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Who Was Bill Tytla? 15 Facts About the Artist Who Turned Disney Into a Gold Standard

You have enjoyed his work all your life. Now learn about him.

Who Was Bill Tytla? 15 Facts About the Artist Who Turned Disney Into a Gold Standard

August 11, 2021

Do you think Disney was always... well, Disney? Do you believe it became the top animation studio the moment a Kansas cartoonist established it? No, it didn’t. That took the talent and hard work of many fine people -- and Bill Tytla was one of the finest. Wanna know more about him? Just read on.

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It's pretty gunked up down there.

WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? VLADIMIR BILL TYTLA MADE DISNEY, DISNEY. When Bill Tytla came to Disney in 1934, cartoons were mostly just doodles moving around the screen. He turned them into living, breathing characters, helping usher in Disney's Golden Age. — More: 5 Underappreciated Creators Of All Your Favorite Shows And Films

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? CHERNABOG FROM FANTASIA IS HIS CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT. I imagined that I was as big as a mountain and made of rock, and yet I was feeling and moving. He had such a clear idea about what he wanted, he turned down reference footage of Bela Lugosi playing the demon, and had director Wilfred Jackson pose shirtless for him instead. — Sources: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org), Cartoon Brew on Twitter

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? HE ALSO DID POPEYE AND MIGHTY MOUSE. SPINACH After leaving Disney, Tytla worked on shorts of Popeye, Little Lulu, and Mighty Mouse, among others (usually as director and producer, not as an animator). He didn't quite enjoy this kind of work, and always thought of Disney as his real home. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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Dumbo

WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? DUMBO IS BASED ON TYTLA'S TODDLER SON. I don't know a damn thing about elephants, Tytla candidly fessed up. Most of the expressions and mannerisms I got from my kid. There's nothing theatrical about a two- year-old kid. They're real and sincere. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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He showed everyone how to make cartoons come alive. Tytla wasn’t happy with just drawing what a character was doing, as he was expected to -- he also took advantage of their cartoonish features to show what they were thinking and feeling, completely changing how things were done. — Sources: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org), The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney, by Michael Barrier

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TYTLA REALLY ACTED THROUGH HIS CHARACTERS. He did not just get inside Stromboli, his fellow animators wrote, he was Stromboli. That's no exaggeration-they would hear him loudly acting out the part in his office. He would become a character (often an intense, exhausting process for him), and then pour that energy onto the paper. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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Bill Tytla started out at a crappy cartoon studio. Tytla started in animation at 19, when he landed a gig in a New York City joint. He spent several years there, churning out cheap cartoons. His skills being far above the other animators, he would often deal with difficult scenes, like people dancing. — Sources: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org), Terrytoons’ Jazz Mad (via YouTube)

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? HE WAS MAD TALENTED FROM A YOUNG AGE. Tytla dropped out of high school, preferring to study art instead. He was so good at drawing, a truancy judge let him get away with it when he saw his work. — Sources: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org), LotSearch

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? HE TOURED EUROPE TO STUDY WITH THE GREAT MASTERS. In Paris, Tytla learned sculpture from Charles Despiau (pictured), who had worked with Auguste Rodin. This taught him to pare down a character to expressive, dynamic forms with volume - a skill which would prove invaluable over at Disney, years later. — Sources: John Canemaker’s Animated Eye, Wikimedia Commons

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? HE WASN'T PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN ANIMATION AT FIRST. Skilled as Tytla was, his cartoons before Disney were just a job to provide for his family while he learned to be a serious artist. He didn't know who this Walt Disney person even was until he came across one of his shorts in a Paris theater. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? DISNEY WAS THE HOLY GRAIL FOR HIM. Used to work for penny pinchers who didn't really care, Tytla was dazzled by Disney's nurturing environment. Encouraged by his friend Art Babbitt (also a legendary animator), he moved to the West Coast and took a job there, seeing the chance to do real art. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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Snow White

WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? SNOW WHITE'S DWARFS COME FROM A RENAISSANCE PAINTER. Tytla was a big fan of Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel, having become obsessed with his paintings in Europe. He remembered Bruegel's dancing peasants when Disney tasked him with creating the seven dwarfs. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org), The Art Story

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WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? HE ALWAYS REGRETTED LEAVING DISNEY. Tytla quit in 1943 amid rising tensions (mostly because of a big animators strike in 1941), and he never again found the kind of challenging, fulfilling work he did over there. I would like to go back to Disney's to die, he confided to a friend in 1967, a year before his death. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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Bill Tytla

WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? TYTLA THOUGHT THAT ANIMATION SHOULDN'T BE REALISTIC. In Bill Tytla's expert opinion, animation was better at bringing characters to life if it didn't try to make the stuff look too damn naturalistic. Disney himself heartily agreed. Maybe someone over at the company should have remembered that before they remade The Lion King. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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Bill Tytla

WHO WAS BILL TYTLA? BILL TYTLA DEFINED YOUR CHILDHOOD DECADES BEFORE YOU WERE BORN. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin... Those were all attempts to recreate the lush animation style Disney achieved during Tytla's tenure. So if ever enjoyed a Disney movie, you can thank this intense, energetic, mustached gentleman. — Source: Vladimir Tytla, Master Animator, by John Canemaker (via AnimationResources.org)

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