Don Bluth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Don Bluth

Don Bluth, 2006
Born Donald Virgil Bluth
September 13, 1937 (1937-09-13) (age 74)
El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation Animation Director and Founder of Sullivan Bluth Studios and Fox Animation Studios
Known for Various animation work with Disney and other companies

Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), as well as his involvement in the laserdisc game Dragon's Lair. He is also often credited for providing competition to Disney during the years leading up to the films that would make up the Disney Renaissance[citation needed].

Contents

[edit] Early life and the Disney years

Bluth was born in El Paso, Texas, the son of Emaline (née Pratt) and Virgil Ronceal Bluth.[1] His great-grandfather was Latter Day Saint leader Helaman Pratt, and politician Mitt Romney is his (half) second cousin.[2] He grew up with a brother and eventual collaborator, Toby Bluth. Bluth received a bachelor's degree in English Literature from Brigham Young University, and became an animator at The Walt Disney Company in the late 1950s/early 1960s. He started as an animator for Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians and as an assistant director on The Sword in the Stone, for all of which he was uncredited. He worked for a time in television animation, returning to Disney in the 1970s, when he was an animator on Robin Hood, The Rescuers, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Pete's Dragon. His last involvement with Disney was the 1978 short The Small One. Along with fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, he set out in 1979 to start his own animation studio, Don Bluth Productions. He drew a few (uncredited) scenes for The Fox and the Hound and "The Black Cauldron" but left early in production.

[edit] Independent years

[edit] Early critical success

When leaving Disney, Bluth brought several other Disney animators with him to form a rival studio, who like Bluth were allegedly upset with how the Disney animated features had "lost their charm" at the time.[citation needed] This new studio, 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 animation was the critically acclaimed The Secret of NIMH (1982), an adaptation of the award winning children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. His movies tend toward rougher and more energetic portrayals than that of Disney films. Often, his films also contain a mystical element, with mysterious, unexplainable forces at work throughout them.

Teaming up with Rick Dyer, Bluth then 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 (Bluth not only created the animation for Space Ace, he also supplied the voice of the villain, Borf)[3], and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp, a sequel which was very rare in arcades.[citation needed]

Sullivan Bluth Studios was an animation studio established in 1985 by animator Don Bluth. The studio initially operated from an animation facility in Van Nuys, California, but later moved to Dublin, Ireland to take advantage of government investment and incentives. Bluth and his colleagues also started an animation course at Ballyfermot Senior College.[4]

[edit] Affiliation with Steven Spielberg

His next film would have been an animated version of East of the Sun and West of the Moon, but was never made as the financial resources were drawn back.[5] Teaming up with producer Steven Spielberg, Bluth's next project instead turned out to be An American Tail (1986), which at the time of its release became the highest grossing non-Disney animated film of all time, grossing $47 million in the United States and $84 million worldwide.[citation needed] The second Spielberg-Bluth collaboration The Land Before Time (1988) did even better in theaters and both are now widely considered animation classics.[citation needed] The main character in An American Tail (Fievel Mouskewitz) became the mascot for Amblimation while The Land Before Time was followed by twelve direct-to-video sequels.

Bluth broke ties with Spielberg before his next film, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989). (Bluth was not involved with the Spielberg-produced An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, released in 1991.) Although All Dogs Go to Heaven had only moderate theatrical success, it was highly successful in its release to home video, becoming a cult classic.[6][7] Nonetheless, by the end of the decade and through the 1990s Bluth films such as Rock-a-Doodle (1991), Thumbelina (1994), A Troll in Central Park (1994), and The Pebble and the Penguin (1995) were all critical and box office failures.

[edit] Work at Fox Animation Studios

Bluth scored another hit with Anastasia (1997), which grossed US$140 million worldwide and gained favorable critical reviews. It employed well-known Hollywood stars as its voice talent and made use of then-common animated film tropes: 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. Anastasia was produced at Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix, Arizona, which established 20th Century Fox as a Disney competitor.

Still, Bluth's troubles continued when he directed the futuristic space adventure Titan A.E. (2000). Titan A.E. made less than $37 million worldwide despite an estimated $75 million budget and served as the last traditionally animated film released by 20th Century Fox in theaters until the release of 2007's The Simpsons Movie.[citation needed]

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.

[edit] Recent work

A recent attempt to capitalize on Dragon's Lair nostalgia by releasing the video game Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair (2002) yielded mixed results, with critics both praising and panning the controls and storyline. However, the visuals were widely enjoyed, using groundbreaking cel-shading techniques that lent the game a hand-animated feel.[8] Don Bluth and Gary Goldman are currently seeking funding for a film version of Dragon's Lair.[9][10]

Bluth and Goldman continued work in video games when they were hired to create the in-game cinematics for Namco's I-Ninja, released in 2003.[11]

In 2004, Bluth did the animation for the music video "Mary", by the Scissor Sisters.[12] The band contacted Bluth after having recalled fond memories of the sequence from Xanadu.

In 2009, Bluth was asked to produce storyboards for, and later to direct, the 30-minute Saudi Arabian festival film Gift of the Hoopoe. However, he ultimately had very little say in both the animation and content of the film, and asked that he not be credited as the director or producer. Nonetheless, defying his request, he was still credited as the director, possibly to improve the film's sales by attaching his name.[13]

On February 3, 2011, it was announced that Bluth and his game development company Square One Studios is working with Warner Bros. Digital Distribution to develop a modern reinterpretation of the 1983 arcade classic, Tapper. The new version will be titled Tapper World Tour.

On March 22, 2011, Anastasia was released to Blu-ray Disc. The high-charting release, as well as an increase in sales for other Bluth-directed titles, has sparked interest for a return to his as-yet unconfirmed 12th directorial feature.

[edit] Bluth as an author

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] Bluth as an educator

In early 2009 Bluth launched his own website, DonBluthAnimation.com, in which he focuses on animation education through video tutorials, short films and live video seminars.[14]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As director and/or producer or animator

[edit] Collaborations

Don Bluth casted certain actors in more than one of his films.

The Secret
of NIMH		 An American
Tail		 The Land
Before Time		 All Dogs Go
to Heaven		 Rock-a-Doodle Thumbelina A Troll in
Central Park		 The Pebble and
the Penguin		 Anastasia Bartok the
Magnificent
Hank Azaria
NoN
NoN
Judith Barsi
NoN
NoN
Tim Curry
NoN
NoN
Dom DeLuise
NoN
NoN
NoN
NoN
Phillip Glasser
NoN
NoN
Tawny Sunshine Glover
NoN
NoN
Kelsey Grammer
NoN
NoN
Danny Mann
NoN
NoN
Pat Musick
NoN
NoN
NoN
NoN
Michael Nunes
NoN
NoN
Christopher Plummer
NoN
NoN
Charles Nelson Reilly
NoN
NoN
NoN
Neil Ross
NoN
NoN
NoN
NoN
Will Ryan
NoN
NoN
NoN
NoN
NoN
NoN

[edit] Further reading

  • John Cawley, The Animated Films of Don Bluth, 1991, Image Publishing, ISBN 0962750853 (Out of Print)
  • John Grant, Masters of Animation, 2001, Watson-Guptill Publications, ISBN 0823030415

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.mormonsinbusiness.org/mormon_businessmen/don-bluth
  2. ^ http://www.wargs.com/political/romney.html
  3. ^ "The Animated Films of Don Bluth: Space Ace". The Animated Films of Don Bluth. http://www.cataroo.com/DBspace.html. Retrieved 2012-01-30. 
  4. ^ "An Animated Irish Invasion". The New York Times. 2010-03-03. http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/an-animated-irish-invasion/. Retrieved 2010-11-19. 
  5. ^ "Newswatch: Bluth animation film goes bankrupt," The Comics Journal #98 (May 1985), p. 19.
  6. ^ http://www.angelfire.com/movies/alldogsfanpage/
  7. ^ http://www.fanpop.com/spots/all-dogs-go-to-heaven
  8. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dragons-lair-3d
  9. ^ Joystiq.com, "Don Bluth Trying to Make Dragon's Lair Movie"
  10. ^ Cinematical, "Don Bluth Still Wants to Make a 'Dragon's Lair' Movie"
  11. ^ Gamespot, "Bluth and Goldman working on I-Ninja"
  12. ^ Animated News, "Don Bluth Animates Scissor Sisters Video"
  13. ^ http://donbluthanimation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559
  14. ^ donbluthanimation.com

[edit] External links

Don Bluth Entertainment
Sullivan Bluth
Studios
Fox Animation
Studios
Video games
Short films
Film sequels
not directed
by Don Bluth
Other works
Related articles
Studios
People
Website: DonBluth.com
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Don_Bluth&oldid=479879351"
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Interaction
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages