Snow White
Snow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
's "dead" body, Pinocchio
Pinocchio
The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Florence. The first half was originally a serial between 1881 and 1883, and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of Pinocchio , an...
singing at the marionette theatre, Bambi
Bambi
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
and Thumper on the ice, Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released to theaters on June 22, 1955, by Buena Vista Distribution. The fifteenth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, it was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen...
eating spaghetti, the three fairies in Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
, Merlin and Arthur as squirrels and the "wizard's duel" between Merlin and Madam Mim in The Sword in the Stone
The Sword in the Stone (film)
The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 American animated fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theaters on December 25, 1963...
(in which he was paired with animator Milt Kahl
Milt Kahl
Milton Erwin Kahl was an animator for the Disney studio, and one of Disney's Nine Old Men....
to great effect), King Louie in The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
(the song number "I Wan'na Be Like You" featuring King Louie and Baloo the Bear re-teamed him with Kahl), the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
, and Winnie The Pooh and Piglet
Piglet (Winnie the Pooh)
Piglet is a fictional character from A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh books. Piglet is Winnie-the-Pooh's closest friend amongst all the toys/animals featured in the stories...
in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is a 1968 animated featurette based on stories from the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 20, 1968 before The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. This was...
and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. Thomas was directing animator for several memorable villains, including the evil stepmother Lady Tremaine in Cinderella
Cinderella (1950 film)
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Twelfth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film had a limited release on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi,...
, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New...
, the Pink Elephants on Parade
Pink Elephants on Parade
Pink Elephants on Parade is the name of a segment, and the song played therein, from the Disney animated feature film Dumbo in which Dumbo and Timothy Q...
in Dumbo
Dumbo
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...
(which he was uncredited), and Captain Hook
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
in Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1953 film)
Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J. M. Barrie. It is the fourteenth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and was originally released on February 5, 1953 by RKO Pictures...
. He also provided work on Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
.
He retired from Disney on January 31, 1978.
Thomas co-authored, with fellow Disney legend Ollie Johnston
Ollie Johnston
Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr. was an American motion picture animator. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last surviving at the time of his death. He was recognized by The Walt Disney Company with its Disney Legend Award in 1989...
, the comprehensive book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life
Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life
Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life , 1981, is an acclaimed book by two of Disney's Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. It is widely considered to be one of the best books ever published on the topic of character animation...
, first published by Abbeville Press in 1981. Regarded as the definitive resource book on traditional hand-drawn
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
character animation
Character animation
Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process concerning the animation of one or more characters featured in an animated work. It is usually as one aspect of a larger production and often made to enhance voice acting. The primary role of a Character Animator is to be the...
(particularly in the Disney style), the book has been republished numerous times, and is widely considered "the bible" among character animators. The book summarized the Disney approach to animation through the so-called 12 basic principles of animation
12 basic principles of animation
The Twelve Basic Principles of Animation is a set of principles of animation introduced by the Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation. Johnston and Thomas in turn based their book on the work of the leading Disney animators from...
.
Thomas and Johnston were also profiled in the 1995 documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Frank and Ollie
Frank and Ollie
Frank and Ollie is a 1995 documentary film about the life and careers of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two chief animators that had worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios during its early years, up until their retirement in the late 1970s....
, which screened at the 20th Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
, directed by Thomas's son Theodore Thomas
Theodore Thomas (filmmaker)
Theodore Thomas is a United States film director and producer. He is the son of the late Disney animator Frank Thomas. His films include the 1984 movie Where the Toys Come From, the documentary about the two last Disney "Nine Old Men" animators, Frank and Ollie, 1995, and the Walt & El Grupo,...
. The film profiled their careers, private lives, and the personal friendship between the two men.
Thomas's last appearance in an animated film before his death was in The Incredibles
The Incredibles
The Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
(directed by Brad Bird
Brad Bird
Phillip Bradley "Brad" Bird is an Academy Award-winning American director, voice actor, animator and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles and Ratatouille . He also adapted and directed the critically acclaimed 2D animated 1999 Warner Brothers...
), although he voiced a character, rather than animating one. Frank and his friend and colleague Ollie Johnston voiced and were caricatured as two old men saying "That's old school..." "Yeah, no school like the old school." The pair had previously been heard, and caricatured, as the two train engineers in Bird's The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant
The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated film produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Brad Bird directed the film, which stars a voice cast of Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick, Jr., Vin Diesel, Eli Marienthal, Christopher McDonald and John Mahoney...
. Frank Thomas died in Flintridge, California at age 92.
The 2001 biography Walt Disney's Nine Old Men & The Art of Animation by John Canemaker
John Canemaker
John Cannizzaro Jr. , better known as John Canemaker, is an independent animator, animation historian, author, teacher and lecturer. In 1980, he began teaching and developing the animation program at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts', Kanbar Institute of Film and Television Department...
(ISBN 0-7868-6496-6) chronicles Thomas' life.
On the Animation Podcast, Disney director John Musker
John Musker
John Musker is an American animation director. Along with Ron Clements, he makes up the duo of one of the Disney animation studio's leading director teams.-Life and career:...
discussed Frank Thomas, and mentioned that at one time, fellow animation great Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
had christened Thomas the "Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
of animators."
Books (all with Johnston)
- Disney Animation: The Illusion of LifeDisney Animation: The Illusion of LifeDisney Animation: The Illusion of Life , 1981, is an acclaimed book by two of Disney's Nine Old Men, Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas. It is widely considered to be one of the best books ever published on the topic of character animation...
- Too Funny For Words: Disney's Greatest Sight Gags
- The Disney Villain (ISBN 1-56282-792-8)
- Bambi: The Story and the Film, accompanied by a flip book