Floyd Norman is a Disney Legend. He has worked on some of the most memorable films in the company's history including "Sleeping Beauty," "The Sword in the Stone" and "The Jungle Book." He has also worked with Pixar on some contemporary classics including "Monsters Inc." and "Toy Story 2." To commemorate the release of "The Jungle Book: Diamond Edition" digitally restored on Disney Blu-Ray and Disney DVD, Floyd spoke with Latin Times about his remarkable career.
LT: How did you get into illustrating?
Well I started out at the Walt Disney Studio because that was the job I always wanted. I always wanted to work there ever since I was a little kid. So when I graduated from high school I drove down to the Studio which was only ninety miles away because I lived in Santa Barbara. So I drove down to Burbank and applied for a job. Of course I didn’t get the job because they told me I needed to go to art school – that was good advice. So I went to art school and three years later Disney called me and they offered me a job.
LT: And what was it like when you first got there?
Oh wonderful. But keep in mind that going to Disney for a kid like me was like going to Disneyland. It was just a wonderful place to be. A place I’d always dreamed about, filled with incredible artists and incredible artwork. It was a dream job, it was a job I dreamt of having and all of a sudden I was lucky enough to get that job.
LT: What was the first movie you worked on?
Well the first movie I worked on at Disney was "Sleeping Beauty." "Sleeping Beauty" was finished and shown in 1959. And of course I worked on a number of other films after that but it was in 1966 that I worked on "The Jungle Book." And on that film I actually got a chance to work with Walt Disney himself.
LT: What inspired the film? What prompted Walt Disney to look at Kipling’s story?
Well it was Walt Disney who decided to do the film, so that’s really a question that only he could answer. And I thought it was good idea – I’ve always liked the Kipling stories Anyways, and you know it involved animals. And maybe that’s what attracted Disney to the story because it involved so many of the animals in the jungle.
LT: How did you come up with your personal inspiration for the story?
Well I was lucky in that Kipling had already written about the animals in "The Jungle Book" stories. And a lot of the artists had already done the character designs for Bagheera and Shere Khan and Kaa the snake, a lot of that work had already been done for me by the artists. I came in as a storyteller, so my job was just to take the characters and put them through their paces of the story. The story that Bill Peet had done, the first writer that worked on the adaptation he did the film kind of mysterious, kind of dark, and Walt Disney did not like that. He wanted a movie that was going to be funny and happy and a lot of fun. And that’s why he wanted to start over again and make a story that would be light and fun and just a good time in the jungle. And that was the job that he gave us to do.
LT: What was your favorite part about the Jungle Book?
Oh there are so many. I can say that the sequence when the snake tries to hypnotize Mowgli and that part was pretty good and that was the part that I did. Although I have to say that my favorite part of the movie would probably be the Tiger, Shere Khan. That was a great character, a great villain, voiced by George Sanders. And for me personally I think he was the hit of the film. Such a great villain, scary but also very funny and charming.
LT: Can you talk about your work in Robin Hood?
Oh I didn’t work on story for Robin Hood I did do some animation. It’s kinda funny I’d always wanted to be an animator, so when I came on to Robin Hood I came back on to the animation department. Generally I work in story, I’m a storyteller, but I like to draw and I like to make things move. So I had a chance to animate on Robin Hood in 1971, 72 I think. It was fun, I had a good time, but that was the last time I animated for Disney, since then I’ve just done story work.
LT: So many of the Disney Films, even the early ones, don’t seem to age. They still seem to be as enjoyable now as they were back then. Why do you think that is?
Yeah that’s one of the interesting things about animation. It has a quality about it where it never ages. The animated film never grows old. It may have been made five years ago, it may have been made 50 years ago, and even when people watch it 50 years from now it will still have a timeless quality. I think we try to deal with stories that don’t limit us time-wise. I think we deal with characters that we can identify no matter how old we are, no matter how young we are. I think our films at Disney, they go beyond time, they are essentially timeless. I think people will still be watching the Jungle Book 50 or 100 years from now and it will be just as good.
LT: So you’ve worked on some of the Pixar films. What’s it like working with the digital or 3-D for that new medium?
Yeah people have often asked me because I left Disney and I went up to Pixar for a few years people will always ask me ‘Was it different when you worked at Pixar?’ And honestly I say there was no difference. There was absolutely no difference for me. Because a good story is still a good story. Great characters are still great characters. And it doesn’t matter if a story was done by computer or drawn by hand – to tell a great story that engages the audience, characters that make you laugh and smile, it doesn’t really matter in what I do, because I’m doing the same job.
LT: Do you have a favorite film from the many you’ve worked on?
Well I’m would have to say my favorite film is going to go back to The Jungle Book, mainly because it was the only film, the one and only film, that I had a chance to work with Walt Disney himself. So getting a chance to work with the old maestro was a very special thing. And it was his final film – he died not long after we finished the movie. So that alone made it a very special film for me.
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