Born: Dale L. Baer
Birthday: June 15, 1950
Location: Denver, CO, U.S.
Alma mater: Chouinard Art Institute
Occupation: Animator
Years active: 1970-2021
Died: January 15, 2021

As a child, Dale Baer fell in love with animation and decided at eight of age that he wanted to work at Walt Disney’s Studio. Visiting his grandparents in California, he got his grandfather to drive him to the Disney Studios and park outside where he could stare at the animation building and imagine the activities inside.

In high school, Dale wrote to the Animation Department to ask about improving his art. Their advice helped him perfect his portfolio and earn a place at the Chouinard Art Institute. As a student at Chouinard, he got a chance to sneak in and see the inside of the Animation building while on the Disney lot running an errand for the school.

After graduation in 1970, Baer started working at Filmation, but the next year he was accepted into Disney’s new training program. He was only the second applicant hired for the studio’s program.

For his first five years at Disney, Dale studied under six of Walt’s “Nine Old Men.” John Lounsbery served as his mentor, and Baer efforts on Robin Hood earned him his first feature film credit for character animation in 1973. He went on to animate for The Rescuers and Pete’s Dragon.

He left Disney in 1976 and worked on such animated favorites as the Peanuts television specials at Bill Melendez Productions, commercials for Richard Williams Animation, Smurfs at Hanna-Barbera, and The Lord of the Rings for Ralph Bakshi. Baer also continued to animate for Disney as a freelancer on projects such as Mickey’s Christmas Carol, The Black Cauldron, and The Great Mouse Detective.

In the mid-1980s, Baer and his wife at the time, Jane, launched the Baer Animation Company in Los Angeles. Their studio of 75 people debuted with 11 minutes of animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. They would continue to provide animation for Disney with The Prince and the Pauper, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King, and still provided for other films like Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Last Action Hero, and Rover Dangerfield. The Baers’ studio also created many commercials in both traditional and digital animation.

Baer returned to fulltime work at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1998, demonstrating his talent in such films as Tarzan, Treasure Planet, Home on the Range, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, The Princess and the Frog, and Zootopia. In 2001 Dale earned an Annie Award for Individual Character Animation of Yzma in The Emperor’s New Groove. His credits at Disney also include the Goofy short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, and the 2013 Oscar-nominated short, Get a Horse.

In 2015, Baer retired from Disney to teach traditional animation at many schools, including CalArts. He was awarded the Winsor McCay Award in 2016 for his contributions to the art of animation. Dale continued to work on freelance projects for small studios, and his last-known work was on The Bob’s Burgers Movie.