Bill Justice

Born: William Barnard Justice
Birthday: February 9, 1914
Location: Dayton, OH, U.S.
Alma mater: Herron School of Art and Design
Occupation: Animator
Years active: 1937–1979
Died: February 10, 2011

Bill Justice began at Disney as an in-betweener in 1937 on “Snow White” and by the next year had earned a spot as Woolie Reitherman’s first assistant. Bill worked on films like “Ferdinand the Bull,” “Dumbo,” and “Bambi.”

During WWII, Justice was kept at the studio animating was films. He also volunteered his time to help design insignia for American and Allied military units. He also had the opportunity to design the little creatures as described by RAF Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl; the Gremlins.

After the war, Bill animated many shorts, becoming well known for his animation of the Chip and Dale characters. Additionaly, he animated for “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,” Alice in Wonderland,” and “Peter Pan.” Walt promoted Bill to directing animator over television projects. Justice’s first assignment was the opening animation intro for “The Micky Mouse Club.”

Bill (along with X Atencio and T. Hee) created Disney’s first stop-motion animated films like the Acadamy Award nominated “The Truth About Mother Goose,” “Noah’s Ark,” and “A Symposium on Popular Songs.” The trio of artists would also similarly animate the opening credits of live-action films like “The Shaggy Dog,” “The Parent Trap,” and “The Misadventures of Merlin Jones,” and sequences in “Babes in Toyland,” and “Mary Poppins.”

Walt then moved him to the Imagineering side of the house where Bill created the wardrobe for the park’s costumed characters and programmed the motions into the animatronic attractions of rides like The Pirates of the Carribean’s Auctioneer. He also designed the Disneyland Christmas Parade’s floats and costumes every year from 1961 until his retirement in 1979.

The Author

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.