Tadahito Mochinaga

Who was Tadahito Mochinaga?

Tadahito Mochinaga, also known as Tad Mochinaga, was a pioneer Japanese stop-motion animator. Having done many stop motion films/shorts in Japan, he is also best known as the animator for Rankin/Bass' "Animagic" specials/movies in the 1960s.

In 1945, Mochinaga traveled to Manchuria, China, to work at the Manchuria Film Association. He stayed in China after the war and from 1950, he spent three years in Shanghai working on such films as Thank You, Kitty. He is perhaps the only major artist of the era to have worked in both Chinese and Japanese animation industries.