Retta Scott (February 23, 1916August 26, 1990) was an American artist. She was the first woman to receive screen credit as an animator at the

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

Early life and education

Scott was born in

Omak, Washington Omak ( Merriam (1997), p. 869) is a city located in the foothills of the Okanogan Highlands in north-central Washington, United States. With an estimated 4,845 residents as of 2010, distributed over a land area of , Omak is the largest municipa ...

on February 23, 1916. She graduated from Seattle's Roosevelt High School in 1934. Scott received two scholarships over the course of her education. The first was from the Seattle Art & Music Foundation, who awarded her with a scholarship in the 4th grade that she used to attend 10 years of creative art classes. She later received 3-year scholarship to attend the Chouinard Art Institute, so she moved to Los Angeles, California. She spent much of her free time sketching wildlife at the nearby Griffith Park zoo. Her ambition was to mold a career in Fine arts. As her time at the Chouinard Art Institute ended, its director, Vern Caldwell, urged Scott to apply for work with Walt Disney, based on her passion for animals. She was initially uninterested due to the cartoon shorts the company was known for, but Caldwell recommended her to work on ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Salten ...

'', a full film which was in production. She eventually joined the company in 1938 to work in the Story Department. According to Country Life, the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

showcased Scott's paintings as part of a 1940 exhibit.

Career at Disney

Scott worked on storyboards to develop scenes of Bambi, his mother, and the film’s hunting dogs, on which she spent weeks to develop them into “vicious, snarling, really mean beasts.” Male artists in the company were stunned, who initially assumed that only a man could create drawings with such intensity and technical skill. Her sketches caught the eye of Disney, so when the film went into production she was assigned to animate scenes of hunting dogs chasing

Faline ''Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' (German title: ''Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde'') is a 1923 Austrian coming-of-age novel written by Felix Salten and originally published in Berlin by Ullstein Verlag. The novel traces the life of Bambi ...

. She worked under the film's supervising director, David D. Hand, and was tutored by Disney animator

Eric Larson Eric Cleon Larson (September 3, 1905 – October 25, 1988) was an American animator for the Walt Disney Studios starting in 1933, and was one of the " Disney's Nine Old Men". Biography Born in Cleveland, Utah, Larson was the son of Dani ...

. This was a significant coup for the young woman, since at the 1930s-era Disney studio, women were considered only for routine tasks: "Ink and paint art was a laborious part of the animation process, and was solely the domain of women..." Her promotion to animator was in part thanks to the success of herself and other women such as Bianca Majolie, Sylvia Holland, and

Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as '' ...

as storyboard artists. Even after receiving a promotion to animator, she and her animations continued being under appreciated in the industry. Though the most recognized Walt Disney female artist is Mary Blair, it is Retta Scott who opened up the doors for women in the animation industry. She became the first woman to receive screen credit as an animator. By the spring of 1941, Scott was also considered a "specialist in animal sketches." Scott helped produce '' Fantasia'' and ''

Dumbo ''Dumbo'' is a 1941 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The fourth Disney animated feature film, it is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, ...

'', as well as an adaptation of ''

The Wind in the Willows ''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and get ...

'' that was later cancelled. She also made an appearance in ''The Reluctant Dragon'', and worked independently with colleague Woolie Reitherman on a cancelled children’s book called ''B-1st''. Despite being laid off in 1941, Scott was quickly rehired in 1942, assisting in educational videos and other smaller-scale shorts. Her brief time laid off was partially due to a Disney animators' strike in the summer of 1941, despite Scott being one of only a few animators not involved in the strike. She retired on August 2, 1946 after marrying submarine commander Benjamin Worcester, becoming Retta Scott Worcester. In 2000, the Walt Disney Co. posthumously awarded her one of that year's Disney Legends Awards for her contributions. Scott's early Disney sketches can be found at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California.

Later work

Scott and her husband moved to Washington, D.C, where she illustrated books such as ''The Santa Claus Book'' and ''Happy Birthday''. She also continued working with Disney through freelance jobs such as illustrating the Big Golden Book edition of Disney's Cinderella. Her work caught the attention of past and current Disney employees, including Jonas Rivera, producer of Up, who commented, “I’ve always loved the Retta Scott Cinderella because it doesn’t look like the movie, but somehow it feels like the movie.” Retta and her husband divorced in 1978, and she remained an active illustrator until she was again hired as an animator in 1982 for the Luckey-Zamora Moving Picture Company. She continued to impress artists, especially male artists who initially underestimated her work, and was eager to teach her skills. Scott suffered a stroke in December 1985 and died on August 26, 1990 at her home in

Foster City, California Foster City is a city located in San Mateo County, California. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley ...

Filmography

References

External links