Do animators need to learn to draw? And should they be connosseurs of fine art? Art Babbitt, one of Disney's greatest animators, and the man who led the strike against Disney in 1941, certainly thought so. He argued that an animator should be familiar with all the arts - drawing, painting, music, even grand opera. Chuck Jones would have agreed - some of his funniest shorts such as
What's Opera Doc? and
The Rabbit of Seville are satires of famous operas. Other animators, such as John Kricfalusi (the genius who created
Ren and Stimpy) think this is all pretentious crap.
