1st Edition

Mr. In-Between My Life in the Middle of the Animation Revolution

By Bill Kroyer Copyright 2025
300 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

300 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

300 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
by CRC Press

What’s changed most in your lifetime? The switch from land lines to cell phones?  From snail mail to email? How about the transition from Bugs Bunny to Buzz Lightyear? Those Bugs and Daffy cartoons you loved as a kid look nothing like the PIXAR classics Toy Story or The Incredibles . Mr. In-Between: My Life in the Middle of the Animation Revolution is the fascinating and hilarious... Read more

Preface

Acknowledgements

About the Author

 

Chapter 01          Snow White Rollin' on the River

Chapter 02          It all Started with a Wink

Chapter 03          Annie's Sugar-Coated Nightmare

Chapter 04          Westward Ho

Chapter 05          How Cheap Will You Work?

Chapter 06          What Is a Spungbunny?

Chapter 07          Putting Pants on the Elves

Chapter 08          The Tidepool off the River

Chapter 09          Working My Way Back to Burbank

Chapter 10          Animation across the Pond

Chapter 11          At the Feet of the Master

Chapter 12          The Rat's Nest

Chapter 13          The Miracle of the Pencil Stub

Chapter 14          Things You Could Never Imagine

Chapter 15          It Will Remind of You Something You Have Never Seen Before

Chapter 16          Board Certified

Chapter 17          Animation by the Numbers

Chapter 18          Computer Image Choreography

Chapter 19          Get me 100,000 of Those

Chapter 20          Let the Digital Age Begin

Chapter 21          Animating with Crayons

Chapter 22          She's a Hard Woman to Please

Chapter 23          The "E.T." you Haven't Heard of

Chapter 24          Outperforming a Muppet

Chapter 25          Dead on Arrival

Chapter 26          Kroyer Films Ink

Chapter 27          The Technological Threat

Chapter 28          From Korea with Love

Chapter 29          Chasing Awards

Chapter 30          Back to Commercials!

Chapter 31          Honey, I Shrunk the World

Chapter 32          Killing Santa

Chapter 33          Animation the Third World Way

Chapter 34          Fairy Tales Will Come True!

Chapter 35          Raindrops Falling in Our Heads

Chapter 36          I Do Live in a Tree!

Chapter 37          Building an Airplane—In Flight

Chapter 38          The Traditional Crash and Burn

Chapter 39          Is There Life After FernGully?

Chapter 40          Warner Bros. and the Failed Quest

Chapter 41          Time to Go Digital

Chapter 42          Talking Animals "R US"

Chapter 43          Dinosaurs, Dogs, and Cats

Chapter 44          The Academy and the Second Golden Age

Chapter 45          Animation in the Digital Age

Chapter 46          The Marriage of Animation and Visual Effects

Chapter 47          R&H India

Chapter 48          That Party

Chapter 49          Hoa about a Career Change?

Chapter 50          Teaching in the Digital Age

Chapter 51          The Science of Keeping Up

Chapter 52          Everything Changes

Chapter 53          Fringe Benefits

Chapter 54          Meeting Legends

Chapter 55          Winding Down

Chapter 56          Wrapping it Up

Biography

Bill Kroyer was nominated for an Academy Award for his short film Technological Threat, the first film to combine 2D and CG animated characters. He directed Ferngully, The Last Rainforest, as well as dozens of commercials and animated feature film credit sequences. As Senior Animation Director at Rhythm & Hues studios he directed CG characters in films the grossed over $1 billion worldwide. In 2017 he and his wife Susan were the first couple to receive The International Animation Society's prestigious June Foray award.

https://www.mrinbetween.org

"Bill Kroyer has been a witness and a participant in the ever-changing world of animation for decades, with awards and credentials to prove it. As a longtime admirer I enjoyed re-living his career -- and learning things I didn’t know. FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST remains a family favorite which I can’t wait to show to my young granddaughter." -- Leonard Maltin