Bill Peet

May 21, 2009 12:52 AM

Bill Peet(born Bill Peed) 1915-2002, was a Disney animator and children's book author. His work defined the Disney style, served as an inspiration for the movie Cars, and has amazed readers with the depth and expression of its characters. An exhibit of his work is running at the Art Institute of Chicago through May 24, 2009 (this Sunday).

Peet worked at Disney for 27 years, where he was the only person to ever storyboard an entire film (and he did it twice, for The Sword and the Stone and 101 Dalmations). He was involved in ten films. Peet was also involved a number of shorts (all links youtube):

Goofy - Tiger Trouble (1945)
Goofy - African Diary (1945)
Goofy - Californy 'er Bust (1945)
Goofy - A Knight for a Day (1946)
Pluto - Wonder Dog (1950)
Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)
The Little House (1952) (adapted by Peet)
Ben and Me (1953) Part 1 Part 2
The Truth About Mother Goose (1957) Part 1 Part 2
Goliath II (1960) Part 1 Part 2

One short, Susie the Blue Coupe (1952) (Wikipedia), was "among the biggest design inspirations for" the Pixar movie Cars (pdf on Cars). The short deals with the selling into marriage, aging, abuse, alcoholism, and finally a happy ending (or deluded, dying hallucination) of a female car. The full 8 minute short can be seen here. Storyboards (more storyboards).

Peet had numerous disagreements with Walt Disey, detailed in his sprawling and award winning autobiography (See What was Walt like? (scans from the autobiography) and a fascinating interview about Walt and other topics).

Peet left Disney and published his first book, Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure, in 1959. He would go on to publish 36 books.

Peet published the first environmental book for children, Farewell to Shady Glade in 1966. In 1970 he published The Wump World (full low-quality book scan). (The Wump was based on the Capybara, large rodents which Peet was "ashamed to admit" he owned as a pet). Both books bear similarities to The Lorax by Dr. Suess, which was published a year later.

For any cartooning nerds, more storyboards by Peet (all from Michael Sporn's blog):
101 Dalmations
Dumbo Bath from Dumbo
The Tar Baby scene from Song of the South (more)

More large scans from a blog talking about Bill Peet as an inspiration.

Peet was also involved in some of the most controversial of Disney's scenes, including the "Jim Crows" from Dumbo and the Tar Baby from Song of the South. He talks about this in the interview linked above. (This was intentionally pushed to the bottom so as not to become the focus of this post).

posted by null terminated (22 comments total)

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My son and I loved his books Farewell to Shady Glade and The Caboose Got Loose. Gorgeous illustrations and inspiring messages.
posted by LarryC at 12:58 AM on May 21

That brings back memories, I used to love his books as a kid.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 1:15 AM on May 21

Oh man. I would be damn proud to have such a capybara as a pet.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:51 AM on May 21

On the "Crows" scene:
Peet: Yes, about the voices. I directed the voice recordings and the point they missed was that the voices were actually done by black men who were just doing their thing. It was caricatured, but it was them.

Not so. The voices of the crows are credited to Jim Carmichael (white), Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards (white) and the (African American) Hall Johnson Choir. (Astro Zombie did a fine post about the gifted and tragic Edwards some time ago.) Edward's voice is most prominent. But that's all water under the bridge. The innocently patronizing caricatures of African American "crows" have been buried in our day by the avalanche ugly stereotypes of African American men unleashed by rap singers and hip hop artists. What African American could claim offense at "Dumbo" and let the degrading stereotypes of Eddie Murphy's "Nutty Professor", "Soul Plane", 90 percent of African American stand up comedians and the entire video oeuvre of African American rap artists off the hook? ("Dumbo" also has better songs.)
posted by Faze at 3:30 AM on May 21

Oh yeah, and God bless Peet and the whole Disney crew, the great artists of our time. Future generations will wonder why the American art establishment didn't cherish them in their heyday, and instead filled its museums with the likes of Andy Warhol, Julien Schnabel and Richard Serra. (This was a good post, once you got inside.)
posted by Faze at 3:34 AM on May 21

I love Capyboppy, his account of how his son attempted to keep a capybara as a housepet.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:40 AM on May 21

Thanks. I read Wump World to my son last night. I can't wait to show him the pics of a wump (capybara) when he gets home from school..
posted by I'm Doing the Dishes at 5:11 AM on May 21

Cool! I'll have to go check this out. Note for everyone else in Chicago - The Art Institute is free through tomorrow in celebration of the opening of the new Modern wing.

I know what I'm doing after work now.
posted by Arbac at 5:38 AM on May 21

Can't get to Chicago in time. Thankyou for putting together this post
posted by bonobothegreat at 6:12 AM on May 21

Fantastic post. Great job. I wasn't aware of Peet's relationship with Disney whatsoever, but adored his books as a kid.

Gah! Gotta find some way to get down to the institute by Sunday! It's amazing how much gets by you when you live in a city like Chicago. I should really start paying more attention.
posted by SpiffyRob at 6:40 AM on May 21

I had the Bruce book growing up (and have always associated it with my godfather, whose name is Bruce, though I don't recall if he actually had anything to do with it).
posted by ocherdraco at 6:55 AM on May 21

Why'd he change his name?
posted by Hovercraft Eel at 6:57 AM on May 21

Why'd he change his name?

His later name was Peed. Peed. Cab you imagine elementary school.

"Look! Bill peed!"

"Bill Peed--in his pants!"
"Bill Peed--at his desk!"
"Bill Peed--with the teacher!"

The only way to make it worse it if he name had been Bill "I Recently Urinated"
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:38 AM on May 21

Argh. Can you imagine.....?

Some days I wish I had been born with fingers.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:39 AM on May 21

Awesome stuff- I loved his books when I was a kid, I always recognize the style.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:43 AM on May 21

"Look! Bill peed!"

You know, somehow have a feeling the cleverer bullies would've called him Willy.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:54 AM on May 21

Thank you so much for this post. Just outstanding stuff. wow.
posted by shmegegge at 8:27 AM on May 21

Terrific post. "The Whingdingdilly" was one of my absolute favorite books when I was a kid. I picked up a new copy for my girls a few years ago and found myself engrossed in it again - the artwork really is marvelous.
posted by phong3d at 8:38 AM on May 21

My son loved the "Caboose who got loose" so much as a young child, I had the damned thing memorized. I had to buy the book three times over the course of 2 years because we wore it out reading it and re-reading it.

As sick of that book as I was at certain times, I always did appreciate the illustrations and the charm of it. Those were good times, and I miss that goofy four year old my son used to be. I can't possibly favorite this post hard enough.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:51 AM on May 21

His autobiography is a great book.
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 9:44 AM on May 21

I loved his books (including his autobiography) as a kid, but looking over that book list, I hardly remember any of them. Thanks for this!
posted by booknerd at 11:15 AM on May 21

This seems a good place to reiterate that "Baby Mine" from Dumbo is the saddest thing of anything ever.
posted by stefnet at 4:59 PM on May 21