Duncan Marjoribanks

Born: Duncan Majoribanks
Birthday: December 29, 1953
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater: Sheridan College
Occupation: Animator, Storyboard
Years active: 1979-2013

After graduating from Sheridan College, Duncan Marjoribanks spent a short time working for a small animation studio in Toronto. When the studio went out of business, Duncan turned his sights to Los Angeles, where he found work at Hanna-Barbera, Ruby Spears, and animated Brad Bird’s Steven Spielberg project American Dog.

Soon after, Brad told Disney directors Ron Clements and John Musker about Duncan’s animation skills, earning Marjoribanks a position as an animator and character designer at Disney.

He developed Sebastian the crab in “The Little Mermaid,” supervised Abu in “Aladdin,” and designed and supervised Governor Ratcliffe in “Pocahontas.” The range of his characters showcased Duncan’s versatility.

Marjoribanks continued to work in the industry, both as a CG and traditional animator on such films as Meet the Robinsons, Kung Fu Panda, and The Princess and the Frog until his retirement in 2013.

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.