Joe Hale (producer)

Hale was born on June 4, 1925, in Newland Village, Indiana. He was one of nine children, which consisted of seven sisters and one brother. During the Great Depression, his family moved to Chelsea, Michigan. To support his family, he began working as a field hand, weeding onions. When he was 17 years old, Hale stated he watched Bambi (1942) seven times in three days during its initial release, an event he considered "almost being a religious experience." He decided there he wanted to work for Walt Disney Productions. When the United States entered World War II, Hale dropped out of the eleventh grade to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, serving from 1942 to 1946. He once stated, "I fought in the battle of Iwo Jima. We were on our way to invade Japan when the War ended. So instead of invading, we went in as occupation troops. I spent several months in Japan before I was discharged." Following his discharge, Hale returned to the United States and passed the GED test. He received a scholarship from the G.I. Bill, and studied for one semester at the Michigan Academy of Arts in Saginaw. However, his education was interrupted by a North American blizzard, also known as the "Great Blizzard of 1947." Fed up with the cold weather, Hale moved to California to study at the Lukits Academy of Fine Arts in Los Angeles. In 1951, he graduated and applied for a job at Walt Disney Productions. ==Career==

1951–1955: Animator On April 2, 1951, Hale began working for Disney. He first worked in the traffic department, picking up and delivering mail to executives throughout the studio backlot. He did minor inbetweens for Alice in Wonderland (1951). He then became an assistant animator for Ollie Johnston on the 1953 film Peter Pan; they animated the character Mr. Smee. Describing their working process, Hale explained: "[Johnston] would do the rough animation. He would go through the scene and time it out and do all the key extremes and then I would fill in the other drawings." He continued animating under Johnston on Ben and Me (1953) for the character Benjamin Franklin, and Lady and the Tramp (1955), which he animated Jock, the Scottish terrier. Soon after, Hale worked on the 1953 short film Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom and the "Man in Space" (1955) episode for the Disneyland television series, both of which were directed by Ward Kimball. 1955–1980: Layout and special effects artist Deciding not to continue working as an assistant animator, Hale approached Andy Engman about working in the layout department. He worked there, alongside Don Griffith and Eyvind Earle for Sleeping Beauty (1959). In an interview, Hale stated he did layouts for the forest scene where Aurora (as Briar Rose) dances with the animals and then Prince Philip, and interior scenes of the fairies' cottage. In 1980, Hale remembered: "...I got so sick of drawing that room, of drawing every different angle on it, over and over again." At the 52nd Academy Awards, Hale received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, along with Peter Ellenshaw, Art Cruickshank, Eustace Lycett, Danny Lee, and Harrison Ellenshaw. 1980–1986: Producer Meanwhile, the long in-development The Black Cauldron (1985) had been languishing at the animation department for nearly a decade. Adapted from The Chronicles of Prydain book series by Lloyd Alexander, Walt Disney Productions acquired the film rights in 1973. Hale remembered, "Ron Miller called me up and asked me if I would take over as producer on The Black Cauldron. I think some of the animators did talk to him, or talk to someone, about me taking over the producing, but I didn't want to do it because a good friend of mine, Art Stevens, was the producer and I just didn't feel right about it." Miller replied regardless of his involvement or not, Stevens would be replaced. After a reconsideration, Hale took the position. ==Personal life==

In the mid-to-late 1960s, Hale married a woman named Beverly, and they had a son named Steven. Steven later had two children of his own, named Camille and Travis, giving Hale two grandchildren. ==Death==

Hale died at his home in Atascadero, California, on January 29, 2025, at the age of 99. At the 97th Academy Awards, his name was mentioned in the In Memoriam section. ==Filmography==