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ART STEVENS, VETERAN DISNEY
ANIMATOR/FILMMAKER
CO-DIRECTED “THE RESCUERS” AND “THE FOX AND THE HOUND”
DURING 44-YEAR CAREER AT THE STUDIO, DIES AT AGE 92
 Art
Stevens, a native of Montana, applied for a job at the Disney Studios in
1939 when he learned that Walt Disney was planning an animated feature
based on one of his favorite stories, Alice in Wonderland. He quickly
assembled a group of sketches and submitted them to the Studio, and was
subsequently hired after a six-month wait.
Starting as an in-betweener, Art was soon assigned to work on
“Fantasia,” and contributed his artistic talents to the “Toccata and
Fugue in D Minor,” “Pastoral Symphony,” “Nutcracker Suite,” and “Night
on Bald Mountain” segments. He went on to in-between on “Bambi” (1942),
and several other features before achieving full character animator
status on “Peter Pan” (1953). His animation credits also include “One
Hundred and One Dalmatians,” “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day,”
“Mary Poppins,” and the underwater sequence from the 1971 Disney
feature, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”
In the 1950s, Art provided story concepts and animation for the
three landmark television documentaries on space exploration (directed
and produced by animation legend Ward Kimball) for the “Disneyland” TV
show: “Man in Space” (1955), “Man and the Moon” (1955) and “Mars and
Beyond” (1957). He also worked with Ward on two Academy
Award®-winning Disney featurettes: “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,” and
“It’s Tough to Be a Bird.”
After animating on “Robin Hood,” Art joined Wolfgang “Woolie”
Reitherman and John Lounsbery as a co-director on the 1977 animated
feature, “The Rescuers.” “The Fox and the Hound,” which he produced
(with Woolie Reitherman), and co-directed (with Ted Berman and Dave
Michener), became Disney’s highest grossing film at the time of its
original release in 1981. Art retired from Disney in 1983.
Among his other career achievements, Stevens helped to design and
animate the title sequences for such Disney features as “Freaky Friday,”
“No Deposit, No Return,” “The Strongest Man in the World,” and “The
North Avenue Irregulars.”
Art
passed away on May 22, 2007 at his home in Studio City, California after
suffering a heart attack in his rose garden. He was 92-years old.
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