The Walt Disney Company now plans to focus on its core business of family entertainment. Which is a great idea. But -- as animation industry legend Floyd Norman points out in today's column -- it's not exactly a new one ...

In honor of Black History Month, animation legend Floyd Norman returns with a thoughtful essay that reflects on his own experiences dealing with race-related issues...

Floyd Norman is back with a column that's sure to cause some controversy. Since this Disney Legend is now suggesting that WDAS should abandon production of CG animated features and instead concentrate on reviving its hand-drawn animation unit...

Long before Jerry Seinfeld and DreamWorks began talking about making "Bee Movie," this subject was alive & well at Walt Disney Studios...

Animation legend Floyd Norman now concludes his four-part series on "The Jungle Book." This time around, Floyd talks about working with Sterling Holloway on the character of Kaa. Plus Walt's interesting asessment of the boys from Liverpool...

Animation legend Floyd Norman is back with another installment of his "Jungle Book" series. This time around, Floyd talks about how master animator Milton Kahl lost one choice assignment on this film ... only to quickly gain another...

Animation industry legend Floyd Norman shares some snapshots as well as a few fond memories, as he looks back at the start of his career at Walt Disney Studios ...

Animation industry legend Floyd Norman returns with a cautionary tale. Where he points out that while animation studios do need employees who know how to follow the rules, there's an even greater need for artists who know when to break the rules ...

Floyd Norman returns with a column that talks about the very start of his career at Disney Feature Animation. Back when he was a member of the "Fairy Unit" working on "Sleeping Beauty"...

Disney Legend Floyd Norman begins a new series about the development & production of this 1996 Walt Disney Pictures animated feature...

Animation legend Floyd Norman is back with another installment of his new series about the production of "The Jungle Book." This time around, Floyd talks about how Walt Disney almost cut "The Bare Necessities" out of the movie...

Floyd Norman shares a great in-joke from "Cars" as well as talking up the new optimistic atmosphere that he's been encountering while wandering the corridors of Disney Feature Animation...

Forget about 3-D. Disney Legend Floyd Norman revisits a location at Walt Disney Studios where lots of classic animation was created...

It just doesn't pay to age in the animation business. Or so says Disney Legend Floyd Norman in his latest column of JHM...

As stories continue to circulate about the Head of Apple's health problems, Disney Legend Floyd Norman looks back to the 1960s. When another company you may know suddenly had to deal with leadership & succession-related issues...

As he begins a brand-new series about some of the storymen that he worked with at Disney Studios, animation legend Floyd Norman looks back at the all-too-brief career of Pete Young...

Animation legend Floyd Norman kicks off a brand-new series for JHM about the production of "Toy Story 2." In his first installment, Floyd talks about this project's very humble origins. Back when "The Sequel" was just supposed to be a direct-to-video release...

As he continues his new series about some of the storymen that he worked with at Disney Studios, animation legend Floyd Norman looks back over the career of cartoonist & storyboard artist Fred Lucky...

Precious little is known about the early women animators at Walt Disney Studios. Floyd Norman returns with a profile of one female artist you should really know about...

As a special holiday treat, Floyd Norman takes us back to the Disney lot in the early 1960s. Where we then get to listen in as Walt Disney films his intros for "Walt Disney Presents"...

As he gets ready to make his annual trip down to San Diego, animation legend Floyd Norman recalls the early days of the Con. Back when this strictly-comic-book convention was held at the El Cortez Hotel...

Marketing may be Tinsel Town's new religion. But Disney Legend Floyd Norman is not a believer...

Is it just me or has animated cartoon film making finally evolved into something else? With motion pictures like " Rango " and " The Adventures of Tintin " finding a home in the Academy Awards animated film category I can't help but wonder how these movies are all that different from their live action counterparts. In years past I remember audiences going to animated movies because they were NOT live-action and they weren't real. There was something fanciful and delightful...

I didn't work on Disney's " The Black Cauldron ," so you'll gain no film-making insights from me this time around. Oddly enough, this was a very important film for The Walt Disney Company. And although it didn't exactly burn up the box office charts when it opened, "The Black Cauldron" served an even greater purpose. However, we'll get to that later. What I did find interesting back in the early 1980s was a change in attitude at Disney's animation department...

The new Mission Impossible trailer was screened last weekend and I couldn't help looking for the screen credit, "Directed by Brad Bird." I've always considered Brad to be a risk taker and I remember him saying that a creative person has to be willing to "leap off the cliff" if necessary. Brad Bird knows what it takes to make good movies In today's less-than-creative environment it's cool to hear such sentiments expressed so openly. When Bird journeyed to Pixar...