Ollie Johnston R.I.P.

Remember Thumper, my favourite Disney character of all time? Here he is making friends with Bambi. Yesterday, Disney announced that Ollie Johnston, the last of those early animators who entertained an embattled world with films like Bambi (1942) and Fantasia (1940), had died at the age of 95. Those were the days when the name Disney meant art, rather than strident, cornball Yankee humour. The death of Bambi's mother - a mere cartoon character - is one of the all-time great tear-jerkers of cinema. Ollie Johnson was the very first animator to receive America's National Medal of Arts, in 2005.