floyd is so much of disney history i
think of all the films that he's worked
on he just continues to inspire she
draws you in pun intended
hello everyone i'm ezra edmond content
marketing manager of diverse cn
inclusion at disney digital content and
i'm fox carney the manager of research
at the walt disney animation research
library and today we are so excited to
celebrate the work of disney legend
floyd norman who was an in-betweener
animator and story artist at walt disney
animation studios floyd's one of my
favorite people to talk about because
he's such an amazing artist he's such an
amazing storyteller and he's just a
generally great guy to hang out with i
totally agree i love seeing him well
back when we used to be in person on
campus i love seeing all the art that he
still does and hearing his stories
whenever i can so fox when did floyd
first join walt disney animation studios
and can you share any stories about what
brought him there what his experience
was like well floyd came to the studio
in february 1956.
he always wanted to be an animator at
walt disney ever since he first saw his
first disney film which was
bambi so then just turning to his career
i'd love to talk about some of the
features that floyd worked on let's
start with sleeping beauty and his role
as an in-betweener the role of an
in-betweener put the drawings in between
various key drawings trying to clean up
the lines of rough animation into fine
lines so the anchors could trace that
onto cells he said he was assigned to a
lot of different characters the fairies
he remembers working on a lot so at one
point floyd leaves the animation studio
for military service and then returns
can you talk to me about some of the
titles he was a part of when he returned
like 101 dalmatians and his role as an
assistant animator well he worked on a
quite a number of scenes in the cruella
car chase
and he said that that was an interesting
process because they would you know film
models of cars and trucks and then they
would actually print out the frames of
those uh films and then they'd have to
trace those onto the paper and he also
worked on if i remember correctly he
worked on the thunderbolt sequence too
right yeah i believe so that he worked
on a lot of that so it's
working on tv in a feature film so the
sword in the stone and his role as an
assistant animator well the sword in the
stone
was a very important film for floyd
because
he was assigned to work on the team of
milt call one of disney's nine old men
it was very hard to please milt so floyd
was very very
worried that would he live up to the
milt call standard his first scene
working with that unit was a scene of
sir kaye when circus hunting in the
woods there's a specific scene of sir
kay saying
shh quiet
when he finished he handed up the chain
of command and a word came back milt
liked it after sword and the stone
he ended up transitioning into the story
but then on the jungle book with his
role as a story artist he was able to
work with the sherman brothers and so
many other iconic historic amazing
figures the whole key was
just get those ideas down it wasn't
trying to draw beautiful drawings but
just
get a strong idea and tell the story
some of the cost sequences or some of
the most memorable parts of the film
well that very first sequence that that
was presented to walt walt's response
was i think we could use a song here
yeah go talk to the shermans have them
write you a song i believe that through
his career he also acted as a consultant
could you talk about a few of those
features that he consulted on he was
working on films such as the hunchback
of notre dame and mulan a particular
sequence where quasimodo is looking to
leave notre dame he jumps away and down
and out of the the cathedral later with
mulan he's working on the sequence of
you know milan getting off to camp once
she's
trying to join with the army mushu has
got to wake her up and get her going i
think story is just incredible because
you're taking an idea concept that
doesn't exist and you're making
something relatable that people can feel
and emote to and you have to have that
observant eye and and that passion to
tell something that really is meaningful
and deeper to resonate and i think that
that's something that floyd is just
absolutely incredible floyd is so much
of disney history and i know when i
started working on the glendale campus
and i would see him everywhere i always
wanted to be an animator and story
person when i was a kid and you know
seeing a guy who did it and can speak to
so many historical things that you can
only hear about in books otherwise is is
incredible everything he shares just has
that sort of sparkle fox it's been
really great connecting with you today
in this special conversation honoring
floyd norman thank you so much for
joining me well it was my pleasure i
love to talk about floyd any day watch
all of these walt disney animation
studios titles streaming now on disney
plus
you