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Wolfgang Reitherman (June 26, 1909 – May 22, 1985), also known and sometimes credited as Woolie Reitherman, was a German-American animator, director and producer and one of the Nine Old Men of core animators at Walt Disney Productions. He emerged as a key figure at Disney during the 1960s and 1970s, a transitionary period which saw the death of Walt Disney in 1966, with him serving as director and/or producer on eight consecutive Disney animated feature films from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) through The Fox and the Hound (1981).

Wolfgang Reitherman
Reitherman in 1940
Born	(1909-06-26)June 26, 1909 Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died	May 22, 1985(1985-05-22) (aged 75) Burbank, California, U.S.
Other names	Woolie Reitherman Wooly Reitherman
Alma mater	Pasadena Junior College Chouinard Art Institute
Occupation	Animator, director, producer
Years active	1933–1981
Known for	One of Disney's Nine Old Men
Spouse	Janie Marie McMillan ​ ​ (m. 1946)​
Children	3, including Bruce Reitherman

Career

While studying at Chouinard Art Institute, his paintings had attracted the attention of Philip L. Dike, a drawing and painting instructor. Impressed with his artwork, Dike showed them to Disney, in which Reitherman was invited to the studio. He initially wanted to work as a watercolorist, but Walt Disney suggested he should be an animator.[1][2] Reitherman was hired at Walt Disney Productions on May 21, 1933,[3][4] and his first project was working as an animator on the Silly Symphonies cartoon, Funny Little Bunnies. Reitherman continued to work on a number of Disney shorts, including The Band Concert, Music Land, and Elmer Elephant.[5] He animated the Slave in the Magic Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. His next assignments was animating Monstro in Pinocchio, the climactic dinosaur fight in Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia's "The Rite of Spring" segment, and several scenes of Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo.[6][5]

In 1942, Reitherman had left the Disney studios to serve in World War II for the United States Army Air Forces, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross after serving in Africa, China, India, and the South Pacific. He was discharged in February 1946, having earned the rank of Major.[7] Reitherman rejoined the studio in April 1947, where he animated the Headless Horseman chase in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section in 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.[8]

Around this same time, he had claimed he was instrumental in helping Walt Disney commit to producing Cinderella. Upon looking at rough storyboards, Reitherman recalled, "I just went in his office, which I rarely did, and I said, 'Gee, that looks great. We ought to do it.' It might have been a little nudge to say, 'Hey, let's get going again and let's do a feature'."[9] On Cinderella, he was the directing animator of the sequence in which Jaq and Gus laboriously push and pull the key up the stairs to Cinderella. On Alice in Wonderland, he animated the scene in which the White Rabbit's home is destroyed by an enlarged Alice. On Peter Pan, he animated the scene of Captain Hook attempting to escape the crocodile.[10] For Lady and the Tramp, Reitherman animated the alley dog fight sequence and Tramp's fight with the rat in the nursery room.[11]

During the late 1950s, Reitherman served as the sequence director of Prince Phillip's climactic fight against Maleficent as a dragon in Sleeping Beauty, and directed the "Twilight Bark" sequence for One Hundred and One Dalmatians.[12] Beginning with The Sword in the Stone, he became the first sole director of a Disney animated feature,[13] which was in direct contrast to having several directors over an animated feature. Animator Ward Kimball had claimed it was because Reitherman's work compatibility and willingness to accept any project "with a smile".[13] Animator Bob Carlson stated Disney had trusted Reitherman's decision-making before he would embark on a film project.[14] He would continue to direct The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood and The Rescuers.[4] Additionally, he would direct several animated shorts such as Goliath II and the first two Winnie the Pooh shorts, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, which had won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

While directing The Jungle Book, Reitherman followed the procedure to keep production costs low, in which he recalled Disney advising him to "keep the costs down because [feature cartoons are] going to price themselves out of business."[15] During his tenure, he frequently used "recycled" or limited animation from prior works, presumably because it was a safer method for a quality product, though it was in fact more labor-intensive,[16] not because it was supposedly cheaper.[17][18] Reitherman's use of recycling animation proved to be controversial within the studio, as animator Milt Kahl despised the method: "I detest the use of—it just breaks my heart to see animation from Snow White used in The Rescuers. It kills me, and it just embarrasses me to tears."[19] Note this is similar to, but not the same as, rotoscoping.

Following The Rescuers, he was initially slated to direct The Fox and the Hound,[20] but following creative conflicts with co-director Art Stevens, he was taken off the project. Reitherman later moved on to several undeveloped animation projects such as Catfish Bend based on the book series by Ben Lucien Burman, and Musicana, a follow-up project to Fantasia in which he co-developed with artist Mel Shaw.[21] In 1980, he developed an adaptation of the children's novel The Little Broomstick by Mary Stewart, but work was discontinued due to the studio's desire for ambitious films such as The Black Cauldron.[22] In the following year, he retired.[23]

Personal life and death

Born in Munich, German Empire, Reitherman's family moved to America when he was a child. After attending Pasadena Junior College and briefly working as a draftsman for Douglas Aircraft, Reitherman returned to school at the Chouinard Art Institute, graduating in 1933.[24]

Following his discharge from the Air Force, he married Janie Marie McMillan in November 1946.[25] All three of Reitherman's sons—Bruce, Richard and Robert—provided voices for Disney characters, including Mowgli in The Jungle Book, Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and Wart in The Sword in the Stone.

Reitherman died in a single-car accident near his Burbank, California home on May 22, 1985. He was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1989.[26][27]

Filmography

Year	Title	Credits	Characters	Notes
1937	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	Animator		Credited as Woolie Reitherman
1940	Pinocchio	Animation Director		Credited as Woolie Reitherman
	Fantasia	Animation Supervisor - Segment "Rite of Spring"
1941	The Reluctant Dragon	Animator
	Dumbo	Animation Director		Credited as Woolie Reitherman
1943	Saludos Amigos	Animator		Credited as Wooly Reitherman
1947	Fun and Fancy Free	Directing Animator
1949	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad	Directing Animator
	Goofy Gymnastics (Short)	Animator
	Tennis Racquet (Short)	Animator
1950	Cinderella	Directing Animator
1951	Alice in Wonderland	Directing Animator
1953	Peter Pan	Directing Animator
	Ben and Me (Short)	Animator
1955	Lady and the Tramp	Directing Animator
1957	The Truth About Mother Goose (Documentary short)	Director
1959	Sleeping Beauty	Sequence Director
	Donald in Mathmagic Land (Short)	Sequence Director
1960	Goliath II (Short)	Director
1961	One Hundred and One Dalmatians	Director
	Aquamania (Short)	Director
1963	The Sword in the Stone	Director
1966	Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Short)	Director
1967	The Jungle Book	Director
1968	Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (Short)	Director
1970	The Aristocats	Director and Producer
1973	Robin Hood	Director and Producer
1974	Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (Short)	Producer
1977	The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	Director and Producer
	The Rescuers	Director and Producer
1981	The Fox and the Hound	Co-Producer
1982	The Magical World of Disney (TV Series)	Producer - 1 Episode
1985	The Walt Disney Comedy and Magic Revue (Video short)	Director - Archive Footage
2011	Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (TV Series short)	Director and Producer - 14 Episodes

References

Bibliography

• Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-198-02079-0.
• Barrier, Michael (2008). The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25619-4.
• Canemaker, John (2001). "Wolfgang Reitherman". Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation. Disney Editions. pp. 31–53. ISBN 978-0-786-86496-6.

External links

• Wolfgang Reitherman at IMDb

На других языках

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[de] Wolfgang Reitherman

Wolfgang „Woolie“ Reitherman (gebürtig Wolfgang Reithermann; * 26. Juni 1909 in München; † 22. Mai 1985 in Burbank, Kalifornien) war ein deutschamerikanischer Regisseur und Trickfilmzeichner. Er war von 1934 bis 1981 Trickfilmzeichner und Regisseur in zahlreichen Disney-Filmen.[1][2]

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- [en] Wolfgang Reitherman

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[ru] Райтерман, Вольфганг

Вольфганг Райтерман (англ. Wolfgang Reitherman, 26 июня 1909, Мюнхен — 22 мая 1985, Бербанк) — американский аниматор, режиссёр, продюсер немецкого происхождения, один из представителей девятки диснеевских стариков.

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