One of the best things about the 2016 documentary “Floyd Norman: An Animated Life” is not its unique subject matter, blunt honesty or upbeat tone — although all have charmed audiences since the film premiered in theaters and on Netflix last year.
Rather, it’s the unfettered access filmmakers were granted to one of the most closely guarded, tightly controlled campuses in the world: Walt Disney Studios in Southern California.
In telling the story of legendary artist and writer Floyd Norman — the first black staff animator in Disney history, now 81 and back at the House of Mouse — directors Michael Fiore and Erik Sharkey were allowed to freely roam the Disney grounds to trace the history of a multibillion-dollar brand through the eyes of the only living animator—to have worked directly with its founder.
“That rarely happens to most filmmakers,” Norman said over the phone this week from his Disney office. “You’ve got to jump through a lot of hoops just to film on the studio lot, so we had remarkably good fortune to get Disney’s blessing to film in a number of facilities.”
Norman will give audiences a peek into his life when he visits the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design on May 17 for a free masterclass (register at vasd.rmcad.edu/rsvp-norman-masterclass) followed by a screening of “An Animated Life” at the Alamo Drafthouse Littleton, with its own Q&A session.
“It was fortuitous that all these things came together at the right time,” Norman said of the documentary and his revived Disney career, the latter happening as the documentary filming was ending. “It was nice to wrap it up on a positive note for a guy who was booted out, and then valued enough to be hired back.”
It helps that Norman is officially a Disney Legend, with a 2007 plaque to match. But unlike in Norman’s 2013 book “Animated Life” — in which Disney used its clout to kill a chapter containing some unflattering recollections, according to the documentary — the company had no say over the film’s final cut.
That means “An Animated Life” contains some quietly stinging scenes about being treated poorly by fellow Disney animators, forced out at retirement age (despite watching another animator who kept working there past 65) and other no-holds-barred thoughts on ageism and corporate culture. It sketches a portrait of a remarkable life that includes Norman surviving his share of layoffs, racism, drunken tantrums following “Mad Men”-era martini lunches, the Korean War, eviction via the IRS and divorce.
And yet, there’s no hint of regret in Norman’s youthful voice — and no other place he would rather be today.
“I can’t specifically say what I’m working on, but it’s a character I’ve been involved with for many, many years in many different forms, and here he is once again being rediscovered,” Norman said. “I previously did the Mickey Mouse comics at (Disney’s) request for what ended up being a decade before I returned to film in 1993.”
Born in Santa Barbara, Calif., on June 22, 1938, Norman has worked on more projects than most people will watch or read in their lifetimes. He trained under the “nine old men,” as Disney’s formative, “Snow White”-era animators were called, and contributed to films including “Sleeping Beauty,” “101 Dalmations,” “The Sword in the Stone” and “The Jungle Book” before leaving the company after Walt Disney’s death in 1966.
He pioneered the use of animation to tell stories of black history with his company Vignette Films, and was on the spot during the Watts riots in 1965, filming the mayhem when no other news media dared enter the Los Angeles neighborhood.
The list of projects he has worked on since then — including various stints with Disney, Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears and others — reads like a comprehensive history of American cartoons and comics: “Fat Albert,” “Scooby Doo,” “Sesame Street,” “Garfield and Friends,” “The Smurfs,” “Alvin & the Chipmunks,” “Josie and the Pussycats,” “Sealab 2020,” “Super Friends” and many more.
He has also been active with Pixar productions, such as “Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.,” and more recent titles such as Adult Swim’s “Robot Chicken” on Cartoon Network.
Norman acknowledges having a torrid relationship with his longtime profession, although these days he occupies a cozier, more rock star-like perch at comic book conventions, including San Diego’s marquee Comic Con International, which he has been attending since the beginning.
In one scene from the documentary, Scarlett Johansson sings Norman “Happy Birthday” in the style of Marilyn Monroe (via video), and in his interview with The Denver Post, Norman was prodded into name-dropping some of his admirers, including Tom Hanks, who requested a meeting with Norman when he was on the lot a few years back.
But the documentary and Norman’s new side-job visiting colleges and museums for lectures has had a curious effect. After six decades of working in animation, much of it uncredited or underappreciated, he is being lauded by the general public.
“I was on the observation deck at the Empire State Building a couple of weeks ago and two tourists from Germany happened to recognize me from the movie,” said Norman, who for the last few years has worn a—distinctive Homburg hat and round eyeglasses. “They make me easy to spot, sort of iconic, I guess. But here we were: a group of tourists on top of the Empire State Building in New York City, talking about my career.”