Working with Disney

Xavier “X” Atencio

Biography
Francis Xavier “X” Atencio, was a Disney animator and imagineer. Born September 4th 1919, in Walsenburg, Colorado, Atencio would move to Los Angeles in 1937 after high school to pursue a career in cartoons. Upon applying for a job with Mintz Studio, it was suggested to him to get some formal arts training first before working and to attend Chouinard Art Institute’s pre-animation course. After his first semester, two instructors; Gene Fleury and Palmer Schoppe, who also happened to teach classes at Disney, encouraged Atencio to put together a portfolio for a critique with some Disney animators. Atencio, originally set on landing a job at Mintz, reluctantly agreed and submitted his work in hopes to get summer work before returning to school. He was instead offered a full-time job in Disney studios, going on to be selected among 10 other would-be animators after a month-long tryout session.

Atencio started off as an inbetweener on Pinocchio, before moving on to assistant work on Fantasia and Dumbo. It was during this time that Atencio would naively be involved with the animators’ strike occurring at Disney, as Atencio puts it; “[I was] a young kid of twenty years old [...] all my friends are going out. I can’t stay in, you know.” (Peri, p.90). He avoided most of the tensions however when he was drafted for WWII, and after 4 years away returned to his old position of assistant animator. Following financial turmoil for the studio at that time, every animator was demoted in their positions, with Atencio going back to inbetweening for a short period.

After working on Lady and the Tramp, The Mickey Mouse Club, Mary Poppins, and various other notable shorts and features, Atencio was asked by Walt Disney to move his talents over to WED (currently Walt Disney Imagineering). His first assignment was to write a dialogue script for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and pitched an idea for a song along with it; which was picked up, adding the title of songwriter to his impressive biography.

Atencio would go on to work on various other notable rides in Disney parks, providing scripts, songs, and even his voice to iconic Disneyland attractions, before retiring in 1984. Atencio was inducted as a Disney Legend in 1996, before passing away in 1997. (Tchekmedyian, Web)

What information can be found about them?
As a Disney Legend, there are quite a lot of sources online and in books about Xavier Atencio. Given his work on legendary titles, a lot of online articles celebrate his life giving a brief overview of his life, from his early days, filmography, work with Disney Imagineering, and of course his passing. Most of the information I sourced came from Working with Disney, but similar information can be found from official Disney websites, and reputable news organizations.

Why did you pick them?
I picked Atencio as I was skimming the list of interviews in Working with Disney. His name was the first one that stood out to me as it was the only Latino name in a the list of what was a white dominated field. I think his success as Latino-American man in the early mid 20th century deserves recognition!

What did you learn from their interview?
One thing that stood out to me from Atencio’s description of Walt Disney was just how kind he portrayed him. I always hear horror stories of Walt being an anti-semitic union buster! Atencio’s characterization of Walt however seems to paint him a more positive light, noting how the animator strikes likely left him “hurt” and “must have been awfully hard on Walt” (Peri, p.91). Furthermore he explains how Walt’s approach to making films was about heart over intellect, and that his philosophy was first and foremost about entertaining the audience. As problematic as this period in time no doubt was, and by extension most of the people in it, I can’t argue against this philosophy.


Joyce Belanger

Biography
Joyce Belanger was a Disneyland employee from before the park opened in July 1955. She started working at the Mark Twain Riverboat attraction, finishing up her tenure at the park as a ticket seller for the Disneyland Hotel Monorail at the time of her interview (March 13, 1985) in Working With Disney.

Belanger found herself as one of the earliest employees of Disneyland when, as a modest housewife, her neighbor told her about the opportunity 10 days prior to its opening. Belanger, working in the park for over 30 years, describes her encounters with Walt Disney, and the joy the park brought to her and the many faces that went through her ticket booths. Belanger describes Walt as “a man that is one of the most honored men in the world, and you would never know it” (Peri, p.134), who loved the park and what it stood for. His childlike wonder and awe at his own creation would last until his final days, where Belanger speaks of his final days before he dies, where he rode the Matterhorn one last time to say goodbye.

What information can be found about them?
There is not a lot of information on Joyce Belanger. Although one of the first ever employees of the most iconic theme park in the world, the only information I could find of her was sourced from the same book I’ve sourced here; Working With Disney.

Why did you pick them?
It intrigued me that when I looked her name up, there was not a lot of information. As the book only has 2 female interviews in it, I wondered why there was not more about them!

What did you learn from their interview?
Compounding what I’ve learned from Atencio’s interview, the picture of Walt as a caring and sweet person has formed in my mind. I would be curious to look into interviews from sources that haven’t been treated so well by him in the past; those animators who harbored grudges against him during the strike in the 40s for instance. It's easy to fall into the corporate propaganda of a transnational multimedia conglomerate like Disney churns out about its founder, but I’m curious about the actual human underneath it all. Was the childlike optimism and hope a real genuine worldview for the man, or did he see moneybags in his eyes and opportunity to feed naïve entertainment to the traumatized post-war masses? It’s an interesting topic for further investigation.

Works Cited
Peri, Don. Working with Disney: Interviews with Animators, Producers, and Artists. University Press of Mississippi, 2011. Accessed 20 June 2023.

Tchekmedyian, Alene. “Francis Xavier Atencio dies; Disney animator who co-wrote 'Yo, Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)' was 98.” Los Angeles Times, 11 September 2017, https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-xavier-atencio-obit-20170911-story.html. Accessed 20 June 2023.