Maurice Noble with his awards from ASIFA-Hollywood and the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Union. February, 1998. Photo © 1998 Animation World Network.

Editors Note: Whatever you do, don't call him a 'veteran.' At 87, Maurice Noble is the second oldest person working in the Hollywood animation industry (Joe Grant at Disney is a year older than Noble and Chuck Jones is slightly younger so Noble calls him "Junior"), but his ideas, high energy and enthusiasm are that of a much younger man. We recently visited Maurice at his home in the hills north of Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, Marjorie. His unpublished autobiography, co-written with Robert McKinnon, is titled Stepping Into The Picture, a fitting title which refers to Noble's immersive approach to design. He is currently developing for television or home video Noble Tales, a series of seven-minute animated cartoons which he describes as "folktales from around the world told with a modern slant." When he's not working on Noble Tales in his home studio, meeting with development partners, or making appearances at various animation events, Maurice can be found doing one of his many talks with staff artists at studios such as Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Television Animation and DreamWorks Feature Animation. "I don't give lectures," he said, "I give conversations." Maurice Noble was recently interviewed by Cartoon Network for a program called The 50 Greatest Cartoons Of All Time, which will air on the U.S. cable channel on March 14 and 15, 1998. Just in time for our special issue on The Art of Pre-Production, Karl Cohen has brought us this interview about Maurice's career, covering the 'background' of one of the industry's legendary, but not yet 'veteran,' background designers.

Why is Maurice Noble considered a legend? Noble worked for Disney on Snow White, Bambi, Fantasia and Dumbo. During WWII, he worked for the Frank Capra film unit with Dr. Seuss on Private Snafu cartoons. In the 1950s he did the designs and layouts for Chuck Jones' greatest classic cartoons including Duck Amuck, Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century, What's Opera, Doc? and the ever-popular Roadrunner cartoons.

The self-proclaimed "old rebel" attended Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles with the help of a work scholarship. One of the first honors of his life was the school awarding him and Mary Blair their first full-time scholarships. She stayed on and graduated, but he eventually had to leave due to financial difficulties caused by "the great depression."

First Stop: Disney
About 1934, Noble took a job at Disney to get a U.S. $10 raise. He was working as a department store designer for $90 a month when he was offered a job at the studio for about $100. He said, "After all $10 is $10. I didn't know exactly what I was getting into, but I was going to earn $10 more a month."

The studio knew he was skilled with watercolors as Chouinard had presented a one-man show of his work. Noble believes this was the first watercolor show to be presented by the school. In any case Disney put him to work doing watercolor backgrounds for their Silly Symphonies. He recalled doing backgrounds for Elmer Elephant (1936), The Country Cousin (1936), Woodland Cafe (1937), The Old Mill (1937), Wynken, Blynken and Nod (1938), and many other shorts before he started work on Snow White.