Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In 1930, David Hand joined The Walt Disney Studios as its 21st and most ambitious young animator. It didn’t take long for Walt Disney to notice his knack for getting things done, and so he moved Dave (as he was called by his friends) into directing animated shorts such as, “Pluto’s Judgement Day” “Alpine Climbers” and “Little Hiawatha.” Later, in 1933, Walt promoted him to Production Supervisor of the Studio, and around that same time, entrusted Dave with directing the first full-length animated feature “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

As animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston recalled in their book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, Dave “was cavalier in transforming Walt’s dreams into animation.” Dave knew enough to recognize quality, and if Walt said, “Let’s get that into the picture,” Dave would make sure that it got in and just that way. If Walt said, “We can save money here; let’s keep the cost down,” Dave would use every shortcut in the book. He never confused his own views or ambitions with Walt’s."

Born in 1900, in Plainfield, New Jersey, Dave attended the Chicago Art Institute. After school, he landed a job at the J.R. Bray Studio in New York, where he met Max Fleischer, for whom he later animated the “Out of the Inkwell” series. In 1928, Dave took interest in The Walt Disney Studios, which had produced “Steamboat Willie,” the first animated cartoon to have synchronized sound. Purely on spec, he decided to visit California and apply for a job at the Studio.

During his 14 years with the company, Dave worked on about 70 shorts and three features. He served as animator on the first color cartoon, “Flowers and Trees,” which won an Oscar® for Best Cartoon in 1933. He later directed “Who Killed Cock Robin?,” which was nominated for an Academy Award® and “Three Orphan Kittens,” which won an Oscar® in 1936. He also served as supervising director on the feature “Bambi,” and animation supervisor on “Victory Through Air Power,” which was his last Disney project.

In 1944, Dave was invited to England by J. Arthur Rank to set up an animation studio. There, he won a five-year contract, creating the “Animaland” and “Musical Paintbox” series, and became known as the American who influenced a generation of British animators. In 1951, he returned to the United States to pursue a career in industrial filmmaking.

Dave Hand died October 11, 1986, in San Luis Obispo, California. —Disney Legends

Walt Disney first came to rely upon Wilfred Jackson’s genius and sense of perfection, the year Mickey Mouse was born, 1928. At that time, Walt had conceived the notion of marrying music and animation during what was the age of silent movies. Then a new kid in the Studio’s animation department, Wilfred devised a method of synchronizing animation with music, by using a metronome to mark time that could then be converted to a music track. The innovation, which was featured in Mickey Mouse’s debut film “Steamboat Willie,” revolutionized the entertainment medium and competing studios spent more than a year trying to figure out Disney’s production “secret.”

Walt quickly promoted “Jaxon,” as he was called, from animator to director. And as Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wrote in their book, “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life,” — "Jaxon was easily the most creative of the directors, but he was also the most “picky” and took a lot of kidding about his thoroughness."

Born in Chicago, January 24, 1906, Jaxon attended Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, beginning in 1925. Three years later, just before Charlie Mintz had stolen Disney’s Oswald the Lucky Rabbit character, he began hanging around The Walt Disney Studios. It was a poor time to ask for a job, but he volunteered to wash cels and assist animators until one day, he found himself holding a paycheck. He later said, “I’m the only guy [at Disney] who was never hired.”

He quickly moved up the ranks to animator, contributing to the “Silly Symphony” shorts. After “Steamboat Willie,” Jaxon went on to direct 35 shorts, three of which won Academy Awards®: “The Tortoise and The Hare,” “The Country Cousin,” and “The Old Mill.” Probably the greatest example of his skill in developing action to music, however, was “The Band Concert” starring Mickey Mouse.

Jaxon also applied his talent to 11 animated features including, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Dumbo,” “Saludos Amigos,” “Melody Time,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” and “Lady and the Tramp.” He directed such memorable sequences as “The Night on Bald Mountain” in “Fantasia,” and all cartoon and combination live-action footage in “Song of the South.” During the war years, he also produced and directed government films for the U.S. Navy.

In 1954, as Walt entered the new television medium, he asked Jaxon to produce and direct animated shows on the “Disneyland” series. During the next four years, he directed 13 shows, including “The Story of the Animated Drawing.” After nearly 35 years with The Walt Disney Studios, Jaxon retired in 1961.

Wilfred Jackson died August 7, 1988 in Newport Beach, California. —Disney Legends