Animation producer and storyboard artist Kenneth Douglas Mundie died on April 3 from natural causes. He was 97. The prolific artist was best known for directing the innovative opening titles to The Wild Wild West TV series and The Great Race (1965) and the Warner Bros. animated short The Door (1968).
Born in L.A. and raised in Detroit and Virginia, Mundie enlisted in the USMC and studied animation in California using the G.I. Bill. He then trained as an animator at Disney, and worked on some of the studio’s classics including Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians. In the early 1950s, he left the studio and joined The Washington Post as an illustrator. He later began working for Friz Freleng and animated the opening title to TV series The Wild Wild West as well as the opening titles to the movie The Great Race.
He then independently animated his short film The Door in a small home in Germany. That project caught the attention of Bill Cosby and was sold to Warner Bros. Cosby then hired Mundie to direct the Fat Albert pilot and would employ the artist a few decades later to animate for the Two Friends special. Later on, Chuck Jones hired Mundie to work with Richard Williams on a production of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in London. He then moved to Chicago to work for Leo Burnett Advertising, where he animated various ad campaigns, such as Kellogg’s “Yes We Can” Bicentennial campaign.
He continued to contribute storyboards to Saturday morning cartoons such as The New Adventures of Johnny Quest, Pinky and the Brain, Life with Louie, Fox’s Peter Pan and the Pirates and Casper the Friendly Ghost. In 2013, filmmaker Jeff Peters launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund Mundie’s passion project of over four decades, an imagined prehistory of tennis dubbed The Match, which was planned as an 18-minute short in three acts.
“Ken loved art, and to him, art was a kind of magic, and it frustrated him when people didn’t appreciate that,” reads his official obituary. “He loved talking to and helping other artists. From painting classes to introductory animation courses, he believed his knowledge and experience were meant to be shared.”
Mundie died peacefully in his home with his son and wife at his side. A celebration of life is planned for April 24 at 3 p.m. at Wood River Chapel, 403 N. Main St., Hailey, Idaho.
