The Story of The Disney/Don Bluth War When you look at the entertainment landscape
today, it can seem impossible to imagine a time when Walt Disney Studios didn’t seem
to own and control nearly everything you can lay your eyes on. But there was a time when The House of Mouse
was falling apart and a time when one ambitious animator with dreams of his own created a
rival that not only competed against Disney, but started beating them at their own game. It was a time when the studio that first gave
life to feature length animated films almost gave it up. A time when a darker edge to children’s
entertainment was crystalized in one studio’s alternative output. It was the time of The Disney/Don Bluth War. Disney in the Dark Age The filmmaking history of Walt Disney Animation
Studios can be segmented into 7 distinct eras that define the studio’s feature film output. The Golden Age, from 1937 through 1942, The
Wartime Era, from 1943 through 1949, The Silver Age, from 1950 through 1959, The Bronze Age
or Dark Age, from 1960 through 1988, The Disney Renaissance, from 1989 through 1999, The Post-Renaissance
Era, from 2000 through 2009, and The Revival Era, from 2010 until now. A few years ago, I did a pair of videos that
discussed Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians and how these two films sat at the intersection
of the end of The Silver Age and the beginning of The Bronze Age, as Sleeping Beauty’s
expensive production and box office flop necessitated major changes at Disney Studios, with the
company adopting xerography to cut costs through copying pencil sketches into cell animation. At the time, the major change also created
a really dynamic shift in animation style, and I think 101 Dalmatians is one of the coolest
looking animated films ever made. The financial success of Dalmatians led to
two major changes, the continued use of xerography in the films that followed, and Walt Disney’s
declining involvement with the features, instead focusing on other projects like Disney World. But when Walt died on December 15, 1966, Disney
Studios underwent a series of changes that left it increasingly rudderless. Studio cofounder Roy O. Disney would pass
away in 1971. Longtime animators would retire. Creative direction was split between executives. And budgets continued to be cut with each
feature. It was during this time that director Wolfgang
Reitherman became a key figure in keeping Disney moving forward, being one of the Nine
Old Men and serving as either director or producer on 8 consecutive feature films from
1961 through 1981. You don’t really have to look any further
than Robin Hood in 1973 to see how Disney was cutting as many corners as possible to
keep their film production going. And don’t get me wrong, I love Robin Hood,
it’s one of my favorite Disney movies, but the film reuses tons of animation from other
movies (tracing over past work instead of creating brand new images) and doesn’t bother
to clean up much of its animation. Like a lot of the other films made by Disney
at the time, these are safe choices, with the studio refusing to take chances when its
animated pictures stopped making big money. Smaller budgets, less inventive work, smaller
box offices, and less focus from Disney on its animation wing meant that The Bronze Age
was truly The Dark Age of Disney Animation. But it wasn’t due to a lack of passion from
the new wave of animators that gave life to Disney. And it was during this time that a young Don
Bluth arrived at Walt Disney Animation Studios, ready to carry the torch for the company that
inspired him. But the story of Bluth at Disney would be
far different than he ever expected. Bluth at Disney Don Bluth was born on September 13, 1937,
a few months before Walt Disney would make history with Snow White. “I don’t know what I would have been if
I didn’t pursue animation,” said Bluth. “It’s all I have ever wanted since I saw
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in the theater as a child. I saw that and said to myself, ‘I want to
do that!’” During his childhood, Bluth would regularly
ride his horse to the town movie theater in El Paso, Texas, to watch the latest Disney
movies and then “go home and copy every Disney comic book I could find.” And in his early years, Bluth’s life was
divided by his passion for animation and his time in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. A year attending Brigham Young University. Working as an assistant for John Lounsbery
in the production of Sleeping Beauty. Two years in Argentina on a Mormon mission. Producing musicals at a local theater in Culver
City, California. Bluth would return to the animation industry
in 1967 creating layouts for The Archie Show and Sabrina the Teenage Witch with Filmation
before returning to Disney in 1971 as an animation trainee. There, he would work on sequences in “Robin
Hood” and “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too,” before being promoted to directing
animator on “The Rescuers.” Bluth’s rise through the ranks at Disney
was fast, quickly putting him alongside the remaining members of The Nine Old Men - the
animators who were with Disney since the beginning, helping to shape the studio’s output and
becoming legends before retiring one by one in the 70s and 80s. Bluth, alongside several other contemporaries,
was the new generation shepherding Disney animation as the company continued to struggle
with lesser profits and less support by the growing company. As time went by, the films that Disney depended
on to establish themselves and influence pop culture were fading further and further into
the past. Decades removed from classics like Snow White,
Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, and 101 Dalmatians, what did Disney really have to
remain relevant? And remember, there was no home video at this
time. Kids could only see these classics in a theatrical
re-release or a tv airing. The icons and images that gave a place like
Disneyland meaning were becoming irrelevant to the younger generation that gave the company
life. But Disney wasn’t interested in creating
new animated icons. The company only produced 3 animated features
in the 70s - Robin Hood, Winnie the Pooh, and The Rescuers. That’s crazy. Disney had 4 animated movies just come out
in 2021 alone. Clearly, the Disney of the 70s was a different
beast and instead began to focus on big budget live action movies, with The Black Hole in
1979 being their big play at Star Wars success. It didn’t work out. Meanwhile, Don Bluth was growing dissatisfied
with the company, serving as director on the animated sequences of Pete’s Dragon in 1977
and on the 1978 short The Small One before quitting during production of The Fox and
The Hound in 1979 over disagreements about creative control and animation training practices. “As I continued to work at Disney, I started
to see the things that had made me so impressed disappear from the screen,” said Bluth. “They were little things — like the water
effects and shadows and, more than anything, the psychological effect that goes with characters
that are really far out there and scary. I kept watching those diminish.” In particular, Bluth and fellow animator Gary
Goldman butted heads with Reitherman. “We noticed that “corporately" -- and
Reitherman was really hooked into the corporate -- he began to cut corners. Everyone began to say the words: That's too
expensive; we can't do that nowadays. Reitherman obliged. We questioned that. Is it true? You can't do that nowadays? So at some point we decided we would experiment.” But Bluth didn’t just quit. Bluth made his own animation studio, Don Bluth
Productions, with Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy, and took 14 of his fellow animators with him. Suddenly, Walt Disney Animation Studios was
not only entering the darkest period of their company history, they had competition unlike
any they’d had before. But the road ahead wouldn’t be easy for
either side in the Disney/Don Bluth War. Bluth Animation Begins With the studio established and animators
on the payroll, Bluth and company set out to prove themselves with the short film Banjo
the Woodpile Cat and the animated segment of Xanadu before going all in on their first
feature film, an adaption of the children’s novel Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH for
The Secret of NIMH, which debuted on July 16, 1982. The film opened unopposed by any Disney animated
film, with the next Disney animated feature being The Black Cauldron in 1985. NIMH wasn’t just Bluth’s shot at animated
feature success away from Disney, it was his counterpoint to their cost cutting methods. Instead of the xerography and reuse of old
animation, Don Bluth Productions rotoscoped live action footage for smoother and more
realistic animation. Backlighting shined through color gels for
matte shots. A wider array of color palettes provided a
diversity in tone and atmosphere. And as far as actual storytelling and plot
goes, NIMH is emblematic of the Don Bluth animated movie. Which is to say that it’s messed up, man. Like the book it adapts, it’s the story
of a widowed field mouse whose journey to save her family brings her into the world
of a colony of mystical rats for a dark and dangerous adventure. And when I say this is classic Bluth animation,
I mean that it’s got a dark, melancholic tone, a whole bunch of murder, extreme child
endangerment, and Dom DeLuise. But it’s great. I love Secret of NIMH and I watched it way
too many times as a kid and it messed me up for good. And while NIMH would cost a little more than
$6 million to make, it would only be a modest hit, making $14.7 million at the theater. Enough to prove Bluth’s viability as a studio
but nowhere near the $63 million of the recent Fox and the Hound. NIMH’s so-so financial performance didn’t
stop Bluth from planning an animated adaptation of the Norwegian folktale “East of the Sun
and West of the Moon” as well as an adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast.” However, Don Bluth would run into his great
nemesis for the first of many times after the release of NIMH. No, not Disney. The circumstances of the industry he worked
in. Cue the 1982 Animators Strike, which lasted
10 weeks over sending US animation overseas. And the additional strain from the strike
caused Don Bluth Productions to file for bankruptcy and shut down. It was the first of many unfortunate circumstances
for Bluth, but even then, the creator couldn’t be stopped. Bluth had created The Bluth Group in 1981
and had been simultaneously working on a video game with Advanced Microcomputer Systems - Dragon’s
Lair, which debuted in arcades in 1983 and is hard as hell. It’s also, surprise surprise, extremely
unconventional. Dragon’s Lair was an on-rails adventure
game almost completely composed of animated cutscenes where players executed a timed action
or chose a direction to move the story forward. Yes, it was one of the first quick time event
games and was basically only quick time events. Also setting it apart was its full motion
video animation, using Bluth’s very recognizable style to bring Dirk the Daring’s rescue
of Princess Daphne to life. And to overcome frame rate and resolution
limitations, the game used LaserDisc for storage. After a 7-month production that cost roughly
$3 million, The uniqueness of Dragon’s Lair made it a fast hit at arcades, leading to
Bluth and company quickly following it up with the similar Space Ace in 1984. But once again, Bluth was met with circumstances
he couldn’t predict or overcome - cue the Video Game Crash of 1983, which stopped the
Dragon’s Lair sequel’s production and forced The Bluth Group to file for bankruptcy
on March 1, 1985. Dragon’s Lair is seen as a unique classic
now, with the game being ported to new systems over and over. But back to back bankruptcies left Bluth in
search of a new way forward. Things weren’t all that much better at Disney
Animation. The Fox and The Hound in 1981 was a solid
financial success but not anywhere near the box office take of The Rescuers, which had
been the third highest grossing film of 1977. Still, after years of treading water and refusing
to innovate, Disney was ready to take a chance on a story that had been long in the works. And adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles
of Prydain book series - The Black Cauldron. And The Black Cauldron almost killed Disney
Animation. The studio had acquired the book rights in
1973 and began production in 1980, but the film wouldn’t come out until July 24, 1985. In that time, many different writers and artists
attempted to adapt the story. Art concepts were created and thrown out. Animator John Musker was hired as director
and then replaced by a larger team who were then also replaced. The story was reworked again and again with
new animators and producers coming on and then leaving over creative differences. All the while, the ambition of the film grew
and grew, becoming the first Disney animated film recorded in Dolby Stereo, the first to
use CGI in animation, and was produced with Super Technirama 70 film to recapture the
ultra widescreen glory days of Sleeping Beauty. But when the film was set for release, audience
test screenings convinced Disney that the film, and especially its climax, were way
too scary for children. The span of time from Black Cauldron’s purchase
to premiere also saw massive behind the scenes changes at Disney. Ron Miller, Walt’s son in law, became president
and CEO of Walt Disney Productions and created the Walt Disney Pictures banner for animated
features, only for Roy E Disney, Walt’s nephew and member of the board of directors,
to resign and launch the “Save Disney” campaign and near hostile takeover, which
resulted in Miller’s firing, with Roy bringing in Michael Eisner as CEO and Frank Wells as
president. The strange decades of nepotism at Disney
had finally resulted in a massive regime change, but one thing hadn’t changed - animation,
the thing that built Disney, was no longer a true factor in their success. Live action movies, television, theme parks,
the expanding empire of Disney had traded its animated classics for a finger in every
pie. And when The Black Cauldron became an albatross
around Disney’s neck, they were ruthless. Enter recently appointed Disney studio chairman
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who demanded the film be cut down to remove the frightening sequences,
creating a visibly and audibly choppy climax. The Black Cauldron had become a behind the
scenes nightmare for Disney and when it debuted, it became a public nightmare too. After constant reworking, Black Cauldron surpassed
its $25 million budget to cost a total of $44 million. The box office total? $21.3 million domestically. Even The Care Bears Movie did better than
this. Disney was so ashamed of the film that they
refused to release it on home video for more than a decade. And seriously even with the cuts this movie’s
messed up, man. After The Black Cauldron’s lofty ambitions
were met with dismal failure, it seemed as if Disney animation might have no future. In 1985, Disney Animation was moved off the
studio lot and into a warehouse down the road to make more room for lucrative live action
productions. Adult dramas with Touchstone, prestige pictures
with Miramax. Eisner considered closing down Disney animation,
cutting the company’s losses from an increasingly irrelevant side of business and favoring overseas
productions and reissues of old films over making anything new in house. It seems as if the only reason animation production
wasn’t cut was because animators were already at work on Basil of Baker Street - the movie
that would become The Great Mouse Detective, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements - two
men that would prove vital to Disney’s future. But for now, Disney Animation was in serious
trouble and Don Bluth was about to stage his comeback. Bluth is Back Following several dead ends, Bluth and creators
from his first studio partnered with businessman Morris Sullivan to create Sullivan Bluth Studios
in 1985. And at the height of its success, the studio
was composed of 21 departments and 350 people. This Van Nuys CA animation studio gave Bluth
another chance to rival Disney and create his own vision, but with one crucial difference
- they teamed up with Steven Spielberg and his production company Amblin Entertainment,
who had become powerhouses with films like Poltergeist, ET, Gremlins, and Back to the
Future. Amblin had been working with Disney to create
Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the taste of animated success drew them to Bluth. The result was An American Tail in 1986. Spielberg played a hands-on role in the creation
and editing of the script, review of Bluth’s storyboards, and editing of the film, but
Bluth seemed to enjoy the collaboration, stating “Steven has not dominated the creative growth
of Tail at all. There is an equal share of both of us in the
picture.” Still, production had its share of problems,
mostly stemming from the process taking longer than anticipated and causing ongoing clashes
with Amblin production heads, who were both heavily involved and inexperienced with the
animation process. To get the movie made, the animation crew
agreed to freeze their salaries, cutting costs for the sake of production. Plus, Sullivan Bluth was a non-union company,
causing clashes with animation unions that led to Bluth relocating the studio to Ireland
afterward. Bluth said it gave the Irish animation community
a big chance at growth, but it also dodged legitimate US animation unions. And in its story of mice who emigrate to New
York as a clear allegory of the Jewish emigration experience, An American Tail is part Spielberg
family history, part Secret of NIMH, and part The Rescuers. And guess what? This movie is messed up, man. Anti-Semitic hate crimes, child endangerment,
intergenerational family trauma, plans to eat an entire people group, Dom DeLuise! Still, American Tail was a major success making
$84 million on its $9 million budget and marking Bluth’s first true triumph over Disney,
making way more than Black Cauldron, being super profitable, and becoming the highest
grossing non-Disney animated movie at the time. Not only that, but Disney’s own mouse cartoon
of 1986, The Great Mouse Detective, only made $38.7 million on its $14 million budget, looking
far worse when released so close to its fellow mouse competition. Very suddenly, the tide had turned in Bluth’s
favor. Bluth and Spielberg quickly went to work on
The Land Before Time, with George Lucas brought onboard, with the movie making $84.5 million
on a $12 million budget, once again proving the viability of Bluth’s alternative to
Disney. And, well, Land Before Time is traumatizing
as hell, with Littlefoot’s mom’s death being one of the worst things to ever happen
to me, but the initial cut was even scarier. Spielberg demanded 11 minutes cut after complete
animation had been done, helping the movie achieve a G rating instead of PG and mostly
focused on cutting down Sharptooth’s attacks and removing moments of peril for the young
dinosaurs. Which is crazy because kids are constantly
almost dying in this movie. Bluth was really all in on terrifying his
audience and making me cry. The success of Spielberg’s collaboration
with Bluth, however, might have been a little too successful, as Amblin would end their
partnership with Bluth and create their own animation company in 1989 - Amblimation, which
left Bluth behind. But while Amblimation would only make 3 movies
- the way lighter An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, the weird and messed up We’re
Back, and the forgettable Balto, they represented the growing diversity of US animation, which
had been spearheaded by Bluth. But times were once again changing at the
chaotic Disney. The studio decided to bulk up their animation
staff to make new films faster instead of the typical 2 to 4 years. Bluth was faster, audiences were bigger, and
the box offices could be higher than ever. Times were about to change once again, and
Disney’s rise would be balanced by Bluth’s fall. The Disney Renaissance The first result of Disney’s accelerated
schedule was the Dom DeLuise-voiced Oliver and Company in 1988, which debuted the same
day as DeLuise-less The Land Before Time, directly announcing Disney’s intentions
of beating Bluth. The result was not what Disney intended, as
Land opened at #1 while Disney’s star-studded Oliver opened at #4. The final box office results were mixed, with
Oliver eventually grossing more in North America and Land grossing more in total worldwide. Still, Oliver’s long-term success marked
a massive turnaround, leading to Disney animation executive Peter Schneider announcing plans
to release a new animated feature every year. And the next movie would be The Little Mermaid
in 1989, directed by John Musker and Ron Clements. But if you’re talking about The Little Mermaid
and the Disney Renaissance as a whole, you cannot discount Howard Ashman and Alan Menken,
who had found limited off-Broadway success with productions like Little Shop of Horrors
before being brought on by Disney. And after most of The Disney Dark Age had
left the musical approach of The Golden Age behind, Ashman and Menken brought it back
full force with The Little Mermaid. I’m talking big old Broadway musical numbers
here. All the classic musical structure on display. Combined with a bigger budget production and
Disney animation was back. Meanwhile, Bluth and co-director Gary Goldman
found more freedom than ever at their Ireland studio, now no longer working with Amblin
and Universal and instead given $70 million by Goldcrest Films to make 3 movies. And guess what? 1989’s All Dogs Go To Heaven is messed up,
man, filled with dog death, children in mortal peril, visions of hell, and Dom DeLuise. Even without Spielberg’s control, the film
was once again edited to remove scenes that proved to be too intense for young viewers
during test screenings. Once again, Disney and Bluth would go head
to head, releasing Little Mermaid and All Dogs Go To Heaven on the same day, but the
results would be much different than last time. The Little Mermaid was a bigger hit than Oliver,
earning $84.4 million in North America while All Dogs would only make $27.1 million. After a decade, Disney was back on top and
The Disney Renaissance had arrived. But it wasn’t all artistic and critical
success. Most people, especially those at Disney, choose
to forget about The Rescuers Down Under in 1990. The belated sequel was innovative, becoming
the first feature film to be completely created digitally through the use of the Computer
Animation Production System (CAPS) and used digital ink and paint with digital cel compositing. No more time consuming by-hand cel painting. These were techniques that would define the
Disney Renaissance, allowing for a detailed and painterly look that had more in common
with the intensive and expensive Sleeping Beauty instead of the decades of Xerography. But the film was an immediate financial disappointment,
opening in 4th place. As a result, Jeffery Katzenberg, always the
brutal overseer, pulled the movie’s advertising after the first weekend, cutting losses and
essentially abandoning the film. But the animation train was already rolling,
and with Beauty and The Beast released in 1991 to massive financial and critical success,
including becoming the first ever animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award
for Best Picture, The Disney Renaissance was here to stay. But the 90s were rough for Bluth and company. Bluth would co-direct 6 more feature animated
movies with Gary Goldman. Each of these offered an alternative to the
Disney juggernaut at the time, but after a few years of outdoing his old place of work,
Bluth was no longer able to beat Disney at the box office. In fact, Disney began deliberately counterprograming
Bluth at the movie theater to undermine the performance of his movies. Rock-a-Doodle in 1991 made less than its $18
million budget while Beauty and the Beast exploded, forcing Bluth’s studio into liquidation
to compensate. Thumbelina in 1994 could only be completed
after Don Bluth Entertainment filed for bankruptcy thanks to funding from John Boorman and Media
Assets, with distribution from Warner Bros. But while it did slightly better than Rock-a-Doodle,
its even higher budget made it a massive bomb. Meanwhile, The Lion King was doing Lion King
business. A Troll in Central Park also in 1994 was dumped
in theaters with no promotion for a total of $71,368 (I’m pretty sure some YouTubers
make more than that in a month). Even when All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 was released,
which Bluth had nothing to do with, Disney rereleased Oliver and Company to mess with
it. And The Pebble and the Penguin in 1995 made
a total of $3.9 million against its $28 million budget, with its production extremely compromised
by MGM’s demands, leading to Bluth telling his staff at one point, “I can’t chew
with someone else’s mouth.” This final financial disaster led Sullivan
Bluth Studios to declare bankruptcy and shut down in October 1995. Yes, The Land Before Time went crazy style
on the franchise approach, making 13 direct-to-video sequels that spanned 1994 through 2016, but
Bluth, Spielberg, and Lucas weren’t involved. These were purely Universal joints, and its
obvious because they weren’t messed up. The once promising animation alternative of
Don Bluth and his collaborators had flamed out as Disney roared back onto the scene. Not only were audiences not interested, but
they didn’t like what Bluth was offering. And really, when you compare Bluth’s approach
to animated storytelling, what was once progressive and exciting compared to the stodgy Disney
of the 80s was left in the dust as Disney kicked into high gear. But it's not entirely fair to compare the
two sides of this war. One was a man with a vision that he wanted
to unburden from corporate control, working with limited money and the distributors that
would give him a chance. The other was a megacorporation that could
employ the best of the best at any given time, constantly churning out new, exciting films
that had no real constraints. Bluth and Goldman, however, weren’t done. The Last Days of Bluth Now without a studio, the duo were hired by
the brand new Fox Animation Studios and created Anastasia in 1997. And I know what you’re thinking, “how
did things go wrong this time?” Well, they didn’t! Anastasia was a big hit, grossing $140 million
against its $53 million budget. Expensive Disney style musical numbers, recognizable
stars lending their voices, this was a big turnaround from the past several Bluth productions. I mean yeah, there was still a bunch of murder,
child peril, and deals with Satan, but people really liked it. Disney, however, wouldn’t let the competition
stand, rereleasing The Little Mermaid a week before Anastasia premiered to screw with its
box office, released Flubber the week after, and banned Anastasia TV ads from airing on
The Wonderful World of Disney. Still, Anastasia did really well for a children’s
movie about someone whose whole family was murdered when she was little. With Bluth experiencing his first financially
successful film in nearly a decade, Fox Animation and the director went full speed ahead on
another project and ok here’s where things go bad again. Aw yeah it’s Titan AE time. With few options, Bluth and Goldman took a
long in development sci-fi story that was originally meant to be live action. And to stay cutting edge, the film had hand
drawn characters animated against complete CGI backgrounds. Innovative for the time and expensive too. But during production, more than 300 employees
were laid off, executive in charge of animation Bill Mechanic was released, and the film was
heavily outsourced to several independent companies to make its release date, including
a young Blue Sky Studios. The result was at least $75 million to complete
production and poor promotion from Fox, who was already pulling away from traditional
animation. In the end, Titan AE only made $36 million
worldwide in 2000, costing Fox as much as $100 million. And yes, it was messed up, man. Yes, it was dark. And yes I saw it in theaters and thought it
ruled. I even had the soundtrack on CD. This final box office disaster closed down
Fox Animation and was the official end to Don Bluth’s career. After decades in the business with as many
dizzying highs as terrifying lows, Don Bluth was done at the age of 63, unable to complete
his hopes of making several more animated films, including an adaptation of The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. But things over at Disney had similarly worsened. The release of Tarzan in 1999 marked the end
of the Disney Renaissance, and afterward Walt Disney Animation Studios would struggle to
find stability with audiences and critics alike. Atlantis the Lost Empire in 2001 and Treasure
Planet in 2002 are more similar to Bluth’s Titan AE than Disney would like to admit,
both in their attempts to mix hand drawn animation with CGI and their poor box offices. Even without a major animation competitor,
Disney would struggle throughout the 2000s, wrung dry by CEO Michael Eisner’s finances-focused
turn and burn approach to the content machine. But the straight to video death of the Disney
Renaissance is a topic for another time. Because even with back to back to back to
back to back box office disasters, Disney could soldier on, backed by a hyper profitable
ever expanding mega corporation that would always make money somewhere, biding time until
the animation department worked itself out again. Decades later and Disney, obviously, has only
become more and more successful. And while Bluth was officially retired, he
never stopped pursuing his passions. Dragon’s Lair 3D with Ubisoft in 2002, some
small animation work here and there, quite a few animation books that reflected his experiences,
the announcement of a Dragon’s Lair film with Ryan Reynolds, and the launch of a new
Don Bluth Studios in 2020, which will mostly use YouTube for distribution. And in the strangest development, Disney’s
constant expansion and purchase of Fox has made it the owner of several Bluth movies,
with Anastasia now on Disney+. So I guess Anastasia is a Disney princess,
even if the company would never admit it. In looking back on the Disney/Don Bluth War,
I see a strange time in the history of animation where kids films were allowed to be weirder,
scarier, and sadder. Not always for the best, but distinct within
the larger bent toward Disney homogenization. Don Bluth’s films have a certain melancholy
to them that’s as easily identifiable as their art style. So many of these movies have a heaviness to
their world. Their characters live in desperation. Lives are lost and aren’t magically walked
back later in the story. Death hangs over everything and must be accepted
in order to move forward. The world is a harsh place and so often the
color palettes and designs of these movies reflect that truth. “What we in the animation world are doing
is presenting symbols that are reflective of real life,” said Bluth. “If you show the dark moments, then the
triumphant moments have more power. And if animators don’t understand that,
I don’t think they’re animating. What they’re doing is drawing.” When Bluth’s characters finally overcome
their dangerous challenges, the world brightens, but only then. Like Littlefoot seeing his mother’s spirit
in the clouds before finally finding the Great Valley in the breaking light. Not all of Bluth’s movies work and his strongest
came in the 80s, but they are as unique and unforgettable as any of Disney’s work. And that shade of darkness, that sense of
danger that was emblematic of so much of children’s entertainment in the 80s, has something that
is often lacking in big corporate output - true unpredictability. And with that comes a story that doesn’t
treat kids like idiots. “You go to another culture like Japan or
South America, and the adults appreciate comic art and animation art as an art form,” said
Bluth. “We in America, for some reason, cannot
get that. We've got it so categorized into the nursery
that even the kids know it. So when they get to their adolescent years,
they say, "Get me away from animation. I don't want to go anywhere near it, because
that means I'm still a little kid." As an adult looking back at my childhood,
I realize that I watched Secret of NIMH and An American Tail just as much as Aladdin or
Robin Hood. And while I didn’t know what was happening
behind the scenes, I knew there was something distinctly different about Bluth’s films,
which would scare me, unsettle me, but always bring me back again. Maybe that’s lost on kids younger than me,
but for a time, it changed animation. Looking back at his career, Bluth said, “Striving
to achieve any degree of perfection of any of the arts requires constant diligence to
remain on top of the game. There is a law in the universe that I believe
most assuredly. The law says you’ll either get better at
what you do or worse. You cannot remain still.” For a little while, Don Bluth was at the top. But no one beats the mouse forever.
