Have you heard of Floyd Norman? If you have not it’s very likely you have at very least seen his work.

Floyd was Disney’s first black animator, he started working for the company in 1969 and today at 81 years old he still contributes (despite Disney trying to make him retire at 65 years old!).

Floyd has worked on countless classics. The annoying owl in Sword and the Stone, that was Floyd’s, the fluttering birds in Sleeping Beauty, Floyd’s too!He worked as a clean up artist and assistant animator on these two movies.

Floyd hasn’t had so much public recognition but when he joined he was revolutionary.

It was a first for Disney and his journey has now been put together in a documentary “Floyd Norman: An Animated Life”.

It has recently been added to Netflix and we should all give it a watch and learn a small slice of modern black history.

See the trailer below: