Even though he lived to a ripe old age of 95, the passing yesterday of Ollie Johnston hit me harder than most news of celebrity deaths. He was the last surviving member of Disney's "Nine Old Men" (who were in their 20's when Walt gave them that moniker), the master animators that worked on all of the Disney classics from SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS to THE JUNGLE BOOK and beyond. With fellow animator Frank Thomas, they wrote "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life", as comprehensive a book on the Disney animation technique as one could wish for. Together they were the subject of the documentary FRANK AND OLLIE, which focused on their lifelong friendship.

Now that even Disney has seemingly abandoned traditional animation features, Johnston's passing truly symbolizes the end of an era of filmmaking. With studios and film schools alike focused on computer animation, it is unlikely the training and artistry evident in the golden age of Disney features will ever be seen again. These days, Disney pours on the word "magic" like sugar on a Krispy Kreme doughnut, but in their day what the Nine Old Men accomplished was often just that.

Indeed, this really marks the end of an era in the history of cinema. Fear not, though: when John Lasseter took over the running of Disney Feature Animation, he brought back hand-drawn animation, and in fact they have a traditional feature in production now, THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG.