Aurelius Battaglia was an American illustrator, muralist, writer, and director born in Washington, D.C., on January 16, 1910. He was the son of Italian immigrants Giuseppe and Concetta Battaglia, who had emigrated from Cefalù, Italy. Battaglia attended the Corcoran School of Art, where he graduated as one of its most promising students. His early career included work as a caricaturist for The Washington Star and the creation of murals for the Public Works of Art Project, including a notable whimsical panorama of anthropomorphic animals in the children's section of the Mount Pleasant Library in Washington, D.C., which remains viewable.

Battaglia migrated west in the late 1930s and worked for the Walt Disney Studios from 1937 to 1941. He started as an in-betweener before moving to the story department. During his tenure at Disney, he worked on several classic animated films, contributing to Dumbo and Fantasia. He is also credited as one of the writers for the film Pinocchio. Following his time at Disney, he worked briefly for Warner Brothers and made training films for the navy during World War II. In the mid-1950s, he joined United Productions of America, where he directed the short film The Invisible Moustache of Raoul Dufy, which was nominated for a BAFTA award.

Battaglia was also a prolific children's book illustrator, producing numerous titles from the late 1940s onward. His work in this area includes The Fire Engine Book, Little Boy With a Big Horn, Captain Kangaroo's Read-Aloud Book, The Fireside Book of American Folk Songs, and contributions to the Childcraft book series. His illustrative style featured bold, solid colors and striking, stylized pen and brush work indicative of a mid-century cartooning aesthetic.

Regarding anime and manga, Battaglia is not a direct creator of manga works in the traditional sense. However, he receives credit as an original creator for the manga adaptations of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, as well as Kingdom Hearts III. This credit is specifically for the character Jiminy Cricket, a character from the Disney film Pinocchio to which Battaglia contributed as a writer. His authorship in this context is based on his foundational work on the original Disney film character, which was then adapted into the Kingdom Hearts manga series published by Square Enix. He passed away on May 29, 1984, in Provincetown, Massachusetts.