Will Finn

Born: William Snelgrove Finn
Birthday: Novenber 1, 1958
Location: New York City, NY, U.S.
Alma mater: Art Institute of Pittsburgh
Occupation: Animator, Writer, Storyboard, Director
Years active: 1979–present

Will Finn got his start at working as an animator for Don Bluth’s 1982 animated film “The Secret of NIMH.” His efforts for Don Bluth Productions continued in the animated laserdisc games “Dragon’s Lair,” “Space Ace,” and “Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp.”

Moving to Disney, he served as an animator for such films as “Oliver & Company,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Rescuers Down Under,” and “Pocahontas.” Finn animated such characters as Cogsworth in “Beauty and the Beast,” Iago in “Aladdin,” and Laverne in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Along with John Sanford, he wrote, directed, and produced the 2004 feature film “Home on the Range.”

After Disney, Finn worked as an animator and storyboard artist for several DreamWorks Animation films, and directed the animated short “Hammy’s Boomerang Adventure,” a spin-off of Over the Hedge. He also directed the 2013 film “Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return”

(Will Finn has also been credited as Bill Snelgrove and William Finn)

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.