The Ward Kimball Appreciation Thread

Talk about everyone's favorite Disney animator/hot jazz trombonist in this thread.

Ward Kimball was one of Disney's Nine Old Men and probably their best animator - he was certainly their most cartoony animator, even doing some UPA-type modernist stuff in the 50s. He was also a pretty damn good trombone player, leading his own Dixieland band comprised of Disney staff, the Firehouse Five Plus Two, which was pretty popular in the 50s (and to an extent today). He is the only Disney animator who has his own Tumblr account.

Does anyone else enjoy his work? The toons he directed? The sequences he animated? Even the music he made?

edited 18th Oct '14 4:29:06 PM by Aldo930

Amazing guy, though this was seriously the weirdest thing he ever made. This is my first time watching it

...yeah

edited 19th Oct '14 10:26:21 AM by teddy

Of course he was amazing. The man had a functioning railroad and three full-scale locomotives in his backyard!

What's the video supposed to be, though?

Well, it's basically a cartoon he made in 1968 that protests LBJ's escalation of the Vietnam War 0.0. Never seen it til today

Let me try to post it again

edited 19th Oct '14 11:57:04 AM by teddy

Wow... I have no idea what the hell Ward was trying to say and yet somehow, deep down, I know exactly what it is.

Very symbolism-heavy.

edited 19th Oct '14 12:22:43 PM by Aldo930

I felt like I was watching a good horror movie when watching the short for some reason.

The short was the first and only independent animation made by one of the nine old men. Wow!

Ward Kimball was apparently a pretty cool guy.

The Tumblr I linked to in the first post provides a lot of evidence as to why.

I had no idea he was in a band! That's pretty cool. Animator by day, band mate by night lol

I also love a picture of him drawing a cartoon cowboy while making a goofy grin with a cowboy hat on. So cute.

edited 19th Oct '14 1:08:29 PM by teddy

It was the Firehouse Five Plus Two, one of the best groups of the Dixieland revival, and one of the few that straddled the line between commercial (they made a lot of albums and played at Disneyland for fifteen years) and authentic (they were all full-blown moldy figs and even knew some of the great jazz players).

So, since Ward died in the 00's, do we have his opinion of the 89-94 movies or was he too old/angry/sick/whatever else?

Not that I know of. Presumably he had an opinion, but whatever it was, it was never preserved.

Revived by semi-popular demand.

How many people knew that Ward Kimball had his own jazz band? On these forums, anyway?

Here's a clip of Ward's band. He's the trombonist. There's also other Disney studio employees in there, including fellow member of the Nine Old Men Frank Thomas on piano.

WOW! THAT'S AWESOME!

Jesus. Was Ward Superman or something? Hehe.. he pretty much did everything!

He found time to - apparently - smoke weed with George Herriman, hang out with Robert Crumb and have jam sessions with him, and have three full-scale locomotives in his backyard, aside from his animation work and jazz band (which he eventually gave up, but not before performing for 15 years at Disneyland).

The Kimball Tumblr has pictures of him with people as diverse as Louis Armstrong and Michael Jackson.

edited 25th Oct '14 7:31:27 PM by Aldo930

Ooooooh. And people say animators arent COOL!

Hehe. They do tend to be a bit..nerdy lol. Ward's probably the coolest of them all...well, with the exception of my favs :p

The only thing I can think of when watching that Escalation video between 0:46 and 1:32 is how much the dude's nose looks like a penis having an erection. Also, the number 7 is missing from the countdown at the beginning.

That made me laugh hard. I'm so immature.

edited 26th Oct '14 4:21:44 AM by teddy

Well, that was supposed to be Lyndon Johnson...

Revived yet again...

I recently found this letter by Ward containing advice to an aspiring animator.

It is, dare I say it, damn good advice.

I know he and Walt both loved trains to crazy levels.

This is QUITE the shock but one of the New Nick Execs Russell Hicks got MENTORED by Ward Kimball! Man! That's quite the shocker. One would expect Ward to mentor an animator but AN EXECUTIVE? Now I have a bit more faith on Nick's future animated endeavours.

Here's the news story that revealed that.

http://variety.com/2014/artisans/production/nick-toons-into-next-gen-talent-1201375624/

edited 26th Feb '15 1:49:21 PM by AegisP

Huh. A person in the animation industry that was taught by someone who has that much experience and talent?

Great.

I know iIm making way too big a deal out of this and that this isnt all that uncommon in the animation industry. But this the first time I've seen an animator nurture an executive and not the other way around.

But its quite the shocker for someone who believed the only good executives were Margaret Loesch,Gerry Laybourne,Betty Cohe and Jason De Marco. Me that is.