While walking toward Liberty Avenue to see the Toonseum—Pittsburgh’s museum of cartoon art—Floyd Norman said he tries to visit such places whenever he can.
“I like to visit them because sometimes you come across a hidden treasure,” he said.
Outside of the movie industry, Norman—an award-winning animator who in 1956 was the first such Black artist hired at Walt Disney Studios—was pretty much a hidden treasure himself until filmmakers Michael Fiore and Erik Sharkey released “Floyd Norman: An Animated Life” earlier this year.
Norman was at Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation, Nov. 12, for a screening of the film, and to pass along some of his knowledge and experience during a master class for animation students and a beginner’s class for students and the public.
“It’s fun talking to the students, and I travel to do it quite a bit—across California, in New Orleans, New York City. This year has been very busy, more so because of the film,” he said.
“I think they know the basics, and I let them know about the business. But they are passionate. They want to be animators and film makers, and I try to share what I’ve learned to help them realize those dreams.”
Fresh out of art school at the tender age of 21, the California native became the first African American artist hired at Disney, and after having worked on such classics as “Sleeping Beauty,” “101 Dalmatians” and “The Jungle Book”—and being retired, twice—he is still there.
“Hollywood back then was a much more exciting place, especially at Disney,” he said. “They had just built the theme park and had just gone into television with the weekly show, and the daily “Mickey Mouse Club” shows.”
When he started, animation was still a labor intensive artistic endeavor, requiring 12 separate drawings for each second of film time. Today, computer software streamlines much of the repetitive work.
“The work is different, but not any more or less so if you’re smart, accept the changes and go forward,” he said. “Technology has always changed things, but it hasn’t affected me because I still do what I’ve always done—try to tell effective stories and make entertaining movies.”
Norman evidenced that with his work on newer Disney and Pixar films such as “Mulan,” “Toy Story” and “Monsters Inc.” But the film that still stands out for him is “The Jungle Book,” because on that project he got to work directly with Walt Disney.
“Of the hundreds of people who worked at Disney, only about a dozen or so would actually have contact with him on a daily basis, and he picked me for that job,” said Norman. “It was unexpected, and a real joy. He was very good to me. I owe a lot to Walt Disney.”
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