Al Bertino (July 15, 1912 – August 18, 1996) was an American animator best remembered for his work with the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Born in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in 1912, Bertino began work for Walt Disney in 1935. Apart from his work on feature films, such as ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

'' and ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

'', Bertino also wrote for ''

the Wonderful World of Disney The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

'', and helped create a number of attractions at

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

, including

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a theme park attraction and dark ride at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. It is loosely based on Disney's adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), one of two segments comprising the anima ...

Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displa ...

Country Bear Jamboree The Country Bear Jamboree is an attraction in the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort and at Tokyo Disneyland in the Tokyo Disney Resort. The attraction also existed at Disneyland Park. All versions of the attraction are simi ...

, and

America Sings America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, United States, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of audio animatronics animals that entertained the audience by singing songs from various periods in America's musical his ...

. Until his retirement in 1977, he worked as an assistant animator and storyman for Mintz Animation, Harmon-Ising Animation, Disney, UPA, Snowball Animation, Grantray-Lawrence Animation and Walter Lantz Animation. In 1986, he won a Golden Award (given to Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists). Bertino died on August 18, 1996, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Notes

*The giant bear at the Country Bear Jamboree called 'Big Al' was a self-portrait. *In a 1945 Disney short, "

Hockey Homicide ''Hockey Homicide'' is a cartoon made by Walt Disney Productions in 1945, featuring Goofy. Plot Narrator Doodles Weaver explains the rules of ice hockey in satirical format. The narration's emphasis on good sportsmanship is countered by the v ...

', all the characters are named for members of the Disney staff including "Ice Box Bertino", who, as a

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are not ...

, repeatedly gets into hockey fights with "Fearless Ferguson" (named for Norm Ferguson) *Bertino was portrayed by actor Thomas Bellin in episode 11 of the 1969 season of '' Dragnet'', "Narcotics – DR-16". Bertino is depicted designing posters for a student-led anti-drug group. *Al Bertino is the creator of "The Monster Plantation" at Six Flags Over Georgia.

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20070927134328/http://www.mpsc839.org/_Info/In_memoriam/a-c/bertino.html * *https://web.archive.org/web/20160315151211/http://www.disneyshorts.org/shorts.aspx?shortID=402 Animators from California Walt Disney Animation Studios people 1912 births 1996 deaths {{US-animator-stub