Cartoonist and animator Iwao Takamoto died this week of heart failure. His talent as an animator is renowned. He was 81.
With the recent death of Joseph Barbera, and now Takamoto, the last in the great team of Hanna-Barbera Studios is gone and a unique era in cartoon animation is truly over.
Iwao Takamoto started out working for the famed Walt Disney, but soon captured the attention of Hanna-Barbera and was wooed by them to join their creative team. Takamoto is responsible for creating cartoon icon Scooby-Doo. As Vice President of the Warner Bros. Animation arm of the studio, he was overseeing some new projects when he suffered a heart attack that landed him in the hospital.
Never known for being idle the renowned animator had recently storyboarded the 2005 Tom and Jerry animated short “The Karateguard”, and is responsible for many of the memorable characters seen each day on the Cartoon Network. He was the man behind “Krypto the Superdog”.
“Iwao Takamoto was not only a tremendously talented designer and artist, he was a beautiful human being,” said Sander Schwartz, president of Warner Bros. Animation. “Iwao was always ready with a wide smile, a firm handshake and a warm welcome. Iwao’s designs will be his legacy for generations to come. Those of us who had the privilege of working closely with him will miss his mentoring presence, his good counsel and his unparalleled talent and spirit.”
Some of the classic works of animation that Takamoto assisted on were Disney’s original production of “Cinderella”, “Lady and the Tramp”, “Sleeping Beauty” and the original “One Hundred and One Dalmatians”. While at Hanna-Barbera, besides Scooby-Doo, his other creative designs included work on “Josie and the Pussy Cats”, “Harlem Globe Trotters”, “The Secret Squirrel Show” and “Johnny Quest”, as well as, creating the characters of Astro on “The Jetsons” and the Great Gazoo on “The Flintstones”.
Takamoto moved up to producer and showed his all around talent by producing such classic toon programs as “Yogi’s Gang”, “Fred Flinstone and Friends”, “Superfriends”, the animated version of “The Addams Family”, “Hong Kong Phooey”, “Jabberjaw”, and “The Great Ape Show”.
He tried his hand at directing and was awarded the job has helmer of the original big screen animated 1970’s feature film “Charlotte’s Web”. He also acted as supervising animation director on 1990’s “Jetsons: The Movie”.
But, what Mr. Takamoto will always be remembered for down through the eons of history, will be one goofy Great Dane named Scooby-Doo.
