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Art Chowder: Hello Mr. Campbell. Let’ s start off with where you were born, and where did you grow up?
Ron: By chance, I was born in Seymour, in the state of Victoria, Australia but I grew up and was educated in Melbourne. My business life was in Sydney.
Art Chowder: Well that explains your lovely accent. Can you tell me how you got started in the industry? Did you go to art school?
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Ron: I first became interested in animation when I was 7 years old watching Tom & Jerry cartoons in the movie theater. This was before television came to Australia, so kids would gather at the local theater on Sunday afternoons. |
I saw the cartoons and didn’ t know what they were. I couldn’ t figure it out. I knew they weren’ t real, but wondered, how did they do that? I asked my great-grandmother what they were. She said,“ Ronnie, they’ re just drawings |
.” and it was like a bolt from the blue to my little brain. I was a child, so it had never occurred to me that drawings could come alive. It was an incredible epiphany to me. So I carried that thought with me throughout my childhood, into my teenage years, and into art school.
I went to art school specifically to do animation. I had no idea how I could earn a living at it. But when television was introduced to Australia, it became possible to do so by
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making animated commercials. So I was able to open my own animation studio and offer my services to advertising agencies and earn a living.
Art Chowder: That’ s an amazing bit of timing! Did you have a favorite illustrator or artist that you admired at that time?
Ron: Oh yeah, there are lots of people I admired, especially as a student: Walt Disney of course, plus David Stone Martin, Bill Hanna, Joseph Barbera, and Friz Freleng to name a few.
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