Like most old guys, I tend to get my brain stuck in a certain time frame. So I didn’t immediately recognize the man sitting in the limo. For some odd reason, I expected to see the guy I remembered. The slender, dark haired young man with the horn rimmed glasses. However, this older gentleman didn’t exactly fit that image. Which is why it took me a moment to recognize my old colleague, Blaine Gibson.
Blaine and I were doing a media event that will launch the new Disney Blu-Ray edition of “Sleeping Beauty.” This busy day would consist of two dozen or more interviews with media from around the world. The fact that we worked on the film together was the only thing that we really had in common. After all, back in 1957, Blaine Gibson was a top Disney animator while I was simply a starstruck kid just out of school. However, Blaine was gracious as always, and he considered me a colleague on the film.
For those of you who don’t remember Blaine Gibson, he’s probably best known for his work at Walt Disney Imagineering doing beautiful sculptures on such attractions as “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Blaine began doing sculpture when he was five years old. And that’s why Frank Thomas asked Blaine to do sculpts of the Good Fairies — Flora, Fauna and Merryweather — while we were working on “Sleeping Beauty.”
Disney Legend Blaine Gibson poses with some of the “rascally rogues” that he sculpted for the “Pirates of the Caribbean” attraction. Copyright 1967 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Blaine likes to say he got his job at Disney through the mail. Back in the 1930s, he was a young farm boy from Colorado struggling to get through college. However, this was the Depression, and money was running out. Blaine heard that the Walt Disney Studio was looking for artists, so he mailed a few of his sketches to Hollywood. Much to his surprise, the Disney Studio liked his drawings and offered him a job.
Like Walt Disney himself, Blaine Gibson arrived in Hollywood with only a suitcase in his hand. However, he traveled by Greyhound bus, not by train. Blaine was lucky enough to share a room in the Silver Lake area with one of the young guys working at the Hyperion Studios.
Gibson was quick to point out that his first assignment had nothing to do with drawing. It seems that Walt Disney wanted his young apprentices to learn every aspect of the making of an animated film. He wanted his team to be knowledgeable about every phase of production. So all the young artists began their career as messenger boys in the Traffic Department. This brought them in contact with every department in the studio.
The Old Hyperion Studios, where Blaine Gibson started his Disney career back in the 1930s. Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved
In time, Blaine Gibson began animating on the Disney films. Like all young animators, he cut his teeth on the Disney shorts before making the move to feature films. However, even on the features, Blaine found himself doing a lot of effects animation. Blaine had a good eye and always observed how objects and characters moved. Because of his attention to detail, his supervisors began passing plum scenes his way. And by the 1950s, he was an animator on that Disney classic, “Sleeping Beauty.”
By the time I arrived at Disney in the late 1950s, Blaine Gibson was already a master animator. I remember seeing him in the hallway of the Animation Building. Unlike many of Disney’s top animators, Blaine was remarkably low key and soft-spoken. A lot of us young kids were too intimidated to even talk to the animators. But Blaine Gibson was always open and accessible.
Our clean-up crew was working on Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. Needless to say, drawing those three was not an easy task. So Directing Animator Frank Thomas asked Blaine to do sculpts of the fairies. Of course, Gibson did a beautiful job. And not surprisingly, his work caught the eye of Walt Disney.
Two of the delightful characters that Blaine Gibson animated for the opening scenes of Disney’s 1961 release, “101 Dalmatians.” Copyright Disney. All Rights Reserved
Once “Sleeping Beauty” was wrapped, we immediately moved on to our next feature film, “101 Dalmatians.” I still remember those wonderful opening scenes where Pongo is seeking a mate for his owner, Roger. As Pongo observes from the apartment window, a number of young women walk their dogs through the scene. Each canine mirrors the personality & movement of their owner, and this is a very entertaining sequence. I still enjoy watching these scenes today. And naturally, Blaine Gibson animated them.
Top animator or no — Walt Disney had other plans for Blaine. In the 1960s, Gibson put his animator’s pencil down and moved on over to Glendale. Where a whole new career awaited him at Walt Disney Imagineering. And for the remainder of his days at Disney, Blaine helped create many of the top attractions that we still enjoy today at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Gibson is now retired and living in Montecito near my hometown of Santa Barbara. It’s hard to believe Blaine’s now 90-years old. But even at that age he still remembers the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s like they were yesterday.
Gibson does a little pruning on the George W. Bush bust that he sculpted for WDW’s “Hall of Presidents.” Copyright 2001 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Always a joy to work with, always a joy to talk with, Blaine Gibson is an animation treasure. And a true Disney Legend.
Did you enjoy today’s tribute to Blaine Gibson? Well, if you’d like to read even more of Floyd’s musings, keep in mind that Mr. Norman now has his very own home on the Web. Appropriately titled Mr. Fun’s Blog.
Or if you’d prefer to get your Floyd fix on paper … Well, you can purchase one or more of the books that Mr. Fun now has on the market. Which each take an affectionate look back at the time that Mr. Norman has spent toiling in Toontown.
These volumes include Floyd’s original collection of cartoons & stories – “Faster! Cheaper! The Flip Side of the Art of Animation” (Which is available for sale over at John Cawley’s cataroo.com) as well as Norman’s two follow-ups to that paperbook, “Son of Faster, Cheaper” and “How the Grinch Stole Disney.” Which you can purchase by heading over to Afrokids.com.