Iwao Takamoto(1925-2007)
- Producer
- Art Department
- Production Designer
Iwao Takamoto had recently graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School
in Los Angeles when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Iwao, his parents
and siblings were interned as enemy aliens in the Manzanar internment
camp where he learned the rudiments of drawing and animation from two
fellow internees who had worked as art directors at Hollywood film
studios. When given a chance to leave the camp to pick fruit in Idaho,
Iwao applied to Walt Disney for a job as an animator; he spent the
weekend before his appointment drawing and sketching almost everything
he saw. He got the job as an assistant illustrator working as an
apprentice under the tutelage of Disney's "Nine Old Men", particularly
Bob Carlson and Milt Kahl. While at Disney, Takamoto worked on both
short films and features. In 1961 he left Disney for Hanna-Barbera
where he would have a hand in developing many well-known and beloved
cartoon characters such as Scooby Doo, George Jetson's dog Astro, and
Penelope Pitstop. He retired as Vice President of Special Prohjects for
Warner Brothers.
