Show #1: Tom Roth
Tom Roth has worked in both traditional animation and computer animation for Disney, Ralph Bakshi, Richard Williams, Nick Bosustow, and others.
Roth started in the animation business in 1971 working for Nick Bosustow, at Stephen Bosustow Productions, in Santa Monica. The building was an old converted warehouse, owned by a colorful character known as Gordie Hormel, the meat-packing heir. At Bosustow’s, Tom worked for director, Sam Weiss, and later spent a few years working on various Saturday morning series, as well as an interesting stint with Ralph Bakshi, who made Fritz the Cat. Tom worked on the controversial Coonskin there, as well. So far all of this is hand-drawn animation.
Through Carl Bell, Tom got a job animating on the feature Raggedy Ann and Andy, directed by Richard Williams, the wildly eccentric and hugely talented animator/director. Roth worked for Williams for several years, on various projects. Then, tired of living in Hollywood, Tom moved back to his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona, and set up an animation commercial operation, which was quite successful, concentrating on local clients. Most of us think of LA, NYC, and a few other large metropolises in the States, and around the world, as the only games in town. But, some visionaries, such as Roth, find a hungry market in other towns, where clients are anxious not to have to deal with the big monoliths. That said, after four years running his own business, Tom decided that being a businessman was not for him.
When he got an offer to go to Disney, he jumped at the chance, and worked on Hercules, in hand-drawn animation, which was his familiar background. However, he began studying the burgeoning computer animation techniques, and because of that, got a computer animation job at Disney, on Dinosaur, and subsequently, worked on several more CG features including, Shrek, Stuart Little, Scooby-Doo and others.
In the course of Tom’s work, he’s been able to live in Dublin, New York, London, Vancouver, and San Francisco. But, Tom Roth still considers Scottsdale, Arizona, his home, and commutes with ease to other places, where ever the work is, or to help us launch Toon In to the World of Animation … our very first show.
This episode is sponsored by The UPA Legacy Project.
Tags: studios: disney