Disney Renaissance Animator Mike Toth Has Died

Mike Toth, a personality and results animator whose profession spanned many iconic tv and movie productions together with classics of the Disney Renaissance, died December 29, 2024. The information of his passing was introduced by his daughter, Christine Vergara, to the Cartoon Research Facebook page.

Vergara shared that Toth’s dying was attributed to a protracted battle with alcoholism, which led to many challenges in his life. The artist had relocated to New Mexico, the place his daughter lives, after years of struggling to safe housing in Los Angeles.

“My dad was essentially the most beneficiant, loving, type hearted particular person I knew. He beloved everybody he met, treating them as if he had identified them his complete life. He beloved God, and kindly unfold the phrase when given an opportunity,” Vergara wrote within the put up, the place she shared items of his art work in addition to household images.

“… I simply wished to share my dad’s story, and consciousness to these scuffling with alcohol or substance abuse. My dad was a beautiful man, and alcohol lower his time brief.”

In keeping with The Magpie Company, Toth grew up admiring the Warner Bros. cartoons of the Nineteen Forties, and commenced his dream profession as an animator in 1978 at Filmation Studios, the place he labored on iconic Saturday morning cartoons together with He-Man and She-RaFats Albert, Tarzan, BraveStarr, Ghostbusters and New Adventures of Tom & Jerry. He additionally freelanced for Invoice Melendez on the Peanuts tasks Snoopy’s Reunion; This Is America, Charlie Brown and It’s Spring Coaching, Charlie Brown.

When Filmation shuttered in 1988, Toth moved on to Baer Animation Studios, engaged on commercials for manufacturers like Inexperienced Large and Chevy. The top of the ’80s introduced him into the Disney fold, engaged on the theatrical Roger Rabbit brief, Tummy Bother, and the Mickey Mouse tackle The Prince and the Pauper.

Toth started working on the Walt Disney Function Animation studios in Burbank within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, the place he helped deliver to life many beloved motion pictures, from The Hunchback of Notre DameHercules, Mulan and Tarzan to Atlantis: The Misplaced Empire and House on the Vary — one of many final handful of hand-drawn motion pictures launched because the studio phased out 2D productions. Toth additionally labored on Disney’s Oscar-nominated brief movie, The Little Matchgirl. The studio laid off the vast majority of its 2D animators in 2013.

In his latter years, Toth continued to share his love for animation, showing at native comic-cons throughout the nation.