- Joe Grant
Joe Grant (
May 15 ,1908 –May 6 ,2005 ) was a Disney artist and writer.Born in
New York City ,New York , he worked forThe Walt Disney Company as acharacter designer and story artist beginning in 1933 on theMickey Mouse short, "Mickey's Gala Premiere". He was aDisney legend . He created the Queen in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". He co-wrote "Dumbo ". He also led development of "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio".During
World War II , Grant worked on war cartoons including the Academy Award winning "Der Fuehrer's Face ". He left the Disney studio in 1949 and ran a ceramics business and a greeting card business but returned in 1989 to work on "Beauty and the Beast". He also worked on "Aladdin", "The Lion King ", "Pocahontas", "Fantasia 2000 ", "Monsters, Inc. " and "Mulan " among others. The last film he worked on before his death "Chicken Little", was dedicated to him.Grant worked four days a week at Disney until he died, 9 days short of his 97th birthday. Grant's final project, "Lorenzo", for which he conceived the idea and helped storyboard, received an Academy Award nomination in 2005.
Joe Grant died of a heart attack while working at his drawing board in his studio. He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Glendale, California .A large collection of his caricatures is owned by the
Smithsonian Museum .Lady from
Lady and the Tramp was based on apet Springer Spaniel named Lady owned by Joe Grant,Fact|date=February 2008 it is said by his daughter on the DVD (Lady and the Tramp) that Walt Disney thought the dog's long fur looked like a dress and suggested creating a story board featuring his dog.Quotes
"The idea of animation was overwhelming; the magic of it. I never lost sight of it. When I realized it was color, music, action -- what more could you want? It had every dimension."
On
Hayao Miyazaki : "I enjoy dreaming along with him: He's the original dream merchant. . . . It's not a regular cartoon, but a work of art that moves; its pacing is beautiful and symphonic in its rhythms."External links
* [http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/story/0,1259,---25703,00.html Obituary]
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050509/lam101.html?.v=7 Another obituary]
* [http://www.animationartconservation.com/lorenzo.html Lorenzo"] Director / Production designer Mike Gabriel uses sequences of production art to discuss the creative process on Lorenzo, a Disney short based on story ideas and sketches by Joe Grant.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
