Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Artist’s paintings inspired ‘Bambi’ and other movies
Work influenced generations; also created cards, kites
LOS ANGELES — In the late 1930s, when few doors were open to the son of a poor Chinese immigrant, Tyrus Wong landed a job at Walt Disney’s studio as a lowly “in-betweener,” whose artwork filled the gaps between the animator’s key drawings. But he arrived at an opportune moment.
Disney’s animators were struggling to bring “Bambi” to the screen. The wideeyed fawn and his feathered and furry friends were lost in the forest, overwhelmed by leaves, twigs, branches and other realistic touches in the ornately drawn backgrounds. “Too much detail,” Wong thought when he saw the sketches.
On his own time, he made a series of tiny drawings and watercolors and showed them to his superiors. Dreamy and impressionistic, like a Chinese landscape, Wong’s approach was to “create the atmosphere, the feeling of the forest.” It turned out to be just what “Bambi” needed. Wong, who brought a poetic quality to “Bambi” that has helped it endure as a classic of animation, died of natural causes early Friday in his Los Angeles home, said his daughter Kim Wong. He was 106.
“Ty had a different approach and certainly one that had never been seen in an animated film before,” legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston once wrote of the humble artist, whose contributions to one of the studio’s iconic productions went largely unheralded for years.
Called the film’s “most significant stylist” by animation historian John Canemaker, Wong influenced generations of animators, including Andreas Deja, the Disney artist behind Lilo of “Lilo and Stitch” and Jafar in “Aladdin.”
Wong worked at Disney only a few years, his employment cut short by a strike in 1941. But he was picked up by Warner Bros., where for more than 25 years he drew storyboards and set designs for such movies as “Rebel Without a Cause,” and “The Wild Bunch.”
When he retired from Warner Bros. in 1968, he continued to paint, turning some of his work into topselling Christmas cards for Hallmark. He also channeled his artistry into kitemaking and in his 10th decade was still flying his creations — swallows, snow cranes, a 100-foot-long centipede — at Santa Monica State Beach. He was the subject of “Tyrus,” an award-winning documentary by filmmaker Pamela Tom released in 2015.
Wong was born in Guangdong province in southern China on Oct. 25, 1910. At age 9 he said goodbye to his mother and sister and sailed to America with his father, Look Get Wong. He never saw his mother and sister again.
They lived in LA’s Chinatown but he attended school in Pasadena, where he painted posters for school events. His junior high principal was impressed by his artistic ability and helped him obtain a scholarship for one term at Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design). Wong later received a full scholarship.
After graduating from Otis in 1935, he joined the Depression-era Federal Arts Project, creating paintings for public libraries and government buildings.
In 1938 he was hired at Disney but didn’t think he would last long.
Then he heard about “Bambi,” based on the book by Felix Salten. “I said, ‘Gee, this is all outdoor scenery (and) I’m a landscape painter. This will be great,’ ” he recalled in a video for the Disney Family Museum, which showcased his work in a 2013 exhibit.
In Wong’s last decades he was known for the magnificent kites he made at home and flew on the beach.