Frank and Ollie.

• Author: ROTHENBERG, ROBERT S.
• Position: Review

Frank and Ollie Buena Vista Home Video / 90 minutes / $19.99

Pinocchio, Bambi, Snow White, Dumbo, and all the other beloved stars of Walt Disney's classic animated movies weren't actors standing before the camera and reciting their lines. They required the talents of a stable of highly skilled artists to create them and bring them to the screen. For more than a half-century, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, key members of the "Nine Old Men"--the studio's star animators who reported directly to Disney--were responsible for breathing life into these joyous creatures, to the delight of children and adults in virtually every corner of the world.

Lifelong friends as well as coworkers, Frank and Ollie were in the enviable position of loving the work they did. Joining the Disney studio in the middle of the Depression, they went on to play key roles in taking a flickering art form utilized only in short cartoons and making the quantum leap into a full-length animated feature--the now-immortal "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Considering the cash cows animated Disney movies have become over the years--raking in millions at the box office, on video, and through toys, clothing, and other tie-ins--it comes as a surprise to learn that the early efforts (including such classics as "Bambi," "Dumbo," and...