Often referring to himself as Kinney's best friend, Williams would go on to star as the "Big Mooseketeer" with head Mouseketeer Jimmie Dodd on the classic 1950s television program, The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1958).
He initially inked films for both the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony series of the studio.
[1] Kinney also served as a story director in films featuring Mickey Mouse and Pluto.
His film credits in that role include Brave Little Tailor (1938), Mickey's Trailer (1938) and Society Dog Show (1939).
His credits in that role included Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Saludos Amigos (1942), Victory Through Air Power (1943), The Three Caballeros (1944), Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time (1948), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949).
[1] Beginning in 1940, Kinney was promoted to the position of director for animated short films.
His most notable creations for this series were the Goofy How to..., where the character demonstrated how to play various popular sports.
Kinney also directed two entries in the Pluto series, as well as directing four entries in the Donald Duck series, including Der Fuehrer's Face (1943), a wartime satire of Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany,[1] which became the only Donald Duck short to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, as well being listed as Number 22 in the 1994 book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons.
[1] After Kinney left Disney, he started an independent animation studio, Kinney-Adelquist Productions, Inc. .
[1] Kinney resurfaced as a story writer for The New Three Stooges (1965), a television series which featured both live-action and animated segments.