During the past couple of weeks reports began surfacing about impending staff cuts at The Walt Disney Company, and by the end of the week the cuts became official as nine veteran animators from the hand drawn animation team were let go.
Tom Bancroft, a former Disney animator, tweeted out the names of the animators from his personal account on April 11. Several online sites also listed the names. The veteran hand drawn artists who lost their jobs are: Nik Ranieri, Ruben Aquino, Frans Vischer, Russ Edmonds, Brian Ferguson, Jamie Lopez and Dan Tanaka.
