You know, when a beloved big name Broadway performer dies, they sometimes dim the lights on the Great White Way. Just to show how much that star will be missed. How much that performer was loved & respected by his or her peers.
Well, I wish that the animation world had an equivalent gesture. That -- for one brief moment -- that every working animator out there would put down their pencils and/or step away from their keyboards. Just so they could all pay tribute to the late great Frank Thomas.
Of course, knowing what I know about this veteran Disney animator's incredible work ethic, I think that Frank would have been horrified by a gesture like that. An animator putting down their pencil? That was (to Thomas' way of thinking, anyway) unthinkable.
You see, Frank was all about how an artist was supposed to make the most of every single moment that they spent at their drawing table. How they should strive to make sure that each & every line counted. That each gesture, every little nuance added to the total performance of the character that the animator was drawing.
This attitude may explain why Thomas was such a tough taskmaster. His assistants would often talk about how they'd return from lunch only to find these incredibly precise notes from Frank pinned to their desks. Which featured these exacting instructions about how these newbie animators could improve the scenes that Thomas had assigned to them.
This may make Frank sound like a really hard guy to work for. But -- when you look back at the amazing pieces of animation, all those memorable moments that poured out of Frank Thomas' pencil -- I'm thinking that maybe the ends justified the means. I mean, just look at some of the highlights from Thomas' incredible career:
Obviously, Thomas left behind an incredible body of work. But more importantly -- thanks to those wonderful how-to books that he wrote with his longtime co-worker & friend, Ollie Johnston (I.E. 1981's "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life," 1987's "Too Funny for Words," 1990's "Walt Disney's Bambi: The Story and the Film" and 1993's "The Disney Villain") -- Frank inspired an entire generation of animators. Revealed to both veteran artists as well as those just starting out in the industry how they too could master their craft. How they too could become excellent at animation.
Over the past 20 years, I've been in dozens of animators offices. And virtually everyone of these folks had a well-thumbed copy of "Illusion of Life" close at hand. So that -- whenever they got stuck on an assignment -- they could just grab their copy of this most excellent book and see how Frank & Ollie solved a similar problem.
So -- yes, I know -- it's sad that Frank Thomas is no longer with us. But -- you know, as long as all those copies of "Illusion of Life" are out there -- he really isn't gone. Thomas will still be out there guiding future generations of animators . Pushing these folks (just as Frank used to push his assistants Don Bluth, John Pomeroy and the late Dale Oliver) to do the very best they can at their craft.
Those books ... And all those wonderful moments in Disney animated films ... That's not a half bad legacy, don't you think?
Caricature by Peter Emslie
The staff of JHM mourns the passing of Frank Thomas & wishes to extend its condolences to his family in their time of sorrow.