Tony Bancroft, the award-winning veteran animator, director and producer whose credits include classic Disney films such as “Mulan,” “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast,” will be making his first appearance at this year’s Animayo Gran Canaria festival in Spain, where he will be discussing his work and career and present Avery Kroll’s acclaimed animated short “The Piano.”
Bancroft will lead the in-person workshop, “Visual Storytelling: Think Like an Artist, Tell Like a Director,” and deliver the masterclass “Animation with a Legacy: Mulan, The Lion King, Aladdin and Other Unforgettable Films.”
As executive producer of “The Piano,” Bancroft will also present the short at the opening night of the 21st edition of Animayo Gran Canaria, which runs May 6-9.
With a career spanning more than three decades, Bancroft has collaborated with such major companies as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures as a director, producer and animator.
Trained at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and currently director of the undergraduate and master’s programs in animation at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, Bancroft is considered one of the key figures behind the renaissance of Walt Disney Feature Animation in the 1990s. His role in the development of animation and visual style of emblematic titles of the time has been widely recognized, according to the festival.
In addition to being the award-winning co-director of “Mulan” alongside Barry Cook, Bancroft, as animation supervisor and animator, also created such iconic characters as Pumbaa from “The Lion King”; Iago from “Aladdin”; Cogsworth from “Beauty and the Beast”; the gargoyles from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and Kronk from “The Emperor’s New Groove.”
His extensive filmography also includes titles such as “Mary Poppins Returns,” “Disenchanted,” “The Rescuers Down Under,” “The Prince and the Paupe,r” and Disney’s 2023 centenary short “Once Upon a Studio.”
Beyond his 12 years at Disney, Bancroft likewise executive produced Kirby Atkins and Jun Huang’s Oscar-nominated “Mosley,” from Huhu Studios and China Film Animation. He also served as animation supervisor on “Stuart Little 2” from Sony Pictures Imageworks, and as 2D and lead animator on “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” from Warner Bros. Pictures.
He has also left his mark on animated television series, among them “Larryboy: The Cartoon Adventures” and “Lilo & Stitch: The Series” as well as penned the book “Directing for Animation.”
Bancroft is co-founder of the Toonacious Family Entertainment studio, focused on the production of family content, and also co-founder of the Animation Y’all! Expo, the first professional animation exhibition in the southern U.S.
He likewise hosts “The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast” along with his brother, Tom Bancroft.
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