It has also allowed him to push the envelope of animation. Some of John's finest work has been used to convey weightier subjects. In You Don't Have to Die, Canemaker's talents were used in this Academy Award winning, live-action documentary about an eight-year-old's struggle with cancer and in the Peabody Award winning CBS TV special, Break the Silence: Kids Against Child Abuse, used animation to depict children's horrific tales of abuse. John states that this is the perfect use of animation, which can get inside "people dreams and fears" better than live-action. "I think it can express them in a way that is more intimate and interesting and perhaps, more insidious, than live-action."

As Chair of the Animation Program at New York University, Canemaker conveys these limitless possibilities that animation can provide to his students. "I like the students to see the variety of work and techniques through the years. It gets them thinking," he says. "These are the people who are going to go out and create the medium and this gives them a background to perhaps find a place for their own work." John doesn't just limit his teaching to the classroom, through the years, he has traveled worldwide as guest artist, lecturer and jurist at studios, festivals and universities, sharing his knowledge.

Confessions of a Stand-Up by John Canemaker. © John Canemaker Productions, 1993.

Watercolor illustration for MGM's 1948 greeting card, depicting a caricature of Tex Avery and signed by several of his colleagues, an illustration for Canemaker's Tex Avery, The Great Animation Director from the Golden Age of the Hollywood Cartoon (Turner Publishing).

In the past year, he has been everywhere from Brazil to Slovakia and from Disney to DreamWorks. Throughout his journeys, Canemaker is continually amazed by the public's enthusiasm for animation and the industry's current growth. "It really is like a rebirth," he says. "In a way, a generation who grew up with animation, being saturated with it and loving it so much, are now in power positions and I think that has enhanced the interest in animation. The videotape revolution came along and made the history of animation accessible; the proliferation of old cartoons on television has also helped people think of animation constantly. Now the technological revolution, computers, has made it possible to have all forms of animation. It's never going to stop."

From that day when Sister Leonard sent John to the Disney Studios through today, it's been quite a ride for John, filled with many unexpected and wonderful twists and turns. What's the whole experience been like? "It just keeps going on. Everyday the phone rings and there's something new that people want me to do," says John. "I'm very happy because I'm utilizing my complete self and I'm doing it all in animation."

The ride, however, isn't quite yet over. In addition to teaching and lecturing, Canemaker is currently working on another personal film, Bridgehampton, and will soon start writing his seventh book, this one centering on Disney's Story Department. Many would call this overwhelming, but it's all part of the job when you're "animation's ambassador at large."

Michael Lyons is a Long Island-based freelance writer who has written numerous articles on film and animation. His work appears in such publiscations as Cinefantastique and Sketches, the official magazine of the Walt Disney Collectors Society.