Columbus honors Oscar winning Disney animator

  • Published
  • By Sonic Johnson
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The Columbus community is highlighting native son Josh Meador for his success and artistry as animator for Walt Disney studios on October 16 and 17. He was an important animator and special effects artist for Walt Disney Studios 1936-1965. He had a major hand in almost every Disney 

production from Snow White to Sleeping Beauty. The Disney movie "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" which he was co-special effects supervisor for, won the 1954 Oscar for special effects. In 2007, four movies in which he was credited with animation or effects were listed by the Visual Effects Society as among the 50 most influential visual effects movies of all time. He was also a noted landscape artist. Walt Disney had over 50 of his oil paintings. 

A presentation by Phil Meador, Josh Meador's son, discussing his father's art and work on such classics as Snow White, Bambi, Fantasia, Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Sleeping Beauty, and The Forbidden Planet will be held Friday, October 16 at 7 p.m. at the Nissan Auditorium on the MUW campus. Phil Meador followed his father into the visual and special effects field; his credits include Splash, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Black Cauldron, My Science Project, and Return to Oz. The presentation is free and open to the public.
 
An Exhibition Opening, Josh Meador: Animator and Artist of Disney's Golden Age will be held Saturday, October 17 at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library at 10 a.m.. The exhibit will highlight both Meador's personal artwork and his work at Disney Studios. Included in the exhibit will be an array of original sketches, paintings, photographs, Disney animation cells, and video clips exploring the life and creativity of Josh Meador. Also to be seen are Meador's artists tools and paint stand which he used in the Disney production 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree. The exhibit will include a painting once owned by Walt Disney and which is of Disney's Smoke Tree Ranch. The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library is located at 314 N. 7th street and the exhibit is free and open to the public. 

"Josh Meador's artwork, both personal and for Disney Studios, represents his innovation and expertise in bringing images to life," notes Mona Vance, archivist for the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library. "We all grew up watching Disney movies as children and now we get to meet one of the masters behind the magic." 

Josh Meador was born in Greenwood, Miss. in 1911 and moved to Columbus around 1918. In 1936, he moved to California where he died in 1965. He is buried in Friendship Cemetery. 

While living in California, Meador frequently visited the Columbus area. 

The accompanying picture is cell from Disney's 1943 movie "Victory through Air Power" was donated to Mr. T. C. Billups, by Josh Meador and autographed by Walt Disney. There was an informal serviceman's hang out called the "Drop in Hanger" in the basement of his home, Whitehall, during WWII. The cartoon image is of the delivery of the first airplane purchased by the Army Air Corps in 1908. It is autographed; "Happy Landings at Whitehall - Walt Disney". A sticker on it says "For the Hanger, Josh Meador - Chief Animator, Walt Disney Productions." 

A celluloid, or cell for short, is an original painting on celluloid used in animation. For each movement in the action of a character in an animated picture, a cell painting is made and then photographed in succession to depict the motion. Depending on the speed of the character, each cell represents approximately 1/25 of a second of the movie. An animated movie required thousands of cells. 

Events honoring Josh Meador were made possible by the Billups-Garth Foundation, Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau, Mississippi University for Women, Columbus -Lowndes Public Library, and Columbus Arts Council. 

His is a legacy of creativity, talent, and the retention of personal and family values during the golden age of Disney animated features.