Harold H. "Hal" Sutherland (July 1, 1929 – January 16, 2014) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

and painter who began his career as a Disney animator in 1954 working on ''

Sleeping Beauty ''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...

'', ''

Lady and the Tramp ''Lady and the Tramp'' is a 1955 American animated musical romance film produced by Walt Disney and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. The 15th Disney animated feature film, it was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hami ...

'', ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and Puer aeternus, never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending ...

'' and the last theatrical short that featured

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

. He gained recognition in the late 1960s as a director of animated productions at

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...

Early life

He was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

in 1929.

Career

One of the company's three co-founders, Sutherland had a hand in a large number of

limited animation Limited animation is a process in the overall technique of traditional animation that reuses frames of character animation. Early history The use of budget-cutting and time-saving animation measures in animation dates back to the earliest commerci ...

productions which were broadcast as

Saturday morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...

s. Sutherland's directorial assignments included the first sixteen episodes of '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'' in 1973 and ''

The New Adventures of Flash Gordon ''The New Adventures of Flash Gordon'', also known as ''The Adventures of Flash Gordon'', is a 1979-1982 animated television series. The series is actually called ''Flash Gordon'' but the expanded title is used in official records to distinguish ...

'' in 1979. He also directed some of Filmation's memorable superhero cartoons, including ''

The Adventures of Batman ''The Adventures of Batman'' is an animated television series produced by Lou Scheimer's Filmation studios. It showcased the 12-minute Batman segments from '' The Batman/Superman Hour'', sometimes broken up by and surrounding another cartoon from ...

'', ''

The Batman/Superman Hour ''The Batman/Superman Hour'' is a Filmation animated series that was broadcast on CBS from 1968 to 1969. Premiering on September 14, 1968, this 60-minute program featured new adventures of the DC Comics superheroes Batman, Robin and Batgirl alon ...

'', ''

Aquaman Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). The character is a pastiche of Namor. Initially ...

'', and ''

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure ''The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure'' is a Saturday morning Filmation animated series that aired on CBS from 1967 to 1968. Premiering on September 9, 1967, this 60-minute program included a series of six-minute adventures featuring various DC ...

'' all in the late 1960s. Sutherland went into semi-retirement in 1974, moving to Washington State to focus on fine-art painting. One of Sutherland's later assignments with Filmation was as Production Director for the television series ''

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' is an American animated television series produced by Filmation based on Mattel's toy line ''Masters of the Universe''. The show, often referred to as simply ''He-Man'', was one of the most popular anima ...

,'' which began airing in 1983. He also directed the rather dark ''

Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night ''Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night'' is a 1987 American animated fantasy adventure film that was released on December 25, 1987, by New World Pictures. Created by Filmation, the film was conceived as a sequel to the 1883 Italian classic nov ...

''. Hal Sutherland's last project with Filmation was the ''

Snow White "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as Ta ...

'' sequel '' Happily Ever After'' which was finished in 1988 and released in 1993.

Death

Sutherland died on January 16, 2014 of complications related to a gall bladder issue.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, Hal 1929 births 2014 deaths Animators from Massachusetts Filmation people American animated film directors Artists from Cambridge, Massachusetts Walt Disney Animation Studios people American television directors American storyboard artists Film directors from Massachusetts People from Bothell, Washington