Joan Vogelesang
President/ceo, ToonBoom Animation

I had the honor of being with Derek in Trivandrum in India at “The Week with the Masters.” He was showing me his animation, The Last General in India, along with Jeff Hale, Derek was singing the lyrics, very much along the lines of Gilbert and Sullivan, as Jeff was explaining the drawings. I looked at these two men whose faces were transformed with delight to those of teenagers and thought how wonderful it was that they were so creative and loved so much what they had done all of their lives. It is a shame this show did not make it into production.

Rest well Derek.

Angela Blackmon
Alumni Member of Sheridan College

Years before I attended the Sheridan School of Animation, I had read Kit Laybourne’s The Animation Book, learning much about the National Film Board of Canada and Derek Lamb. What I remember most about him is his work with Edward Gorey in the opening animation of PBS’s Mystery Theater. All I know is that I really enjoyed his work, and a lot of other films done by artists of the NAB. Being heavily influenced by Disney animation, I am very glad that I attended a Canadian school for animation, because it broadened my experience for the art form, and taught me that Disney animation was only one aspect of craft, and not the standard to judge all animation.

Derek Lamb, Janet Perlman, Paul Driessen, Caroline Leaf, and another animator for the NAB that I cannot recall (he made the short film, The Cat Came Back), created animated films that inspired new, coming artists to be more different, more expressive, and not just make cookie-cutter animated films.

Kaj Pindal was one of my instructors at Sheridan in 1994 (maybe 1995), and working on his film “Karate Kids” at the time. Kaj hosted a summer party for the students, and Derek Lamb was there. That was where I briefly met him. Occasionally, he would come to Sheridan when Kaj showed clips of his film as the work progressed. Derek Lamb was a really nice guy, and I wished I could have taken the advantage of this awesome opportunity and talked to him a lot longer about his work. But now he is gone, and I am sure he will be missed by everyone.

Thanks for giving us animators (or would-be animators) a chance to express our thoughts.

I met Derek way too late in my life. I met him at a dinner party late in 2001, and I was lucky enough to sit with Derek on my left, and his longtime animation collaborator Kaj Pindal on my right. After about 15 minutes of them exchanging banter between each other around the back of my head, they both started a nice rapport with me, and were interested in a short film I was working on at the time, an animated documentary about Ryan Larkin.

Derek had been Ryan’s exec producer during Ryan’s last, turbulent years at the National Film Board of Canada and had stayed friends with him for years afterwards. I asked Derek if he would mind if I interviewed him about his involvement in Ryan’s life and career. He responded the next day by coming by with six pages of notes he had prepared that previous night, after we’d had dinner.

His reflections on Ryan Larkin were more than just well prepared. They were thoughtful and contemplative, compassionate and brokenhearted, and, in turn, heartbreaking. It was very clear then, and is now, that Derek needed to be included in my film, Ryan. He was very gracious in allowing me to turn him into the 3D animated talking sketch you see in the film, although he quite understandably unnerved somewhat by the conversion.

We stayed friends and exchanged photos, artwork and musings until late this summer. I’m glad now to say that in addition to knowing his great influence on Canadian animation and the independent animation scene in general, that I’m glad to have personally known him as a friend for the last four years. It was way too short a time.

Giannalberto Bendazzi
Animation Scholar

Derek was a giant.