Joe Grant, legendary Disney storyman and artist, passed
away last Friday on May 6 at the age of 96. Grant’s imprint can be found
on many of the early Disney animated features as well as recent releases,
as his career with Disney ultimately spanned over seven decades.
Joe Grant, member of Walt Disney’s inner circle, artist and storyman extraordinaire.
Grant was one of those rare individuals who helped shape the development
of animation in the beginning, yet still had an active hand in shaping
the newest generation of animation storytelling and techniques today.
In fact, Grant is the only Disney artist to have worked on both versions
of Fantasia.
Born in New York in 1908, his family moved while he was young to Los
Angeles, California. Grant’s father, who worked as an art editor at a
local newspaper, allowed Grant to tag along with him to the newsroom,
where Grant learned how to draw.
Grant found work in the early 1930s drawing caricatures for the now-defunct
newspaper, the Los Angeles Record, as well as for famed restaurants
of the time, Lindy’s and Sardi’s. Those caricatures brought him to the
attention of Walt Disney, who hired Grant to provide caricatures for the
early cartoons, “Parade of the Award Nominees” and “Mickey’s
Gala Premiere.”
Grant’s celebrity caricatures in “Mickey’s Gala Premiere.” Image
source PRNewsFoto.
Within a few years, Grant found full-time work at the Disney studios,
providing animation initially for “Who Killed Cock Robin,” then
was assigned to design the Queen/Witch for the 1937 classic Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs.
While Snow White was still in production, Disney charged Grant
with creating and heading up the newly formed Character Model Department,
where initial sketches and designs of proposed new characters were created.
No character design was considered “official” until Grant approved
it.
Grant personally worked on story and/or character design for “Thru
The Mirror,” Pinocchio, and Fantasia. On Fantasia,
Grant worked closely with his longtime collaborator, Dick Huemer, and
the famed conductor Leopold Stokowski, to choose the music heard in the
feature. In a recent interview with online magazine Animation World Magazine,
he recounted that, “We played and played music, just short of lunacy…
It was really quite difficult. It worked back and forth. Either something
was suggested by the drawings, or by the music itself. But, there’s always
a good story in a good piece of music.”
Grant working with Walt Disney on story design. Image source PRNewsFoto.
Grant co-wrote and supervised the story elements for Dumbo, as
well as character and/or story design for later features Make Mine
Music, Saludos Amigos, Alice in Wonderland, and Lady
& The Tramp. In fact, Grant and his wife came up with the inspiration
to base a story on a springer spaniel named “Lady.” Grant also
provided character and story design for the Baby Weems segment in the
Reluctant Dragon feature, in which the Baby Weems character was
said to be based on Grant’s own daughter, Carol.
Grant also provided story and design for various wartime animation pieces,
most notably “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” “Education for Death,”
and “Reason and Emotion.” An interview with Grant talking on
this subject can be viewed on the 2004 Walt Disney Treasures DVD release,
On The Front Lines.
With the advent of World War II, the Character Model Department was disbanded
due to economic pressures, and Grant left to pursue other interests, running
both a ceramics studio and a successful greeting cards business.
Forty years later, Grant received a call from Walt Disney Feature Animation
in 1989 asking if he’d like to work as a consultant on an upcoming project,
Beauty and the Beast, thus beginning his second stint at the Disney
studios, which continued until his death.
As Creative Director at WDFA, Grant enthusiastically contributed concepts,
design, story ideas, and gags for Aladdin, The Lion King,
Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and
Hercules, helping to usher in what is known as Disney’s second
golden age of animation. He came up with the ideas for both the little
insect character “Cri-Kee” in Mulan, and the inspired
gag of a flamingo playing with yo-yos in Fantasia 2000.
As elder statesman at WDFA during the 1990s and later, Grant could always
be counted on to provide advice and help to younger animators. Grant was
known for his keen interest in new animation techniques and the future
of animation in general as animation moved from 2-D techniques to the
computer-based world of 3-D animation. One of his last projects, the animated
short subject “Lorenzo” (based on his story of a cat whose tail
came to life) received an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Animated
Film in 2005.
Grant was equally revered as well, being well-respected for his input
at various meetings and story sessions, even providing the title name
for Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. As part of Pixar’s film, A Bug’s
Life, the cookie box circus wagon was named after him.
Pixar’s Tribute to Joe Grant as seen in A Bug’s Life.
Named a Disney Legend in 1992, Grant also was the recipient of the National
Cartoonists Society Ruben Award in 1996 and an Annie Award from the International
Animated Film Society (ASIFA), as well as many other awards and retrospectives
of his art. More than 70 of his caricatures can be seen at the Smithsonian.
With his enthusiasm for life and his work, Grant continued drawing and
designing until his death, caused by a heart attack while sketching away
at his drawing board at home.
Grant’s influence is most evident in the detailed and life-like characters
of the early Disney movies of the 1930s and in the highly successful Disney
animation features of the 1990s. Hopefully his guidance, teachings, and
attention to detail will influence future generations of animators and
moviemakers so that the famed Disney art of animation will not pass away
with him.
Grant is survived by his two daughters, Carol Eve Grubb and Jennifer
Jean Grant Castrup, as well as several grandchildren. His wife of 70 years,
Jennie, passed away in 1991.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 14 at 9:00 a.m. at the
Church of the Recessional at Forest Lawn in Glendale, California. The
family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Pasadena
Humane Society & SPCA, 361 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91105.
