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Welcome
to the Official Website of Frank
Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
Although
Frank and Ollie have passed on, this website is a part of their
legacy. All of the pages from the Home button to Contact Us were
created by
Frank and Ollie.
Their idea for the site was to
provide a way for them to continue to mentor young animators. Because
of their age and health they were not able to get out that often to
talk to young animators.
They started working on their website
in the late 1990's. On two large corkboards in Frank's studio, the
website was completely story boarded. They also created two new
characters and original short animations for the site. The characters,
Nilknarf and Revilo, are Frank and Ollie’s names backwards. They were
created
because it would be too much work get approvals to use the Disney
characters they had created.
Two companies had told Frank and
Ollie that they would implement the site, but then failed to do
so. In 2000 Frank, Ollie and I, Mike Clark, decided to take a do
it yourself
approach. I could take care of technical aspects, but asked my
friend, Joe Hoffman, if he would help with the graphics design.
Joe was
not only crucial to the design of the site; he also came up with the
"Tales from the Table" page. One of the joys we had working with Frank
and Ollie was hearing stories about working at Disney Animation
from the very beginning. Joe made a regular effort to get Frank and
Ollie together to share their stories with all of us.
There was
a page on the original site where fans could request autographed
pictures and drawings that Frank and Ollie created specifically for the
site. There was also a section where animators could send in
samples of their work for Frank and Ollie to critique. They took
great joy at the opportunity to help young animators.
It was
exciting, amazing, and a joy for both of us to know and work with the
two of
the men responsible for so many of our childhood memories.
Joe, Frank and Ollie have all passed but it was their work that created
the content for the site. I hope you enjoy, as well as learn a
little, from this site!
Mike
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