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Vladimir 'Bill' Tytla

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Animator

The Resume

    (October 25, 1904-December 30, 1968)
    Born in Yonkers, New York
    Birth name was Vladimir Peter Tytla
    Nicknamed 'The Great Animator' by Disney historians
    One of the original animators during the 'Golden Age of Disney'
    Worked on the feature films 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' (1937), 'Pinocchio' (1940), 'Fantasia' (1940), 'Dumbo' (1941), and 'Saludos Amigos' (1942)
    Work featured prominently in WWII-era Disney projects, 'Victory Through Air Power' and 'Education for Death' (both 1943), as well as the Good-Neighbor-Policy propaganda film, 'Saludos Amigos' (1942)
    Resigned from The Walt Disney Company to spend more time with his family on his farm in Connecticut (February 24, 1943)
    Later worked for Terrytoons, Famous Studios, and Temp Productions
    Last work of feature film animation was on the Don Knotts live action film, 'The Incredible Mr. Limpet' (1964)
    Best known for animating the characters of Grumpy, Dumbo, Stromboli in 'Pinocchio,' and the demon, Chernabog, in 'Fantasia'

Why he might be annoying:

    He was known for his volcanic temper.
    Working as a title card designer for Paramount, he earned the nickname 'Tytla the Titler.'
    He is regularly grouped with Disney's prestigious 'Nine Old Men' animators, although he wasn't one of them.
    He took part in the two month strike on Disney Studios in 1941, which permanently scarred his career in animation.
    He was known for acting out his characters by jumping and strutting around his room (his overacting tends to come through in his characters).
    He regretted resigning from Disney studios for the rest of his life.
    He had ambitions to be a full fledged painter/sculptor but after studying in Paris, he destroyed his creations in the belief he could not better the works in the Louvre.
    Parents usually would fast forward through his 'Night on Bald Mountain' segment in Fantasia, for fear of traumatizing their kids, but his explosive Stromboli character in Pinocchio did a good enough job to make that a futile exercise.
    His various eccentricities, while working, tended to creep out his colleagues (working in complete darkness save for the fluorescent light under his drawing, eerily lighting it his face in an almost demonic way).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He studied sculpture, in Paris, with Charles Despiau.
    He remained on good terms with Walt Disney even after his departure from the studio.
    His later attempts to return after Walt's death were unsuccessful; his last rejection occurring the same year of his death.
    He was an extremely versatile animator; capable of both lighthearted 'cartoon' characters and serious, lifelike, three-dimensional figures.
    His 'Baby Mine' sequence in Dumbo and the 'kiss' between Snow White and Grumpy regularly turn up on animation critics' lists of their favorite scenes.
    His 'Night on Bald Mountain' sequence is arguably the most powerful and intense scene to ever be animated (allegedly based on the Ukrainian cultural folklore told to him as a child.
    He later explained his animation of the scene by saying that he 'imagined he was as big as a mountain and made of rock yet ... still feeling and moving.'
    Bloggers and Disney historians frequently rank him as one of, if not the, greatest of all animators in Disney history.
    He was largely responsible for the artistic direction the studio went in from 'Snow White' onward, granting animation as a whole a form of dignity and seriousness that had not been seen before up until that point.
    His depiction of the baby elephant Dumbo came less from any special knowledge of elephants than it did his own two-year-old son, whose facial expressions he used for a model.
    He left Disney at his peak, rather than after slumping in quality, leaving many to wonder what might have been had he remained on to experience the company's resurgence in the 1950s.
    He was invited to a 1967 animation expo in Montreal which was holding a special screening of 'Dumbo,' but worried if anyone would remember him. When the film finished, he was singled out in the audience with a spotlight, resulting in thundering applause as he withheld tears.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


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    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 71.43% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 83 Votes: 55.42% Annoying
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    In 2017, Out of 20 Votes: 55.00% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 273 Votes: 50.55% Annoying