Iwao Takamoto - my 184th pick to be named a Disney Legend

Iwao Takamoto was a Japanese-American animator, television producer, and film director who did work for both Disney and Hanna-Barbera along with Charles A. Nichols.  He is my my 184th choice to be named a Disney Legend.

Takamoto first entered the cartoon world after the end of the war. He was hired as an assistant animator by Walt Disney Studios in 1945. Takamoto eventually became an assistant for the legendary Milt Kahl. He worked as an animator on such titles as Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, and 101 Dalmatians. He was put in charge of the design of the pedigreed Lady in "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), according to Barker Animation Art Gallery, a Connecticut firm that represents his work.

Iwao Takamoto was one of the most talented animators ever to pass through the Disney Studio in the 1940’s and 50’s. But he remains a more unsung hero, who never received the full opportunity to show what he could do on a Disney feature. As Takamoto himself would recall:
A new feature film would start to ramp up and it would look like I would get an opportunity to animate, and suddenly I would be approached by a small committee usually consisting of Milt Kahl, Marc Davis, and Frank Thomas, who would say something like, “For the good of the picture, would you take on the responsibility of quality control in the lead characters?” That would be the end of my animation chance.Such was the case on Sleeping Beauty (1959), where Takamoto would serve as quality control supervisor on the title character.


He left Disney in 1961 for Hanna-Barbera along with Charles A. Nichols. He later returned for one time to help animate The Fox and the Hound with Joseph Barbera.