James Bodrero

James Spalding Pompeo Bodrero was a Belgian-born American storyboard artist, character designer, and illustrator, who worked for Disney Studios from 1938 to 1946.

Bodrero was born in Liège, Belgium to Alessandro Maria Pompeo Giuseppe Bodrero, a Captain in the Italian Bersaglieri, and Catherine Lucretia Spalding from Hawaii and was the oldest of four children. He family for awhile lived in Brussels and his early schooling was in Europe and USA, with summers spent on his mother's parents' sugar plantation in Hawaii. He began drawing and painting as a child and remained self-taught. As a teenager, he was working as a freelance artist in New York City where he submitted work to national magazines and illustrating for authors as well as his own, such as the children's book Bomba.

In 1925, Bodrero settled in Pasadena, CA and later Santa Barbara. A year later, he married his first wife Eleanor, who was an interior designer, and had a daughter, Lydia, while continuing to work as an artist for magazines and newspapers. Eventually, he accepted a position in Disney's art department where worked under Joe Grant in his model division with fellow artists Dick Huemer, John P. Miller, Campbell Grant, Elmer Plummer, and Martin Provensen. Provensen, remembered Bodrero as "a wit, an eccentric...he had the ability to draw anything and simply pour this stuff out, like a spigot; he'd just pump away, and out it would come. And a wonderful companion. For a young man like myself to be surrounded by guys like that was just great."

Soon, he became a story director apart from being a character designer. There, he created Dumbo the elephant, the ostrich who danced in Fantasia, and José Carioca, the parrot. In 1941, he was part of Walt Disney's goodwill tour of South America where the group gained inspiration to create the package films Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. However, Bodrero was one of many employees that was let go in a mass layoff in 1946. Before his departure, he was working on character development drawings for Peter Pan in its early stages, such as early concepts for Captain Hook, and "The Wind in the Willows" segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. He briefly returned to the studio in an attempt to be experimental again but left when he discovered that Walt was more interested in making live-action films and seeing through Disneyland's creation.

After leaving Disney, he painted several murals in local restaurants. In 1949, Eleanor passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by a skull fracture, he then moved to San Francisco while also making frequent trips to Spain. He also continued to author and illustrate children's books, like Long Ride to Granada. He died on February 6, 1980 and is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Filmography[]

Year	Film	Position
1940	Fantasia	Character designer: "The Pastoral Symphony" "Dance of the Hours"
1941	Dumbo	Character designer: Dumbo
1942	Saludos Amigos	Art supervision
1942	All Together	Character designer - uncredited
1943	Victory Through Air Power	Story adaptation
1944	The Three Caballeros	Story
1946	Make Mine Music	Story
1954	Two for the Record	Writer

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Bodrero was a founding member of the Cartoonist Guild.
He was good friends with Leopold Stokowski, with whom he often had Sunday lunch with while living in Santa Barbara. The composer encouraged him to go worked at Disney for a project he to was working on. As Stokowski told him, "if it's good enough for Deems Taylor and it's good enough for me, it's good enough for you. There's something going on there that isn't making ducks' feet move."
He worked on Salvador Dali's film project for Disney, Destino, in the 1940s where contributed drawings and designs before it was abandoned, though it would be released in a different format in 2003.
His daughter, Lydia, was part of the studio's Ink and Paint department in the 1950s and was interviewed for the documentary Walt & El Grupo, where she explained her father's role and shared stories.
His nephew, by marriage, was Corny Cole, a notable animator in his own right.