David Hand (animator)
David Hand | |
|---|---|
| Born | David Dodd Hand January 23, 1900 Plainfield, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | October 11, 1986 (aged 86) |
| Occupation | Animator |
| Years active | 1919-1950 |
| Employer(s) | Walt Disney Productions (1930–1944) Gaumont-British Animation Ltd. (1946-1950) |
| Children | 1 |
David Dodd Hand (January 23, 1900 – October 11, 1986) was an American animator and film director known for his work at Walt Disney Productions. He worked on numerous Disney shorts during the 1930s and eventually became supervising director on the animated features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi.
Biography
[edit]Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Hand began his animation career working on Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell cartoons throughout the 1920s. He joined the Disney studio in 1930 during a major drive by Disney to recruit from the best of animating talent.
Hand immediately made his mark as an animator. By 1932 he was regarded as one of the studio's top animators (despite some complaints that his work was "too mechanical")[1] and had become a close friend of Walt Disney himself. Hand's organizational skills made Disney select him to be the studio's third director after Burt Gillett and Wilfred Jackson. He made his directorial debut for the company with the Mickey Mouse short Building a Building and went on to direct both Silly Symphony and Mickey Mouse shorts, including The Flying Mouse, Who Killed Cock Robin?, Three Orphan Kittens, and Thru the Mirror. By the late 1930s Hand's management skills had allowed him to ascend the hierarchy of the Studio to functioning as Disney's right-hand man. But as historian Michael Barrier notes "Hand's position was fundamentally untenable—he was second in command in an organization whose leader, younger than Hand himself, had no intention of ever stepping aside or sharing real power."[1]
Gaumont British Animation
[edit]After leaving Disney in 1944, Hand went to England, and, with the backing of J. Arthur Rank, who owned the Gaumont-British Corperation under The Rank Organisation, established Gaumont British Animation Ltd. at Moor Hall in July 1946 to produce animated theatrical adverts as well as two series, one called Animaland that used full animation, [2] and the other called Musical Paintbox which used limited animation.[3][4] After establishing the Moor Hall studio, Hand began directing and producing several theatrical animated advertisements. One of his first works as an advertising director at Gaumont-British is an animated advertisement for Rowntree's in 1946.
Due to Hand's experience from Disney, Gaumont-British Animation Ltd. had the most advanced animation ever seen in England up to that point, especially when compared to England's other animation studios at the time such as Halas and Batchelor and George Moreno's British Animated Productions Ltd. Hand had to bring in other American animators to help train the artists at the studio; one of those who came to assist was Ray Patterson from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio.[5]
In Hand's later years in English advertising, Hand is well-known for his animated Ye Olde English Car-Tunes on Esso in 1948. With his Animaland and Musical Paintbox series gaining steam all across England, both of his series were unable to get distribution in the United States (although they did get distribution in Canada), and the studio closed in 1950, dooming plans to produce two animated features adapted from H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon and Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.[6] Hand moved to Colorado where he worked for the next 18 years at the Alexander Film Company, a maker of commercials and industrial films.[1]
Animaland & Musical Paintbox
[edit]Beginning in late-September 1948, Hand's Animaland and Musical Paintbox series were released to theaters in the United Kingdom, with The Lion, the first Animaland short, being the first of the batch to be released on September 30 of that year. Later in June 1949, both of his series were released to theaters in Canada. Few in number, Hand's shorts were shown in theaters for only a year-and-a-half, ending their run in the United Kingdom in July 1950 and in Canada in October 1950.
Hand's first five Animaland shorts featured the animated lives of animal species, while the remaining four of his shorts featured the leading character Ginger Nutt, a little red squirrel who lives his life with his girl Hazel Nutt and faces trouble with characters Loopy Hare, Corny Crow, and Dusty Mole. Ginger Nutt's first short, It's A Lovely Day, was released to theaters in England on August 11, 1949 (and in Canada a short time later). Hand told The Manchester Guardian that his animation team in Cookham managed experimental work with the object of a British cartoon character capable of challenging American animation audiences.[7] With his contributions to British animation, Hand was honored at Buckingham Palace in 1950.
In the early-1960s, Hand's cartoons began airing on British television for the first time in the United Kingdom. This lasted for decades on British television, continuing into the 2000s. In the Spring of 1998, most Animaland shorts made VHS distribution in the United States.
Personal life
[edit]Death
[edit]Hand died from complications of a stroke in San Luis Obispo, California at age 86.[1] Hand's son, David Hale Hand, has formed David Hand Productions which owns the rights to the 19 Gaumont animated shorts—nine Animaland cartoons and ten Musical Paintbox cartoons—and hopes to produce new films starring some of the characters in the shorts, e.g. Ginger Nutt. In 1994, Hand was posthumously inducted into the Disney Legends program.
Filmography
[edit]Shorts
[edit]| Title[8][9] | Year | Credit | Series |
|---|---|---|---|
| Out of the Inkwell | 1919 | Animator | Out of the Inkwell |
| The Magic Lamp | 1924 | Animator | Dinky Doodle |
| Just Spooks | 1925 | Key animator | |
| Dinky Doodle in the Army | 1926 | Animator | |
| The Cat's Nine Lives | Director | Unnatural History | |
| The Tail of the Monkey | Director | ||
| Cannibal Capers | 1930 | Animator, designer | Silly Symphony |
| Frolicking Fish | Animator | ||
| The Cactus Kid | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Fire Fighters | Animator | ||
| Arctic Antics | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| Midnight in a Toy Shop | Animator | ||
| Night | Animator | ||
| Monkey Melodies | Animator | ||
| The Chain Gang | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Gorilla Mystery | Animator | ||
| The Picnic | Animator | ||
| Winter | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| Pioneer Days | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Playful Pan | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Birthday Party | 1931 | Animator | Mickey Mouse |
| Birds of a Feather | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| Traffic Troubles | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Castaway | Animator | ||
| Mother Goose Melodies | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Moose Hunt | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| The China Plate | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Delivery Boy | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Cat's Out | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| Egyptian Melodies | Animator | ||
| The Barnyard Broadcast | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Fishin' Around | Animator | ||
| Mickey Steps Out | Animator | ||
| The Fox Hunt | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Beach Party | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Mickey Cuts Up | Animator | ||
| Mickey's Orphans | Animator | ||
| The Ugly Duckling | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Bird Store | 1932 | Animator | |
| The Duck Hunt | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Grocery Boy | Animator | ||
| The Mad Dog | Animator | ||
| The Bears and Bees | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| Mickey in Arabia | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Flowers and Trees | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| Just Dogs | Animator | ||
| Mickey's Nightmare | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Trader Mickey | Director, animator | ||
| King Neptune | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Whoopee Party | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Bugs in Love | Animator | Silly Symphony | |
| The Wayward Canary | Animator | Mickey Mouse | |
| Building a Building | 1933 | Director | |
| The Mad Doctor | Director | ||
| Birds in the Spring | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| The Mail Pilot | Director | Mickey Mouse | |
| Old King Cole | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| Camping Out | 1934 | Director | Mickey Mouse |
| Mickey's Steam Roller | Director | ||
| The Flying Mouse | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| The Dognapper | Director | Mickey Mouse | |
| Mickey's Man Friday | 1935 | Director | |
| Mickey's Kangaroo | Director, writer | ||
| The Robber Kitten | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| Who Killed Cock Robin? | Director | ||
| Pluto's Judgement Day | Director | Mickey Mouse | |
| Three Orphan Kittens | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| Mickey's Polo Team | 1936 | Director | Mickey Mouse |
| Three Little Wolves | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| Thru the Mirror | Director | Mickey Mouse | |
| Alpine Climbers | Director | ||
| Three Blind Mouseketeers | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| Mickey's Elephant | Director | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Country Cousin | Production supervisor | Silly Symphony | |
| Mother Pluto | Animator | ||
| More Kittens | Director | ||
| Magician Mickey | 1937 | Director | Mickey Mouse |
| Little Hiawatha | Director | Silly Symphony | |
| Moth and the Flame | 1938 | Executive producer | |
| Wynken, Blynken and Nod | Executive producer | ||
| The Whalers | Production supervisor | Mickey Mouse | |
| Mickey's Parrot | Executive producer | ||
| Farmyard Symphony | Executive producer | Silly Symphony | |
| Ferdinand the Bull | Executive producer | ||
| Merbabies | Production supervisor | Silly Symphony | |
| How Walt Disney Cartoons Are Made | 1939 | Self | |
| The Practical Pig | Executive producer | Silly Symphony | |
| The Ugly Duckling | Executive producer | ||
| The Hockey Champ | Executive producer | Donald Duck | |
| The Pointer | Executive producer | Mickey Mouse | |
| The Autograph Hound | Executive producer | Donald Duck | |
| Donald's Camera | 1941 | Production supervisor, organizational leader | |
| 7 Wise Dwarfs | Production supervisor | ||
| All Together | 1942 | Supervisor | |
| The Grain That Built a Hemisphere | 1943 | Production supervisor | |
| The Thames | 1948 | Producer | Musical Paintbox |
| The Cuckoo | Producer, executive producer | Animaland | |
| The Lion (Felis Leo) | Producer | ||
| Wales | Producer | Musical Paintbox | |
| The House-Cat (Felis Vulgaris) | Producer | Animaland | |
| Somerset | 1949 | Producer | Musical Paintbox |
| A Fantasy on Ireland | Producer | ||
| The Ostrich | Producer | Animaland | |
| Yorkshire Ditty | Producer | Musical Paintbox | |
| The Australian Platypus | Producer | Animaland | |
| It's a Lovely Day | Producer | ||
| Ginger Nutt's Bee-Bother | Producer | ||
| Sketches of Scotland | Producer | Musical Paintbox | |
| Cornwall | Producer | ||
| Canterbury Road | Producer | ||
| Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus | Producer | Animaland | |
| Devon Whey | 1950 | Producer | Musical Paintbox |
| A Fantasy on London Life | Producer | ||
| Ginger Nutt's Forest Dragon | Producer | Animaland |
Features
[edit]| Title[8][9] | Year | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Servants’ Entrance | 1934 | Animator |
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | Director |
| Fantasia | 1940 | Director, associate producer |
| Bambi | 1942 | Director |
| Victory Through Air Power | 1943 | Animation supervisor |
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Transcript of Michael Barrier's interview with David Hand Archived from the original on December 5, 2021
- ↑ David Hand's Animaland. Posted on Toonhound: Cartoons, animation, comic strips and puppets in the UK.
- ↑ Musical Paintbox. Posted on Toonhound: Cartoons, animation, comic strips and puppets in the UK.
- ↑ Memories of David Hand and Moor Hall Studios
- ↑ "Irv Spence's "Rugged Rangers" |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved May 25, 2026.
- ↑ TCM's Cartoon Alley
- ↑ How David Hand brought the "Ginger Nutt" idea
- 1 2 DavidHandIMDb.com Retrieved July 26, 2026.
- 1 2 "David Hand Movies & TV Shows List | Rotten Tomatoes | Rotten Tomatoes". www.rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved July 26, 2026.
