The Animation Art of Bill Meléndez

José Cuauhtémoc 'Bill' Meléndez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008) was a Mexican character animator, film director and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series. Meléndez provided the voice of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.

He was born in Hermosillo in Mexico, but was educated in U.S. public schools in Douglas, Arizona, and later in Los Angeles at the Chouinard Art Institute (which would later become California Institute of the Arts).

In 1938, Meléndez was hired by Walt Disney to work on animated short films and feature-length films such as Fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, The Wind in the Willows, Dumbo, and many Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoon shorts. At Disney he worked with people like Bill Hurtz, Milt Neil, Carl Barks and T.Hee. With Hee and Hurtz he would later work again at UPA.

Bill was a prime mover in the Disney strike of 1941 and could not stay with 'Uncle Walt'. He moved on to Leon Schlesinger Productions and its successor company, Warner Bros. where he would remain until the early 1950s. There he worked with stars like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. And that's where he met fellow animator Manuel Perez (also known as Manny), one of those forgotten animators that we try on honour during this exhibition.

In 1948 Melendez moved over to United Productions of America (UPA) where he animated on cartoons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing. Melendez also produced and directed thousands of television commercials, first at UPA, then Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Productions.

In the sixties Meléndez started working on a commercial with the characters of Peanuts, the newspaper daily created by Charles Schultz. Schultz and Meléndez understood eachother instinctively and the two worked together for the rest of their lives. Meléndez started his own influential studio in 1960s and created animated movies and specials like Garfield, Betty Boop and No Man's Valley, a story based on an idea of Dutch writers Imme Dros and Harrie Geelen. No Man's Valley was co-directed by Phil Roman, who would later work on the Simpsons. In 1992 Meléndez worked with the controversial animation director Ralph Bakshi. Meléndez was active in animation for 70 years.

In the exhibition we not only show work of the Meléndez studio's but also work from the people he worked with over the years. The oldest objects are model sketches by Disney/UPA legend T.Hee (late 1930s) and a drawing from 'Mr. Duck Steps Out' (1940) when Meléndez worked at Disney. The newest objects are drawings of the Simpsons, produced by Phil Roman, who worked as Bill's right hand for years.