Some sad news out of the Disney camp today. Burny Mattinson, one of the company’s legacy animators, has passed away at the age of 87.
Over the course of a 70-year career, Mattinson worked on some of Disney’s most famous creations, including Lady and the Tramp, Winnie the Pooh, Big Hero 6, Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and scores of other well-known films from the company.
Disney confirmed the news and revealed that Mattinson was set to receive the first ever 70th anniversary service award on June 4. Jennifer Lee, Chief Creative Officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, said Mattinson was irreplaceable.
“Burny’s artistry, generosity, and love of Disney Animation and the generations of storytellers that have come through our doors, for seven decades, has made us better—better artists, better technologists, and better collaborators. All of us who have had the honor to know him and learn from him will ensure his legacy carries on.”
Mattinson is remembered as a passionate man who inspired generations of Disney animators and storytellers. Disney animator Eric Goldberg, who was a close friend of Mattinson, said he was a wealth of institutional knowledge for the company.
“Burny was the Renaissance man of Disney Animation. He literally did everything that could be done at the studio—assistant animator, animator, story artist, producer, and director of many films that made an indelible mark on our collective appreciation of the Disney ethos. He was also, when he started, traffic boy to Walt, giving Walt his weekly spending cash.”
Mattinson was born in May 1935 in San Francisco and saw Walt Disney’s Pinocchio at the San Francisco Orpheum Theatre when he was just 6 years old. ““Ever since I saw that film, this was my dream—to work in this business,” Mattinson said. “So, I worked every day, drawing.”
In 1945, Mattinson’s family moved to Los Angeles after his musician father left the big band he was playing with at the time. Mattinson was a prodigy of sorts and drawing full-fledged Disney characters very skillfully by the time he was 12. After he graduated from high school, his mother took him to the Studio’s gates in Burbank and he got a job in the mailroom.
From there, without going to any sort of art school, he got his first animation job as an inbetweener on Lady and The Tramp.
“Animation is 75 percent thinking and 25 percent drawing,” Mattinson said. “Everything must be carefully thought out first. Our animators not only have to think like actors but also figure out how to get that performance across on paper and on the screen. Our characters pause to think and connive. You can see it in their eyes.”
Mattinson is survived by his wife Ellen Siirola, his two children and his grandchildren.