Tad Stones, seen above during production of The Black Cauldron, was part of the group that inherited the Disney animation mantle from the Nine Old Men.

Introduction
In the mid 1970s, the reign of Disney’s fabled “Nine Old Men” was nearing its end. The team of master animators who had been by Walt’s side since Snow White was nearing retirement age, and it was time to recruit and train a new generation.

These days, the young artists who joined Disney during that period could be referred to as the “Middle Aged Mob.” Their names are familiar to any student or fan of Disney feature output over the last 20 years: Ron Clements, John Musker, Burny Mattinson, John Lasseter and so many others. One name may not be as familiar, even though his contribution to Disney’s overall animation efforts quite possibly equals or surpasses that of his peers.

That’s what happens when you wind up working for Disney’s TV Animation division instead of on the company’s high-prestige, higher profile animated features. In Tad Stones’ case, however, it just might have been the perfect match of man and material. A lover of silver-age comic books and related pop culture, with a restless energy always looking for fresh challenges, Tad’s name may be most familiar to fans of the daily Disney half-hour animated adventures syndicated to local channels from the late 1980s through the mid-‘90s.

Those shows broke away from the toy product-based G.I. Joe and He-Man series that preceded them, and set the stage for the character- and creator-driven shows that fill today’s first-run animation channels. They also revitalized the “funny animal” genre and brought anthropomorphic cartoon characters, a staple of animation since the medium’s birth, back into the spotlight. The sheer volume of Tad’s work as an animation writer/producer/director outpaced the studio’s feature production long ago, while still delivering the characterization and first-rate storytelling that is the hallmark of Disney’s best work.

Like Zelig or Forrest Gump, Tad had the knack of being there as the Disney studio, and the entire animation industry went through a series of transformative changes. Unlike those fictional characters who were spectators to history, Tad’s talent and vision helped to shape those times.

In late March 2004, I called Tad Stones at his new home at Universal Cartoon Studios to find out what he’s been up to after ending a close to 30-year association with Disney — and to learn why Darkwing Duck keeps a statue of the Great Mouse Detective on his end table…

Brer Rabbit
Joe Strike: What are you up to over at Universal?

Snow White marked an end of an era for Disney as the Nine Old Men reached retirement age. © Disney.

Tad Stones: I’m producing a direct-to-video feature about Brer Rabbit. We go back to the folk tales via a series of books by Julius Lester that dropped the southern dialect. We have an all black cast that’s just fantastic — Danny Glover, D.L. Hughley, Wayne Brady, Wanda Sykes — they did a great, very funny job. Byron Vaughns is the director.

It’s a great transitional project for me because the script was done and handed to me. I gave a few notes for rewrite. It wasn’t until I actually got the storyboard that I said, “Gee I’d really like to rewrite this,” but only because — the script was great, they had these great animal characters — but they were icons. Now in storyboard we’re going in and giving them more unique personalities.

We’re using the actor, and drawings and gags to add more to them. Brer Fox thinks he’s the smartest and most sophisticated guy, and wears an oversized coat that he thinks fits him but obviously doesn’t. D.L. Hughley does Brer Fox, and Brer Wolf is played by Wayne Brady, who came in and did this kind of hillbilly/surfer dude from the backwoods, a very likeable character, but several degrees of intelligence lower than Brer Fox.