Just A Car Guy: The remarkable wonderful art of Bill Peet, who as a kid changed lap numbers on the Indianapolis Raceway score board, became a Disney artist for 30 years and worked on everything between Snow White and Dumbo, and one of my favorites, Goliath II; and then made kids books

Monday, April 22, 2019

The remarkable wonderful art of Bill Peet, who as a kid changed lap numbers on the Indianapolis Raceway score board, became a Disney artist for 30 years and worked on everything between Snow White and Dumbo, and one of my favorites, Goliath II; and then made kids books

He was born in Jan 1915, in Grandview, Indiana, a very small town on the banks of the Ohio River. When he was three, his family moved to Indianapolis and lived there until he was twelve, near the edge of the city, a half-hour hike from the open countryside.

In high school, he failed all his classes. I point this out to show that schools are NOT for everyone, and some people have incredible talents that exist OUT side of schools, and school work. Not fitting into the ram rod rote memorization of American public schools is often a sign if incredible imagination and a gift for an artistic talent that can't fit into Math and Reading.

So, don't fall into the convention of thinking people are stupid because they fail at schooling. Bill Gates dropped out of college, Einstein failed algebra.

He won the Indiana State Fair Art Exhibit

Peet received a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, which is now a part of Indiana University, which he attended for three years. In the first class, Bill found himself very interested in a girl that sat in the front row. That girl eventually became his wife.

Following college, Peet sent off cartoon action sketches after hearing that the Disney Studio was hiring artists for their animated films. He came to Los Angeles and participated in a one-month audition process; only three of fifteen survived the period.

He was hired in 1937, when he was 22, and worked first on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) near the end of its production.

His work as an in-betweener (making up the frames between the key drawings, responsible for the rote chore of providing fill-in drawings to make animated characters like Donald Duck appear to move.) on the Donald Duck shorts was so tedious, he quit, screaming out of the studio, “No more lousy ducks!” Fortuitously, he came back the next day to pick up his jacket and found an envelope, informing him he had been promoted to the story department.

Despite his personality clashes with Disney, Mr. Peet rose through the ranks to contribute Olympian fantasy figures to the segment of ''Fantasia'' set to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony in 1940, and character sketches for the baby elephant star of ''Dumbo'' in 1941.

Ironically unsuited for the team-work involved in film animation, Peet was a highly independent artist. He was, in fact, the only storyman in Disney’s history to have created all the story boards for a feature film, a feat he pulled off not only for The Sword in the Stone, but 101 Dalmations as well.
To be clear, he was the ONLY man to write and animate a film ALONE at Disney, and he did it twice. He was that good.

He wrote his first full-fledged screenplay for ''101 Dalmatians'' in 1961, when Disney asked him to adapt the British author Dodie Smith's children's classic, ''The 101 Dalmatians.'' It was Mr. Peet's suggestion to adapt T. H. White's ''Sword in the Stone'' two years later. Mr. Peet's ambivalent feelings toward Walt Disney can be seen in his characterization of Merlin the Magician, whom he said he patterned after his employer. The character was bad-tempered and argumentative, but a true wizard nonetheless. In his autobiography, Mr. Peet wrote that he even gave the drawing Disney's distinctive nose.

In his autobiography published in 1989, Peet said he drew the evil Captain Hook in "Peter Pan" to resemble Disney.

His involvement in the Disney studio's animated feature films and shorts increased, and he remained there until early in the development of The Jungle Book (1967), when an argument with Walt Disney over the direction of the project led to a permanent break.

Peet respected Disney's creative genius but found him to be a difficult man (focused on the perfection of his goal, how else could Disney be seen by anyone not as committed to the Disney World dream?). A large part of Peet's autobiography is dedicated to his dealings with Disney over the years. Peet described the Disney studio as a "brutal" place, rife with rivalries and jealousy.

As they were both strong-willed and passionately creative men, Peet and Disney quarreled frequently about parts in the films such as the dancing/romance scene in Sleeping Beauty. Peet left the company on January 29, 1964, which was his 49th birthday, following an especially heated argument with Walt on The Jungle Book.

101 Dalmatians was the first animated Disney feature film done by a single storyman. Bill Peet not only did all of the story boards but he also wrote the script and designed the characters.

The author of 101 Dalmatians, Dodie Smith, complimented him on his treatment and thought he had improved on the story. In the credits, Bill Peet's name, his signature, is animated. A unique and unprecedented honor.

Bill Peet also did all of the story boards and character design for The Sword and the Stone, and was the only storyman working on Jungle Book. Now, remember, he failed completely at schooling. Here is the proof that schools don't teach kids, schools force kids to learn a select programming of math and english so they can function in factory jobs. That's what they were designed to do... and some creative geniuses don't adapt to that method, or that future, but succeed anyway.

He also worked on:
The Sword and the Stone, Sleeping Beauty, Pinnochio
Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Jungle Book
Song of the South, Dumbo, Fantasia, Pinnochio
http://www.billpeet.net/PAGES/features.htm

After parting from Disney, Peet then wrote and illustrated 35 children's books, all but one for Houghton Mifflin