The Nine Old Men’s Favourite Film - Sword in the Stone & The Jungle Book with Will Finn - E028

Will Finn has definitely animated a movie from your childhood.

Joining the industry in 1979, despite being told that Animation was dead. He sweated his way up the ranks, being taught by the last remnants of the Nine Old Men. Nobody knew where the industry was going but having put in the work through the difficult period, he was ready to sink his teeth into great characters during the renaissance, like Cogsworth or Iago.

Getting to talk to Will is such an amazing treat for me, he’s such a deep treasure trove of insider information across many studios and he’s kind enough to share all that throughout this podcast. Styling himself similar to Grandpa Simpson, recounting his tales. True to form, Will surprised me when he wanted to talk about not just one, but two Disney features of the 60’s: Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book.

These are a few of the things we talked about:

• The difficulty animation faced in the 1970s
• Why Sword in the Stone was everyone’s favourite film to work on
• How The Jungle Book worked where The Sword in the Stone didn’t

& so much more!

I’m really excited to hear your thoughts after listening to us ramble on!