Floyd Norman

 ( 1935 Births ) 

After Walt Disney died in 1966, Floyd Norman left the Disney studio to co-found Vignette Films, Inc., with business partner animator/director Leo Sullivan. Vignette Films, Inc. produced six animated films and was one of the first companies to produce films on the subject of black history. AfroKids official website . Norman and Sullivan worked together on various projects, including segments for Sesame Street and the original Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert television special conceived by Bill Cosby, which aired in 1969 on NBC. In 1972, a different Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids Saturday morning cartoon series was produced for CBS by Filmation.

Norman returned to Disney at one point in the early 1970s to work on the Disney animated feature Robin Hood, and worked on several animated television programs at Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears. In the 1980s he worked as a writer in the comic strip department at Disney and was the last scripter for the Mickey Mouse comic strip before it was discontinued.Norman, Floyd. "One Mouse, two Floyds," Jim Hill Media (July 20, 2004).

He has worked on motion pictures for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, having contributed creatively as a story artist on films such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan and Dinosaur for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. for Pixar among others, including Reel FX's Free Birds.

Norman has also published several books of cartoons inspired by his lifetime of experiences in the animation industry, Faster! Cheaper!: The Flip Side to the Art of Animation ; Son of Faster, Cheaper!: A Sharp Look Inside the Animation Business ; How the Grinch Stole Disney ; Disk Drive: Animated Humor in the Digital Age; and Suspended Animation: The Art Form That Refuses To Die.

Norman has also authored a semi-biographical animation primer, titled: Animated Life: A Lifetime of Tips, tricks, techniques and Stories from an Animation Legend (Animation Masters) , that was published by Focal Press in 2013. He is the subject of the 2016 documentary Floyd Norman: An Animated Life.

He is a columnist for the websites JimHillMedia.com and AfroKids.com.

In 2016 Norman was appointed to the education and outreach committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Debuting at the 2017 D23 Expo, Disney Editions published the picture book A Kiss Goodnight written by Richard M. Sherman and illustrated by Norman.

Norman was also part of a Members Only Preview for the behind-the-scenes exhibition titled Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book: Making a Masterpiece during a special talk alongside Andreas Deja, Darleen Carr and Bruce Reitherman which took place on June 22, 2022. The exhibition took place at The Walt Disney Family Museum from June 23, 2022, to January 8, 2023.