He will be remembered by most for designing two rather special dogs - the cartoon classics Scooby-Doo and Muttley. Iwao Takamoto, who died yesterday aged 81, was a widely respected animator and during his impressively long (six decades!) career, he also assisted in the design of films such as Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians and Cinderella.
Takamoto created Scooby Doo, a cowardly if adventurous hero named after an improvised scat phrase in Frank Sinatra's version of Strangers in the Night, after talking with a Great Dane breeder. The animator decided "to go the opposite [way] and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, big chin and such." Even his colour is wrong.
Such creative crossbreeding has led to his characters becoming a staple part of our childhood diet. But they also seem to be providing ongoing delight to older audiences on YouTube, if the popularity of cartoons like this and this are anything to go by. And how can anyone grow out of enjoying Muttley for that wicked-sounding laugh.
As the Forbidden Planet blog notes, the news of Takamoto's death comes only a few weeks after the death of another animation great, Joseph Barbera. Takamoto worked on many Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including the Flintstones, and for those more interested in his artistic backstory, check out The Cartoon Brew blog, which has posted an interview conducted with Takamoto in 1999.
