Tony Bancroft was drawing Studio Ghibli characters for Inktober 2019. I had seen him at Lightbox Expo in Pasadena in September but I was skipping CTNX Animation Expo in Burbank in November. I talked to my brother Stuart about keeping an eye out for these fan art drawings and he picked this up on my behalf. Here we see Prince Ashitaka taking aim with bow and arrow while riding his mount Yakul. This takes place after being cursed by a boar god and leaving his home village. Traveling through strange territory, he fights off soldiers attacking townspeople. Tony was co-director on Disney's
Mulan, director of the English language version of Hayao Miyazaki's
Porco Rosso and director of
Animal Crackers. He started with one year and one semester at Cal Arts before joining Disney's then-new Florida studio. Advancement opportunities and the woman he married compelled him to move to Burbank where he he rose to become supervising animator on Pumbaa for
The Lion King before returning to Florida to be a director for
Mulan. After leaving Disney, Tony developed his
Lenny & Sid animated DVD for Toonacious Family Entertainment. He wrote
Directing for Animation: Everything You Didn't Learn in Art School from Focal Press in 2013. Tony is teaching animation at Azuza Pacific University while also pursuing filmmaking opportunities.
Twin brothers Tom and Tony Bancroft grew up wanting to be cartoonists like Charles Schulz. They ended up going to CalArts to study character animation and went to work for Disney Animation Studios even before graduating. Striking out on their own, they've pursued a number of creative endeavors. Tom and Tony host
The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast. Interview subjects include directors Brad Bird and Pete Docter, animators James Baxter, Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, and Glen Keane, designers Brittney Lee, Terryl Whitlatch and Victoria Ying, and actor Ming-Na Wen. My brother's Stuart Ng Books sponsors the podcasts. Tom and Tony are exhibitors at
CTNX Animation Expo in November and
Lightbox Expo in September.
