"I Would Have Gotten Away With It, Too, If It Wasn't For You Meddling Kids"

Iwao Takamoto, the animator who created the beloved Scooby-Doo and directed the 1973 cartoon classic "Charlotte's Web," has died. Born in Los Angeles to parents who had emigrated from Japan, Takamoto graduated high school when WW 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.

Takamoto assisted in the designs of some of the biggest animated features and television shows for Disney and the Hanna-Barbera animation team. They included "Cinderella,'' "Peter Pan,'' "Lady and the Tramp,'' "101 Dalmatians,'' "The Jetsons," "The Flintstones,'' and one of my personal favorites "Josie and the Pussy Cats." [Josie and the pussy cats! Long tails, and ears for hats!]

But it was his creation of Scooby-Doo, the cowardly dog with an adventurous heart, that captivated audiences and endured for generations. 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."