The Nine Old Men: Lessons, Techniques, and Inspiration from Disney's Great Animators

by Andreas Deja

Learn from the men who changed animation forever

Walt Disney's team of core animators, who he affectionately called his "Nine Old Men," were known for creating Disney's most famous works, as well as refining the 12 basic principles of animation. Follow master animator and Disney legend Andreas Deja as he takes you through the minds and works of these notable animators. An apprentice to the Nine Old Men himself, Deja gives special attention to each animator and provides a thoughtful analysis on their techniques that include figure drawing, acting, story structure, and execution. The in-depth analysis of each animator's work will allow you to refine your approach to character animation. Rare sequential drawings from the Disney archives also give you unprecedented access and insight into the most creative minds that changed the course of animation.

Instruction and analysis on the works of each of the Nine Old Men broaden your creative choices and approaches to character animation Original drawings, some never-before-seen by the public are explored in depth, giving you behind-the-scenes access into Disney animation history Gain first-hand insight into the foundation of timeless characters and scenes from some of Disney's most memorable feature and short films

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Drawing, Art History, Reference

394 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2015

Reviews

[Gijs Grob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ex-Disney animator Andreas Deja discusses the animation work of Walt Disney's famous 'nine old men'. The book is not as insightful as John Canemaker's book on the same subject (Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation'), but Deja's love for animation and for the work of these nine star animators is catching. I'm no animator myself, and I'm not sure I'd get the promised lessons and techniques from this book, but inspirational it certainly is. Nevertheless, the attraction of this book is the plethora of artwork (especially animation drawings, as one could expect), including whole animation sequences so one can study the illusion of movement via individual drawings. Thus to me this is more of an art book than anything else. But the extraordinary skills of these nine artists certainly come across.

[Irene Rosignoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deja does a wonderful job in keeping the narration very personal. You learn about all these great and inspiring artists through the eyes of an artist himself and most of all a big fan of their works. I could really feel the love and admiration he has for the Nine Old Men, and also the countless years of study he spent on their material. This book is a love letter to those nine artists and to the medium of traditional animation. I would really recommend this to all animation lovers.

[George Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible look at Disney's Nine Old Men and their most famous works. Disney Legend Andreas Deja offers insight into the animation and the artists that very few people can.

A must for animation fans and students!

[Acttoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

My impression of the book The Nine Old Men.

The great thing about the book, it's looking like a bedtime story.
Interesting and entertainment way to making you feel like being in the same room with the animator, like time-traveling.

I really enjoyed the time I have reading the book.

Maybe it's a bit longer than I thought,
But if you read it in chapters, or as separate books.
you will enjoy it as much as i did.

The great lesson i have learned from the book,
that every animator is unique in one way or another,
even some time your weakness could be your strongest advantage.

So be proud and keep animating

quotes

Frank Thomas voiced his frustration:
“I don’t think there was a day going by, where I didn’t think I was in the wrong profession, that I should get out of animation.I’d get so mad at something that was going on.Part of the time it was my own inability to draw what I wanted, which all of us had.I guess every artist has that kind of a problem"
if the masters feel that way, i think there is hope :D

Ollie Johnston:
“If the animator doesn’t understand what the character is feeling, the audience won’t either”

It's a great journey that tells, how much time/effort most have to greatness,and how hard for us going through to just following the steps for those legendary animators.

[Alec Longstreth · Rating 5 out of 5]

What incredible collection of original animation drawings! I loved all of Deja's insights into the careers of these nine master cartoonists. I also appreciated his analysis of the scenes he hand-picked for each of the Nine Old Men. I still feel like I'm not able to fully understand all the amazing timing and spacing and overlap and squash and stretch in these drawings, so this will be a fun book to revisit over the years. I'll "see" more and more with each re-reading.

[Jeff Crosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1961 my 8 year-old self saw 101 Dalmatians in San Diego with my mother. I was hooked. It remains my favorite Disney film.

I admire the Nine Old Men and their work. This brilliant book spends a chapter on each of the nine explicating their style and technique. At times the book is personal, but I really enjoyed the insights into who worked with whom, who learned from whom, and why some men left the team.

[Ietrio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Up to a point. So if you are curious about the Disney story, this might be a good choice. But it is very hagiographic at times. Everything is nice and rosy. Some were incompetent. Some movies were not liked by the people. Who cares? The ones in charge remain visionary even when they were losers in reality.

[Audrey Sauble · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part biography, part drawing lesson—this was an interesting read with hundreds of sketches from Disney animations. It was fascinating to see how the artists revised sketches with different pencil colors and how the movement flowed in the various animation sequences.

[Tamara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect for the classical animation enthusiast or student or professional or all!

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This needed a better copy editor, but otherwise it was fabulous.

[Drew Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disney's famed Nine Old Men revolutionized the art of animation and ushered in a completely new era for the then-developing art form. Clark, David, Johnston, Kahl, Kimball, Larson, Lounsbery, Reighterman and Thomas created some of the most well-known and well-loved characters in film history, and this book outlines their background, methods and individual contributions to the world of animation.

This was a Christmas present which I had glanced through but then finally took the time to read from cover to cover and it was just as inspiring as expected. It's nice that the information was compiled and edited and written out by someone obviously well-versed in the art of animation, including and especially Disney animation (though it must be said -- as brilliant an artist as he is, a gifted writer Andreas Deja is not... a good editor should probably have caught those). But the point definitely comes through and the look at seemingly exclusive rough animation from some of the masters makes this a complete win for animation lovers. You can practically see their hands creating the characters and scenes that so many people love.

[Gideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andreas Deja's The Nine Old Men is a great look at the animation careers of Walt Disney's core group of animators. I do with Deja would go more in depth into some of the issues and resolutions he only hints at, or that he would have looked deeper into the way the men worked together. The writing is fairly bland, and the critique of their work is fairly surface-level, but it's clear these animators were at the top of their game and the best in the business. The book has reproductions of original pencils and frame-by-frame roughs of iconic characters and sequences, something you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. It's a treat for a Disney fan, and a double treat for an illustrator.

[Maddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great treatise on the style and strengths of each of the Nine Old Men. Overall, I found this book to be very interesting and enjoyable. Deja's ability to take sketches by different artists and analyze them to demonstrate style and character is amazing and gives the reader much more insight than if it had been a straight forward history. I like the layout of the book although I didn't quite understand why they were presented in the order they were. My main issue is that it was clear the Deja is not a native writer, and as such much of the writing was extremely repetitive. In a book which would already be repetitive in that it had nine sections all chronicling the same period of time, it was made worse by Deja's stilted prose. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it to any Disney animation fan.

[Cameron Chamberlain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deja's writing is good, I disagree with other reviewers on that point. His writing is better than a lot of animation writing. The examples he chooses and the way he discusses them are the real value of this book. A solid addition to any animator/animation historian's library.