Barry Caldwell, who directed and animated the Nickelodeno series “Animaniacs” from 1993 to 1998, has died. He was 68.
“Barry Caldwell was one of the first animation artists I met when I started my career fresh out of school way back around 1980. He was also one of the finest artists I ever met, and easily one of the best people,” his friend Paul Dini wrote on Facebook. “The man’s talent as a cartoonist, designer and director was revered throughout the industry and I’ll get to that. First, I’d rather talk about Barry himself, funny, kind, a genial giant of a guy that you liked from the moment you met him.”
“He knew more about cartoons than you or I ever will (trust me on this) yet he was incredibly generous with his time and his talent. And my God, could he make you laugh! When it comes to humor, it takes a special kind of genuis to be both dry and warm. Barry was both,” he continued. “No artist ever mocked the insanity of the Hollywood cartoon stystem with such devastating incisiveness, and yet loved its creative output so much.”
“At least, I believe he did. You don’t last too long in the cartoon business unless you have some true affection for the characters and the people you work with to bring them to life. That spirit was on display for as long as I knew him, and in all the places we worked together, Filmation, Ruby-Spears, Warner Bros, Disney, so many others.”
Dini continued, “Barry knew how to make a blah assignment sing and turn a good one into something wonderful. The image I posted below on my page, of a tearful Brain from “A Pinky & The Brain Christmas”, was a shining moment from Barry. Peter Hastings’ script was already great, but Barry’s storyboard rendering of Brain’s tearful breakdown (and his subsequent violent meltdown) turned it into a masterpiece of character acting.”
“And he would often bring the same emotion to Babs, Gogo, the Warners, the Goodfeathers, Minerva, and just about any other character lucky enough to have Barry put them through their paces. And more than all that, he was a great friend. When Dan Haskett told me today Barry had passed, it was like a silent cannonball blowing away a piece of my world. A lot of people’s worlds, actually. Barry was admired, celebrated and loved by just about everyone, myself included, for many more reasons than I can list here. Gonna miss you, pally.”
Barry Caldwell was born in June 1957 and studied at the School of Visual Arts. His career included positions at Warner Bros. Animation, Walt Disney Television Studios and DreamWorks, and his credits include “The New Adventures of Zorro”, “The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show”, “He Man and the Masters of the Universe”, “The Smurfs” and “Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers”.
