Yes, in the movie his Mom is shot by the hunter, but the real life creator and the last of Disney’s Nine Old Men died last week. Ollie Johnston, passed away at the age of 95. His creations are legend, and his book The Illusion of Life is considered an animator’s bible. He is credited with Bambi’s furry rabbit friend Thumper’s nervously tapping foot to making Pinnochio’s nose grow, to Smee, joyously serving Captain Hook’s every wish. A genuinely nice man, we had the pleasure of meeting him in 1996 when a friend arranged a tour of Disney’s animation studios where my then seven year old daughter held one of the many Oscars this group won in her hand from that period.

In this day of computer generated features where the worry is how to get animal fur to move with the wind, these old boys did OK with simple pen and ink.

One of my personal Ollie favourites was the delightful waiter penguins dancing with Dick van Dyke in Mary Poppins. An excellent dancer, the task of overlaying such perfect detail as four penguins repeating his every step, much to the delight of Julie Andrews, is a scene I remember from my childhood on the giant movie screen of Boston’s Music Hall Theatre in the 1960s.

I hope my own children develop an appreciation for the pioneers of this work now gone.

I raise a toast to Ollie along with: Les Clark (Lady and the Tramp); Frank Thomas (Prince John in Robin Hood), Woolie Retherman (directed all films after Walt died), John Lousenbery (created the father in Peter Pan), Eric Larson (Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox), Ward Kimball (The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland), Milt Kahl (The tiger Sher Kahn in Jungle Book) and Marc Davis (Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmations).

Walt has his team together again, I wonder what comes next?