Animator Dave Michener R.I.P.

Dave Michener, an animator with Disney for decades, died on February 15 2018 at the age of 85. The cause was complications from a virus.

Dave Michener was born on November 3 1932 in Los Angeles, California. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. It was there that Walt Disney saw some of his art displayed and offered him a job upon his graduation. He initially did work animation work on the TV series The Mickey Mouse Club and assisted Milt Kahl (one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men) for seven years. Over the next several years he worked on such Disney animated features as Sleeping Beauty (1959), One Hundred One Dalmations (1961), and The Jungle Book (1967). He was a character animator on the short "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" (1968) and the feature The AristoCats (1970).

In the Seventies he worked on story sequences for Robin Hood (1973) and on the story for The Rescuers (1977).  In the Eighties he worked on the stories for both The Fox and the Hound (1981) and Oliver and Company (1988). He served as co-director on The Great Mouse Detective (1986).  After his career with Disney he worked as supervising animation director on The Jetsons (1990) and later Once Upon a Forest (1993).  He worked as an animation supervisor on several TV series, including Gravedale High, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, and Tom & Jerry Kids Show. He taught animation at the California Institute.

Mr. Michener also worked on nearly every bit of animation in Disney's EPCOT park, as well as the animation for the "Meet the World" attraction at Tokyo Disneyland. He later illustrated the children's book How Butterbees Came to Bee.

Dave Michener worked at Disney for around three decades and he worked on nearly every feature film made during that time.  If one had watched anything made by Disney made between 1956 and 1988, then chances are good he or she has seen Dave Michener's work.