:(

Not really being intimately schooled enough about the field of animation and its players to have known who this man was until now just makes this news sadder, somehow.

Those three girls are part of what made Sleeping Beauty such a great film.

Brad Bird on Ollie Johnston:
" When Frank and Ollie retired from production on the same Friday I was the next animator on Ollie’s desk the following Monday; the very desk he had used for decades to create so many indelible animated moments. I was properly awed as I sat down in Ollie’s chair, at his desk.

As I was checking it out and getting the feel of it I noticed the pencil sharpener was full of shavings. Instead of throwing them out I poured them into a glass jar, labeled it and set it atop the desk. Good luck shavings… a simple reminder of the hard work required to create magic. My own jar of real Disney dust. The last jar."
More here
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/brad-bird-on-ollie-johnston

Disney is now doomed forever.