Monday, January 18, 2021

Acclaimed and Beloved Disney Great Dale Baer, An Animator For Five Decades, Has Died at Age 70

The folks over at Disney are sad about the passing of Dale Baer, one of the most prolific, influential and talented animators/supervising animators/mentors at Walt Disney Animation Studios over the past four decades. Animator and studio owner Dale Baer died at UC Irvine Medical Center in Irvine, California on Friday January 15th at age 70 years old from complications due to ALS, according to online statements from colleagues. A contributor to many beloved Disney Animation features and co-founder of his own studio, The Baer Animation Company, Baer won an Annie for Outstanding Achievement for Character Animation for his work on The Emperor's New Groove in 2001.

Quiet and shy, Baer’s name may not be as familiar as other contemporary animation greats, but he was a highly respected animator’s animator and beloved by colleagues. “He was one of the kindest people I’ve worked with,” said animator and director Clay Kaytis. “So talented and so humble. A true one-of-a-kind and I’m grateful to have known him.” 

Over a fifty-year career in the industry, Baer started at Disney Animation in 1971, being only the second person hired into the Studios’ inaugural training program. He contributed to many of the feature films at Disney, starting with Robin Hood (1973) and continuing through Frozen (2013), and dozens of beloved projects elsewhere. Just to name a few of his credits at Disney: From his landmark work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (as chief exec and supervising animator) to his supervising roles on The Emperor’s New Groove (Yzma) and The Princess and the Frog (the frog hunters), he was acclaimed and admired by his peers. 

Commenting on Baer’s passing, Clark Spencer, president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, said, “Dale was an incredible animator and a great guy, who we were lucky to have known over his many years with the Studio.  He brought life to a wide range of memorable Disney characters, proved himself to be a master artist and animator, and still found time to inspire and mentor several generations of aspiring animators.  We are deeply saddened by his passing, and send our condolences to his family, friends and many admirers.”

Born in Denver, Colorado, on June 15, 1950, Baer was captivated by animation (particularly the Disney films) as a young child, and had decided by the tender age of eight that he wanted to work at Walt's Studio. During a visit to see his grandparents in California, he pleaded with his grandfather to park outside the Disney Studios so that he could stare at the animation building, and wonder what magic was happening inside. As a high school student, he wrote to the Animation Department inquiring where he could learn the craft. 

This led Baer to attend the Chouinard Art Institute (which later merged to become CalArts), after creating the perfect portfolio, and started working at Filmation in 1970. He finally got a chance to sneak into the Animation building on the Disney lot while running an errand for the school. A few years later, he found himself accepted into Disney's fledging inaugural training program, as only the second applicant.

He joined Disney in 1971, and was among the first handful of employees hired as part of the studio’s new training program. As an inbetweener, Baer learned from six of the “Nine Old Men” (Walt Disney’s trusted group of pioneering animators) during his first five years on the job. He was later trained by Disney animators John Lounsbery, Hal King, and Eric Larson. John Lounsbery recognized his talent and served as a mentor. Baer eventually moved into animation. He got his first feature film credit (as a character animator) on Robin Hood in 1973, and went on to work on other Disney features including Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Rescuers and Pete’s Dragon (as well as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too) before leaving Disney in the late 1970s.

He left Disney in 1976. Over the next two decades, he would animate on such animated favorites for a who’s who of the animation industry, including Peanuts television specials at Bill Melendez Productions, commercials at Richard Williams Animation and Quartet, The Smurfs at Hanna-Barbera, and The Lord of the Rings at Ralph Bakshi Productions. Throughout this time, even when he was not directly working for Disney Animation, Baer always continued to freelance for Disney, picking up work on film projects like Mickey’s Christmas Carol, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, among others.

In the mid-1980s, he launched a studio with his first wife. Dale Baer and his at-the-time wife/industry veteran Jane Baer formed the Baer Animation Company. Their breakout project was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for which the Baers ran a studio of 75 people and worked as the film’s Los Angeles animation unit (they were responsible for producing 11 minutes of footage involving the character of Benny the Cab and much of the Toontown scenes). A detailed history of Baer’s role on the film can be found in blog posts here and here. The Baer Animation Company would go on to provide animation for such titles as Disney's The Prince and the Pauper and Beauty and the Beast, as well as non-Disney films like Tom and Jerry: The Movie, Last Action Hero, and Rover Dangerfield.

Baer returned to work at Walt Disney Animation Studios on a full-time basis in 1998, contributing to both the studio’s hand-drawn and cg animated films. He lent his talents to such films as Tarzan, Treasure Planet, Chicken Little, and The Princess and the Frog. He was the supervising animator of Yzma on The Emperor’s New Groove, a role that he took after the original supervising animator Andreas Deja left the project. He was also the supervising animator of the villain Alameda Slim in Home on the Range, Wilbur in Meet the Robinsons, and Owl in the studio’s last hand-drawn feature, Winnie the Pooh (2011).

Baer additionally worked on Disney shorts including Feast and The Ballad of Nessie; his credits also include the 2007 Goofy short, How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, and the 2013 Oscar-nominated short, Get a Horse!.

Eric Goldberg, Baer’s friend and colleague at Walt Disney Animation Studios, added, “Dale was one of the very few special animators. It was an honor to know him, chat with him, and work with him, which I did on several occasions. He was trained by the ‘golden generation’ of Disney animators; Johnny Lounsbery was one of his main mentors. As such, Dale was a vital link for us to that illustrious group, and we could see it in his work. His drawings and animation had the whiff and inspiration of all of our Disney heroes, and every scene he did was a joy to watch. Amongst his many accomplishments were Mickey Mouse in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit,’ Owl in ‘Winnie the Pooh,’ the three hillbilly hunters (and a lot of Ray) in ‘The Princess and the Frog,’ Yzma in ‘The Emperor’s New Groove,’ and many, many more.  Dale was also a great teacher, teaching classical animation at several venues, including CalArts. We will miss him terribly, but we were fortunate enough to bask in his aura.”

Baer retired from Disney in 2015 and worked on several freelance projects for small studios.

Among his many other credits over the past 30 years, he also worked on The Lion King, Quest for Camelot, The Simpsons, Pups of Liberty and Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

Walt Disney Animation Studios shared the news on its Facebook page with a statement of remembrance, noting: “Having directly worked with six of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men (Walt Disney’s trusted and pioneering team of animation giants), [Baer] carried on their legacy in his own work, and through the many aspiring animators, he so generously mentored at the Studio and through his classes at CalArts and other institutions. He was a great friend and will be deeply missed.”

Walt Disney Animation Studios released the following statement on Twitter about Baer’s passing:

His last credit is as an animator on the upcoming summer feature Bob’s Burger: The Movie, which will be released later this year. Most recently, he worked on projects for Walt Disney Imagineering including an assignment animating Ursula and LeFou for Tokyo Disneyland (with his daughter Nicole inbetweening).

Baer was honored at the Annie Awards when he was presented with the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award by ASIFA, the international animation organization, for his distinguished career. You can watch Baer receive his Winsor McCay Annie Award here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkhdcrPb3pc

He is survived by his wife, Teddy, as well as two daughters, Nicole and Clarisse. My condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Below are remembrances from colleagues. 

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