Joseph "Joe" Hale (June 4, 1925 – January 29, 2025) was an American animator and layout artist for Walt Disney Productions.
Born in Newland Village, Indiana, Hale aspired to work for Walt Disney Productions after repeated viewings of Bambi (1942).
Hale remained with the Disney studios for the next two decades, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects for The Black Hole (1979).
In 1980, Ron Miller appointed Hale as the producer for The Black Cauldron, in which he recruited new animators, including Andreas Deja, and was involved in the storyboarding and layout.
[2] When he was 17 years old, Hale stated he watched Bambi (1942) seven times in three days during its initial release, an event he considered "almost being a religious experience."
"[2] Fed up with the cold weather, Hale moved to California to study at the Lukits Academy of Fine Arts in Los Angeles.
[6] Soon after, Hale worked on the 1953 short film Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom and the "Man in Space" (1955) episode for the Disneyland television series, both of which were directed by Ward Kimball.
"[11] By the 1970s, he worked on Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and Pete's Dragon (1977), in which he helped composite the animated characters and backgrounds with the live-action footage using the sodium vapor process.
[12] Simultaneously, he did animation special effects work on several live-action films, including Return from Witch Mountain (1978), The Cat from Outer Space (1978), and The Watcher in the Woods (1980).
Adapted from The Chronicles of Prydain book series by Lloyd Alexander, Walt Disney Productions acquired the film rights in 1973.
[19] Because of his experience in layout, Hale worked alongside Don Griffith and Mike Hodson, becoming heavily involved in the framing of each shot.
"[16] Shortly before the film's initial 1984 theatrical release, a preview screening of The Black Cauldron was held for test audiences.
Appalled by the film's "cauldron-born" dark imagery, and questioning its appropriateness for children, Jeffrey Katzenberg demanded the scenes to be edited out.
[21] After the release of The Black Cauldron, Hale and his production team began developing a film adaptation of T. H. White's fantasy novel Mistress Masham's Repose.
[22] Hale and two storyboard artists David Jonas and Al Wilson also worked on an early version of Beauty and the Beast (1991).
[22] In 2008, Hale was given an honorary Disney Legend Award by the National Fantasy Fan Club (NFFC), recognizing his 35 years of service as an animator, layout man and producer.