While Ernest “Ernie” Nordli (1912-1968) wasn’t one of the major animation designers of the 1950s, he was a talented artist whose work had an appealing modern sensibility. He started at Disney in 1936 and served as an art director/layout artist on DUMBO and FANTASIA, and worked on many of the studio’s shorts through the mid-1940s. He left Disney (and apparently, animation) in the late-1940s, and doesn’t show up in any studio credits until the mid-1950s, when he became the layout artist for Chuck Jones, in the absence of Maurice Noble. He was the layout man on eight Jones shorts, including some memorable films like BROOM-STICK BUNNY and ROCKET-BYE BABY (both 1956). I asked Tod Polson if he recalled any conversations with Maurice about Nordli’s work, and here’s what Tod remembered discussing with Noble:
Maurice said he really liked Nordli’s work. “Very solid design and drawing” and “very imaginative, but sometimes Nordli goes overboard, and he isn’t consistent! His design style will change from scene to scene; he is saying ‘look what I can do.’” When I mentioned I really loved the styling of BROOMSTICK BUNNY and ROCKET SQUAD, Maurice simply reminded me “I did it first. In BROOMSTICK BUNNY, Ernie was just continuing what I had started. Half the layouts from ROCKET SQUAD are from DUCK DODGERS.”
Tod points out that Maurice was never really egotistical about his work, though he was protective about what he’d created and wanted to make clear that Nordli was basically taking inspiration from his earlier pictures. Noble’s view is quite correct, in my opinion. I personally think Nordli’s designs for shorts like BROOM-STICK BUNNY and the Roadrunner short GEE WHIZ-Z-Z strongly follow the earlier design styles that Noble had established for those series. It’s understandable that Nordli, as the new guy, didn’t want to rock the boat too much, and focused on delivering a style that he knew Chuck would like. It would have been interesting though to see what Nordli could have done if he’d settled into the role and had a chance to really experiment with his own styles.
After his short stint with Jones, Nordli returned to Disney where he worked on SLEEPING BEAUTY, THE SAGA OF WINDWAGON SMITH, and most notably, 101 DALMATIANS, on which he was a layout stylist. He played an important role in designing the background drawing style on DALMATIANS, which is something I discuss in the book. Artists who worked with Nordli during this period, like Ray Aragon and Walt Peregoy, speak highly of his talents. Nordli continued working through the 1960s until his death. His later credits include THE ALVIN SHOW (1961), GAY PURR-EE (1962), HEY THERE, IT’S YOGI BEAR (1964), THE MAN FROM BUTTON WILLOW (1965) and even JOHNNY CYPHER (1966). (If you’ve ever seen JOHNNY CYPHER, then you’ll understand why I preface it with the word “even”). There’s a webpage HERE by his wife that has a few more details about his life.
Below are layouts from a couple cartoons that Nordli designed for Jones. Backgrounds were painted by Phil DeGuard. Click on images for larger versions.
BROOM-STICK BUNNY (1956)
GEE WHIZ-Z-Z-Z (1956)
Nordli also did a lot of comic covers for Dell in the early-1950s. This SITE calls him “the best of the Dell Comic book cover artists”. Here are a couple examples of his covers:
