Jim On Film: Brush with Greatness: Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston - May 2, 2008

Jim on Film: Brushes with Greatness
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It was very exciting to read it, as I�m sure you can imagine. I thought I was not just some kid writer, so some of his advice, I had felt, was better suited to �other people� because he certainly didn�t know how �advanced� I was.

Of course, now as an adult, a writer, and a former creative writing teacher, I know that his advice was dead on.

I never intended to be a nuisance, so I tried to limit my letter writing to Johnston (though I also wrote Jeffery Katzenberg at one point, who was so incredibly gracious in sending me a personal response, which I am still in utter shock about considering who he was and how busy he most certainly was). The occasion of my next letter was with the publication of the �biography� Walt Disney: Hollywood�s Dark Prince.

I had heard all about the hype of the book when it was published�it alleged a number of crazy things, I think along the lines of Disney being a racist, alcoholic, etc.�and I honestly didn�t care because, at the time, I wasn�t concerned so much about Walt Disney the man as I was with his wonderful movies. I did check out a copy of the book from the library though, to see if there was anything I could learn about the production of his movies from it. You see, by this time, I had ditched Tom Sawyer and decided to focus on Princess Rose�s tale and on writing my own book studying the Disney animated classics.

I think I paged through the index of the �biography� in search of movie titles, but I ended up reading the introduction in which the author wrote a list of acknowledgements, thanking people for their participation in the writing of the book. I was shocked to see a number of names in it, including a thank you to Frank Thomas.

Back to the library I went, digging through that phone book to find his address.

In writing my letter, I remember trying to sound very mature and professional (which I think was handwritten this time because it was summer, so I didn�t have access to the school computer). I questioned him about the truth of the book, but I think my curiosity got the best of me, and I started to ask questions about the various movies, no doubt preceded by �if you have time.� These were questions I wanted to address in my book, after all.

Honestly, I probably wrote about �-1 page of one sentence questions, which were about historical details that I couldn�t find addressed in any of the books I had checked out from the library (which were a considerable number of books, so at least they were not obvious questions). The two addressed in his response letter were explanations for the three voices used for Wart in The Sword and the Stone and the two actresses used for Perdita in One-Hundred-and-One Dalmatians, a question which I don�t think I�ve yet seen addressed in any published accounts.

Again, there was great excitement when I received the following response in the summer of 1993:


Click here for a much larger version of this picture

I share these now as testaments to the personal sides of these two men. It would have been very easy for Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas to have blown off my letters. As Ollie Johnston wrote the first one with such great gentleness and sensitivity, he was probably busy writing The Disney Villain and no doubt had better things to do with his time. Frank Thomas addresses his busy schedule in his letter, and his writing style expresses his time limitations, but I�ve always been honored by the fact that he did take the time for my silliness and expressed his thoughts to me at an adult level.

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-- Jim Miles

With a love for animation discovered from watching Oliver & Company in 1988, Jim Miles has actively been studying animation and storytelling through animation since the fifth grade. In addition to his column for the Laughing Place, Jim has written two novels, both of which he hopes to revise for publication sometime before he dies. His love for great literature and the theatre has also driven him to write a libretto for a dramatic musical entitled Fire in Berlin as well as to start a musical comedy, City of Dreams. Jim will soon move to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time writing career.

The opinions expressed by Jim, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.

-- Posted May 2, 2008

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