1932–1949: Years at Disney Grant's caricatures caught
Walt Disney's attention that he phoned him at his office, and hired him to design caricatures of Hollywood celebrities for the
Mickey Mouse short, ''
Mickey's Gala Premier (1933). His caricatures had been previously referenced—without credit—in the 1932 Mickey Mouse short, Parade of the Award Nominees
, a cartoon produced for the 1932 Academy Awards. On September 9, 1933, Grant signed with Walt Disney Productions. By 1934, Grant had joined the story department, in which he shared an office with Albert Hurter and Bob Kuwahara. He contributed story sketches on several Silly Symphonies shorts, including The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), Water Babies (1935), and Alpine Climbers'' (1936). At home, he began coloring his pastel sketches to demonstrate his ideas and capture Disney's attention, and his approach was adopted by other story artists. Soon after, he began collaborating with Bill Cottrell on the
Silly Symphonies. Contrell wrote the story outlines while Grant provided the story sketches. They worked on
Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935), which featured a cast of animated birds; the character Jenny Wren was caricatured after
Mae West and drawn by Grant. In 1934, Grant, along with the animation staff, were first notified of Disney's plans for
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) when Disney acted out the entire story to his animation staff on a soundstage. Grant and Contrell were assigned to storyboard the scenes featuring the
Evil Queen. Furthermore, Grant drew conceptual sketches for the Evil Queen in her regular appearance and her Witch form. According to
John Canemaker, the Evil Queen was modeled after
Joan Crawford,
Katharine Hepburn, and
Helen Gahagan's Queen in the 1935 film
She. In 1999, Grant stated his inspiration for her Witch appearance was a female neighbor who "had a basket and used to pick
persimmons." Grant and Albert Hurter received screen credit as the film's character designers. During the fall of 1937, Disney was in active development on
Pinocchio (1940), in which he pushed his staff to create a more realized film than
Snow White. To strengthen the animators' drawings for the title character, Disney asked Grant how could they improve their technique. Grant suggested creating three-dimensional scale models known as
maquettes so animators could draw the characters from different angles; Grant had earlier crafted a maquette for the Witch. Disney agreed and reassigned Grant to supervise the Character Model Department, which began on October 11, 1937. As production continued, Grant's department helped to finalize the character designs, with ideas regarding costumes, props and settings to guide the animators, story artists, and layout artists. In their 1981 joint book
Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life,
Frank Thomas and
Ollie Johnston stated no
model sheet was finalized unless it bore the seal of approval: "O.K., J.G." As
Pinocchio continued in development, Disney assigned Grant to work on
Fantasia (1940) as the "story director", in addition to supervising the Character Model Department. For the first time, Grant was partnered with
Dick Huemer, which became as creative as his earlier partnership with Contrell. In September 1938, Disney, Grant, Huemer,
Deems Taylor,
Leopold Stokowski, and various department heads held a three-week story conference listening to multiple classical music recordings. During development for ''
The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', Grant drew pastel sketches for the old wizard. Martin Provensen, another character designer, also drew inspirational sketches; both men's artwork influenced the hiring of English silent film actor
Nigel De Brulier to be photographed as live-action reference. For
Dumbo (1941), Disney assigned Grant and Huemer to write the story adaptation. Uniquely, they handed their 102-page script outline in chapters, much like a book, for Disney to approve. They conceived the stork-delivery and the pink elephants sequences, and had Dumbo's mother renamed from "Mother Ella" to "Mrs. Jumbo". They played on elephants' fear of mice by replacing a wise
robin named "Red" found in the original story with Timothy Q. Mouse. They also added a "rusty black crow", which was later expanded into five characters. By February 1940,
Dumbo had advanced first on Disney's production slate. In 1937, Disney read the short story "Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog" by
Ward Greene, an editor for
King Features, which also distributed Disney comic strips. Disney told Greene, "Your dog and my dog have got to get together!" Greene agreed, and in 1943, he rewrote the story titling "Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog, and Miss Patsy, the Beautiful Spaniel." In 1944, Grant wrote a short story titled "Lady", which was published in a children's book ''Walt Disney's Surprise Package'' published by
Simon & Schuster. This version of the story had a loyal female dog protecting the baby from two
Siamese cats and introduced a mother-in-law character. A year later, a story conference with Grant, Huemer, Disney, and members of the story department expanded on Grant's story. The mother-in-law character was rewritten into Aunt Sarah, and Disney suggested the name "Tramp".
Ted Sears introduced the dog pound setting, and Greene suggested a romance between the two leading dog characters. However, Grant and Huemer objected to the idea, suggesting it was "distasteful" and "utterly contrary to nature." Story development was paused due to Disney scaling back animation projects to cheaper package films and would not resume until 1952. Despite his contributions to
Lady and the Tramp (1955), Grant was not given screen credit. In 2006,
Disney Home Entertainment acknowledged Grant's involvement in a making-of documentary. In September 1943, Grant and Huemer were assigned to write a story adaptation for
Cinderella (1950), but their preliminary story development was paused in 1945. In 1947, both worked on early story development for
Alice in Wonderland (1951). Both men struggled with adapting Lewis Carroll's fantasy novel into a workable story outline. English author
Aldous Huxley was hired to write new story treatments and eventually a script, which was too complex for animation that Grant complained "it only compounded the confusion." Grant's collaboration with Huemer ended in 1948, after Huemer was laid off from Disney.
1949–1989: Interim years By the late 1940s, Disney's interest in animation was waning as he looked to expand into live-action films, television, and an
amusement park attraction. Grant had noticed and was angered, stating in first-person plural: "We thought [Walt] should do nothing but cartoons. And when he went into anything else, we felt a betrayal." On April 13, 1949, Grant departed from Disney. By then, the Character Model Department had been dissolved. That same year, inspired by his wife Jennie, Grant formed a ceramics company transferring photographs onto plates, as well created tiles and sculptures. During the 1950s, he formed the greeting card company, Castle Ltd, which was later acquired by Williamhouse-Regency Inc. Grant reflected: "They said, 'If you don't let us buy you out, we'll take your line over. Grant agreed, and through the sale, he became financially independent. During the 1970s, he also founded Opechee Designs, another ceramics studio, with his wife.
1989–2005: Return to Disney In 1987, Charlie Fink was hired as the vice president for creative affairs for Disney Feature Animation, where he was tasked to revamp its story development process, based on its functionality during the 1930s and 1940s.
Roy E. Disney, the animation department's vice chairman, asked Fink to meet with retired animation director
Jack Kinney. At the time, Kinney had been in poor health, but he and his wife suggested Grant for the meeting. Fink had never heard of Grant, but after analyzing his animation credits, he agreed to meet with him. Grant, who had not expected a return to Disney, was persuaded by his wife to resume his animation career there. During development, he submitted conceptual drawings of a teapot wearing a cozy scarf to the directors and
Don Hahn. His drawings became the basis for the character
Mrs. Potts. For
Aladdin (1992), Grant worked as a story consultant, suggesting
Abu (who was originally a human character) should be a monkey. He also wanted the magic lamp to be an anthropomorphic character. When directors
Ron Clements and
John Musker became the film's directors, they retooled the script and retained Grant's concept for Abu. Grant's idea for an anthropomorphic lamp was instead transferred to the
Magic Carpet. During development on
The Lion King (1994), Grant submitted abstract character designs of
lions and
baboons, and created the characters Rafiki and Zazu. He also developed the relationship between Rafiki and Mufasa. Meanwhile, Grant began a close friendship with Mike Gabriel. After
The Rescuers Down Under, Gabriel wanted to collaborate with him on a vastly different project. They worked on a version of
Swan Lake, but their story treatment was rejected. Gabriel subsequently pitched
Pocahontas (1995), which was quickly approved for production. During the film's development, Grant remembered: "at first they relied so heavily on the script, things were beginning to get sort of pedestrian. It wasn't going anywhere. Then, we came in, Burny and myself, started adding animals and ideas, rewriting the script with pictures, little details, and stuff." Grant created the characters Redfeather, Meeko, Flit, and Grandmother Willow. The turkey character Redfeather, however, was dropped after his intended voice actor
John Candy died in 1994, and the decision to have him
pantomime with feathers proved difficult. He was replaced with Meeko after Grant drew a sketch of a raccoon braiding
Pocahontas' hair. In 1997, future
Pixar director
Pete Docter was developing an original story treatment about monsters, with
Harley Jessup,
Jill Culton, and
Jeff Pidgeon. On May 30, Docter pitched a retooled version of the story to Disney; there, Grant suggested the title
Monsters, Inc., a play on the title of the gangster film
Murder, Inc. (1960), which stuck. Meanwhile, on
Mulan (1998), Grant created the cricket character Cri-Kee. In 1998, Grant celebrated his 90th birthday, with his celebrity caricatures displayed at the
Smithsonian Institution and his studio art collection honored at the
Annecy International Animation Film Festival. That same year, Grant and Mattinson developed an original film project titled
Bitsy about an eponymous elephant who leaves India to try to make it in Hollywood, and ends up working in a used-car lot and falling in love. Both men drew the first act on storyboards and pitched the story, but the executives passed on the project; one of the executives suggested the project would be better suited as a live-action film. Furious at the rejection, Grant told the
Los Angeles Times: "Walt would have backed it immediately, no question." Meanwhile, Grant was hired as a consultant for the direct-to-video sequel
Dumbo II for
Disneytoon Studios. In March 2002, Grant was asked to judge the test footage for the film, which he considered to be lackluster. The project was placed on hold shortly after, and eventually cancelled. In 2004, a short film titled
Lorenzo, directed by Mike Gabriel, was released. The project originated from Grant's short story "Lorenzo the Magnificent" about a blue cat whose tail takes on its life of its own after crossing paths with a black cat. The finished short was intended for a planned third
Fantasia film, but it was shelved due to cutbacks at
Walt Disney Feature Animation. The short premiered at the
Florida Film Festival and was attached with
Raising Helen (2004). The short won an
Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject and was included at the
Animation Show of Shows. It was also nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the
77th Academy Awards. Before his death, Grant was developing animation adaptations, including
The Abandoned by
Paul Gallico and ''
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. He also approved the script for Up'' (2009) directed by Pete Docter before it went into production. He also helped inspire the character Ellie, as in Docter's words, he was "really full of vibrancy about life and is always looking for new things and has interest in everything." ==Personal life and legacy==