Morton Schindel (April 23, 1918 – August 20, 2016) was an American educator, producer, and founder of Weston Woods Studios, which specializes in adapting children's books into animated films.
In 1963, the studio released its first animated film, The Snowy Day, adapted from the 1962 Caldecott Medal book by Ezra Jack Keats, and the following year, it produced a documentary.
[3] Known for remaining faithful to the books he adapted, Schindel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film Doctor DeSoto (1984), which he produced with Michael Sporn.
"Twentieth-century Mirrors: America Seen through the Eyes of Independent Filmmakers," which featured a panel discussion with Schindel and Deitch as part of a month-long program honoring Weston Woods’ 50 years of films.
In 2007, Schindel was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Connecticut Center for the Book, associated with the Library of Congress, and a plaque from the International Storytelling Center acknowledged his contribution to “Blazing New Trails for Storytelling.”[2] Purdue University's College of Education includes a study of Weston Woods films in an undergraduate children's media course, and in 2008 Schindel received an honorary doctoral degree in education from Purdue.