R.I.P. Burny Mattinson, storyboard artist, director, and Disney’s longest-serving employee
Mattinson, who worked on Lady And The Tramp, The Jungle Book, and much more, was 87
Burny Mattinson, who, across his record-breaking 70-year career at Disney, worked on numerous Disney animated classics, has died. As Walt Disney Animation Studios (via The Hollywood Reporter) confirmed, Mattinson died after a “short illness” Monday at an assisted living facility in Los Angeles. He was 87.
“Burny’s artistry, generosity, and love of Disney Animation and the generations of storytellers that have come through our doors, for seven decades, has made us better—better artists, better technologists, and better collaborators,” Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee said in a statement. “All of us who have had the honor to know him and learn from him will ensure his legacy carries on.”
Born in San Fransisco on May 13, 1935, Burny was the first of two children, and the arts were never far from their household. His father was a jazz drummer, and his mother was a former theater actor. At the age of 6, his mother took him to see Pinocchio, which forever changed the course of his life. When Mattinson was 18, his mother asked him about getting a summer job. His reply was, “Maybe I will try Disney. I will go over there and see about getting a job.”
“Fine, I will drive you,” she said.
Mattinson started in the mailroom, helping deliver correspondence to Disney’s then-meager staff. However, the job allowed him to move throughout the company, telling people he wanted to be in animation. Six months later, he landed a position as an inbetweener Lady And The Tramp, creating frames between keyframes, before working on Sleeping Beauty and One Hundred And One Dalmatians.
Around that time, he met a fellow Sleeping Beauty inbetweener named Sylvia Fry at a mutual friend’s wedding. He asked her on a date, and two weeks later, they were engaged to be married. The couple would have three children and four grandchildren.
Making his way through Disney, Mattison spent the 60s working on classic projects as an assistant to one of Walt’s Nine Old Men, Eric Larson, working on Mary Poppins, The Sword In The Stone, and The Jungle Book. His roles varied in the late-70s when he began working on Pete’s Dragon, The Fox And The Hound, and The Rescuers. In 1983, Mattinson directed his first short, which has since become a holiday classic: Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Elaborating on a knack for English mice in foggy London town, he followed with The Great Mouse Detective, serving as co-director alongside John Musker, Ron Clements, and Dave Michener.
Mattinson spent the 90s as a storyboard artist during the Disney renaissance, with credits on The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Beauty And The Beast. Disney named him a Disney Legend in 2008, and he continued to serve as a story supervisor throughout the 2000s and was credited as a story artist on Big Hero 6 and 2022’s Strange World. On March 5, 2018, he broke the castmember longevity record.
“Disney has always been a family place,” he said. “I think that’s what’s so rich about it. It’s family. And, you know, that was the big thing Walt felt, way back. He was family.”