I grew up in Southern California in the 70s. Let’s talk about your younger years, how did you get into drawing, and what were your earliest influences? I’m fine with that, as long as I’m still involved in animation production and/or I am still drawing. The majority of my work after leaving Disney has been drawing based: character design, animation direction, illustration, children’s books, and comic books. Unfortunately, I don’t get to traditionally animate very often. Also, it has been a lot of fun to do together (though separated by about 2000 miles). He is also a former Disney animator (more on that later too) and we both have books coming out via Focal Press so that page made a lot of sense. My Deviant Art page ( ) has broken 10,000 “watchers” and on Facebook, my twin brother, Tony, and I started “The Bancroft Brothers” fan page. First phase was animating at Disney Feature Animation (more on that later) for about 11 years, the second phase was co-owning my animation development/illustration company Funnypages Productions for the last 7 years here in Franklin, TN, and now I’m in phase three which (for now) is working from home on a contract gig as Head of Character Design and art direction for the CG animation “SUPERBOOK” TV/DVD series for Christian Broadcasting Network, while doing other things like: market my new character design art book, “Character Mentor” (out in April from Focal Press), creating the corresponding website and all the content for that, and developing a few new projects I’m excited about! I’ve been very busy this year, also, with developing a stronger web presence to help support the two books I have out and some of the online teaching workshops I have planned. That’s a big question, where to start? I look at my career in phases- and it feels like I am in phase three. Hey there Tom, we’re excited to have you on the site! Tell us what you’ve been up to lately in the world of drawing and animation? We were fortunate enough to interview him, and this is what he had to say.

From his experience at Disney Animation, to working in his own animation company and pursuing the world of freelancing, Tom Bancroft has crafted and animated some of the worlds best known characters. Known for his work on “The Lion King” as well as “Mulan” and other big name Disney films, Tom Bancroft has cemented himself as a highly talented character designer and traditional animator.

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