The Disney animators' repertory company
Some people describe animators as "actors with pencils" (or actors with... digital animation tools). After all, the animators create performances with pencils, as actors create performances with their faces and bodies. By the start of the 21st century, the marketing departments of animation companies were starting to advertise the voice actors as if they were solely responsible for the performances we see on screen, advertising their names above the title like they do with live-action actors. But the animators deserve equal credit. In the early '90s, starting with Beauty and the Beast (1991), the closing credits for the Disney animated features started listing the animators alongside the voice actors for each character, acknowledging their dual responsibility (perhaps they should have mentioned the live-action reference models as well, but that's another story). With the stage-musical influence in the storytelling, and the stock characters making up the cas...