Bill Melendez—the man who gave Snoopy and all the Peanuts characters life—has died. He was the only person Charles Schulz allowed to animate them. I recognized the last name from other cartoons, but until reading that obit had no idea he’d worked on so many of the cartoons I enjoyed as a kid. Fantasia remains one of my favorite animated movies. It was that kind of quality work—and the relative intelligence of the cartoons back in those days, compared to newer ones—that led me to stop watching American-made cartoons several years ago. I have found some anime well worth watching, but that said, it’s much more for the very interesting story lines than the animation quality (although that exceeds the snippets of American cartoons I’ve caught).

Anyway, Melendez and Mendelson are familiar names from my misspent youth ... and now I’m wanting to find some of those lush Disney films and older cartoons for enjoying again. Maybe even with the snolfs, although they probably aren’t old enough to grok what I see in the older ‘toons.