Legend Larson Leaves...

On this day...

Twenty-two years ago, Eric Larson retires from the Walt Disney Company. One of Walt's original "Nine Old Men"... he leaves the studio after creating an amazing amount of beautiful work. His last work was as an advisor on "The Great Mouse Detective", which set about the beginning of the second Golden Age of Disney animation. It's fitting that this was his swan song; breathing new life into something he helped create. Still, the halls of the Animation Building are a little more lonely after this day...

Old Animators Don't Die, They Fade Into Imagination...

In Pasadena, Nineteen years ago... in the quiet part of a hospital room, legendary animator Eric Larson, one of Disney's "Nine Old Men" passes from this world and joins Walt in the next.

Eric Larson was an animation director on such Disney classics as Fantasia, Dumbo and I'm not lying here, Pinocchio. After Walt's passing, he was the one that made sure they found and trained all new talent. From those ranks trained under his tutelage were Brad Bird, Glen Keane, John Lasseter and many others. His last work for the Mouse was "The Great Mouse Detective", which is the dawn of the Second Golden Age of Disney Animation.

How fitting that his last work would be what would start the rebirth of the famed animation studio...