Disney’s ‘longest-tenured employee’, Burny Mattinson who was the animator for The Jungle Book, Aladdin and The Lion King is dead at 87

One of the Disney company’s longest serving employees, animator Burny Mattinson died on February 27 at the age of 87. Many of his films for which he created the animations, such as Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, One Thousand and One Dalmatians and The Jungle Book, are household names.
Burny Mattinson was only four when his mother took him to see a Disney film, Pinocchio in a movie hall back in 1940.It was the start of an obsession with the young Burny who soon began drawing animated characters in the typical Disney style of the time.
By 1953, as soon as he had finished high school, he got a job with Disney in their mailroom. A few months later, he was recruited into their animation department and by 1955, he had worked on the animations for Lady and the Tramp. His contributions over seven decades at Walt Disney Studios was acknowledged by Walt Disney Animations Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee who said yesterday that "Burny's artistry, generosity, and love of Disney Animation and the generations of storytellers that have come through our doors, for seven decades, has made us better—better artists, better technologists, and better collaborators."
He was due to receive the company’s first ever Seventieth Service Award this year in June.
According to a press release issued by Disney, he had also worked on classics such as The Sword in the Stone (1963), Beauty and the Beast (1993), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Tarzan (1997), and Mulan (1998).
Mattinson was still working at Disney as a story consultant and mentor when he passed away.