Animator Walked Away from Dream Job When Disney Started Going Woke – Now He’s Drawing People to Jesus

Tom Bancroft was living the animator’s dream.

He was a veteran of multiple Disney animated hits, having worked on “Beauty and the Beast,” “Pocahontas,” and “Aladdin,” and even designing lead characters like Mushu the dragon in “Mulan” and young Simba in “The Lion King.”

Right around the year 2000, he was offered the job of lead animator on that year’s big Disney feature film project.

But rather than take the promotion, Bancroft walked away.

His reason for leaving was his growing Christian faith — and the realization that Disney was already drifting away from the wholesome family values it had once been synonymous with.

“I honestly saw the direction Disney was going in, all the way back in 2000, and I felt very uneasy about it,” Bancroft told Christian Broadcasting Network’s Tré Goins-Phillips.

“At that point, my faith was mature enough, I think, for me to go, ‘OK, I don’t need to stay here, even though this is my dream. …’”

“God gave me a new dream,” he said.

Bancroft moved to Big Idea Entertainment to work on “VeggieTales,” a series of animated Bible stories narrated and acted out by anthropomorphized tomatoes, cucumbers, and asparagus.

“I was about to be a lead animator on ‘Lilo and Stitch.’ And I gave that up to go work with vegetables,” he laughed.

In the eyes of the secular world, it was a considerable demotion from his work at the House of Mouse, but there was a silver lining for Bancroft.

“Honestly, I just saw ‘VeggieTales’ as this bright and shining light,” he said. “Even though it was creatively kind of a step down for me … you know, going from Disney to, you know, vegetables with no arms and legs, jumping around.

“But … what the passion behind it was, the heart of every employee there — I really wanted to be a part of. And it was addicting.”

Bancroft found it refreshing to work with other Christians.

“The first time I showed up on their door, and we’re praying at the beginning of the meetings, you know, and I just left a studio where I couldn’t talk about my faith in the hallways.”

Unfortunately, Big Idea Entertainment went bankrupt several years after he moved there.

In the years that followed, he started writing and teaching, in addition to creating characters for large enterprises like Lego, Warner Bros., Dreamworks, and Marvel.

Now, he has once again merged his artistic talents with his faith to direct a new animated film about the life of Jesus Christ.

“Light of the World” is set to premiere Sept. 5.

For Bancroft, it’s been the challenge of a lifetime.

“Every single part of making this movie was hard,” he said, “even stuff that I had done for 35 years, like having a character emote.

“But now it’s Jesus. There’s nothing in my career that’s been this kind of a challenge, ’cause we knew we had to get it right.”

Designing an animated Jesus was an intimidating task — especially getting the eyes right.

“One of the first things we learned in our animation classes is that, you know, the eyes are the window to the soul. …  If you can’t capture that loving ‘eye look’ that Jesus needs to have at all times throughout the movie, then we’re not doing our job right. Can we always see that love, that he means exactly what he says?

“And I think we did it.

“It was the hardest thing that our team has ever done,” another member of the movie team said.

But also, he added, “It’s been the most rewarding.”

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