For those who missed it in all the other news yesterday (I nearly missed it),Iwao Takamoto died Monday. I had no idea that he worked for Disney on several films that I absolutely love: Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmations. I wasn’t that fond of Scooby–mostly because of the storyline, but I really liked Astro. His work has affected generations past and to come.

A friend of mine was a bit disconcerted by a the fact that in a photo of himself, Hanna, Barbera and Takamoto that he’s the only one left. I don’t see any significance there other than he’s much much younger than they. However, he has a wonderful collection of animation cells, photographs and other stuff from working at Hanna-Barbera with the creators’ signatures. Most of us never knew these three people. He did. What a lucky person!