Original: Walt Disney jokingly called this group of animators his '' Nine Old Men , '' referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt 's dismissive description of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court , even though the animators were in their thirties and forties at the time .
Simplified: Wolfgang '' Woolie '' Reitherman ( June 26 , 1909 - May 22 , 1985 ) joined Disney in 1935 as an animator and director .