That's a mold-breaker. Great thininkg!

Hi Jake,

I'm a NYC-based freelance animator, and I read on Didier Ghez' blog that you were writing about Art Babbitt. While I was doing my MFA classes at UCLA (from 2005-2008), I ripped a DVD of an interview that a student did with Art in the late 1980s (I think) because I was interested in the apparent paucity of prominent Jewish animators in history, save Goldberg and Babbitt. The interview is about an hour. I'm not sure what kind of policies and clearances regarding "fair use" (and the UCLA Animation dept. folks might require a bit of stroking to grant permission), but I'm happy to share the video with you if you haven't seen it yet, in the name of exhaustive research!

Let me know if you're interested!
David Meslin
You can see some of my work at youtube.com/davidjmeslin

I really appreciated your article lauding Art Babbitt's accomplishments as an animator and an educator . His methods of teaching animation (disseminated via Richard Williams and the notes of various Williams studio animators who studied under Babbitt during those years) have had a major impact on how animation principles are taught .

One thing you should correct about this article is a rather off-handed , somewhat dismissive remark about Lester Novros on page 5: "Before Babbitt joined the staff of the University of Southern California, a single animation class was taught by ex-Disney inbetweener Lester Novros. "

The phrase "ex-Disney inbetweener" is a gross understatement about Les Novros's career and doesn't do the man justice. Google for Les Novros's screen credits on IMDB or on the "History" section of his company GraphicFilms .com

Les Novros , like everyone else , including "star animators" like Art Babbitt , Fred Moore , or Frank Thomas , started at Disney serving an apprenticeship on the lower rungs of the ladder as an assistant animator , so it would be just as accurate to refer to "ex-Disney inbetweener Frank Thomas" or "ex-Terrytoons assistant Art Babbitt" , but does that sort of description accurately sum up Frank Thomas's or Art Babbitt's subsequent careers and positions in the industry ? Not at all. Novros started off as an assistant at Disney, but by 1940 was credited as an animator on Fantasia ("Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria" sequence) . He left Disney during the 1941 strike and established his own independent animation studio, Graphic Films, which produced hundreds of educational , documentary, and advertising films in animation and live-action over the years. Novros was a central figure in establishing the Cinema Department of the University of Southern California .

Sincerely,

-David Nethery
Associate Director of 2D Animation Dept. (Online)
Academy of Art University, San Francisco

(and proud to be an "ex-Disney assistant")