The last surviving member of Walt Disney's legendary animation crew, the "Nine Old Men", has died. According to Disney Studios, Ollie Johnston passed away of natural causes Monday in Washington state. His death is yet another symbolic benchmark in the disappearance of traditional hand-drawn animated filmmaking.

Johnston worked as an animator and director on many of the most beloved titles of the House of Mouse -- "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Pinocchio," "Bambi," "Fantasia," "Song of the South," "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland" and "101 Dalmatians." (here are clips from the recent DVD re-release of that film).

Nicknamed by Walt Disney himself in a playful homage to FDR's remark about the U.S. Supreme Court justices, the nine-man team Johnston belonged to were each responsible for different parts of each film, including creating individual characters. The stepsisters in "Cinderella," Mr. Smee in "Peter Pan" and Prince John in "Robin Hood" were among the specific characters created by Johnston.

He and Frank Thomas were the last of the group to remain with Disney, both retiring in 1978.

If you're an artist and want to learn about animation or even if you're like me and you can't draw stick figures but you're still a fan of the art form, then you should check out Johnston and Thomas' book, "The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation."

It's filled with tremendous examples of Disney art and offers great insight into how they created their onscreen magic.

As Pixar's digitally-animated productions such as "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "Ratatouille" have become to the modern generation what those classic Disney 'toons were to previous children (and grownups), hand-drawn animation is verging on extinction. It's too expensive and time-consuming. OK fair enough. But you can't tell me that a movie like "Lady and the Tramp" would look any better if it was animated through a computer. Or "Fantasia." Those are WORKS OF ART. Art created by the hands of some ridiculously talented men.

So I was happy to hear during a recent presentation here in NYC that Disney is not completely abandoning hand-drawn animation. Their upcoming November release "Bolt" will feature a mix of computer & traditional animation. And Christmas 2009 will bring a completely hand-drawn, animation-cell production, the musical "The Princess and the Frog." Written and directed by the same guys who did "The Little Mermaid" and "Aladdin," I can't think of a better tribute to Ollie Johnston than seeing the art form he was such an important part of, getting a new lease on life.