"Ken" Anderson (March 17, 1909 – December 13, 1993) was an American animator, art director, and storyboard artist for The Walt Disney Company.

During the 1950s, Anderson joined Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), then known as WED Enterprises, in which he designed several Fantasyland "dark rides" for the Disneyland theme park.

He later contributed background and character designs for The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973), The Rescuers (1977), and Pete's Dragon (1977).

He then won a scholarship where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts at Fontainebleu in Fontainebleau, France, to which he claimed no one west of the Mississippi River had obtained before.

[5] Due to a scarcity in architectural jobs, Anderson worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) on The Painted Veil (1934) and What Every Woman Knows (1934) for six weeks as a set designer.

On September 3, 1934, Anderson began working as an inbetweener doing fill-in scenes with other junior animators, including Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, Jack Hannah, and James Algar.

[9] His first projects were the Silly Symphonies short films, including The Goddess of Spring (1934) and Three Little Wolves (1936), and Mickey's Polo Team (1936).

[10] Disney admired Anderson's skill in perspective drawing and selected him to animate on the Silly Symphonies short Three Orphan Kittens (1935).

[11] After Three Orphan Kittens, Disney offered Anderson a position in the layout department, headed by Charles Phillippi and Hugh Hennesy.

[12][13][14] Feeling motivated by Disney's performance,[12][9] Disney assigned Anderson, alongside special effects animator Cy Young, lighting expert Hal Halvenston and engineer Bill Garity, to design moving backgrounds for an animation test of a peddler woman in the forest, meant to display actual depth and perspective.

Using an experimental multiplane camera, Anderson drew three planes of animated trees, which were placed on large glass plates, and had the team experiment with distances.

For the sequence, Anderson built a full-size miniature of the dwarfs' cottage and its interior to assist the background and layout artists.

[20] Anderson further contributed by creating layouts and conceptual sketches for the "Someday My Prince Will Come" dream sequence; however, it was ultimately cut during the storyboarding phase.

For visual reference on the backgrounds, Anderson recalled, "I was inspired by Böcklin's Isle of the Dead and also by The Isola Bella in Italy.

While a federal mediator from the National Labor Relations Board negotiated with the two sides, Disney accepted an offer from Nelson Rockefeller, head of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to make a goodwill trip to South America.

[29] Anderson worked with animation director Wilfred Jackson on Song of the South (1946), in which they adapted Blair's styling sketches for more illusive backgrounds with a notable depth of field.

[35] In 1947, Walt Disney decided to return to feature-length animated films, with Cinderella (1950) selected as the inaugural project.

To design and build the Disneyland theme park, Disney selected several animation staff members, including Anderson, Hench, Bob Gurr, and Roger Broggie as his initial "Imagineers".

[46] Inspired by the technique, Anderson experimented with a Xerox photocopier to directly transfer the animators' drawings onto transparent cels, thereby eliminating the inking process.

"[41][47] Furthermore, Anderson applied xerography with the background artwork to match the character animation, giving the film a unified visual style.

As part of his recuperation, Anderson exercised and visited the Descanso Gardens, near his home at La Cañada Flintridge, California, for solace and comfort.

[48] However, Anderson was dissatisfied with the film's art direction, stating it "was a toothsome thing; it was an original backdrop painting, soft and foggy and a spotlight effect with characters on top of it, but at the same time it couldn't help but be affected by the looks of Dalmatians in most cases.

"[54] A year later, The Jungle Book (1967) went into production, in which Anderson provided additional concept art and backgrounds, along with character design ideas.

[56] Animator Milt Kahl refined Anderson's conceptual sketches and watched Jungle Cat (1960) and A Tiger Walks (1964) for reference.

[58][60][61] As production continued, in October 1968, Anderson accompanied then-Disney president Card Walker on a fishing trip who suggested a classic tale should be the subject for the next animated film.

[60] At the same time, in 1973, Anderson began developing a film adaptation of the Catfish Bend book series by Ben Lucien Burman.

Set during World War II, off the coast of Gibraltar, Scruffy falls in love with Amelia, a pampered pet ape, and together they evade capture from the Nazis.

[65] During production of The Rescuers (1977), Anderson again drew character concepts, including repurposing Cruella de Vil from One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) as the main villain.

[68] As part of the expansion project, the park added a new "dark ride" attraction called Pinocchio's Daring Journey.

[70] In 1985, Anderson's contract with WED Enterprises was renewed, in which he later consulted on the proposed Equatorial Africa Pavilion for the EPCOT Center.