[2] At a young age, Grant was exposed to his father's extensive collection of European art books, which included Honoré Daumier, Gustave Doré, and Ludwig Richter.
In 1928, through his father's help, Grant was hired as an assistant cartoonist for the Los Angeles Record newspaper for ten dollars a week.
[5] There, he drew caricatures of famous personalities, including Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Helen Hayes, and Joan Crawford.
He contributed story sketches on several Silly Symphonies shorts, including The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), Water Babies (1935), and Alpine Climbers (1936).
[11][12] At home, he began coloring his pastel sketches to demonstrate his ideas and capture Disney's attention, and his approach was adopted by other story artists.
(1935), which featured a cast of animated birds; the character Jenny Wren was caricatured after Mae West and drawn by Grant.
[21] In their 1981 joint book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston stated no model sheet was finalized unless it bore the seal of approval: "O.K., J.G.
"[22] As Pinocchio continued in development, Disney assigned Grant to work on Fantasia (1940) as the "story director", in addition to supervising the Character Model Department.
[23] In September 1938, Disney, Grant, Huemer, Deems Taylor, Leopold Stokowski, and various department heads held a three-week story conference listening to multiple classical music recordings.
Martin Provensen, another character designer, also drew inspirational sketches; both men's artwork influenced the hiring of English silent film actor Nigel De Brulier to be photographed as live-action reference.
They played on elephants' fear of mice by replacing a wise robin named "Red" found in the original story with Timothy Q.
Greene agreed, and in 1943, he rewrote the story titling "Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog, and Miss Patsy, the Beautiful Spaniel.
This version of the story had a loyal female dog protecting the baby from two Siamese cats and introduced a mother-in-law character.
"[30] Story development was paused due to Disney scaling back animation projects to cheaper package films and would not resume until 1952.
English author Aldous Huxley was hired to write new story treatments and eventually a script, which was too complex for animation that Grant complained "it only compounded the confusion.
[37] By the late 1940s, Disney's interest in animation was waning as he looked to expand into live-action films, television, and an amusement park attraction.
That same year, inspired by his wife Jennie, Grant formed a ceramics company transferring photographs onto plates, as well created tiles and sculptures.
[39] During the 1950s, he formed the greeting card company, Castle Ltd, which was later acquired by Williamhouse-Regency Inc. Grant reflected: "They said, 'If you don't let us buy you out, we'll take your line over.'"
[41] In 1987, Charlie Fink was hired as the vice president for creative affairs for Disney Feature Animation, where he was tasked to revamp its story development process, based on its functionality during the 1930s and 1940s.
[40] Upon his return, his first project was The Rescuers Down Under (1990) where he submitted multiple unused character suggestions, including one for Marachute, envisioning her as a magical bird who played music.
Regardless, his creativity fascinated directors Mike Gabriel and Hendel Butoy that Grant was asked to contribute more ideas on a part-time basis.
[42] Grant next worked on Beauty and the Beast (1991),[40] in which he shared a third-floor office with fellow storyboard artists Vance Gerry and Burny Mattinson.
The turkey character Redfeather, however, was dropped after his intended voice actor John Candy died in 1994, and the decision to have him pantomime with feathers proved difficult.
[49] In 1997, future Pixar director Pete Docter was developing an original story treatment about monsters, with Harley Jessup, Jill Culton, and Jeff Pidgeon.
[53] That same year, Grant and Mattinson developed an original film project titled Bitsy about an eponymous elephant who leaves India to try to make it in Hollywood, and ends up working in a used-car lot and falling in love.
[56] The finished short was intended for a planned third Fantasia film, but it was shelved due to cutbacks at Walt Disney Feature Animation.
[56] Before his death, Grant was developing animation adaptations, including The Abandoned by Paul Gallico and Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater.
[63][64][65] On June 28, a celebration of life ceremony was held at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, California, where his friends, family members, and colleagues paid their respects.