MOVIE REVIEW : Paying Tribute to Pioneering Animators ‘Frank and Ollie’

Think of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston as the eighth and ninth of Snow White’s amiable dwarfs. Or, from a darker point of view, as the miscreants who killed Bambi’s mother. But whatever your perspective, to encounter them in the sprightly documentary “Frank and Ollie” is to understand what the phrase “charmed lives” means.

The closest of friends since they met as art students at Stanford in 1931, Frank and Ollie more or less stumbled into animation when it paid $17 a week, only to discover they both had such a gift for the process that their work changed its essential nature.

As the most prominent of the “Nine Old Men,” Walt Disney’s shock troop of key animators, Frank and Ollie had a hand in creating some of the most well-known images on the planet. And now, happily retired with dozens of films and several books to their credit, they have the pleasure of appearing in this charming documentary written and directed by Frank’s son Theodore Thomas.

Since feature-length animation dates back only to 1937’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Frank and Ollie were literally present at the form’s creation, giving this film an importance as irreplaceable oral history.

But the greatest pleasure of “Frank and Ollie” is the opportunity it offers to simply spend time with these amiable codgers, possibly the world’s oldest kids, who laugh easily and refuse to take themselves awfully seriously, despite their considerable accomplishments.

Working separately but often on the same project, what Frank and Ollie did was pioneer and refine the concept of character or personality animation. Contributing heavily to films like “Pinocchio,” “Peter Pan” “The Jungle Book,” “Bambi” and “Lady and the Tramp,” these animators got so inside what they drew that a bunch of sketches could seem as real as flesh. One of this film’s special treats is seeing both of them act out the characters they created and marveling at how close their pencils came to what their minds imagined.

With all their closeness (their families still live next door to each other in La Canada Flintridge and their first children were born less than a week apart), it can be difficult to tell Frank from Ollie except by their hobbies. Frank, the more analytical at the drawing board, is shown playing ragtime piano (he helped found the Firehouse Five+2), while Ollie, an intuitive artist whose pencil “kissed the paper,” is a serious model train enthusiast.

Given the genesis of this project, no one should expect “Frank and Ollie” to be a tough look at Walt Disney and the sometimes controversial way he ran his operation. Rather it is a loving tribute to two gifted and delightful men whose way of looking at the world first put the magic in the Magic Kingdom.

* MPAA rating: PG, for a moment of language and a brief view of a nude drawing. Times guidelines: suitable for the entire family.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

‘Frank and Ollie’

A Theodore Thomas Productions production, released by Walt Disney Pictures. Director Theodore Thomas. Producers Kuniko Okubo, Theodore Thomas. Screenplay Theodore Thomas. Cinematographer Erik Daarstad. Editor Kathryn Camp. Music John Reynolds. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes.

* In limited release, playing at AMC Century 14, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd, Century City Shopping Center (310) 553-8900.