Biography
Reitherman started working at Disney in 1934 alongside future Disney legends Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl. Together, they contributed to several classic Disney shorts such as The Band Concert, Music Land, and Elmer Elephant. Over his career, Reitherman worked on numerous Disney feature films from 1937 to 1981, ranging from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (animating the Slave in the Magic Mirror) to The Fox and the Hound (as co-producer). He animated the climactic dinosaur battle in Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring segment of Fantasia, the Headless Horseman chase in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow section of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the Crocodile in Peter Pan, and directed Maleficent as a dragon in Sleeping Beauty. Starting with 1961’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians, nicknamed "Woolie" by friends, he served as Disney’s chief animation director. One of his productions, the 1968 short Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Reitherman also worked as a producer and sequence director, and appeared as himself in the 1941 film The Reluctant Dragon. All three of his sons—Bruce, Richard, and Robert—lent their voices to Disney characters, including Mowgli in The Jungle Book, Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and Wart in The Sword in the Stone. Reitherman directed several Disney animated features 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 was also known for reusing animation in his films. According to Floyd Norman, this was a hallmark of Reitherman’s style rather than a cost-saving measure: "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 cared about saving money. I wasn’t 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.
