When characters are designed this simply yet appealing, I really can’t see any excuse for not being able to produce animation this good today. It is stylized and somewhat economical in its movement, but it is a far cry better than any of the Flash produced, shifting cutout stuff that has taken over the industry today. I wish producers would stop churning out this contemporay dreck as per their cheapskate clients, and instead insist upon the additional money needed to create something as fun as this Jack Zander animation.

But will it ever happen? No…(sigh)

That’s a great little commercial you posted, Amid. I recommend that people watch this before they read the article, to get some perspective. It’s not too many people you hear about having worked at Romer Grey’s studio. Interesting article.

When i first got out of college i was toiling around NYC and trying to get a gig at any of the animation studios there. I remember stopping by Zander’s Animation because it was the most amazing place. I couldn’t even believe they did work there - it looked like a game room! There was a pool table right in the middle and what seemed like every kind of funky chair ever made. The elevator opened up into this huge, bright, space with high ceilings and the desks were actually hidden away behind a wall. They kindly sent me on my way, but that must have been a great place to work.

It won’t happen until a client with real taste appears. Unlike Flash, taste can’t be bought.

Jack Zander gave me my first staff animation job when I graduated from Cal Arts. He was quite a character, and I’m glad to see that someone has printed an interview with him! He’s still going strong at nearly a century. Hadn’t changed a bit when I saw him in LA five years ago at the same event Amid was at, I believe.

Jack also gave Dean Yeagle his start, and Mark Mayerson also worked there. The Zander studio was a very interesting place known as the “Disney’s of the East” because of its high production values.

The kind of attention to detail in animation I wish people understood today.

What a fantastic article! Mr. Zander is 99 years old? I’m only 60 and haven’t been that lucid for years. Thanks for the opportunity to read about the golden age of animation from someone who lived it.

Jack Zander passed on 12/17/2007. He was a sweet and wonderful man and will be missed by many.

Unfortunately,I never had the good fortune of working with Jack,but I did meet him on a warm summer day up at his son’s Mark country
place in Millbrook N.Y. I had flown down there with Mark in his classic Piper Cub airplane from Glens Falls. What a treat it was to finally meet his Dad,at that time well into his eighties as he swept into the yard on his sparkling large BMW motorcycle. Belated condolences to Mark and the rest of Jack’s family on losing a father and a legend.