Animator, comic book artist, and script writer Floyd E. Norman who made history in 1956 by becoming the first Black cartoon animator at the Disney studios, where he worked directly with Walt Disney. Norman was born on June 22, 1935, in Santa Barbara, California. Once he graduated from high school in Santa Barbara, Norman took his portfolio to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, whereupon he was advised to go to an art school. Norman worked as an assistant for Bill Woggon, who lived in Santa Barbara and who created the popular Katy Keene comics.
Norman registered at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, majoring in illustration. In 1956, during his third year at school, Norman was asked to work at Walt Disney Productions as an animator on the film, Sleeping Beauty. The he dropped out of school in order to accept the offer for his dream job.
Work on Sleeping Beauty ended in 1958, when at the same time Norman got drafted and served in the military for a couple of years during a Korean conflict. In 1960 Norman returned to the Disney studio to work on One Hundred and One Dalmatians, followed by The Sword in the Stone, and then The Jungle Book.
Once Walt Disney died in 1966, Norman and three partners founded Vignette Films, Inc., which became one of the first studios to make animated films on black history.
In the early 1970s, Norman returned to the Disney studios to work on the animated film Robin Hood. During the course of his career, Norman worked on various animation films and series at other top animation companies: Hanna-Barbera, Film Roman, Ruby-Spears Productions, and Pixar. In the 1980s, Norman worked at Disney as a writer and scripter in the comic strip department.
Norman contributed to The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Mulan (1998), and Dinosaur (2000) for the Walt Disney Animation Studios. He worked on Toy Story 2 (1999), the same year he and his business partner and fellow animator, Leo Sullivan, created Afrokids®.com, an Internet site that promotes multicultural and African American images to children. After finishing work in 2001 on Pixar Animation Studios’ computer-animated feature, Monsters, Inc., Norman has now officially retired.
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