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Getting Started in Animation

Not really,  yeah no. Animation didn't exist that much. They didn't have an..animation classes, you know? They had at nighttime I took night classes with Don Graham who, he used to teach. In fact uh animation had hit in Disney, at Disney at uh to all the animators, key animators, that they would continue their education with Don Graham because Don was one of the best teachers that I ever met. Best, best in America anyway, you know.  And, uh, he um he was doing this work for Disney and he said Jimmy why don't you get into animation. He was always saying animation is a good field. I said, "Aw geez. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and all that kind of..." And he says, "No no there's a new movement. Called UPA, you know, and they are breakaways from Disney and when there was this Communist hunt and uh strikes, you know, on Disney. And so a bunch people went and started UPA Pictures. They did these wonderful classic stuff. So I found out what we were doing and I took an interest in that right away, you know. 


Date: June 29, 2012

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Chris Komai, John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Jimmy Murakami (1933 – 2014) was inspired as a child to become a film animator by watching the Disney cartoons that were shown to Japanese Americans confined at the Tule Lake concentration camp during WWII. After attending Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, he worked as an animator for UPA. He later founded Murakami Wolf—a company that produced many well-known commercials in the 1960s and 70s—and became a feature film director of When the Wind Blows and The Snowman. After establishing residence in Ireland in recent years, he passed away in February of 2014 at age 80.  (June 2014)

Willie Ito
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Willie Ito

First Exposure to Animation

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

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Willie Ito
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Willie Ito

First Encounter with Walt Disney

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

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Willie Ito
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Willie Ito

Disney Drawing Tests

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

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Willie Ito
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Willie Ito

His mentor, Iwao Takamoto

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

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