Bill Peet
Encyclopedia
Bill Peet was an American
children's book illustrator and a story writer for Disney
Studios. He joined Disney in 1937 and worked on The Jungle Book
, Song of the South
, Cinderella
, One Hundred and One Dalmatians
, The Sword in the Stone
, Goliath II
, Sleeping Beauty
, Peter Pan
, Alice in Wonderland
, Dumbo
, Pinocchio
, Fantasia
, The Three Caballeros
, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
and other stories.
, Indiana
, in 1915. BIll began drawing at an early age, and filled tablets full of sketches. Often, instead of doing lessons, Peet would draw in the margins of his textbooks--which were very popular for their added illustrations when he sold them back. Animals were always a love of Peet's. He and his friends would go traipsing through the woods looking for frogs, tadpoles, minnows and crawfish. Most of his adventures as a boy to catch animals were in the hope that he could capture them and sketch them. The young Peet would also sneak onto greeting parties at the train station as a boy just to see the train's mechanical workings. In addition, as a teen, he would try to sketch the circus big top, but he was always in the way of the set up crew. He memorized the scene and would reconstruct it from memory.
It was about this time Peet entered into Arsenal Technical High School
. At first, he had little interest in pursuing a career as an artist. However, after failing all his classes but physical education, he followed the advice of a friend and took some art classes. Peet did extremely well, and experimented with a broad range of media. He eventually received a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, where he attended for three years. In the first class, Bill found himself very interested in a girl that sat in the front row. That girl, Margaret Brunst, eventually became his wife in 1937. Peet took quite a few painting classes that first year, and he admitted his paintings were always somewhat macabre. His favorite subjects were grizzled old men, “perfected with age, like a gnarled oak tree.” Another favorite subject was the Circus--but always the big tops, never the people.
Peet then officially began working as a sketch artist, putting the words of a story man into pictures on the film. Peet’s first encounter with Walt Disney
was at this time, when Disney reviewed the storyboards Peet had put together. Even though both his boards were eventually cut from the film, Peet continued to work on Pinocchio for another year and a half. After that period, Peet worked on Fantasia, and handled the character designs for Cinderella. When World War II broke out, Disney halted normal production, and contributed to the war effort making propaganda films. Bill helped here as well, but received his big break after the war was over. His work so impressed Walt that he made him a fully-fledged story man who also handled the sketching end of character design.
Peet started to paint again at this time, but soon found he had lost touch with the brush. Fine art had changed dramatically during the years Peet had been at Disney; abstractionist was in vogue and Peet's realistic paintings were out of date. He attempted editorial cartoons, but failed there as well. Bill decided to continue working at Disney, where he developed a few short cartoons and worked on the feature films of the period. At this point, he was working very closely with Walt Disney; Peet respected Disney's creative genius, but found him to be a sometimes difficult man. A large part of his autobiography is dedicated to his dealings with Walt over the years. After successes developing short stories for Disney, Peet had his first book published, Hubert’s Hair-Raising Adventure.
Post-Disney, Bill turned his attention to writing and illustrating children's books. Bill developed many of his ideas from bedtime stories he had told his children. Peet eventually became known as a member of the children's story book triumvirate, including Maurice Sendak
and Dr. Seuss
. Much of the success Peet's stories have enjoyed is due to the memorable themes they contain: trying when there's not much obvious hope, not allowing taunting of others to prevent individual success, finding compromise in solutions and others. Unlike most other children's authors, Peet did not dumb down the vocabulary of his stories, but somehow managed to include enough context to make the meaning of difficult words obvious. Both the illustrations and the stories themselves easily capture the attention of almost all children. These features make these books excellent for even the most reluctant of readers.
Peet died in 2002, at the age of 87.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
children's book illustrator and a story writer for Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
Studios. He joined Disney in 1937 and worked on The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...
, Song of the South
Song of the South
Song of the South is a 1946 American musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is based on the Uncle Remus cycle of stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates the folk tales of the...
, Cinderella
Cinderella (1950 film)
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Twelfth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film had a limited release on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi,...
, One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
One Hundred and One Dalmatians, often abbreviated as 101 Dalmatians, is a 1961 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith...
, The Sword in the Stone
The Sword in the Stone (film)
The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 American animated fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theaters on December 25, 1963...
, Goliath II
Goliath II
Goliath II is an animated short film, produced by Walt Disney Productions and was released on January 21, 1960. It was the first time the Xerox process was used in a Disney cartoon. Sterling Holloway narrates this cartoon film, starring Kevin Corcoran. It was released to theaters in the U.S.,...
, Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
, Peter Pan
Peter Pan (1953 film)
Peter Pan is a 1953 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J. M. Barrie. It is the fourteenth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and was originally released on February 5, 1953 by RKO Pictures...
, Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney and based primarily on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with a few additional elements from Through the Looking-Glass. Thirteenth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was released in New...
, Dumbo
Dumbo
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...
, Pinocchio
Pinocchio (1940 film)
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by...
, Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
, The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros
The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American animated feature film, produced by Walt Disney and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on February 3, 1945...
, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
and other stories.
Early life
Bill Peet was born in GrandviewGrandview, Indiana
Grandview is a town in Hammond Township, Spencer County, Indiana, along the Ohio River. The population was 749 at the 2010 census.The town received its name because of the "grand view" of the Ohio River.-Geography:...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, in 1915. BIll began drawing at an early age, and filled tablets full of sketches. Often, instead of doing lessons, Peet would draw in the margins of his textbooks--which were very popular for their added illustrations when he sold them back. Animals were always a love of Peet's. He and his friends would go traipsing through the woods looking for frogs, tadpoles, minnows and crawfish. Most of his adventures as a boy to catch animals were in the hope that he could capture them and sketch them. The young Peet would also sneak onto greeting parties at the train station as a boy just to see the train's mechanical workings. In addition, as a teen, he would try to sketch the circus big top, but he was always in the way of the set up crew. He memorized the scene and would reconstruct it from memory.
It was about this time Peet entered into Arsenal Technical High School
Arsenal Technical High School
Arsenal Technical High School is a public high school in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States which is run by the Indianapolis Public Schools school system. Established in 1912, the school consists of a , multiple building campus east of downtown Indianapolis and is the only such type school in...
. At first, he had little interest in pursuing a career as an artist. However, after failing all his classes but physical education, he followed the advice of a friend and took some art classes. Peet did extremely well, and experimented with a broad range of media. He eventually received a scholarship to the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, where he attended for three years. In the first class, Bill found himself very interested in a girl that sat in the front row. That girl, Margaret Brunst, eventually became his wife in 1937. Peet took quite a few painting classes that first year, and he admitted his paintings were always somewhat macabre. His favorite subjects were grizzled old men, “perfected with age, like a gnarled oak tree.” Another favorite subject was the Circus--but always the big tops, never the people.
Disney
After college, upon hearing that Disney was hiring artists for their animated films, Peet sent off some of his cartoon action sketches. He was subsequently asked to come to try-outs. He trekked across the country to LA, and participated in a one month audition process; only three of fifteen survived the period. It was at this time Disney was working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Peet got in on the last minute effort. After the success of Snow White, Bill began work as an in-betweener--making up the frames between the key drawings. However, he found the work somewhat tedious. To bring in additional income, he sent character sketches for Pinocchio to the production team. Before the verdict on his designs had come back, Bill felt like he had enough, and went screaming out of the studio, “no more lousy ducks!” Fortuitously, he came back the next day to pick up his jacket and found an envelope. His monsters had come through in the nick of time.Peet then officially began working as a sketch artist, putting the words of a story man into pictures on the film. Peet’s first encounter with Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
was at this time, when Disney reviewed the storyboards Peet had put together. Even though both his boards were eventually cut from the film, Peet continued to work on Pinocchio for another year and a half. After that period, Peet worked on Fantasia, and handled the character designs for Cinderella. When World War II broke out, Disney halted normal production, and contributed to the war effort making propaganda films. Bill helped here as well, but received his big break after the war was over. His work so impressed Walt that he made him a fully-fledged story man who also handled the sketching end of character design.
Peet started to paint again at this time, but soon found he had lost touch with the brush. Fine art had changed dramatically during the years Peet had been at Disney; abstractionist was in vogue and Peet's realistic paintings were out of date. He attempted editorial cartoons, but failed there as well. Bill decided to continue working at Disney, where he developed a few short cartoons and worked on the feature films of the period. At this point, he was working very closely with Walt Disney; Peet respected Disney's creative genius, but found him to be a sometimes difficult man. A large part of his autobiography is dedicated to his dealings with Walt over the years. After successes developing short stories for Disney, Peet had his first book published, Hubert’s Hair-Raising Adventure.
Children's books
Although Walt Disney was not a draftsman or animator himself, he was in charge of the major decisions on the artistic side. He reviewed all the work and gave it the final go-ahead. As they were both strong-willed and passionately creative men, Peet and Disney quarreled frequently. Eventually, after an especially heated argument with Walt on The Jungle Book, Peet left the Disney company for good.Post-Disney, Bill turned his attention to writing and illustrating children's books. Bill developed many of his ideas from bedtime stories he had told his children. Peet eventually became known as a member of the children's story book triumvirate, including Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
and Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone....
. Much of the success Peet's stories have enjoyed is due to the memorable themes they contain: trying when there's not much obvious hope, not allowing taunting of others to prevent individual success, finding compromise in solutions and others. Unlike most other children's authors, Peet did not dumb down the vocabulary of his stories, but somehow managed to include enough context to make the meaning of difficult words obvious. Both the illustrations and the stories themselves easily capture the attention of almost all children. These features make these books excellent for even the most reluctant of readers.
Peet died in 2002, at the age of 87.
Books
- The Ant and the ElephantThe Ant and the ElephantThe Ant and the Elephant is a children's picture book written by Bill Peet and was adapted into a family musical on stage. It is based on an Aesop Fable called The Ant and the Dove.-Plot:...
- Big Bad Bruce
- Bill Peet: An Autobiography (book), (ISBN 0395509327), 1989; a Caldecott Honor Book for 1990.
- Buford the Little Bighorn
- The Caboose Who Got LooseThe Caboose Who Got LooseThe Caboose Who Got Loose is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Bill Peet.Known also as "The Loose Caboose"...
- Capyboppy
- Chester the Worldly Pig
- Cock-a-doodle Dudley
- Countdown to Christmas
- Cowardly Clyde
- Cyrus the Unsinkable Sea Serpent
- EliEliEli or ELI may refer to:*El , or Eli, a variant on the name of God as spoken in Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic*Eli , a common first name in Hebrew...
- Ella
- Eleanor the Elephant
- Farewell to Shady Glade
- Fly Homer Fly
- The Gnats of Knotty Pine
- Goliath IIGoliath IIGoliath II is an animated short film, produced by Walt Disney Productions and was released on January 21, 1960. It was the first time the Xerox process was used in a Disney cartoon. Sterling Holloway narrates this cartoon film, starring Kevin Corcoran. It was released to theaters in the U.S.,...
- How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head
- Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure
- Huge Harold
- Jennifer and Josephine
- Jethro and Joel Were a Troll
- Kermit the HermitKermit the Hermit-Plot summary:One day, when Kermit attempts to gain another unnecessary thing, he is almost buried by a dog, but is saved by a poor boy. Kermit is grateful and wants to thank the boy, but cannot think of a way to do so until he finds a chest of gold. As he stores the gold pieces in his cave, he...
- The Kweeks of Kookatumdee
- The Luckiest One of All
- Merle the High Flying Squirrel
- No Such Things
- Pamela Camel
- The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg
- Randy's Dandy Lions
- Smokey
- The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock
- The Whingdingdilly
- The Wump WorldThe Wump WorldThe Wump World by Bill Peet is a children's book about imaginary creatures, known as Wumps. These Wumps look somewhat like a cross between a capybara and a moose. The story about these Wumps takes place on their own planet, hence the name The Wump World...
- Zella, Zack, and Zodiac
- When droufs the dragon lost his head