Disney – The Key Point

Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes
by Walt Stanchfield (1919-2000). Edited by Don Hahn.

Walt Stanchfield began his animation career in 1937. In the 1980s and 90s he taught figure drawing classes for animators at Disney on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Disney producer Don Hahn compiled Stanchfield’s lecture notes and handouts into two volumes. The highlights below from Volume One capture some recurring themes.

The book includes drawings from Stanchfield and his students. This review includes more recent drawings by Brian Kennon, a former Disney artist who attended Stanchfield’s classes in the 1990s.

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One Little Spark! Mickey’s Ten Commandments and The Road to Imagineering
by Marty Sklar (1934-2017) with introductions by Richard M. Sherman and Glen Keane

Marty Sklar was hired by Walt Disney in 1955, prior to the opening of Disneyland. He rose through the ranks to president of Imagineering, the group responsible for Disney’s theme parks worldwide. He retired in 2009 after a 54-year career with the company.

The first part of the book explains Mickey’s Ten Commandments, guiding principles developed by Sklar in 1983. The second half of the book consists of career advice from 75 Imagineers. The most prominent recurring theme in this book is storytelling.

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