Dave Thomas

April 20, 2021

Dave Thomas

Dave Thomas is a storyboard artist, layout artist, director, producer, and writer for many animated shows, including a few episodes of the recent Mickey Mouse shorts and some episodes of the Disney show Wander Over Yonder, and Nickelodeon shows like The Fairly OddParents, T.U.F.F. Puppy, The Mighty B!, and El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. Most importantly, his recent credits come from his most recent animated series, Kid Cosmic, which is currently featured as a Netflix original series. What is interesting to note is that many of these shows listed have to do with the main character wanting to become a super hero or help those in need. For instance, Kid Cosmic is about a young boy who becomes a super hero through cosmic stones that he comes across that give him super powers. Comparatively, in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, the main character Manny Rivera has trouble controlling his super powers whilst becoming "El Tigre," and we can even say that The Mighty B!'s main character Bessie Higgenbottom wants to collect as many honeybee scout badges so she can become a super hero called "The Mighty B." I don't think this factor is precisely relevant to Dave Thomas's work in particular, but I thought it was an interesting analogy. Outside of this, coming from someone who grew up watching both Disney and Nickelodeon animated shows (and still do), I recognize most of these names, and I am excited that we will have a chance to speak with him soon.

According to his interview with Animation Insider back in 2015, he says that he was fascinated with animation from the Warner Bros. cartoons that he and his sister watched together as kids. When it came to pursuing the animation industry, he lived in San Diego and was exposed to the famous San Diego Comic Con, along with the fact that he lived near an Animation gallery and got to meet with Disney's Nine Old Men (who are the greatest animators from the Disney studio, responsible for some of the greatest Disney films of all time, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Rescuers). He deemed that his "lucky break" came from when he met with Joe Ranft from Pixar (who has since been deceased), where he was introduced to storyboarding and was offered an internship at Pixar for the first Toy Story film. He also says that the hardest part about being in the business is balancing work and family, as he is also raising two kids.

If I were to ask Dave Thomas a question (out of the many I probably would ask), I would say that as someone who is interested in pursuing Animation, I'm sure he has (at times) felt that he was not good enough to pursue it or felt that he could never reach the level that others have done either before him or currently, which can be really heartbreaking or frustrating to deal with. So, I would ask, how does he get out of this "rut" and continue trying anyway? And maybe, how does he recommend us animation pursuers to make connections?