Bill Melendez, R.I.P.

The legendary animator died Tuesday at the age of 91. He was one of the animators on the classic, Oscar-winning UPA cartoon "Gerald McBoing-Boing," his elegantly minimalist lines and shifting colored backgrounds acting as the perfect visualization of Theodore Geisel (aka, Dr. Seuss)'s witty, rhyming narration. More than a decade later, he would co-produce the first Peanuts television special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, proving that his talent for telling the tales of awkward-but-lovable boys had not dimmed a bit.