by Andrew Leal.
Ward Kimball was in many ways the most individual
and unique member of the famed group of elite Disney animators known as "The
Nine Old Men," and probably had the most distinctive personal style. Ward
Walrath Kimball was born on March 14, 1914 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Even
as a child, Kimball was a prankster, a habit which later continued at the
Disney Studio. He also liked to draw and developed a fondness for comic strips.
His father was continually changing jobs and locations, so Ward spent much
of his early years on the move, eventually settling in California. In 1932,
after graduating from high school, young Kimball was offered a scholarship
to the Santa Barbara School of the Arts, against the initial wishes of his
father. During his time at art school, Ward Kimball led a children's band
at the Fox Arlington Theatre, where he frequently watched cartoons, and was
particularly impressed by Walt Disney's Silly Symphony, The Three Little
Pigs (1933). In 1934, he was convinced by an instructor to apply for a job
at Disney. His mother drove him to the Hyperion studio, where he submitted
his portfolio, and after being told that they would let him know later, he
complained that he had to know immediately, being unable to buy gas to return,
and following a long phone conversation, was hired on the spot.
At Disney, Ward began naturally as an inbetweener, and later moved on to become assistant to Hamilton Luske, who had animated the grasshopper in the 1934 Silly Symphony The Grasshopper and the Ants, and would go on to animate Jenny Wren in Who Killed Cock Robin (1935). He assisted on the Academy Award winning short The Tortoise and the Hare (1935) and later submitted the story for the sequel, Toby Tortoise Returns (1936), for which he failed to receive a bonus. While it is known that Kimball animated on Toby Tortoise Returns, Kimball noted that Luske often left him things to animate in addition to assisting. His first solo work as a full animator was probably on Woodland Café, released in 1937, animating members of an insect jazz band. He also worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released that same year, animating the dwarfs, most notably in two sequences: one depicting the dwarfs eating soup and singing a silly song, the other showing the group's attempt to build a bed for Snow White. Both of these sequences were ultimately dropped from the finished film, but some Kimball scenes remain, and he retained a screen credit as an animator. While working on Snow White, the animators mingled with the girls from the ink and paint department, and Ward Kimball met one department member in particular, Betty Lawyer. They married in August 1936 and remained together until Ward's passing.
Ward's next feature animation assignment arrived just as he was on the verge of quitting due to the removal of his scenes from Snow White. This was the cricket character in Pinocchio (released in 1940) whose role was expanded considerably from his brief appearances in the original story. Ward had difficulty designing the character, as Walt continually stated that the character wasn't cute enough. While the final appearance of the cricket has become famous the world over, Kimball remained dissatisfied with the design. Kimball animated the bulk of Jiminy Cricket's scenes, including his speech to Pinocchio in the Pleasure Island pool hall, with Milt Kahl animating the early scene where Jiminy rushes after Pinocchio on his first day as a conscience. This was probably Kimball's most sincere characterization. He also animated the major scenes of Bacchus and his unicorn burro Jacchus in the "Pastoral Symphony" segment of Fantasia. Additional scenes were animated by Walt Kelly, formerly Ward's long-time assistant and closest friend at the studio, and whom Kimball named his eldest daughter, Kelly, after. Once promoted to a full animator, Kelly continued to work with Kimball on projects like the Mickey Mouse short The Little Whirlwind, The Reluctant Dragon (in which Kimball animated most of the title short and appeared on camera, drawing Goofy for Robert Benchley), and Dumbo, helping with the crow sequence. In supervising and animating the group of crows who first mock and then befriend Dumbo, Kimball brought a particular exuberance to the song "When I See an Elephant Fly." Work on Dumbo was interrupted by the 1941 studio strike, led by Ward Kimball, and including Walt Kelly (who would go on to create the comic strip Pogo), and Kimball was one of the few animators who, while staying with Walt, expressed sympathy for the cause of the strikers.
Walt referred to Ward Kimball as a caricaturist, along with animators like Vladimir Tytla, Norm Ferguson, and Ward Kimball. Sometimes Ward found himself animating direct caricatures, such as Cab Calloway in Mother Goose Goes Hollywood, or Adolf Hitler in the propaganda short Education for Death (Ward himself was caricatured in The Nifty Nineties from 1941 and Reason and Emotion from 1943, and he animated a self-caricture along with caricatures of Fred Moore, Ham Luske, and other animators as part of the parade of matadors in Ferdinand the Bull. Rumours persist that the lead matador was meant to be a caricature of Walt.). However, more often this was evident in the stylized movement of the characters, such as the crows in Dumbo, or Lucifer the cat in Cinderella, or in their facial expressions, as in the very strongly caricatured Indian chief in Peter Pan. In this respect, Kimball was the one member of the Nine Old Men whose first primary goal appeared to be to create humorous animation, and moreover to enjoy himself while doing it, instead of focusing on realism and creating "the illusion of life." Kimball is the only one of the Nine Old Men who one could easily imagine animating at Warner Bros. Next to the crows and Jiminy Cricket, Kimball's most famous animation was probably the frenetic title song in The Three Caballeros, as he animated the broad rapid movements of Donald and his friends and broad visual gags to illustrate or contradict the song lyrics. Kimball's frenetic style in some ways almost felt like overkill in Alice in Wonderland, animating on multiple sequences, including the Mad Tea Party scene. However, it's the cool Cheshire Cat who is probably the most convincingly mad character in the film, simply because he isn't frenetic, but is underplayed. Bearing some similarities in movement and design to Lucifer, the Cheshire Cat was one of Kimball's favorite pieces of animation.
Kimball's unique style is also apparent in the films he directed, Melody (on screen title reads Adventures in Music: Melody), released in 1953 as Disney's first 3-D cartoon, and its sequel from the same year, Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom, which was the first Kimball directed cartoon to win the Academy Award for best short subject. Both cartoons center on Professor Owl as he attempts to teach his avian students the finer points of music. The character designs and movements were more stylized than before, the backgrounds flat, and the colors bright, traits which in some ways recalled the products of UPA. At the same time, the films still bear Kimball's hallmark. This limited, stylized form of animation was also utilized by Kimball in the "Disneyland" television series. Kimball directed and helped write three "Tomorrowland" themed episodes centering on space: "Man in Space," "Man and the Moon" (both 1955), and "Mars and Beyond" (1957). All of these received theatrical release, and were joined by a fourth entry Eyes in Space (1959). The stylized designs and animation are particularly successful in Mars and Beyond, realizing various conceptions of Martians, including those in H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, and several original creations, with the result that the creatures range from slightly forbidding to purely absurd, yet all feature strong designs and limited movement.
Following the success of these television shows, Kimball clashed with Walt over the live action film Babes in Toyland (for which he contributed to the screenplay and directed the toy sequences), and wound up animating Ludwig Von Drake on "The Wonderful World of Color," a task Kimball hated. He returned to directing in 1969, following Walt's death, including a few more TV shows and the featurette It's Tough to Be a Bird, which garnered another Academy Award for Best Short Subject, and animated titles for The Million Dollar Duck and directing sequences for Bedknobs and Broomsticks (both 1971), previously having animated the former in The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967) and the latter in Mary Poppins. Kimball also produced and directed the syndicated series "The Mouse Factory" (1972), creating live action comedy segments with guest comedians surrounding clips and full cartoons.
Apart from his work as an animator, Kimball also published a book of humorous art parodies called Art Afterpieces; formed the Dixieland jazz group the Firehouse Five Plus Two, consisting of fellow Disney animators, and in which he himself played the trombone (the group is caricatured and can be heard on the soundtrack of the 1953 Goofy short, How to Dance); collected miniature train engines and full-size locomotives (which led to Walt's own fascination with trains); and even appeared as a contestant on "You Bet Your Life," as a target of the barbs of Groucho Marx, and getting in a few laughs on his own. Having lived a full and productive life, and gaining recognition as one of the pioneers of Disney animation (often appearing on documentaries and at Disney events), Ward Kimball passed away on July 8, 2002 of natural causes at the age of 88. He's survived by devoted wife Betty, three children (John, Kelly, and Chloe), and several grandchildren and great grandchildren. Of his children, both John and Kelly followed their father into the animation business; the former animating the Loony Knight in Richard Williams' Raggedy Ann and Andy (1978) and directing such Disney TV shows as "Chip n' Dale's Rescue Rangers," "Tale Spin," "Darkwing Duck," and "Raw Toonage, and the latter designing character costumes for Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt (1998) and The Road to El Dorado (2000). While many animation fans mourn the loss of one of Disney's most unique artists, as with all great animators, his many memorable characters, scenes, and films stand as a testament.
Filmography |
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| 1934 | The Wise Little Hen | Inbetweener |
| Orphan's Benefit | Inbetweener | |
| The Goddess of Spring | Inbetweener | |
| 1935 | The Tortoise and the Hare | Assistant animator (Flowers, Signs Being Knocked Over) |
| Pluto's Judgement Day | Assistant animator | |
| 1936 | Toby Tortoise Returns | Animator (Toby Tortoise); Story |
| More Kittens | Animator | |
| 1937 | Woodland Café | Animator (Bass Player, Insect Musicians) |
| 1938 | Mother Goose Goes Hollywood | Animator (Cab Calloway) |
| Ferdinand the Bull | Animator (Matador, Other Matadors & Picadors) | |
| 1939 | The Autograph Hound | Animator |
| 1941 | The Little Whirlwind | Animator |
| The Nifty Nineties | Animator | |
| 1942 | Mickey's Birthday Party | Animator |
| How to Play Baseball | Animator | |
| 1943 | The Spirit of '43 | Animator (Spendthrift Donald) |
| Education for Death | Animator (Adolf Hitler and Germania) | |
| Reason and Emotion | Animator | |
| Victory Vehicles | Animator | |
| Chicken Little | Animator | |
| 1944 | The Pelican and the Snipe | Animator |
| 1945 | Hockey Homicide | Animator |
| 1946 | Casey at the Bat | Animator |
| Peter and the Wolf | Animator | |
| The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met | Animator | |
| Pluto's Kid Brother | Animator | |
| 1948 | Pecos Bill | Animator |
| 1950 | The Brave Engineer | Animator |
| 1953 | Adventures in Music : Melody | Director; animator |
| Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom | Director; animator (Roman Trumpeter) | |
| 1962 | A Symposium on Popular Songs | Animator |
| 1967 | Scrooge McDuck and Money | Animator |
| 1969 | It's Tough to Be a Bird | Director; story |
