Roh No! Iwao Takamoto dies at 81.

Iwao Takamoto, the creator of Scooby-Doo and several other cartoon classics has departed for that great sketchpad in the sky. Mr.Takamoto died Monday of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,according to Warner Brothers spokesman Gary Miereanu.

In his lengthy six-decade career, Takamoto helped design some of Disney and Hanna-Barbera'so biggest animated features and television shows, including "Cinderella," "Peter Pan," "Lady and the Tramp," "101 Dalmatians," "The Jetsons" and "The Flintstones."

But it was his creation of Scooby-Doo, the cowardly dog with an adventurous heart, that captivated audiences and has endured for generations. Indeed, Scooby was my favorite cartoon when I was a child, and is my daughter's favorite today.


Takamoto said he created Scooby-Doo after talking with a Great Dane breeder and named him after Frank Sinatra 's final phrase in "Strangers in the Night."

The breeder "showed me some pictures and talked about the important points of a Great Dane, like a straight back, straight legs, small chin and such," Takamoto said in a recent talk at Cartoon Network Studios. So, of course, "I decided to go the opposite and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, big chin and such. Even his color is wrong."

Takamoto was also the talent behind famous cartoon dogs such as Astro from "The Jetsons" and Muttley, the mixed-breed that appeared in several Hanna-Barbera animations. He directed the 1973 feature "Charlotte's Web",as well.

The animator was born in Los Angeles to Japanese immigrants, and had just graduated high school when World War II began. He and his family were sent to the Manzanar internment camp in the California desert, where he learned the art of illustration from fellow internees. This instruction served him well. Upon his return to LA, he landed an interview with Walt Disney Studios and was hired as an apprentice. Takamoto worked with Disney's famous "nine old men" team of animators before moving to Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1961. There he worked on cartoons for television, including "Josie and the Pussy Cats," "The Great Grape Ape Show," "Harlem Globe Trotters" and "The Secret Squirrel Show."

The Scooby-Doo theme song from 1969:


And the updated 1970 version: