Tony Bancroft

Tony Bancroft (born July 31, 1967) is an American animator and film director who frequently collaborates with Disney. He is founder and owner of the faith-driven animation company Toonacious Family Entertainment. Tony currently serves as the Executive VP Creative Development and Production for DivideNine Animation Studios.
==Life and career==
A native Californian, Bancroft grew up in Orange County. After a two-year stint at Cypress College, he enrolled in the character animation program at CalArts. This led to a summer job as a production assistant with filmmaker Ralph Bakshi and ultimately to an internship in California with Disney Feature Animation followed by a full-time position at the new Florida animation facility. Bancroft (along with his twin brother Tom) was selected to be among the first group of animators to work at the Disney-MGM Studios. During his one-year stay in Florida, he had his first official assignment as an assistant clean-up animator on Roger Rabbit in Roller Coaster Rabbit (1990). This was followed by a credit as animating assistant on The Rescuers Down Under (1990) working on the character of "Frank the frill-necked lizard".
In 1990, he returned to California and worked as a character animator on Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992) before being promoted to supervising animator role on The Lion King (1994). After working on the character design and some preliminary animation for the gargoyle characters in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), he was tapped to join Barry Cook as a director on Mulan (1998).
He was animation supervisor on Stuart Little 2 at Sony Pictures Imageworks during 2002, and founded Toonacious that same year. Bancroft also served as English voice director on Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso in 2003.
In 2012 Bancroft authored the book: Directing for Animation : Everything You Didn't Learn in Art School published by Focal Press. The book explores the directing process, with insights from noted directors including Dean DeBlois, Pete Docter, Eric Goldberg, Tim Miller, John Musker, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Nick Park and Chris Wedge.
In 2014, Bancroft and his brother Tom, began The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast, which focuses on the animation industry, featuring interviews with creators and those involved. The podcast celebrated its 100th episode with guest Mark Henn in July 2018 live show presented via Skype, for animation classes at Azusa Pacific University in California and Lipscomb University in Tennessee, where each brother teaches.
For some time, Bancroft was working on pre-production and directing an animated film, titled Bunyan and Babe, which was to be released in 2017.
In March of 2018, it was announced the Bancroft would join Azusa Pacific University as the head of the school's new Animation and Visual Effects degree program beginning in the fall of that year.
In 2018, Bancroft also was an animator on Mary Poppins Returns.
==Personal life==
Bancroft and his wife, Rene, have three daughters, Caitlin, Savannah, and Sierra. They returned to Los Angeles after living in Florida during the production of Mulan. He has a twin brother named Tom who is also an animator.
He is a Christian, and he highly credits God for his talents as an animator and director.
== Filmography ==
Year	Title 	Notes 	Characters
1988	Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (TV Series) 	Production Coordinator - 6 Episodes 	
1990	Roller Coaster Rabbit (Short) 	Assistant Animator 	
1990	The Rescuers Down Under 	Animating Assistant 	
1991	Beauty and the Beast 	Animator 	Cogsworth
1992	Off His Rockers (Short) 	Visual Development Artist 	
1992	Aladdin 	Animator 	Iago
1993	Bonkers (TV Series) 	Character Animation - 1 Episode 	
1994	The Lion King 	Supervising Animator 	Pumbaa
1994	Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King (Video Game) 	Animator 	
1995	Pocahontas 	Animator (uncredited) 	Chief Powhatan
1996	The Hunchback of Notre Dame 	Additional Animator 	
1997	Hercules 	Animator (uncredited) 	Phil
1998	Mulan 	Director with Barry Cook 	
1999	Tarzan 	Animator (uncredited) 	Kala
2000	The Emperor's New Groove 	Supervising Animator 	Kronk
2002	Stuart Little 2 	Animation Supervisor 	
2003	Lenny & Sid 	Creator / Director / Character Design	
2004	One by One (Video short) 	Animator 	
2005	The Origin of Stitch (Video short) 	Animator 	
2008	Wild About Safety: Timon and Pumbaa Safety Smart at Home! (Short) 	Animator 	
2009	Wild About Safety: Timon and Pumbaa Safety Smart Goes Green! (Video short) 	Animator 	
2009	Wild About Safety: Timon and Pumbaa Safety Smart In the Water! (Video short)	Animator 	
2011	The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol (Short) 	Animator 	
2011	Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters 	Animator: Duncan Studio Production 	
2016	Norm of the North 	Additional Storyboard Artist 	
2017	Bunyan and Babe 	Storyboard Artist / Additional Voices	
2017	Animal Crackers 	Director 	
2017	Beast of Burden 	Executive Producer 	
2018	Mary Poppins Returns 	Animator 	
2019	Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs 	Voice Director 	
2021	Space Jam: A New Legacy 	Animator 	
==Awards==
* In 1998 Bancroft received the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing, along with co-director Barry Cook for Mulan.
* In 2003, Bancroft received the Visual Effects Society Award for Best Character Animation in an Animated Motion Picture, along with David Schaub, Eric Armstrong, and Sean Mullen, for Stuart Little 2.
* In 2019 Bancroft received the Uzeta Award at the Etna International Festival of Comics and Pop Culture in Catania, Italy for Best Cross-Media Artist for The Return of Mary Poppins
Category:Living people
Category:Animators from California
Category:Film directors from California
Category:California Institute of the Arts alumni
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Category:People from Orange County, California
Category:Christians from California
Category:Voice directors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American storyboard artists
Category:American animated film directors
Category:American animated film producers
Category:American film producers
Category:Annie Award winners
Category:1967 births