While Kimball was a brilliant draftsman, he preferred to work on comical characters rather than realistic human designs. Animating came easily to him and he was constantly looking to do things differently. Because of this, Walt Disney called Ward a genius in the bookThe Story Of Walt Disney. While there were many talented animators at Disney, Ward's efforts stand out as especially unique.Kimball created several classic Disney characters including the Crows inDumbo; Tweedledum and Tweedledee, theMad Hatterand theCheshire CatfromAlice in Wonderland; the Mice and Lucifer the Cat fromCinderella; andJiminy CricketfromPinocchio. He also animated the famous "Three Caballeros" musical number from the Disney film of the same name.In 1953, Kimball became a director and was responsible for the Academy Award-winning shortToot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, and three Disney television shows about outer space that put the United States into the space program. He received anAcademy Awardfor the shortanimated cartoonIt's Tough to Be a Bird.Ward Kimball was profiled by theAcademy Award-winning producerJerry Fairbanksin hisParamount Picturesfilm short seriesUnusual Occupations.This35mmMagnacolorfilm short was released theatrically in 1944 and focused on Kimball's backyard railroad and full sized locomotive.Kimball was also ajazztrombonist. He founded and led the seven-pieceDixielandbandFirehouse Five Plus Two, in which he playedtrombone. The band made at least 13LP recordsand toured clubs, college campuses and jazz festivals from the 1940s to early 1970s. Kimball once said that Walt Disney permitted the second career as long as it did not interfere with his animation work.Kimball continued to work at Disney up until the early 1970s, working on theDisney anthology television series, being one of the writers forBabes in Toyland, creating animation forMary Poppins, directing the animation forBedknobs and Broomsticks, and working on titles for feature films such asThe Adventures Of Bullwhip GriffinandMillion Dollar Duck. His last staff work for Disney was producing and directing the Disney TV showThe Mouse Factory. He continued to do various projects on his own, even returning to Disney to do some publicity tours. Additionally, Kimball worked on an attraction for Disney'sEPCOT CentercalledThe World Of Motion.