Disney animation history – “Drawing the Line” (University Press of Kentucky, 2006) – Tom Sito interview
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Tom Sito has been a film animator for decades and has worked on some of Disney’s biggest films. He’s written a book on Disney history based on interviews with Disney animators who were working there during the 1941 strike and we spoke about the book.
2:15 – Tom Sito talks about his animation career with Disney Studios. He explains how he ended up writing this book on the Disney strike of 1941.
4:00 – Tom talks about the layout of the book and how animation works.
7:03 – The book covers labor issues from the early days through modern day.
9:00 – The labor movement in animation caused changes in how animation was produced. UPA represents some of these changes.
15:14 – Tom talks about animators approached being in unions.
20:20 – Tom used 75 first person interviews and archives for the book research. He also knows the Disney family and they liked the book.
22:30 – The history involves the mob and communists. The Disney strike was one of the few without violence.
24:30 – The most dramatic day of the strike was the first day the picket line went up. The depression was still happneing for many people on that May 1941 day.
32:45 – The studios would use off-duty LA police to break up strikes. The mob coulnd’t make inroads into LA because the LA police would rough up mobsters who came into town.
38:00 – Tom talks about Don Bluth and how he left Disney and formed Don Bluth Studios in competition with Disney.
41:44 – Tom talks about Jakob Kirtzberg who left animation after a strike and went into comic books under the name Jack Kirby.
42:54 – Tom talks about the importance of the book among animators.
49:24 – Tom talks about the animation revival in the 1980s and 1990s.
50:35 – Tom talks about computer animation and its early development and rise. Flight simulators were a big part of this development.
57:30 – Tom talks about special effects used in 2001.
1:01:26 – He has a website at tomsito.com.
Links of interest
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Guests: Tom Sito
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: art, artist, animation, Disney, los angeles police, mobsters, mob, communists, UPA, studios, Hollywood, Snow White and the seven dwarves, Don Bluth, Don Bluth studios, marvel comics, Jack Kirby, Paramount studios, Star Trek, Genesis effect, 2001, special effects, cookbooks,
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