Norm Ferguson (animator)

William Norman Ferguson (September 2, 1902 – November 4, 1957) was an American animator for Walt Disney Studios and a central contributor to the studio's stylistic development in the 1930s. He is most frequently noted for his contribution to the creation of Pluto, one of the studio's best-known and most enduring characters, and is the artist most closely associated with that character. He is also credited for developing Peg-Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf.[1] Ferguson, known at the studio as "Norm" or "Fergy", was the primary animator of the witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first in a long line of great Disney feature villains. He was also a sequence director on the film.
== Career ==
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After starting at the studio in 1929 as a cameraman, Ferguson switched to the animation department and rose rapidly, despite a lack of formal art training. His early animation of the dog who would become Pluto drew strong response at the studio and on-screen for giving the character a personality and apparent inner life that was considered a great step forward for the young art form of animation. Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston paid extensive tribute to Ferguson's work in their 1981 book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, calling his famous "flypaper sequence" from the 1934 short Playful Pluto- in which the dog is stuck to a piece of flypaper- a "milestone in personality animation...through it all, his reaction to his predicament and his thoughts of what to try next are shared with the audience. It was the first time a character seemed to be thinking on the screen, and, though it lasted only 65 seconds, it opened the way for animation of real characters with real problems."
He is remembered for having worked "rough" and "loose", in animation terms, with a focus on feeling, action, and the character's personality rather than detail, structure, or formal draftsmanship. Fellow animator Fred Moore is quoted as having said of Ferguson, "He doesn't know that you can't raise the eyebrows above the head circle, so he goes ahead and does it and it gives a great effect." Animator Shamus Culhane remembered Ferguson as having produced a high volume of work- about 18 feet a week as opposed to the more average ten at the Disney Studios at the time. (A "foot" of animation- a measurement based on film footage- is sixteen frames).
Norm Ferguson served as a sequence director or directing animator on many of the classic Walt Disney features films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 through the 1950s, including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland.
Ferguson, who later in life suffered from diabetes, left the Disney Studios with his health and career in decline in about 1953. Immediately after a brief, unsuccessful stint with Shamus Culhane Productions, described by Culhane in his 1986 book Talking Animals And Other People, Ferguson died as a result of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California in 1957.[2]
Ferguson posthumously received the industry's Winsor McCay Award in 1987 and was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend by the studio in 1999, along with fellow animator Hamilton Luske (also posthumous), among others. The two men are the subjects of chapter five in Thomas and Johnston's Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, titled "Cartoon Comes of Age: Norm Ferguson and Ham Luske."
== Filmography ==
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=== Feature films ===
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Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1937	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	supervising animator 	
1940	Pinocchio 	supervising animator and sequence director 	"J. Worthington Foulfellow" and "Gideon"
1940	Fantasia 	supervising animator and director 	"Dance of the Hours" segment
1941	The Reluctant Dragon 	Himself 	
1941	Dumbo 	directing animator and sequence director 	
1942	Bambi 	supervising animator 	
1942	Saludos Amigos 	supervising animator and supervising director	Pedro, El Gaucho Goofy, Aquarela do Brasil
1944	The Three Caballeros 	Director and production supervisor 	
1950	Cinderella 	directing animator 	
1951	Alice in Wonderland 	directing animator 	
1953	Peter Pan 	directing animator 	
=== Short films ===
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Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1926	School Days 	Animator 	
1927	Horses, Horses, Horses	Animator 	
1929	Mickey's Choo-Choo 	Animator 	
1930	Cannibal Capers 	Animator 	
1930	Frolicking Fish 	Animator 	
1930	The Gorilla Mystery 	Animator 	
1930	Arctic Antics 	Animator 	
1930	Midnight in a Toy Shop	Animator 	
1930	Night 	Animator 	
1930	The Chain Gang 	Animator 	
1930	Pioneer Days 	Animator 	
1930	The Fire Fighters 	Animator 	
1930	Monkey Melodies 	Animator 	
1930	The Picnic 	Animator 	
1930	Winter 	Animator 	
1930	Playful Pan 	Animator 	
1931	Traffic Troubles 	Animator 	
1931	The Birthday Party 	Animator 	
1931	Mother Goose Melodies 	Animator 	
1931	Blue Rhythm 	Animator 	
1931	The Castaway 	Animator 	
1931	Birds of a Feather 	Animator 	
1931	The Moose Hunt 	Animator 	
1931	The Delivery Boy 	Animator 	
1931	The Beach Party 	Animator 	
1931	Mickey Cuts Up 	Animator 	
1931	Mickey's Orphans 	Animator 	
1931	The Barnyard Broadcast	Animator 	
1932	The Whoopee Party 	Animator 	
1932	Trader Mickey 	Animator 	
1932	The Duck Hunt 	Animator 	
1932	Flowers and Trees 	Animator 	
1932	The Mad Dog 	Animator 	
1932	Babes in the Woods 	Animator 	
1932	Mickey's Nightmare 	Animator 	
1932	King Neptune 	Animator 	
1932	Bugs in Love 	Animator 	
1932	The Klondike Kid 	Animator 	
1932	Santa's Workshop 	Animator 	
1932	Mickey's Good Deed 	Animator 	
1933	Puppy Love 	Animator 	
1933	Mickey's Pal Pluto 	Animator 	
1933	Birds in the Spring 	Animator 	
1933	The Pet Store 	Animator 	
1933	Ye Olden Days 	Animator 	
1933	Father Noah's Ark 	Animator 	
1933	Three Little Pigs 	Animator 	
1933	Old King Cole 	Animator 	
1934	Shanghaied 	Animator 	
1934	The Big Bad Wolf 	Animator 	
1934	Playful Pluto 	Animator 	
1934	Gulliver Mickey 	Animator 	
1934	Orphan's Benefit 	Animator 	
1934	Mickey's Steam Roller 	Animator 	
1935	Who Killed Cock Robin?	Animator 	
1935	The Golden Touch 	Animator 	
1935	Pluto's Judgement Day 	Animator 	
1935	On Ice 	Animator 	
1936	Mother Pluto 	Animator 	
1936	Moving Day 	Animator 	
1936	Alpine Climbers 	Animator 	
1936	Mickey's Polo Team 	Animator 	
1936	Mickey's Grand Opera 	Animator 	
1936	Donald and Pluto 	Animator 	
1936	Three Little Wolves 	Animator 	
1936	Mickey's Elephant 	Animator 	
1937	Pluto's Quin-puplets 	Animator 	
1937	Moose Hunters 	Animator 	
1938	The Fox Hunt 	Animator 	
1939	The Practical Pig 	Animator 	
1939	The Pointer 	Animator 	
1939	Beach Picnic 	Animator 	
1939	Society Dog Show 	Animator 	
1939	Officer Duck 	Animator 	
1940	Bone Trouble 	Animator 	
1941	Pluto's Playmate 	Animator and director	
1951	Plutopia 	Animator 	
1951	R'coon Dawg 	Animator 	
1951	Cold Turkey 	Animator 	
1952	Pluto's Party 	Animator 	
1953	The Simple Things 	Animator 	
1954	Social Lion 	Animator 	
1958	To Itch His Own 	Animator 	Released posthumously
=== TV series ===
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Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1956	Disneyland	Animator	Episode: Where Do the Stories Come From?
Category:1902 births
Category:1957 deaths
Category:American animated film directors
Category:Fantasy film directors
Category:Animators from New York (state)
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Category:People from Manhattan