Last year at Disney, “the company” celebrated 75 years, “the Mouse” blew out 70 candles and “the Marc” turned 85.
The last of these milestones is for Marc Davis. One of Disney's most eclectically talented artists, Davis worked for over four decades at the studio, breathing spark and personality into a variety of classic films and unforgettable characters. The timid Bambi, the spirited Tinker Bell and the deliciously malicious Cruella DeVil are just some of the characters who found their birthplace at the point of his pencil.
About the craft of animation, Davis said, “You have to create characters as an artist, but you also have to be able to bring them to life. That’s what Walt Disney wanted and if you pleased Walt Disney, you were bringing things to life.”
Davis' innate artistic ability has allowed him to create works that transcended the medium. “I think Marc Davis is one of the great draftsmen of our time,” said noted animation scholar, John Canemaker, adding, “He has the ability to draw anything, human or animal.”
As animation historian and critic Charles Solomon noted, Davis has taken this talent and married it with the skills of an animator. “He has the ability to infuse his drawings with life. If you look at his work, his characters always seem very much alive, in a way that you immediately grasp at the first glance."
With a twinkle in his eye and a jovial personality, Marc Davis enjoys retelling stories and events from his career at the Disney studio, which began on December 5, 1935. “During the early days of Disney, the women were all in Ink and Paint. The men were either in some part of Story or Animation. It was kind of like a nunnery and a monastery.”
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