Descended from a French-Canadian great-grandfather, Le Cain was born 5 March 1941 to John and Minnie Le Cain in Singapore but evacuated to Agra, India with his mother and other relations the following year to escape the Japanese invasion. His father was captured and interned in Changi Prison. Returning to Singapore after the war, he attended St. Patrick's Catholic school. With no formal art education, his talent was nevertheless evident from an early age, Le Cain was fascinated by cinema and made his first animated film, "The Enchanted Mouse", with a friend's 8-mm camera at age 11. His next work, "The Little Goatherd", was created with a 16-mm camera at age 15. This came to the attention of agents for British film distributor Pearl &amp; Dean, who offered to pay his passage to London that year (1956) to pursue a career in animation for film and television.