Joe Grant

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Joe Grant (May 15, 1908 - May 6, 2005) was a Disney artist and writer.

Born in New York City, New York, he worked for The Walt Disney Company as an animator beginning in 1933 on the Mickey Mouse short, "Mickey's Gala Premiere". He was a Disney legend. He created the Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He co-wrote Dumbo and Lady and the Tramp. He also led development of Fantasia and Pinocchio.

During World War II, Grant worked on war cartoons including the Academy Award winning Der Fuehrer's Face. He left the Disney studio in 1949 and ran a ceramics business and a greeting card business but returned in 1989 to work on Beauty and the Beast. He also worked on Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000, Monsters, Inc. and Mulan among others.

Grant worked four days a week at Disney even though he was 9 days short of his 97th birthday. Grant's final project, "Lorenzo", for which he conceived the idea and helped storyboard, received an Academy Award nomination in 2005.

Joe Grant died of a heart attack while working at his drawing board in his studio. He is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

A large collection of his caricatures is owned by the Smithsonian Museum.

Lady from Lady and the Tramp was based on a pet Springer Spaniel named Lady owned by Joe Grant, it is said by his daughter on the DVD (Lady and the Tramp) that Walt Disney thought the dog's long fur looked sort of like a dress and suggested creating a story board featuring his dog.

[edit] Quotes

"The idea of animation was overwhelming; the magic of it. I never lost sight of it. When I realized it was color, music, action -- what more could you want? It had every dimension."

On Hayao Miyazaki: "I enjoy dreaming along with him: He's the original dream merchant. . . . It's not a regular cartoon, but a work of art that moves; its pacing is beautiful and symphonic in its rhythms."