Animation Guild Golden Award Interviews #16 -- Bob Carlson and Manny Gonzales

Robert Wilhelm Moritz Reinhold Carlson, Jr. and Emmanuel Martin (“Gonzie”) Gonzales started in animation at Walt Disney Productions in 1936, during a time when the studio was expanding like mad because of work on Snow White and the usual demands from its schedule of shorts. Bob and Manny both started as inbetweeners, but their career tracks quickly diverged.



Mr. Carlson spent close to a quarter century at Disney's and had a long list of credits. He was an animator on Pinocchio, Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty, but most of his years at the studio were spent on shorts.

Bob departed the House of Mouse in 1958. Thereafter, he worked on features and shorts, TV shows and commercials for the next thirty-plus years. Bob C. says in the interview that he "loves animation and has no plans for retirement." He apparently meant it. IMDB lists work that goes past the time of his death -- June 18, 1990 -- at age 83. ...

Manuel Gonzales came to the Unite States from Spain when he was five years old. Growing up on the east coast, Mr. Gonzales attended arts school in New York, then interviewed for work at Walt Disney Productions in California from a remote location in New York City. Based on his portfolio and interview, he was offered employment and journeyed to California and a job in-betweening on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

Within two years he had transferred to comic strips, where he remained until retirement. (Comic Strips were a long-time category under the Animation Guild contract.) Manny passed away in 1993, at the age of 80.