When I say Snow White, you usually connect that with the creator Walt Disney.

You should do that, he is the company's founder and the most famous image. But I'm going to talk about his closest nine-to-fiver. They are the men behind the characters of the most famous Disney Classics. This group of people are called Disneys nine old men for fun after the US Supreme Court. The first of these men to join Walt Disney Productions was Les Clark. He started working for Disney in the year 1927 just 4 days after he graduated from high school. Les Clark is most famous for drawing one of the most popular cartoon of all times, Mickey Mouse. When Les retired from Disney at the age of 69, he was the longest working man ever at the company. Characters such as Bambi, Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, Cruella De Ville in 101 dalmatian, Thumper in Bambi, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan and Aurora better known as sleeping beauty, were all animated by the same man. Marc Davis. He join the Disney Studios 1935 when they where working on the animated film Snow White. Marc later on designed rides at Disneyland along with his wife, Alice. Milt Kahl is the next person in line to join the company. He started working for Disney 1934 and is recognized as one of the best animators of all time. Milt has made many different characters such as Madame Medusa in The Rescuers, Peter Pan, Shere Kahn in The Jungle Book, Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Pinocchio and Edgar the Butler in Aristocats. Next we have Ward Kimball. He join in the same year as Milt Kahl did. Ward was also a very talented animator most famous for his wild style. He has animated Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio, Jaq and Gus from Cinderella, Faline in Bambiand the Vultures from Snow White. At the age of 88 Ward Kimball died after complications with pneumonia [nymonia]. Eric Larson is the fifth person on the list. He was working as an animator for the Disney Studios between 1933 and 1973. During that time he developed Figaro from Pinocchio, Peg in Lady and the Tramp, Bernard from the Rescuers, Scat Cat in Aristocats, the Vultures in the Jungle Book, the three little pigs and Little John in Robin Hood. After 40 years as an animator he started teaching new talents. He has instructed talented people like Tim Burton, Don Bluth, who did Anastasia and Thumbelina, Randy Cartwright, who was a part of the making of Princess and the frog and Shrek and Ron Clements who has been a part of 10 Disney Classics. John Lounsbery started working for Walt Disney around 1935. He was often called Louns' and he played a big role in many Disney classics. Louns' has been animator director in 13 movies, 10 of them where Disney classics. Even if he was the animator director, he also did some characters you may have heard of. We have Eyore, J. Worthington Foulfellow in Pinocchio, George Darling in Peter Pan and Timothy Mouse from Dumbo. Louns' died while he was still working for the Disney Company. He was animator director on the Rescuers at the time. Wolfgang Reitherman better known as Woolie was also one of the closest animators Disney had. Along with Milt Kahl and Ward Kimball he begun working for the Disney Studios 1934 and these three produced a bunch of short movies for Disney together. But Woolie also made some more well.known characters like Monstro in Pinocchio, Maleficent as a dragon in Sleeping Beauty, the crocodile from Peter Pan and the rat in Lady and the Tramp. Woolie died just five years after his retirement in a car accident.

Know there are only 2 of the Nine old men left and they are Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. These two had been best friends sense collage. Frank and Ollie's connection between each other were well known by their fellow workers. But the funny thing is that these two men were so much unlike one another. Even Walt Disney saw it and put them on completely different scenes. Frank always made the wild and crazy ones while Ollie got to do the more sensitive and delicate scenes. A great example of that is found in Pinocchio. Frank did the scene when Pinocchio is dancing and singing on stage in front of an audience. Ollie on the other hand made the scene when Pinocchio is talking to the Blue fairy and telling lies. Frank and Ollie has been source of inspiration to many people. A man named Brad Bird made two tributes to them. One in the movie the Incredibles and the other one in the Iron Giant. In the 2009 Disney Pixar movie Up, the leading character Carl Fredricksen has borrowed some traits from both Frank and Ollie. Even Walt Disney used there friendship to create the right feeling between Mowgli and Baloo in the Jungle Book. The two men retired from the company January 31, 1978. They staid friends until Franks tragic death in 2004. Ollie was the last surviving of all the Nine Men. He died just two years ago at the age of 95. All of the Nine Men where named Disney legends in the year of 1989 for there work at the Disney Company. They will always be remembered for the hard work they did to give the people some happiness in there lifes. I want to finish this presentation with showing you one of the tributes to Frank and Ollie. Thanks!