{"id":45929,"date":"2025-08-13T16:18:37","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=45929"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:18:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:18:37","slug":"famed-animator-leaves-disney-to-pursue-christian-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/08\/famed-animator-leaves-disney-to-pursue-christian-calling.html","title":{"rendered":"Famed Animator Leaves Disney to Pursue Christian Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_45932\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45932\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/08\/Disney-Call_credit-Left-Dinsey-Right-CBN-YouTube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45932\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/08\/Disney-Call_credit-Left-Dinsey-Right-CBN-YouTube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-45932\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Dinsey | Right: CBN \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tom Bancroft may not be a household name, but his animations and drawings certainly are. Bancroft\u2019s work includes the iconic Mushu voiced by Eddie Murphy in Disney\u2019s <em>Mulan<\/em>, as well as animation work on such popular films as <em>Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast<\/em>, and <em>Aladdin.<\/em> However, after 12 years with Disney, Bancroft felt called to leave the company in 2000, despite the fact that he was going to be a lead animator for <em>Lilo &amp; Stitch.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Speaking with <em>CBN\u2019s <\/em>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/cbn.com\/podcasts\/faith-culture\">Faith in Culture<\/a>\u201d podcast, Bancroft described his decision to leave Disney behind as \u201cloud.\u201d The call to leave had been a long time coming according to Bancroft. \u201cI think I was able to dodge it for a long time, unfortunately,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it got very loud in the 2000s. \u2026 In 2000, I broke away from Disney and I felt like I knew exactly where I needed to go.\u201d As a Christian, he turned to Christian projects, working for a few years on the faith-based <em>Veggie Tales<\/em>. Working on a Christian production gave Bancroft an opportunity to openly live out his faith at work. \u201cWe&#8217;re praying at the beginning of meetings. And I had just left a studio where I couldn&#8217;t talk about my faith in the hallways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>While the idea of being wary of Disney may be more commonplace for Christians operating after the releases of <em>Lightyear<\/em>, which featured a gay family, and releases about Disney\u2019s \u201cnot-so secret gay agenda,\u201d leaving the company in 2000 probably didn\u2019t seem to make a lot since at the time. But Bancroft stated he already felt \u201cuneasy\u201d about the company\u2019s direction then. \u201cI honestly saw the direction Disney was going in all the way back in 2000. And I felt very uneasy about it and so, at that point, my faith was mature enough, I think, for me to go, \u2018OK, I don\u2019t need to stay here \u2014 even though this is my dream,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cGod gave me a new dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bancroft now hosts the animation podcast with his twin brother Tony called \u201cThe Bancroft Brothers Animation Podcast.\u201d He is also directing the upcoming film, <em>Light of the World<\/em>, which tells the story of the life of Jesus in an animated style that is a call back to the 90s. John Schafer of <em>Superbook<\/em> is also directing the film and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cartoonbrew.com\/feature-film\/the-messiah-has-returned-in-the-hand-drawn-animated-feature-light-of-the-world-243910.html\">said<\/a> he wants to give it a modern 2D approach. \u201cWe are bringing a modern 2d animation approach to the timeless story of Jesus from a perspective that will resonate with the whole family.\u201d Brennan McPherson, a producer, added, \u201cThe stunning animation and compelling narrative of Light of the World will transport viewers to the time of Jesus, and remind them of the enduring significance of his message.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Bancroft may not be a household name, but his animations and drawings certainly are. Bancroft\u2019s work includes the iconic Mushu voiced by Eddie Murphy in Disney\u2019s Mulan, as well as animation work on such popular films as Tarzan, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. However, after 12 years with Disney, Bancroft felt called to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":45932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Famed Animator Leaves Disney to Pursue Christian Calling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Disney animator Tom Bancroft left his dream job to follow God\u2019s call, now creating faith-based works.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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