Former Beatles animator and cartoon series director, Ron Campbell, made a special guest appearance this week at the Long Island Picture Frame & Art Gallery store in Oyster Bay recently. Campbell, who was born in Australia and came to the United States in the late 1960s, has been working in the cartoon and animation industry for the majority of his life.
“Drawing has always come naturally to me and I loved watching cartoons and movies as a kid so I figured why not pair the two together,” said Campbell. “I didn’t realize at the time that these cartoons were all drawings, but it blew my mind that these characters on screen could move and run and make people laugh.”
Television first started coming to Australia in the late 1950s and at that time Campbell was just coming out of art school.
He started out in the business working on a Beatles cartoon show and directing episodes in Australia for a production company called King Features. He also worked on a cartoon show called Cool McCool. which was based in Australia.
“I was familiar with the Beatles at the time, but wasn’t sure a cartoon show about them would really take off,” said Campbell. “As it turned out people really responded to a cartoon series about the characters.”
In 1967, he moved to the U.S. and began working for Hanna-Barbera Productions in their Hollywood Studio. He helped in the animation of many cartoons and worked on many scenes in the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine feature film.
In 1968, he branched out and bought the building across the street from the Hanna-Barbera studio and called it Ron Campbell Films Inc. He remained in that building for more than 10 years working on various projects.
“I began working on what would be a very successful show called Big Blue Marble and I was also doing contract work on the side for Hanna-Barbera at the same time,” he said.
Big Blue Marble went on to win many awards including a Peabody for Excellence in Broadcasting and an Emmy for Best Children’s Show of the Year. After 10 years, he closed down the studio and moved to Arizona where he opened a smaller studio and began writing scripts and making short films for Disney. He still owned his Hollywood studio and did the storyboards for a variety of cartoon series including Winnie the Pooh, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Captain Caveman, The Smurfs and Rugrats.
His last venture into animation was on a show called Ed, Edd and Eddy, where he directed episodes of the show for the Cartoon Network.
“In 2008, in the last scene in the last film of that show I put down my pencil for good and at that point it had been exactly 50 years and one month since I first started working in animation,” he said.
Gallery owner, Jim Perna, said that it is the third time he has had Campbell at his store and that he is always a big hit for the customers.
“People love the Beatles and they love cartoons so he is definitely one of our more popular attractions,” said Perna.
