History, as always, is written by the victors. This is no less true in animation history than it is in military history. We revere the Walt Disneys’, the Chuck Jones’, and the Jay Wards’ because they have a huge legacy of excellence well worthy of our adoration. But none of these giants worked alone or in a vacuum. History is not so kind to those other men, those unsung geniuses of the animation industry. For every Walt Disney, there was an Ub Iwerks working tirelessly to create the first Mickey Mouse cartoons. For every Chuck Jones, there was a Bob Clampett offering philosophical and stylistic counterpoint and contrast. For Jay Ward, there was Alex Anderson. Who? Alex Anderson. That’s who. In 1948, Anderson was a young animator working for his uncle Paul Terry’s Terrytoon studio in California when he came up with the idea of creating a new cartoon character whose small physic.
