His Whimsical World

Growing up, Alan Bodner was surrounded by toys — his family was in the business.

But more than the toys themselves, he recalls being surrounded by "all these colors, all these shapes and forms. It really hit me as something that I loved — and where do I fit into this?"

As a college student, he initially aimed for dentistry. But eventually he found his place as an artist and art director, and today has many distinguished credits and honors to his name (like 1999's The Iron Giant, for which he won animation's Annie Award).

Currently, Bodner is art director of Disney Junior's new Mickey Mouse Funhouse. In the preschool series, Mickey and pals Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Goofy and Pluto meet Funny, a talking playhouse who takes the gang on fantastical adventures. (Harvey Guillén, who's also on FX's horror comedy series What We Do in the Shadows, voices Funny.)

To create the whimsical look of the series, Bodner, a Daytime Emmy winner for his work on Rapunzel's Tangled Adventures, looked to Disney's past, especially The Mickey Mouse Club, which aired from 1955 to '59 on ABC. "The sets are so playful and rhythmic," he says. "Even though it was in black and white, I could imagine how this would look in vivid color. I have a real love of black and white. If it works in those values, it's going to work in color, too."

The Portland, Oregon, native also visited Disneyland, with a focus on the Mickey's Toontown area. "I thought, 'Boy, if we can get that feel, I think we are going to do a real homage to these characters.'"

Additionally, Bodner — whose fine art has been shown in galleries across the country — looked to the work of legendary Disney artists including Fred Moore, who adapted Mickey's look for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence in Fantasia, and Mary Blair, whom Walt Disney valued for her novel use of color.

"Freddie Moore's Mickey Mouse was a special time for Mickey Mouse, so it was fun to kind of reel Mickey back into that," Bodner says. Blair worked on such Disney films as The Three Caballeros, Cinderella and Dumbo and later helped design the beloved "It's a Small World" attraction. Her influence can be seen in the marshmallow-shaped trees and turquoise-colored sky on Mickey Mouse Funhouse.

"She was so ambitious with the way she used color and boldness," Bodner says. "If we want to use different color skies to help make the point that you're in a different world, she did that — and I want to do that. We can create anything in this world because we are on a staircase to anywhere."

Bodner was enrolled in a pre-dental curriculum when a college professor pulled him aside and suggested he switch to art school. "This show is full circle for me," he says, "because this is the stuff that made me dream of doing art. I would copy paintings out of Disney books. I'm always thrilled when I get to work with the biggest stars in animation."

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 9, 2021