Don Bluth

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Donald Virgil Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is an American animator and independent studio owner.

Bluth was born in El Paso, Texas and became one of the chief animators at Disney. Along with fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, he set out in 1979 to start his own animation studio, Don Bluth Productions. His style tends toward rougher and more energetic portrayals than that of Disney films, and tend to have a mystical element to them.

The first film he worked as an assistant animator on was Sleeping Beauty which he was uncredited. He would not return to Disney until in the 1970s, which he was an animator on Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and Pete's Dragon. His last involvement with Disney was the 1978 short The Small One; he drew a few scenes for The Fox and the Hound, but left early in production and brought several other Disney animators with him to form a rival studio. This new studio 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) and then to its first feature-length animation, The Secret of NIMH (1982). Although it only grossed twice as its budget at the box office, many consider this film to be Bluth's masterpiece.

Teaming up with Rick Dyer, Bluth created the groundbreaking arcade game Dragon's Lair (1983), which let the player control a cartoon-animated 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; and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, a sequel which was very rare in arcades.

His next two films, An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988) did well in theaters and became animation classics. Each of these films launched a line of direct-to-video sequels, none of which Bluth had any involvement with. Although many of Bluth's fans loved his next film, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), it flopped, as Disney's groundbreaking film The Little Mermaid was released the same year, but it still became a cult classic. By the end of the decade and through the 1990s, Bluth films such as Rock-A-Doodle, Thumbelina, A Troll in Central Park, and The Pebble and the Penguin had dropped significantly when it came to box office returns.

Bluth scored another hit with Anastasia (1997), which grossed US$140 million worldwide in part because it used well-known Hollywood stars as its voice talent and stuck closer to long-proven Disney formulas: a sassy and resourceful princess driven to become more than she is, a cruel and conniving villain who uses dark magic, a handsome and endearing love interest, and a comic-relief sidekick. This was followed by the animated space adventure, Titan A.E. in 2000. It utilized cutting-edge techniques, which melded sophisticated 2D animation with 3D animation, and CGI digital visual effects, to achieve a futuristic space adventure with drama. Both Anastasia and Titan A.E. were produced at Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, AZ, which 20th Century Fox established as a Disney competitor.

In 2000, after the studio's third film Bartok the Magnificent (released direct to video as a spin-off of Anastasia and the only sequel directed by Bluth), 20th Century Fox Studios decided to shut down the FOX Animation Studio facility in Phoenix.

A recent attempt to capitalize on Dragon's Lair nostalgia by releasing the computer game Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair (2002) was unsuccessful; the game was panned by critics as being flat and uninteresting, despite groundbreaking cel-shading techniques that lent the game a hand-animated feel. Don Bluth and Gary Goldman are currently seeking funding for a film version of Dragon's Lair.

Despite the failure of Dragon's Lair 3D, Bluth and Goldman continued work in video games when they were hired to create the in-game cinematics for Namco's I-Ninja.

In 2004, Bluth produced an animated scene for the music video "Mary", by the Scissor Sisters. The band contacted Bluth after having recalled fond memories of the sequence from Xanadu.

Bluth has also authored a series of books for students of animation: 2004's The Art of Storyboard, and 2005's The Art of Animation Drawing. Additional books are planned.

[edit] Trivia

In the 1990s, Bluth began screening his films to test audiences. His film Thumbelina tested significantly better with audiences when it was screened with a Disney logo at the start.
Bluth is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Bluth was referred to in an issue of MAD Magazine where Michael Eisner shows Walt Disney how he has changed the Disney company. One line has Eisner telling Disney "Our toughest competition is from animator Don Bluth. But none of his films have the old Disney charm." Disney replies "Then why are you so worried?" to which Eisner laments "Because none of OUR films have the old Disney charm either!"