Actors with Pencils

Walt Disney pioneered the art of hand drawn animation, but it was really his top animators, “The Nine Old Men,” who were responsible for developing the art form. As they used to say, an animator is really an actor with a pencil, and The Nine Old Men were like a theatrical company hiding in plain sight behind some of the iconic characters of all time. Andreas Deja, who animated Scar and Jafar, talks about being trained by The Nine Old Men and the pressure of living up to their legacy. John Canemaker explains why hand drawn feature animation is a lost art in Hollywood, and Jerry Beck sees a renaissance of 2D animation lurking beyond the “live action” Disney remakes.