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Art Babbitt

Born: Arthur Harold Babitsky
Birthday: October 8, 1907
Location: Omaha, NE, U.S.
Alma mater: Don Bluth University
Occupation: Director, Animator
Years active: 1928–1992
Died: March 4, 1992

Art Babitsky was born in the “Little Bohemia” area of Omaha, Nebraska, grew up in Souix City Iowa, and moved to New York City at the age of 16 to provide for his family after his father was crippled in a workplace accident. He was first hired at the Van Beuren studio followed by Terrytoons working on Farmer Alfalfa shorts, but after a few years got hired as an assistant animator by the Walt Disney Studio in California.

At Disney, Babbitt was credited with being the first to study live footage with a 16mm camera and also initiated the practice of studio artists studying life drawing after work. He quickly promoted to animator working on the Wicked Queen in “Snow White” and even married Marjorie Belcher, the dancer responsible for the film reference of the movie’s princess. He then became a directing animator for Geppetto in Disney’s “Pinocchio” and rose in prominance, to be one of Disney’s highest-paid artists.

Nevertheless, Art’s leadership role in the Disney strike of 1941 earned him Walt’s emnity. Babbitt served as a U.S. Marine during WWII and returned to the studio after the war, but didn’t linger long. He, along with several other former Disney strikers left to form UPA studios. He spent time working for Hanna-Barbera and eventually working for Richard Williams on such films as “Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure” and “The Thief and the Cobbler.”

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Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee

Lavalle Lee has been creating animated cartoons online since 1999/2000 for his website flashcartoons.org. Many cartoons on the site have gained viral video status reaching millions of viewers online. In 2009, Lavalle started learning hand drawn animation from Don Bluth in his animation classes, as well as attending his Masterclasses in Arizona. He has also personally studied animation and visual effects from Veteran Disney animators in Orlando, FL.

Lavalle is widely known in the animation industry as the creator of the TraditionalAnimation.com website. After seeing that most animation sites were about all types of animation, not any specific to classical hand drawn animation, Lavalle knew Traditional Animation needed to be represented online. TraditionalAnimation.com has become the leading website and social media account for all things 2D. The website served as inspiration for “The Traditional Animation Show” in which Lavalle was both producer and host.

His partnership with Don Bluth began when he championed the Dragon's Lair Indiegogo campaign as lead project manager, editor, voice actor and in-betweener. The campaign reached $730,000 dollars to produce a 7-minute pitch video. In 2017, Lavalle brought the idea of creating a school to Don Bluth, and Don Bluth University was born. After a decade of learning from Don Bluth and working together on multiple pitches and business ventures, Lavalle accepted the position as Vice President of Don Bluth's new company Don Bluth Studios.

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