Willie Ito, who was incarcerated as a child at the Topaz, Utah, incarceration site for Japanese Americans during World War II, received a lifetime achievement award for his career in animation from the SPARK ANIMATION festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, last month.
After returning to California after World War II, Ito began an animation career that included working for the Walt Disney Co., Hanna Barbera and Warner Brothers. His iconic images dominated the Disney classic Lady and the Tramp and multiple other cartoons.
Most recently, Ito created the images for Hello Maggie!, an animated short adapted from the memoir by Shigeru Yabu, who was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain, Wyoming, incarceration site during World War II. Yabu, an emeritus board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, wrote the text for Hello Maggie!and Ito provided the images.
Hello Maggie! was funded by a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites program of the National Park Service and the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation.
The SPARK ANIMATION festival noted Ito’s 70-year career that includes Lady and the Tramp; to What’s Opera Doc with the Chuck Jones unit at Warner Bros.; Bob Clampett’s Beany & Cecil; to Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning stars of The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby Doo and more.
In July, Ito appeared at the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage, where Hello Maggie! celebrated its world premiere. The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation is entering Hello Maggie! in a series of film festivals to be held around the world.