This is an outstanding addition to our studies of animation in general and Disney animation in particular. John Canemaker has given us a lively and fascinating account of the famous nine old men of the golden age of Disney animation. There are many books about Disney and few of them are of any worth -- most are glossy coffee-table accounts of particular films, hagiographic to the point of risibility (for example, note the number of self-congratulatory comments in the recent book about the lamentable Fantasia/2000). Some are inaccurate, some critically enclosed in their own arcane academic jargon. John Canemaker's studies -- this is his third major work on Disney art -- are meticulous and scholarly but without the gobbledy-gook of academe, and they are enlivened with his own spirited, idiosyncratic and racy style. To put it simply, he is a good read. Although I have some criticism about the pictures in the new book, in general I prefer this layout and design to Canemaker's previous work on the story artists, Paper Dreams (NY: Hyperion, 1999), which has wonderful reproductions, but is a little unwieldy to handle and perhaps not as tightly structured as his new study. Here, his attention is fully focused on the lives and work of nine remarkable artists, who struggled, fought and sweated for their master Walt Disney, whose charismatic, curmudgeonly presence inhabits every page.

The Mechanics
May I get my one criticism of this fine book out of the way as soon as possible; Canemaker's previous books have been supremely well illustrated -- as a practicing artist and animator himself he has provided (with the collaboration of his designers) outstanding reproductions from many sources. My cavil over the pictures for the new book is not so much that they vary in quality as reproductions, but that they have not been captioned fully enough. I realize that additional information on the page would take up excessive space, but it would have been valuable for us to know what originated as a still, a frame blow-up, or a cel mounted on an original production background vs. one mounted on a post-production background, very different from the original background. One illustration is reversed (p20), one appears to be made up of cels from different scenes (p284) and others are clearly cels laid over post-production backgrounds (pp217, 246 and 249). There is also inconsistency of colour and tone on the same page (see p220 with what appear to be three frame blow-ups). I would also have liked to see a brief mention, perhaps at the end of the book, of picture credits, for not all the illustrations come from the Disney Company's sources.

Having said that, the author's remarkable research has given us a dazzling display not only of the nine old men's creative output, but also fascinating photographs of themselves at many stages of their lives, and photographs of their colleagues, families and friends. The men come to life through both text and pictures, and the illustrations are closely linked to textual reference, so that we can see what the author is writing about. I also like very much the film frames running in sequence down the page; these little pictures flicker to life in our mind's eye as our gaze travels down the page. This device is used again and again to astonishing effect, the animator's art springing to life; it is a splendid accompaniment.

John Canemaker is our primary Disney historian; he has studied the work of the studio for years and has interviewed many of the artists who worked there. He is supremely qualified to write this definitive account of the nine old men, and he draws on reserves of knowledge about many other aspects of the Disney organization. Thus, while we learn about the history and background of these nine great animators, we also learn about their mentors and influences. The first talents at Disney included men like Ham Luske, Norman Ferguson and Freddy Moore, all of whom figure in these pages, though Canemaker keeps his sights firmly on the nine men themselves. We are introduced to them warts and all; these are real fellows with their ambitions and weaknesses revealed. They may be supreme artists but they are human like the rest of us. They are ambitious, ruthless, caring and vulnerable by turns and as we follow their adventures through the golden age and beyond, we see the subtle shifts of power waged between them, and how Walt Disney was able to balance their talents in his relentless pursuit for excellence.