Willie Ito - Animator @ San Diego Comic Fest - Voices of Creativity S04E20
Channel: Voices of Creativity
Date: 03/05/2020

Animator Willie Ito joins us at San Diego Comic Fest to tell us why creativity is so important. Growing up in San Francisco, he realized that he wanted to become an animator/cartoonist when he saw Snow White for the first time at age 5. His career as an animator/cartoonist spans nearly 60 years. In 1954, he started at Walt Disney Productions on the feature Lady and the Tramp. Willie worked on the iconic spaghetti kissing scene as his indoctrination into the business. Later, he worked at Warner Bros. Cartoon’s infamous Termite Terrace. Working with Chuck Jones on such classics as “One Froggy Evening” and “What’s Opera Doc?”. Willie also worked with Friz Freleng doing layouts, receiving my first screen credits on “Prince Violent” later re-titled “Prince Varmit” featuring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.

Bob Clampett was starting productions on The Beany and Cecil Show and after 6 years at Warner’s, he was invited to Join the new studio. Willie was in layouts and character designs and also did many of the merchandise such as comic books, coloring books and promo artwork. He joined Hanna-Barbara Productions during the development of The Jetsons and remained for the next 14 years also working on the Flintstones, Yogi Bear Show, and many other shows.

He returned to Disney and after 23 years of developing collectibles and mentoring Disney artists worldwide, he retired as Director of International Creative after a 45 year career.

Learn more about Willie Ito at https://animationguild.org/oral_history/willie-ito

If you are a teacher or instructor who is using our episodes in your course, we have provided questions for your students to answer after watching the video.

Willie’s creativity helped him through difficult times, such as three years in a Japanese Internment Camp during World War II. How does creativity motivate or influence you?
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Voices of Creativity is a student produced series where we ask professionals from all industries the question "Why is Creativity Important?" and learn how it influences their careers.

Created by 2CPR Group and Bayah Group, Voices of Creativity is a student produced series where we ask professionals from all industries the question "Why is Creativity Important?" and learn how it influences their careers. This experience for the students bridges the gap between industry and education. This allows them to work with industry professionals, give them hands on time with professional equipment, time to apply the skills they learned in the classroom, and build their professional resume to get them ready for the workforce while still in school. We bring together leading industry partners, manufactures, schools and institutions, instructors, and the students into a meaningful real work based learning experience.