With the exception of the cartoon feature's birth in the late 1930s, the 1990s were as exciting as any time to be a Disney animator. Tony Bancroft can vouch for that. Bancroft started small, earning assistant animator credits on the Roger Rabbit short Roller Coaster Rabbit and The Rescuers. He was promoted to character animator, working on Beauty and the Beast's Cogsworth and Aladdin's Iago. Then, on what would become Disney's biggest hit of all time, Bancroft was appointed supervising animator for Pumbaa, the worry-free warthog in The Lion King.
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The return engagement was supposed to be a two-week preface to The Lion King's much-anticipated Blu-ray debut, but with moviegoers coming back for more every day, there will now be overlap between the two releases. On the Friday that the movie hit theaters again, Bancroft took out a couple of hours to talk about his role in production and the film's enduring popularity. This virtual roundtable, attended by select journalists all over the world, began with a short webcast, in which Bancroft talked about animating the bulkier of the Serengeti bachelors. After drawing Pumbaa for us and describing his characteristics (his hair is inspired by Elvis Presley and Rod Stewart) at each step, he answered dozens of our questions.
