Wolfgang Reitherman

Wolfgang Reitherman
Background information
Born	June 26, 1909 Munich, German Empire
Died	May 22, 1985 (aged 75) Burbank, California, United States
Cause of death	Road Accident
Nationality	German
Alternate names	Woolie Reitherman Wooly Reitherman
Occupation	Animator, director, producer
Years active	1934-1981
Family information
Spouse	Janie Marie McMillan Reitherman (1946-1985; his death)
Children	Bruce, Richard, and Robert

Wolfgang Reitherman, also known and sometimes credited as Woolie Reitherman, was a famed Disney animator, director, and producer, and one of Disney's Nine Old Men.

Personal life

Born in Munich, Germany, Reitherman's family moved to America when he was a child. After attending Pasadena Junior College and briefly working as a draftsman for Douglas Aircraft, Reitherman returned to school at the Chouinard Art Institute, graduating in 1933.

Reitherman had three sons named Bruce, Robert, and Richard, the first of whom did both speaking and singing voices of Mowgli in The Jungle Book, and the first voice of Christopher Robin (in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree), and the other two were two of the voice actors of Arthur in The Sword in the Stone (the third of whom being the late Rickie Sorensen).

Career

Reitherman began working for Disney in 1934, along with future Disney legends Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl. The three worked together on a number of classic Disney shorts, including The Band Concert, Music Land, and Elmer Elephant. Later, Reitherman would also work on a number of Goofy cartoons.

All in all, Reitherman worked on various Disney feature films produced from 1937, until his retirement in 1981, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the Magic Mirror) to The Fox and the Hound (co-producer). He did Monstro the Whale in Pinocchio, the climactic dinosaur fight in Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in Fantasia, the Headless Horseman chase in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the Crocodile in Peter Pan, and Maleficent as a dragon in Sleeping Beauty. Beginning with 1961's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, "Woolie", as he was called by friends, served as Disney's chief animation director. One of Reitherman's productions, the 1969 short Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Because the rightful winner, Walt Disney himself, didn't live to receive said Academy Award, Reitherman accepted it instead. He also served as a producer and sequence director, and starred as himself in a 1941 short entitled The Reluctant Dragon. All three of Reitherman's sons — Bruce, Richard and Robert — provided voices for Disney characters, including Mowgli in The Jungle Book, Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh films, and Arthur Pendragon in The Sword in the Stone.

Reitherman directed several Disney animated feature films including, One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973), and The Rescuers (1977). He is also known for reusing animation in movies directed by him. According to Floyd Norman, this was just one of his trademarks, and had nothing to do with time or cost savings: "Woolie was our director on The Jungle Book. Reuse was just Woolie's thing. He never did it to save money. I really don't think the 'Old Guard' ever had any interest in saving money. I was never a big fan of reuse, but it wasn't my place to tell these old guys what to do. One final thought. It never seemed to bother Walt, and I never heard him complain about reuse."

Death

He was killed in a car accident near his home in Burbank in 1985, at the age of 75. In 1989, he was posthumously named a Disney Legend.

Characters Animated by Reitherman

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Animator (Magic Mirror)
• Pinocchio - Animation Director (Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, and Monstro the Whale)
• Fantasia - Animation Supervisor (Dinosaur Fight in Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring)
• Dumbo - Animation Director (Timothy Q. Mouse, Additional Characters)
• Saludos Amigos - Animator (Goofy)
• Fun and Fancy Free - Directing Animator (Additional Characters)
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - Directing Animator (Mr. Winkle, Brom Bones, The Headless Horseman, Ichabod's horse)
• Cinderella - Directing Animator (Additional Characters)
• Alice in Wonderland - Directing Animator (Additional Characters)
• Peter Pan - Directing Animator (Captain Hook and Tick-Tock the Crocodile)
• Lady and the Tramp - Directing Animator (Tramp, The Stray Dogs, and The Rat)

Disney Director

• The Goofy Success Story (1955)
• The Truth About Mother Goose (1957)
• Goliath II (1960)
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• Aquamania (1961)
• The Sword in the Stone (1963)
• Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)
• The Aristocats (1970)
• Robin Hood (1973)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
• The Rescuers (1977)

Disney Producer

• The Aristocats (1970)
• Robin Hood (1973)
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
• The Rescuers (1977)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981)

Miscellaneous Crew

• Sleeping Beauty (1959) (sequence director)
• Donald in Mathmagic Land (1959) (sequence director)

Gallery

Wolfgang making faces for the Magic Mirror

Magic Mirror

Pinocchio

Jiminy Cricket

Monstro

Stegosaurus

Tyrannosaurus Rex

Timothy Q. Mouse

Goofy

Brom Bones

Headless Horseman

Ichabod's horse

Captain Hook

Tick-Tock the Crocodile

Tramp

The Stray Dogs

The Rat

External links

• Template:Imdb name
• Disney Legends

v - e - d

1920s—1970s Disney's Nine Old Men: Milt Kahl • Frank Thomas • Ollie Johnston • Les Clark • John Lounsbery • Marc Davis • Ward Kimball • Eric Larson • Wolfgang Reitherman Animators: Bill Tytla • Art Babbitt • Lee Blair • Preston Blair • Fred Moore • Shamus Culhane • Cy Young • Don Lusk • Norman Ferguson • Hal King • Jack Hannah • Dick Kinney • Hal Ambro • Ken O'Brien • Judge Whitaker • Bill Justice • Don Bluth • Gary Goldman • Charles A. Nichols • Blaine Gibson • John Ewing • Walt Stanchfield • Rolly Crump • Fred Hellmich • Amby Paliwoda • Wilfred Jackson • Xavier Atencio • Ben Sharpsteen • Earl Hurd • Dale Oliver • Eric Cleworth • David Hand • Fred Spencer • Julius Svendsen • Jack Bradbury • Kenneth Muse • Rudolf Ising • Hugh Harman • Friz Freleng • Walt Kelly • Leo Salkin • John Dehner • Retta Scott • David Swift • Mel Shaw • Jack Cutting • Grant Simmons • Art Stevens • Frank Tashlin • Wathel Rogers • Tyrus Wong • Johnny Cannon • Bernard Wolf Visual Development, Layout, Background Artists and Character Designers: Gustaf Tenggren • Mary Blair • Marjorie Ralston • Lillian Bounds • Joe Grant • Mel Shaw • Claude Coats • Don DaGradi • John Hench • Eyvind Earle • Ken O'Connor • Thor Putnam • Albert Hurter • John Hubley • Herbert Ryman • Don Griffith • Basil Davidovich • Jack Boyd • Peter Ellenshaw • Ruthie Tompson • Earl Duvall • Retta Davidson • Ub Iwerks • Vance Gerry • Hazel Sewell • James Bodrero • Lance Nolley • Grace Bailey • Maurice Noble • Dale Barnhart • Andy Engman • Eustace Lycett • John Emerson • Joe Hale • Leota Toombs Storyboard Artists and Writers: Bill Peet • Ralph Wright • Dick Huemer • Floyd Norman • Yale Gracey • Ted Sears • Erdman Penner • Joe Rinaldi • Winston Hibler • Otto Englander • William Cottrell • Bill Berg • Al Bertino • T. Hee • Homer Brightman • Ted Osbourne • Larry Clemmons • Harry Reeves • Jesse Marsh • Chuck Couch • Webb Smith • Dick Sebast Directors: Clyde Geronimi • Hamilton Luske • Jack Kinney • Ted Berman • Richard Rich • George Scribner • Riley Thomson • Dick Lundy • Jack King • Burt Gillett • James Algar • Bill Roberts • Larry Lansburgh • Richard Irvine Producers: Walt Disney • Ron Miller • Ken Anderson • Don Duckwall • Perce Pearce • Margaret J. Winkler 1980s—present Renaissance Directors: Rob Minkoff • Roger Allers • Gary Trousdale • Kirk Wise • Chris Sanders • Mark Dindal • John Musker Story Trust Directors: Ron Clements • Chris Buck • Byron Howard • Don Hall • Chris Williams • Rich Moore • Stephen J. Anderson • Nathan Greno • Fawn Veerasunthorn Producers: Peter Del Vecho • Clark Spencer • Roy Conli • Dorothy McKim • Don Hahn • Shane Morris Chief Creative Officer: Jennifer Lee Associated Figures: Bob Iger • Roy Edward Disney • Michael Eisner • John Lasseter • Ed Catmull • Jeffrey Katzenberg • Bob Chapek Signature Voice Actors: Jim Cummings • Alan Tudyk • Katie Lowes • John DiMaggio • Maurice LaMarche • Jodi Benson • David Ogden Stiers • Jesse Corti • Paul Briggs • Raymond S. Persi • Phil Johnston • Frank Welker • Bill Farmer • Brian Cummings Signature Musicians: Robert B. Sherman • Richard M. Sherman • Alan Menken • Kristen Anderson-Lopez • Robert Lopez • Lin-Manuel Miranda • Howard Ashman • Tim Rice • Phil Collins • Stephen Schwartz • Marc Shaiman • Danny Troob Supervising Animators: Glen Keane • Andreas Deja • Eric Goldberg • Mark Henn • John Pomeroy • Randy Haycock • Dale Baer • Tony Bancroft • Tom Bancroft • Tony Fucile • Anthony DeRosa • Russ Edmonds • Randy Haycock • Bruce W. Smith • Duncan Marjoribanks • Ruben Aquino • Nik Ranieri • Ron Husband • Rick Farmiloe • Tom Sito • Tony Anselmo • Will Finn • Kathy Zielinski Visual Development & Storyboard Artists: Dean DeBlois • Claire Keane • Brittney Lee • Jin Kim • Shiyoon Kim • Ryan Green