John Pomeroy

Born: John Foster Pomeroy
Birthday: March 26, 1951
Location: Los Angeles, CA, U.S.
Alma mater: ArtCenter College of Design
Occupation: Animator, Writer, Producer, Storyboard
Years active: 1970-present

John Pomeroy had been drawing since he was seven years old. Around the age of 13, he tried to make a perfect reproduction of Pinocchio. Needing good photo references, John went to the Los Angeles Public Library and found a copy of the 1942 book “The Art of Walt Disney” by Robert D Field. It was filled with pictures of Pinocchio and Bambi and described how the artists animated Walt Disney’s films. Pomeroy read the book about 10 times, and determined he wanted to be a Disney artist.

He learned all he could about animation, teaching himself how to paint backgrounds and ink cels. He majored in illustration at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California beginning in 1971. After his third time applying for work at Disney, John Pomeroy was accepted into their training program in 1973.

Pomeroy wanted to be a background artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, but he was hired as an animation trainee. John was told he’d be a better background artist if he knew animation’s fundamentals, and he was willing to do anything to become a background artist.

Once in the program, he was mentored by Eric Larson and trained by Milt Kahl on the basics of animation. When John saw his drawings move in his first pencil test on a Moviola, he was amazed, and abandoned all interest in becoming a background artist. Seeing his rough drawings moving and coming to life, he decided he wanted to be a real animator.

Pomeroy was promoted out of the training program as an animator after about six months. His first assignment was to animate a 110-foot (two and an half minute) sequence near the end of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too under the supervision of his new mentor and veteran animator Frank Thomas.

John went on to animate Penny on The Rescuers under the watchful eye of Ollie Johnston. Johnston taught Pomeroy acting skills for his characters.

At Disney, he met fellow animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and began working with them on an independent short film project, Banjo the Woodpile Cat. During the days, they animated Pete’s Dragon, The Small One, and The Fox and the Hound.

Growing disagreements with the studio heads over story and production values, drove John, along with Bluth and Goldman, to resign from Walt Disney Productions in 1979 to form their own independent animation studio, Don Bluth Productions.

After leaving Disney, the team produced The Secret of NIMH. An American Tail was their first collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, begun in January 1985. Released in November of 1986 it grew to be highest-grossing animated film up to that time, heralding a new era of success for full-length animated features.

Gary was a producer on the highly successful animated laser disc interactive video games Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp.

Amid the studio’s financial difficulties, Morris Sullivan, a mergers and acquisitions expert, created a corporation, Sullivan Studios to allow the three animators to continue producing films.

In 1986, Sullivan moved Goldman, Bluth & Pomeroy, and their entire operation of 87 employees and their families to Dublin, Ireland. Their third feature film, The Land Before Time, was their first production created primarily in Ireland.

The weight of the Producer’s role for thirteen years wore on John, and he missed his time drawing as an animator. In 1992, Pomeroy sold his share of the company and was convinced to return to Disney by Don Hahn to work on the 1995 feature Pocahontas as the supervising animator on John Smith. Following that, Pomeroy provided animation for Fantasia 2000, The Tigger Movie, Treasure Planet, and served as lead character designer for Milo Thatch on Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Pomeroy left Disney again in 2003 during the period when they briefly shut down their traditional animation department to train their animators in digital 3D animation. He took on freelance work, animating for Curious George, The Simpsons Movie, Space Jam: A New Legacy, several Tom and Jerry films, Disenchanted, Planes, and was storyboard artist for three Swan Princess movies.

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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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