He draws you in pun intended.

Hello everyone.

I'm Ezra Edmund content marketing Manager of diversity and inclusion at Disney Digital Content and I'm Fox Carney, the manager of research at the walt Disney Animation Research Library.

And today we are so excited to celebrate the work of Disney legend Floyd norman who was an in between our animator and story artist at walt.

Disney Animation Studios Floyd's one of my favorite people to talk about because he's such an amazing artist.

He's such an amazing storyteller and he's just a generally great guy to hang out with.

I totally agree.

I love seeing him.

Well back when we used to be in person on campus.

I love seeing all the art that he still does and and hearing his stories whenever I can.

So Fox, when did Floyd first joined walt Disney Animation Studios and can you share any stories about what brought him there, what his experience was like.

Well Floyd came to the studio in february 1956.

He always wanted to be an animator at walt Disney.

Ever since he first saw his first Disney film, which was Bambi.

So then just turning to his career, I'd love to talk about some of the features that Floyd worked on.

Let's start with Sleeping Beauty and his roles and in between her the role of an in between her.

Put the drawings in between various key drawings, trying to clean up the lines of rough animation into fine lines so that the Incas could trace that onto cells.

He said he was assigned to a lot of different characters.

The ferries.

He remembers working on a lot.

So at one point Floyd leaves the animation studio from military service and then returns.

He talked to me about some of the titles he was a part of when he returned like 101 dalmatians and his roles in assistant animator.

Well he worked on quite a number of scenes in the Corella car chase and he said that that was an interesting process because they you know film models of cars and trucks and then they would actually print out the frames of those films and then they'd have to trace those onto the paper.

And he also worked on, if I remember correctly he worked on the thunderbolt sequence too.

Right.

Yeah, I believe so that he worked on a lot of that.

So it's working on tv in a feature film.

So the Sword in the Stone and his role as an assistant animator.

Well the Sword in the Stone was a very important film for Floyd because he was assigned to work on the team of Milk call one of Disney's nine old men.

It was very hard to please milk.

So Floyd was very very worried that would he live up to the Milk call standard.

His first scene working with that unit was a scene of circe on cer case hunting in the woods.

There's a specific scene of circe saying quiet when he finished, he handed up the chain of command and the word came back built liked it after sword in the stone, he ended up transitioning into story.

But then on the Jungle Book with his role as a story artist.

He was able to work with the Sherman brothers and and so many other iconic historic amazing figures.

The whole key was just get those ideas down.

He wasn't trying to draw a beautiful drawings but just get a strong idea and tell the story some of the consequences of some of the most memorable parts of the film.

Well, that very first sequence that that was presented to waltz, waltz response was I think we could use a song.

Here you go.

Talk to the Shermans, have them write you a song.

I believe that through his career he also acted as a consultant.

Could you talk about a few of those features that he consulted on?

He was working on films such as the hunchback of Notre dame and Mulan particular sequence where Kasey Emoto is looking to leave Notre dame, he jumps away and down and out of the cathedral later with Mulan.

He's working on the sequence of Mulan getting off to camp once she's trying to join with the army mushu has got to wake her up and get her going.

I think story is just incredible because you're taking an idea concept that doesn't exist and you're making something relatable that people can feel and emote too and you have to have that observant eye and and that passion to tell something that really is meaningful and deeper to resonate.

And I think that that's something that Floyd is just absolutely incredible Floyd is so much of Disney history and I know when I started working on the Glendale campus and I would see him everywhere and always wanted to be an animator and story person when I was a kid and you know, seeing a guy who did it and can speak to so many historical things that you can only hear about in books otherwise is is incredible.

Everything he shares just has that sort of sparkle.

Fox has been really great connecting with you today and the special conversation honoring Floyd norman, thank you so much for joining me.

It was my pleasure.