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WARD KIMBALL |
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The
recent passing of Ward Kimball reduces the remaining legendary Nine Old
Men master animators to two: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Like most
of the group, Ward Kimball’s contributions were unique, and while not
grammatically possible, his contribution was more unique than any of the
others. In a way, it seemed there were Eight Old Men and then there was Ward Kimball. The eight were proponents and masters of The Illusion of Life, as Disney animation has been called. Ward Kimball’s animation seemed less an animating of a character from within, based on personality, and more like animating a character seen from without, from a satirical point of view.
He got the wild and weird characters to do, not the
subtle ones. Had he animated Lady and Tramp eating spaghetti, it would
have ended in a food fight. He exaggerated the characters in their
situations. Ivan the cat does a Tex Avery-like take in PETER AND THE
WOLF. Lucifer does joyous takes in CINDERELLA as he If the other master animators were observers and commentators on the human condition, Ward Kimball seemed to observe human situations. His humor was satirical and he feasted on and exaggerated the absurdity of situations. If the others animated characters that were thinking, he animated characters that delighted in just being alive and showed it through their movements.
Like an American Norman McLaren, Ward Kimball explored animation as
animation. Having mastered the rules, he then could massage them and
explore new ground. In 1953 he directed two shorts, MELODY (the first 3D cartoon) and TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM (the first CinemaScope cartoon.) They were closer to UPA than Disney. Highly stylized, designed and painted, using different mediums and often in limited animation, they were a total delight, the second winning the Academy Award and the top prize for shorts at Cannes. Others at Disney made other un-Disney limited animation shorts like THE SOCIAL LION and PIGS IS PIGS.
Many at Disney disliked his modern animation, and disliked him. He was
unconventional in what he did, how he did it, what he wore, what he said
and how he related to others. One person this did not bother was Walt
Disney. Ward Kimball was the only person he ever called a genius. Walt
Disney gave him full freedom to explore. It has been said that Ward
Kimball was a Warners animator who worked at Disney, and this is partly
true. Had he actually been at Warners, he would have never been given
the freedom he had at Disney. Also, Ward Kimball was a master Disney
animator.
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In 1957, when Sputnik went into orbit, the world went into a tizzy. President Eisenhower had a print of Ward Kimball’s MAN IN SPACE flown to Washington to show to the military chiefs, who unlike he, had not seen it. The three space films Kimball made were revolutionary as documentaries. They were as hilarious as they were informative, and included some of his best work. He got the best scientists to work with him: Willy Ley, Dr. Wernher von Braun and Heinz Haber. Years later, as the Apollo astronauts approached the moon, von Braun telephoned Ward Kimball to say that they were following their script for MAN AND THE MOON, the second in the series which hold how a moon landing would be done. MAN IN SPACE received an Academy Award nomination.
Ward Kimball directed the stop-motion sequences in BABES
IN TOYLAND, where the toys do battle, and he wrote the original script.
What remains of his humor is clearly evident. The last third, with the
absurdist Ed Wynn character, is classic Kimball. He won another Academy
Award for IT’S TOUGH TO BE A BIRD, a free for all mixture of
live-action, animation, cutouts and more.
Ward Kimball was able to work at the most un-Kimball-like
of places, Disney, if stereotypes are to be believed.
From time to time I would host a Ward Kimball
retrospective screening at a museum or university and I would let him
know about it. He would send comments and observations. He was a great
railroad enthusiast and his interest was legendary. He had full-size
operational trains on his vast property! He collected old paper on
railroads and from time to time I would find some old item to send him
for his collection. Typical of Ward Kimball, his letters were a delight.
At the end of the letter would be a series of salutations: Yours, Yours
truly, Your Obedient Servant and so on. He’d circle the one that applied
to you. People were sometimes appalled by his behaviour as a person true
to himself.
Peter Adamakos is an animation producer and director who founded an
animation company 31 years ago. He has also founded the Animation Museum
which has sent traveling exhibitions to museums in various countries for
many years.
Peter Adamakos |
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reaches for Gus
under a teacup. Yet he also knew when to underplay a character. The
Cheshire Cat in ALICE IN WONDERLAND hardly moves as he displays his
mystifying abilities with supreme confidence.
His earliest breakthrough was the title song in THE
THREE CABALLEROS. It is a frenzy of absurdity, surreal moments, even
impossibilities and a joy to watch as Donald Duck, Panchito and Jose
Carioca outdo one another in a succession of quick cuts and situations.
The grim EDUCATION FOR DEATH has its only light moments when Hitler gets
smothered between the breasts of a fat Germanic lady, and as he gooses
her as he lifts her onto his horse, Kimball contributions of course.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND was not deemed a success. They labored to make it a
Disney picture, full of warmth and personality, but weirder and weirder
characters defied Disneyfication. The most satisfying pieces are the mad
tea party and the Cheshire Cat segments. They were Kimball segments and
he wasn’t ever going to even try do warmth, he was going to just make it
funny. His scenes are about the only ones that seem comfortable in
their own skin, as it were.
At Warners he would have never had the opportunity to create
his wonderful characters, like Jiminy Cricket, the crows in Dumbo and
many others. Over the decades, Warners only did shorts, never branching
out or diversifying. He would have creatively died at Warners, doing the
same characters and things over and over.
He directed the animated
animal soccer game in BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS. Less well known is his
last film at Disney, DAD CAN I BORROW THE CAR? As Epcot Center
approached its opening at Walt Disney World in 1982, we learned that the
World of Motion attraction was designed by Ward Kimball. It was billed
as a History of Transportation, a dry-sounding title, but those who knew
Kimball knew it would be anything but dry. It would comment on the folly
that was man and be another crowning achievement. And so it was.
Unlike any of his
competitors, Walt Disney believed in experimenting and moving forward
regardless of risk, to new endeavors. He supported and protected Ward
Kimball and his crazy ways. Perhaps it was just one genius appreciating
another. 
He’d play serious practical jokes, sleep anywhere handy and
so on. My first-ever letter to him was appropriately respectful. His
reply started off in the same manner, then suddenly went into a
dissertation of his current sex life. No doubt he had a good laugh
knowing the doubletake this would elicit on my part. “…F***ing is still
pleasurable if sporadic. How about a cartoon called Sporadic Sperm?…”
Ward Kimball. True to himself.