With art school grads ready to give their right arm — or at least a sweaty summer as a costumed “cast member” of the Disney team — for future job contacts, it’s hard to believe there was a time when an animator would’ve risked a cushy job with Disney for the sake of art. But that’s just what happened when Jules Engel and a group of artists left Disney’s animation team to start United Productions of America studio in the 1940s. Free from the forbidding eye of Walt, Engel worked as a painter, background artist and director for animated films. While his name doesn’t carry the clout of his former employer, his work on Alvin and the Chipmunks, Mr. Magoo, Madeline and... More >>>