Hungarian-American Animator Tissa David Dies at 91

David?s nephew Máté Hidvégi said she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour a few months earlier.

 

The Museum of Modern Art will host a memorial conference in her honour in the near future, he added.

 

Hidvégi said he had met David, who left Hungary in 1950, during his working visits to New York.

 

?She had many links to Hungary. As she did not have to fear sanctions because of her emigration, she visited regularly. She worked almost until the time of her death, rounding out an animated film of the American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, which is planned to premiere next year,? Hidvégi said.

 

He said David was considered the most influential female animator on the East Coast, adding that her work had been included in MoMa?s collection, which is a considerable acknowledgement.

 

?Perhaps the 1977 full-length animation feature Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure is also known in Hungary. She drew the character of Ann in that film. She worked on a great many animated films, and when her work was recognised in the MoMa a few years ago, several world-famous American animators expressed their admiration of her work,? Hidvégi said.

 

For her personal amusement, David would frequently include family members in her animation films and even her own character, Hidvégi added.

 

?Regarding her style, the real-life feel of her characters? behaviour is most often mentioned and some say that nobody could animate a walk like she did. Cockaboody, a short film about two small girls which she animated in 1974 has become a basic work in child psychology,? he said.

 

Tissa David was born Teréz Dávid in Kolozsvár (today Cluj in Romania) in 1921. She graduated from the Budapest Academy of Fine Art and was appointed assistant animator at the Hungarian Film Office soon after. By 1945, she was co-owner of the Macskássy and Co puppet and animation film studio. In 1950, she left Hungary for Paris where she worked with the producers Jean Image and Paul Grimault. She cooperated in film projects with Ida Mocsáry and Kálmán Kozelka, a Hungarian couple who first lived in Vienna and then settled in Holland, and also with Jean Emeric Image (Imre Hajdu) who is regarded a father of French animation.

 

She moved to New York in 1955 where she worked as an assistant to Grim Natwick at the United Productions of America (UPA) animation studio. Her best-known work was Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure from 1977. After 1978, she worked together with R.O. Blechmann.

 

Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)