Tony Bancroft
Director, Animal Crackers
Tony Bancroft realized a childhood dream when he was hired to animate for Walt Disney Animation Studios. During his 12-year career with Disney Studios, Bancroft helped create and animate Pumbaa, the lovable warthog in The Lion King; Kronk, the dim-witted sidekick in The Emperor’s New Groove; Cogsworth the nervous clock from Beauty and the Beast; and Iago the pestering parrot in Aladdin. He was the co-director of Disney’s Mulan, for which he received the Annie Award for Director of the Year; and animation supervisor of Sony’s Stuart Little 2, for which he received the Visual Effects Society’s top award for character animation. Tony recently went back into animation for Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns and, currently, Warner Brothers’ Space Jam 2 where he is animating Looney Tunes characters. He and his twin brother, Tom, started a popular podcast focusing on the animation industry called The Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast, which is the #1 podcast for animation on iTunes.