Jane Baer, whose half-century in animation including work on such films as Sleeping Beauty, The Rescuers and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, has died. She was 91.
Baer died Monday in her sleep at her home in Van Nuys, a spokesperson for Walt Disney Animation announced.
In 1984, she and second husband Dale Baer launched Baer Animation, and she supervised the Toontown sequences and the character Benny the Cab for the landmark Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
Under her supervision, Baer Animation expanded to become one of the few, fully self-contained and independent animation facilities in the U.S., with departments for every facet of animation production, including digital ink and paint, compositing, recording and effects. She oversaw a staff ranging from 50 to 100-plus artists and personnel, based on the production.
Baer also expanded with Baer Animation Camera Services, which shot major portions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Prince and the Pauper (1990), plus Rover Dangerfield (1991), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), The Swan Princess (1994) and a variety of projects for Warner Bros. Animation and Hanna-Barbera.
Following her husband’s departure in the early 1990s — he would join Disney full-time in 1998 — she continued to run the company until her retirement in the early 2000s. (Dale Baer died of complications from ALS in 2021.)
Born on Oct. 30, 1934, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jane Maureen Shattuck trained at the Art Center in Pasadena and in 1955 became an assistant animator on Sleeping Beauty (1959), working alongside the legendary “Nine Old Men” at Disney. While there, she met animator Iwao Takamoto, and they married in 1957 before divorcing two years later.
In the early 1960s, she worked on commercials and animated series at Ed Graham Animation and lived briefly in Europe before returning to the U.S. At Pantomime Studios, she worked within its layout department on such animated series as Skyhawks and Speed Racer.
After working at Filmation Studios on series including Aquaman and Journey to the Center of the Earth, Baer returned to Disney in 1975 as an assistant to animator Milt Kahl on The Rescuers (1977), where she drew the villain Medusa.
She also worked on films including The Fox and the Hound (1981), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) and The Black Cauldron (1985), then handled freelance storyboarding work for The Smurfs and other series at Hanna-Barbera.
Baer’s résumé also includes animation work for Fletch Lives (1989), Last Action Hero (1993) and The Beautician and the Beast (1997) and service as a writer and executive producer on Annabelle’s Wish (1997).
She was featured in Mindy Johnson’s acclaimed 2017 book Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation and in the documentary Pencils vs. Pixels (2023).
Baer was a founding member of Women in Animation and a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Animation Guild and Women in Film.
In her later years, she shared her years of experience with the next generation of animation artists at panel events, festivals and classrooms.
She was also proud of the fact that Baer Animation was the champion of the Animation Beach Volleyball League, beating out Hanna-Barbara and Disney Feature Animation Studios three years running.
Survivors include her son, Michael, and his partner, Beth; and her brother and his family in Winnipeg.
Donations in her memory can be made to the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in West Los Angeles.
