#femaleanimators

Following on from documentary on female animators, here is some more research into women in animation.

I am so fortunate to live in a world where there is equal opportunities for men and for women. It’s clear to see that many women take interest into animation as you can see in universities that a lot of the classes are made up of females. However, women still aren’t as recognised as men in the animation field. Why is that?

Not just ink and paint girls was a huge eye opener. I didn’t know how hard these ladies had to fight to achieve their dreams. It was so insightful to hear of the women who started the revolution and inspired us all.

Brenda Chapman (born November 1, 1962) is an American writer, animation story artist and director. In 1998, she became the first woman to direct an animated feature from a major studio, DreamWorks Animation's The Prince of Egypt. She co-directed the Disney/Pixar film Brave, becoming the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Wow, Brenda is such an inspiration.  Not only did she work on these films but also on Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid and The Hunch Back of Notre Dame. She was heavily involved in the stories of my favourite Disney films. Not only that, but she is an award winner. My inspiration!

Lillian Friedman Astor (born April 12, 1912 in New York City – July 9, 1989) was the first American female studio animator, working at for the Fleischer Brothers’ studio, inking and eventually animating various Betty Boop cartoons, as well as one Popeye, some Color Classics, and several Hunky and Spunky cartoons, although she received screen credit on only six cartoons in her lifetime

Mary Ellen Bute (November 21, 1906 – October 17, 1983) was a pioneer American film animator significant as one of the first female experimental filmmakers. Her specialty was visual music and, while working in New York between 1934 and 1953, made fourteen short, abstract musical films. Many of these were seen in regular movie theaters, such as Radio City Music Hall, usually preceding a prestigious film. Several of her later abstract films were categorized as part of her Seeing Sound series.

Sarah "Sally" Cruikshank (born June 1949) is an American cartoonist and animator whose work includes animation for the Children's Television Workshop program Sesame Street, and whose short "Quasi at the Quackadero" (1975) was inducted into the United States National Film Registry.

(This video at 12 minutes has a clip of Sally.)

Thérèse "Tissa" David (January 5, 1921 – August 21, 2012) was a Romanian-born American animator of Hungarian ethnicity, whose career spanned more than sixty years. She was one of the pioneering women in animation, a field which had been dominated by male animators. Millimeter magazine described her as "one of the few women to have reached the top in the traditionally male-dominated animated cartoon field" and "one of the world's best and busiest" animators in a story published in 1975.

In 1953, she directed Bonjour Paris, becoming the second female animator to direct an animated feature film. David later became one of the first women to create and animate a major character in a film when she designed Raggedy Ann for the 1977 movie, Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure.

My latest work for the NYTimes is now up on my Vimeo… for anyone who hasn’t peeped it yet you can see it here…