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Don Bluth

Donald Virgil Bluth (/blθ/ BLOOTH; born September 13, 1937)[2] is an American filmmaker, animator, and author. He is best known for directing the animated films The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Anastasia (1997), and Titan A.E. (2000), for his involvement in the LaserDisc game Dragon's Lair (1983), and for competing with former employer Walt Disney Productions during the years leading up to the films that became the Disney Renaissance. He is the older brother of illustrator Toby Bluth.

Don Bluth

Donald Virgil Bluth

(1937-09-13) September 13, 1937
  • Film director
  • animator
  • producer
  • writer
  • production designer
  • animation instructor

1955–present

1

Toby Bluth (brother)

Early life[edit]

Bluth was born in El Paso, Texas, to Emaline (née Pratt) and Virgil Roneal Bluth.[3] His maternal grandfather was Rey Pratt from the Pratt family, whose own father Helaman Pratt was an early leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as a grandfather of George W. Romney and great-grandfather of Mitt Romney. He is of Swedish, English, Irish, Scottish, and German descent.[4]


As a child in El Paso, he rode his horse to the town movie theater to watch Disney films. Bluth later said, "then I'd go home and copy every Disney comic book I could find".[5] At the age of six, his family moved to Payson, Utah, where he lived on a family farm. Bluth has stated that he and his siblings do not communicate with each other as adults.[6] In 1954, his family moved to Santa Monica, California.[7] Bluth attended Brigham Young University in Utah for one year.[8]

Career[edit]

Early work[edit]

After graduating from university, Bluth was hired in 1955 by Walt Disney Productions as an assistant to John Lounsbery for Sleeping Beauty (1959). In 1957, Bluth left Disney, recalling he found the work to be "kind of boring".[9] For two and a half years, Bluth resided in Argentina on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He returned to the United States where he opened a local theater in Culver City, producing musicals such as The Music Man and The Sound of Music.[8]


Bluth returned to college and earned a degree in English literature from Brigham Young University. In 1964, Bluth illustrated Affairs of the Harp, a harp maintenance manual by Samuel O Pratt, with dozens of anthropomorphic cartoon harp characters he called "Harpoons".[10] In 1967, Bluth returned to the animation industry, and joined Filmation working on layouts for The Archie Show and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.[8] In 1971, he returned full-time to Disney as an animation trainee. His first project was Robin Hood (1973), in which he animated sequences of Robin Hood stealing gold from Prince John, rescuing a rabbit infant, and romancing Maid Marian near a waterfall.[11] For Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974), he animated Rabbit alongside John Lounsbery.[11] During production on The Rescuers (1977), Bluth was promoted to directing animator alongside the remaining members of Disney's Nine Old Men. He then worked as an animation director on Pete's Dragon (1977). His last involvement with Disney was the 1978 short The Small One. Meanwhile, he produced his first independent film, Banjo the Woodpile Cat.

1981–1985: Early critical success[edit]

For The Fox and the Hound (1981), Bluth animated several scenes of the character Widow Tweed. During production, creative differences between Bluth and studio executives had arisen concerning artistic control and animation training practices. On his 42nd birthday in 1979, Bluth resigned from the studio to establish his own animation studio, Don Bluth Productions, along with Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy, and nine fellow Disney animators.[12][13] To this end, Don Bluth Productions demonstrated its ability in its first production, a short film titled Banjo the Woodpile Cat, and this led to work on an animated segment of the live-action film Xanadu (1980). The studio's first feature-length film was The Secret of NIMH (1982). Bluth employed 160 animators during the production and agreed to the first profit sharing contract in the animation industry.[13] Though only a moderate success in the box office, the movie received critical acclaim. Later, with the home video release and cable showings, it became a cult classic.[14] Nevertheless, due to the modest gross and an industry-wide animation strike, Don Bluth Productions filed for bankruptcy.[15]


His next film would have been an animated version of the Norwegian folk tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, but the financial resources were drawn back and it was never made.[16]


In 1983, he, Rick Dyer, Goldman, and Pomeroy started the Bluth Group and created the arcade game Dragon's Lair, an on rails game which let the player choose between simple paths for an animated-cartoon character on screen (whose adventures were played off a LaserDisc). This was followed in 1984 by Space Ace, a science-fiction game based on the same technology, but which gave the player a choice of different routes to take through the story. Bluth not only created the animation for Space Ace, but he also supplied the voice of the villain, Borf.[17] Work on a Dragon's Lair sequel was underway when the video arcade business crashed. Bluth's studio was left without a source of income and the Bluth Group filed for bankruptcy on March 1, 1985.[13] A sequel called Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp was made in 1991, but it was rarely seen in arcades.[18]


An adaptation of Beauty and the Beast was also planned to be directed by Bluth in 1984, but the project was canceled by Columbia Pictures upon discovering that Walt Disney Pictures had plans for their own adaptation.[19]


In 1985, Bluth, Pomeroy, and Goldman established, with businessman Morris Sullivan, the Sullivan Bluth Studios. It initially operated from an animation facility in Van Nuys, California, but later moved to Dublin, Ireland, to take advantage of government investment and incentives. Sullivan Bluth Studios also helped boost animation as an industry within Ireland.[20] Bluth and his colleagues taught an animation course at Ballyfermot Senior College.[21]

1986–1995: Affiliation with Steven Spielberg[edit]

Teaming up with producer Steven Spielberg, Bluth's next project was An American Tail (1986), which at the time of its release became the highest grossing non-Disney animated film of all time, grossing $45 million in the United States and over $84 million worldwide.[22] The second Spielberg-Bluth collaboration The Land Before Time (1988) did even better in theaters and both found a successful life on home video.[22][23] The main character in An American Tail (Fievel Mouskewitz) became the mascot for Amblimation while The Land Before Time was followed by thirteen direct-to-video sequels and the animated series (none of which had any involvement from Bluth or Spielberg).


Bluth ended his working relationship with Spielberg before his next film, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) and was not involved with An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), the first film produced by Spielberg's new Amblimation studio. Although All Dogs Go To Heaven only had moderate theatrical success, it was highly successful in its release to home video.[24] He also directed films, such as Rock-a-Doodle (1992), Thumbelina (1994), A Troll in Central Park (1994), and The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), which were all critical and box office failures.

1990s–2000: Youth theater and Fox Animation Studios[edit]

In the 1990s, Bluth began hosting youth theater productions in the living room of his Scottsdale, Arizona, home. As the popularity of these productions grew and adults expressed their wishes to become involved, Bluth formed an adult and youth theatre troupe called Don Bluth Front Row Theatre. The troupe's productions were presented in Bluth's home until 2012, when their administrative team leased a space off Shea Boulevard in Scottsdale and converted it into a small theater.[25]


Bluth scored a hit with Anastasia (1997), produced at Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, Arizona, which grossed nearly US$140 million worldwide.[26] In a positive review of the film, critic Roger Ebert observed that its creators "consciously include[d] the three key ingredients in the big Disney hits: action, romance, and music". Anastasia became Don Bluth's most commercially successful film and it established 20th Century Fox as a Disney competitor until 2019, when Disney purchased the company.[27]


Despite the success of Anastasia, Bluth resumed his string of box office failures with Titan A.E. (2000), which made less than $37 million worldwide despite an estimated $75 million budget.[28] In 2000, 20th Century Fox Studios shut down the Fox Animation Studio facility in Phoenix, making Titan A.E. the last traditionally animated film released by 20th Century Fox in theaters until the release of 2007's The Simpsons Movie.[29] It also stands as Bluth's most recent theatrical film as a director.

2002–2011[edit]

In 2002, Bluth and video game company Ubisoft developed the video game Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair, an attempt to recreate the feel of the original Dragon's Lair LaserDisc game in a more interactive, three-dimensional environment. Reviews were mixed, with critics both praising and panning the controls and storyline, but the visuals were noteworthy, using groundbreaking cel-shading techniques that lent the game a hand-animated feel.[30] As of 2012,[31] Don Bluth and Gary Goldman were seeking funding for a film version of Dragon's Lair.[32][33] After apparently sitting in development for over a decade, the project raised over $570,000 via a successful crowdfunding campaign in January 2016.[34]


Bluth and Goldman continued to work in video games and were hired to create the in-game cinematics for Namco's I-Ninja, released in 2003.


In October 2004, Polydor Records released the song "Mary", by the Scissor Sisters, which was accompanied by a music video for which Bluth did the animation.[35] The band contacted Bluth after having recalled fond memories of the sequence from Xanadu.


The following month, Dark Horse Books released Bluth's The Art of Storyboard.[36][37] This was followed in May 2005 by the companion book, The Art of Animation Drawing.[36]


In 2009, Bluth was asked to produce storyboards for, and to direct, the 30-minute Saudi Arabian festival film Gift of the Hoopoe. He ultimately had little say in the animation and content of the film and asked that he not be credited as the director or producer. Despite this, he was credited as the director.[38]


In 2011, Bluth and his game development company Square One Studios worked with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution to develop a modern reinterpretation of the 1983 arcade classic Tapper, titled Tapper World Tour.

2015–present: return to animation[edit]

In October 2015, Bluth and Goldman started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of resurrecting hand-drawn animation by creating an animated feature-length film of Dragon's Lair.[39] Bluth plans for the film to provide more backstory for Dirk and Daphne and show that she is not a "blonde airhead".[40] The Kickstarter funding was canceled when not enough funds had been made close to the deadline, but an Indiegogo page for the project was created in its place.[41] Two months later, Indiegogo campaign reached its goal of $250,000, 14 days after the campaign launched.[42] As of February 2018, the total exceeded $728,000.[43]


A live-action Dragon's Lair film starring Ryan Reynolds was announced to be released in 2020, but it ended up being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[44] Bluth was listed as a producer.[45]


In 2020, Bluth launched a new animation studio called Don Bluth Studios with animator and vice president of the company Lavalle Lee, founder of traditionalanimation.com. His goal is to bring a "renaissance of hand-drawn animation", in the belief that there is an audience demand for it. His first project is called Bluth's Fables, an anthology of short stories written, narrated, and drawn by Bluth. The stories are intended to stylistically resemble Aesop's Fables and nursery rhymes. The studio's productions are live-streamed first, and then uploaded to YouTube. Bluth's Fables is done with pencil tests and then traced and colored in Clip Studio Paint.[46][47][48]


Bluth's memoir, Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life, was released on July 19, 2022.[49]

Sullivan Bluth Studios

Fox Animation Studios

Threshold Entertainment

Vanguard Animation

Worker Studio

Columbia TriStar Feature Animation

Cawley, John (1990). . Image Pub of New York. ISBN 0-685-50334-8. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2022.

The Animated Films of Don Bluth

Grant, John Grant (2000). Masters of Animation. . ISBN 0-8230-3041-5.

Watson-Guptill

Official website

on YouTube

Don Bluth's channel

at IMDb

Don Bluth

on Bluth and the development of Dragon's Lair

The Dot Eaters entry

An interview with Don Bluth Studios about the making of The Secret of NIMH

Remembering NIMH

An interview with Don Bluth and Gary Goldman

Don Bluth & Gary Goldman: Long-running Fun

and Part 2 about his influences and the making of Dragon's Lair

Don Bluth Interview Part 1

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Art Database