by Celia Bullwinkel
Bill Peet is among the most important, (perhaps least appreciated) storymen of the Walt Disney Studios. His drawing talent, character and story development brought shape to Disney feature though the golden age, and into the late 60’s. Starting as an inbetweener in 1937, Bill drew at the Disney Annex at 22. He then rose to contribute to the Olympian segment of “Fantasia” to drawing characters for “Dumbo”.

Bill found his niche in storytelling, planning out memorable scenes in “Song of the South” and “Cinderella” (two mice Jaq and Gus are purely Peet’s design). Peet also went on to write the screenplay for “101 Dalmatians”. Peet carefully designed and developed the famous villain, Cruella De Ville. Before leaving the studio, he proposed to Disney two more stories, “The Sword in the Stone” and “The Jungle Book.” After Disney approved of “Sword in the Stone”, Peet modeled the wizard Merlin with attitude and features strikingly similar to Walt’s!

Peet’s career with Walt Disney was often turbulent. He was dumbfounded to find his name missing from the credits of “Pinocchio”, after working on the film for nearly two years. His story/character ideas were often stolen from him, by Disney’s staff of “favorites”. Bill disliked how Disney became well known of all the things he couldn’t do: like drawing and writing. “Even his humor was suspect”, says Peet in an interview on Hogan’s Alley, an online magazine about cartooning. “I would call it sarcasm at best.”

Bill Peet left Walt Disney studios shortly before Walt’s death in 1967. He continued writing storybooks, such as “Hubert’s Hair-raising Adventure” “The Whingdingdilly,” and “Chester the Worldly Pig”. In 1990, Peet published an illustrated story of his own life, entitled “Bill Peet, an Autobiography”. Here, he writes openly of the Disney studio experience, and of his triumphs and struggles. Bill Peet passed away Saturday, May 18th, at the age of 87.