Ken Anderson (animator)
Kenneth B. Anderson (March 17, 1909 – December 13, 1993) was an American art director and a writer at Walt Disney Animation Studios for 44 years.
Kenneth B. Anderson | |
|---|---|
.jpg.webp) | |
| Born | March 17, 1909 |
| Died | December 13, 1993 (aged 84) |
| Occupation(s) | Art director and writer |
Anderson studied architecture at the University of Washington, graduating with a B.Arch. in 1934. He was particularly influenced by faculty member Lionel Pries.
With the delineation skills he learned in architecture school, he soon secured a position at Disney. Anderson was a key player in some of the studio's most well-known animated films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and The Jungle Book (1967). He also worked on the development of Disneyland. Ken is a 1991 winner of the Disney Legends award for Animation & Imagineering.
Ken Anderson died in La Cañada Flintridge from a stroke at the age of 84.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Credits | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Art Director | Credited as Kenneth Anderson |
| 1940 | Pinocchio | Art Director | Credited as Kenneth Anderson |
| Fantasia | Art Director - Segment "The Pastoral Symphony" | Credited as Kenneth Anderson | |
| 1941 | The Reluctant Dragon | Art Director: Cartoon Sequences | |
| 1943 | Saludos Amigos (Short) | Background Artist | |
| 1945 | The Three Caballeros | Art Supervisor | Credited as Kenneth Anderson |
| 1946 | Song of the South | Cartoon Art Director | Credited as Kenneth Anderson |
| 1948 | Melody Time | Story | |
| 1949 | So Dear to My Heart | Cartoon Story Treatment | |
| 1950 | Cinderella | Story | Credited as Kenneth Anderson |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Color and Styling | |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Layout Artist | |
| Ben and Me (Short) | Art Director | ||
| 1955 | Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier | Special Art Work | |
| Lady and the Tramp | Layout Artist | ||
| 1959 | Sleeping Beauty | Production Designer | |
| 1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Art Director and Production Designer | |
| 1963 | The Sword in the Stone | Art Director | |
| 1966 | Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Short) | Story | |
| 1967 | The Jungle Book | Story | |
| 1970 | The Aristocats | Story / Production Designer | |
| 1973 | Robin Hood | Based on Character and Story Conceptions by / Story Sequences | |
| 1977 | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Story | |
| The Rescuers | Story | ||
| Pete's Dragon | Creator: "Elliott" / Animation Art Director | ||
| 1992 | Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland | Story Sketches | |
Architect/Designer
- Disneyland and the EPCOT Center
- Gore's Mansion, Bloodmere Manor, and The Headless Knight legends for the Haunted Mansion to Disneyland (Disneyland Resort), Magic Kingdom (Walt Disney World) and also Tokyo Disneyland (Tokyo Disney Resort).
Honors
- Winsor McCay Award 1982
- Disney Legend (Animation & Imagineering) 1991
Further reading
- Allan, Robin, Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 1999.
- Canemaker, John, Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists, Hyperion, New York 1996 (especially pages 168-182, a full chapter devoted to Ken Anderson).
- Ghez, Didier, Walt's People Volume 1: Talking Disney With The Artists Who Knew Him, Theme Park Press, 2005 (contains an entire interview with Ken Anderson from 1992 conducted by Paul F. Anderson).
- Surrel, Jason, The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic, 2016.