The Case of Don Bluth
Littlefoot, Fievel the Mouse, the heroic Mrs. Brisby; these familiar characters left a lasting impression when they made it to the big screen in the 1980s. In an era when the animation juggernaut known as Walt Disney was struggling to bring in viewers, these were the characters that carried on the tradition of beautifully crafted hand-drawn animation. They captured the imagination of children and adults alike, and showcased the talent of Don Bluth, the creator behind such classics as The Secret of NIMH and An American Tale.
When Bluth and fellow animator Gary Goldman left Disney Animation Studios in the early 1980s, they sent waves through the film industry. Several talented animators followed Bluth and Goldman because they too were concerned about the direction in which Disney animation was heading. When he founded his own studio, Bluth’s goal was to create the kind of animation that Walt Disney himself would love, while also providing healthy competition to Bluth’s former employer.
But this is just one part of Bluth’s life and career. Today we’re taking a look at the animator’s life, and celebrating just some of the art that he has created (so far). So fire up those VCRs and settle in, friends! It’s time to learn about the life of Don Bluth.
Family/Young Life
Don Bluth was born in El Paso, Texas on September 13th, 1937 to Virgil and Emaline Bluth. He has 6 siblings, one of which was Frederick (Toby) Bluth, who also had a successful career as an illustrator and animator. While living in Texas, the Bluth family attended El Paso’s congregation of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Bluth’s connection to his faith continued to be an important part of his life and even impacted his career in animation.
Don was highly imaginative, even from a young age. He loved to listen to the radio, specifically a Peabody Award-winning CBS program that featured retellings of classic fairytales. He also loved to draw, and would teach himself by copying comic book characters–but he never traced them. He covered the walls in his creations until his mother Emaline saved up enough money to buy her son a drawing pad.
When Don was 7-years-old, his family relocated to a farm in Utah. In order to afford the move, he and his brother Bob helped their mother sell pickled eggs.
The family lived in Utah for several years, and it was there that Bluth fell in love with Disney animation. Every Saturday morning, he would ride his horse Flash 3 miles into town to watch movies. Bluth was entranced by movies like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney’s first full-length animated movie that premiered only ninety-nine days after Don Bluth was born. He would collect anything connected to the film, from dolls to comics, and keep them on his drawing desk at the farmhouse, which he called his “laughing place.”
It was also in these early years playing on the farm that Don experienced a seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy. The doctor told him that it wasn’t as severe as other cases, but the condition followed Don into adulthood.
Because Don wasn’t interested in playing sports like some of his brothers, he felt different and left out. His father was a police officer and to Don, the epitome of what a man should be. But when Don saw a photo of Walt Disney for the first time, he was ecstatic. Here was his hero, someone who drew cartoons for a living, and he appeared to look manly as well.
Don practiced drawing every day. He didn’t care much for the farm, and his dream was to leave and work for his hero, Walt Disney. Whenever he created a drawing that he liked, he would display it on his desk until he no longer liked the way it looked. If he were to walk past the image with fresh eyes and found it well-drawn, he would let it stay on display. But if he found the drawing lacking, he would create another one and start the process over. He continued this practice into adulthood and has even said that the average lifespan of his drawings is only about 24 hours.
In 1947, when Don Bluth was ten-years-old, he started making original sketches based on the events and people that he saw in his town. For example, he borrowed his dad’s super 8 camera and recorded the image of a flying bird. He watched the footage over and over, attempting to animate its movements.
It was in the early 1950s when Don was fifteen-years-old that he had his first lesson in animation. Former Disney animator Wetzel Orson “Judge” Whitaker took a job at Brigham Young University to establish the BYU Motion Picture Studio, and Bluth took the opportunity to make an appointment with him. At one point in their meeting, Don asked the animator why he left Disney, and Whitaker explained that while he loved animating, he had come to a crossroads in his life and he felt something pulling him to the University. As Don Bluth recounts in his book Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life, he made a vow in front of Whitaker that once he made it to Disney’s studio, he would never leave. To that Whitaker quietly responded, “Perhaps. We’ll see.”
At seventeen, Don and his father moved to Santa Monica, California and were soon followed by the rest of the family. He graduated from Santa Monica High School (funnily enough, the high school where they filmed the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause.) Although he wanted to become an animator as soon as possible, Don’s parents insisted that he attend college, so he returned to Utah and enrolled in Brigham Young University.
While attending BYU as a freshman, Bluth called up “Judge” Whitaker, who offered him a job operating the animation camera in the Motion Picture Studio. Whitaker told Bluth that it was obvious that he was meant to be an animator, and to drop him a postcard once he was hired at Walt Disney.
Don struck up a deal with his parents: if he got good grades, he could apply to work at Disney. Luckily for Don, his parents accepted a B in his English class as an acceptable grade, and upheld their end of the bargain. In June of 1956, when Don Bluth was just 18-years-old, he began working at Walt Disney Productions.
First Projects/The split from Disney
Don Bluth started his animation career as an in-betweener. An in-betweener creates the frames in between the extremes of an action drawn by an animator. Their role is key in making animation appear smooth and seamless. Bluth’s first film credit at Disney was Sleeping Beauty (1959).
Within his first 6 months at Disney, Don was promoted to assistant animator, and began an apprenticeship under John Lounsbery. Lounsbery was one of the famed “Nine Old Men,” the group of senior animators that famously ran Walt Disney Productions’ animation department. Lounsbery directed The Rescuers and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh just before his death in 1976. Both of those films were released the following year in 1977. He was the first of the “Nine Old Men” to die, and the group dissolved.
About two years into his animation career, Bluth was presented with a crossroads. He was called on a mission by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and asked to live for 2.5 years in Argentina. Bluth accepted the mission and left his dream job. According to Bluth, he was not allowed to communicate with anyone from home while he was on the trip, and he had to learn Spanish while living in Argentina. At first, he regretted the decision to leave. But now he believes that leaving animation and gaining that experience is what helped him strike out on his own later on and create films under his own name.
It would be fourteen years before Don Bluth would return to Disney full-time. After completing his mission, he resumed his education at Brigham Young University and earned a degree in English literature. After that, Bluth returned to animation, taking summer jobs at Disney. In the late-1960s, Bluth became a layout artist for Filmation Inc, a studio known for producing many popular Saturday morning cartoons like The Archie Show and He-Man & Masters of the Universe.
In 1970, Don Bluth returned to Walt Disney Productions. He noticed remarkable differences in the culture and attitude since the death of Walt Disney. He felt that the studio was more focused on efficiency, and that he was seen simply as an employee and nothing more.
Bluth worked at Disney for several years on projects like Robin Hood and The Rescuers. At this time, the studio had entered into what film historians would later call “the bronze age” or “Disney’s dark age.” The studio started employing cost-cutting techniques, like reusing animation from other films. For example, Woolie Reitherman (one of the Nine Old Men) instructed Bluth to use the animation of Snow White dancing in 1937 and apply it to Maid Marian in Robin Hood. If you play the footage back to back, the recycled animation is obvious. This concept was used in several bronze-age films.
In the late 1970s, after the passing of John Lounsbery, the Nine Old Men began to retire from the studio. With them, they took a lot of knowledge and experience that hadn’t been passed down to the next generation of leaders. At this time, Don Bluth became close with fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy. The three of them decided that in order to get directing experience, they should try to make their own half-hour animated film.
At Disney, Don was directing a 26-minute animated film called The Small One, which was based off of a 1947 book by Charles Tazewell. Don was told that there was no money in the budget for songs, and that his team of animators would be a group of trainees. Animator Woolie Reitherman was unhappy with the final project, and according to Don, word spread that he was unable to produce a quality Disney film.
In the hours after work, Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy began working on Banjo the Woodpile Cat, a half-hour feature that was independent of Disney. They bought their own equipment and set up in Bluth’s garage. The team spent their nights experimenting with animation and trying to rediscover some of the techniques that had been lost over the last few years. When some other Disney animators heard about the project, they joined the team and after 4 years, the film was complete. Don Bluth took out a second mortgage to pay for the voice actors and composer.
What might have started out as a side project to gain more animation experience turned into an example of the work that Bluth and other Disney animators could accomplish on their own. The project reportedly caused divisions at Disney, and some would see it as proof that Don Bluth poached Disney’s animators.
Banjo the Woodpile Cat was completed in 1979, and in that same year, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman left Walt Disney Productions. Over a dozen animators followed them, in an event that we refer to as “the Disney Exodus.” At the time, Disney wasn’t performing very well commercially, and because there were few rival studios producing animated films, audiences began to question the longevity of the artform. Part of Bluth’s plan was to give Disney some healthy competition, and revive the magic of hand-drawn animation.
Bluth formed “Don Bluth Productions” and the studio began working on their first feature film: The Secret of NIMH.
If you would like to learn more about the Disney Exodus, we have an entire episode on it!
A Few of His Most Influential Movies
The Secret of NIMH
The first full-length animated movie to come from Don Bluth Productions was The Secret of NIMH, a film that was visually and tonally darker than anything being produced at Disney. The film was based on a book called Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The film follows Mrs. Brisby, a heroic mother mouse who must find a way to save her young ailing child from the frost (and from the farmer’s plow). In order to get help she appeals to the rats of NIMH, a group of rodents with advanced intelligence due to scientific experiments.
In order to animate well, reference models and sometimes live-action films were made to get movements right. Mr. Ages’ lab was inspired by an old abandoned threshing machine on the farm that Don used to play in as a child. Don’s father was kind enough to go out and take pictures of the inside of it as a reference model for the movie! In one scene, a cow is dragged out of the mud. In order to get reference footage, the team tranquilized a cow to be calmer, put her in mud and pulled her out. Don made sure that someone looked after the cow’s welfare because he had a soft spot for the animals after growing up on a farm.
The Secret of NIMH was a turning point in animation history. Although the film was not commercially successful, it proved to critics that a small, independent studio was capable of creating animated feature films that rivaled Disney in quality. It also was one of the first animated films to use a celebrity’s voice for a character. Dom Deluise voiced Jeremy the crow, and would give his voice in several other Don Bluth productions.
Bluth’s studio faced bankruptcy after NIMH, but producer Morris Sullivan decided to invest in Bluth’s movies. Together they formed Sullivan Bluth Studios.
An American Tail
For his next animated feature, Don Bluth teamed up with Steven Spielberg, who also had a passion for animation. Together they made An American Tale, the highest grossing non-Disney animated film at the time. It even beat Disney’s current release, “The Great Mouse Detective”!
Spielberg wanted to collaborate with Don Bluth on an animated film, and in 1984, he contacted Bluth to tell him that he had found the perfect story for their film. When Sullivan Bluth met with Spielberg, he laid out the story (which is credited to David Kirschner of Hocus Pocus writing fame). Spielberg said in their meeting, “It’s about a young mouse named Mousie Mousekewitz and his family, who emigrate from Russia to the United States by boat after their home is destroyed by cats. During the trip, a fierce storm throws little Mousie overboard and he loses contact with his family. The story will be his journey to find them again. It’ll be a musical, and we’ll call it "An American Tail. Spelled T-A-I-L, not T-A-L-E.”
Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss wrote the screenplay for the film.
The Land Before Time
Discussions about the next film collaboration between Amblin and Sullivan Bluth started during the production of An American Tail. For this next feature, Spielberg tapped into another one of his interests: dinosaurs. They workshopped the idea that the film would be like Bambi, the story of a young child that faces a huge loss and must rely on his friends as he faces the challenges of growing up. But instead of forest animals, the story would feature dinosaurs!
The Land Before Time follows the story of Littlefoot, a young dinosaur that must find his way to “Great Valley” and be reunited with others of his kind. After the death of his mother, Littlefoot is on his own, but he finds a group of friends that join him on his journey.
Tony Geiss and Judy Freudberg returned to write the screenplay for this film as well. It was the only Don Bluth film of the 1980s to not feature the voice of Dom Deluise, as he was acting in Disney’s Oliver and Company instead.
Originally titled “The Land Before Time Began,” the film was originally intended to be dialogue-free. Bluth, Spielberg, and George Lucas (who joined in as producer) ultimately decided that there would need to be voice actors to draw in young audiences. Even the earliest plotlines for the movie included themes of prejudice, as the dinosaurs have difficulty getting along across their species.
It was during this film’s production that Sullivan Bluth moved to Ireland, where it would stay until it dissolved in the late 1990s. The move pushed production back by several months, and it was released in November of 1988, incidentally on the same day as Oliver and Company.
The film was a commercial success and led to a series of straight-to-video sequels. Of all the films, the first Land Before Time is the only one that isn’t a musical.
Don Bluth said in his autobiography, “I’ll be with you always’” is what Littlefoot’s mom says. Don believes life does not end when you die. You’ll be together again with your family.
All Dogs go to Heaven
All Dogs Go to Heaven follows a German shepherd named Charlie who is betrayed and killed by a casino owner. In order to return to Earth, he snags a magical watch that gives him more time. He plans to use this time to get revenge, but instead begins to care for an orphan girl that he is using to gain that revenge.
Don Bluth had the idea for this film after completing work on The Secret of NIMH. He recalled a 4th grade middle school teacher that had read the class a story. The story was of a little girl whose life was saved by a dog. The pair eventually end up together, reunited after death for all eternity. When Don finally found the book that she had read from, there was no story like this, only an anthology of other stories! They kept the name of the book which was All Dogs Go to Heaven and made their own story. Don said, “I didn’t want to change the title because I love how provocative it sounds, and I love how people respond to the title alone.” The writers drew inspiration from movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life, “Little Miss Marker,” and “A Guy Named Joe.”
The protagonist, a german shepherd named Charlie, was modeled after a scruffy german shepherd that Gary Goldman found in the LA River and brought with him to Dublin. He named him Burt and he became the perfect model for Charlie. The story went through several changes as Don Bluth was not happy about the convoluted script that was given to them by a Hollywood writer they had hired. The story was finally fleshed out after Don talked about their latest film with Robert Towne. Robert Towne listened to the story, went to the restroom and then came out with the simplified version of the story for Don! Years after that, Don would retreat into the restroom to try for similar epiphanies. David N. Weiss rewrote the script with the help of the producers, working on the script from October to December 1987.
When recording the stars' voices began, they had high hopes for Burt Reynolds. When they saw that the script in his hand was dog eared and rolled up they thought that was a great sign. However, when Burt began the recording he gave a higher pitched voice- what he thought a dog would sound like. They convinced him to record it with both the high-pitched voice and his regular voice. Luckily Dom DeLuise had the directors record the pair together and the magic and friendship really came along.
During this time Roy Disney Jr. wanted to meet up with Don. They met at a pub in Cork. After exchanging pleasantries and compliments Roy offered for Don to come back to Disney where “All would be forgiven.” Don replied, “Honestly Roy, I think not. You need someone like us to push you. We make Disney Studio try harder. Face it, you’ve gotten better because of us.” Roy then replied saying that Don could not win this and that Disney would crush them.
Thumbelina
Thumbelina is a young woman who was born in a flower and is only a couple inches tall. Although she leads a happy life, she worries that she will never meet someone her own size. That is, until she sees Prince Cornelius of the fairies. The couple falls in love, and all seems well until Thumbelina is kidnapped and nearly forced to marry someone else. Thumbelina must escape and find her way back to the prince.
Thumbelina is based on the story by Hans Christian Anderson. In the film Hans Christian Anderson from 1952 Danny Kaye, as Hans, sings
“Thumbelina, Thumbelina, though you’re very small
When your heart is full of love, you’re nine feet tall.”
Don loves this quote and believes it perfectly states what Thumbelina is about. He wanted girls to love the character and be inspired by her. They hired Carol Lynn Pearson, a poet and author, to draft up a script. They gave her 9 months to finish. She returned with a script that portrayed Thumbelina as a role model who was not waiting for a prince.
When her completed draft came in at about the 8th month, Don was excited for it. After reading it however he felt that a few things needed changing. He gave Carol Lynn notes on what he thought should be improved. He felt that the Prince was too wimpy and that Thumbelina had a pessimistic view of the world. She agreed to take it back and think about his notes but when they met again she was adamant that her story was solid and did not need rewrites. Don flew back to Dublin furiously trying to rewrite as they needed to begin working on it soon. Years after he read something she had written that made him understand her point of view. She said, “Issues are more important to me than art itself.”
Don handed over the character design for this film to Rowland Wilson. Don described Rowland’s creations of the characters as the tender loving care of a toymaker.
Betty White recorded for the part of Ms. Fieldmouse but Don felt that it wasn’t quite right. Though he was a big fan of Betty’s, he had Carol Channing also come in and record the lines. His mistake was in not telling Betty that he was going to do this. Betty found out from Carol that she had recorded for this cute mouse and Don heard from lawyers shortly after. He felt terrible and could only send a heartfelt apology in the mail.
Thumbelina came out just months before The Lion King in 1994. This was one of the last films made by Sullivan Bluth. The studio suffered financially, and its last feature, Pebble the Penguin was a critical and financial flop. Sullivan Bluth closed in 1995, but Bluth’s directing days were not over.
Anastasia
20th Century Fox tapped Don Bluth and Gary Goldman to direct their latest animated film. Bill Mechanic, CEO of 20th Century Fox wanted a ‘rags to riches’ story and he wanted Don’s team to make it.
In an early meeting, Bill told Gary and Don of Anastasia, a Russian Romanov princess that allegedly may have escaped the execution of her family. Many Anastasias turned up over the years. One in particular was Anna Anderson, who insisted that she was the young princess. While Gary was enthralled and had many questions, Don was skeptical and felt that it was too dark for a princess movie. He could only think that she died that fateful night in 1918. Bill was confident in the story and gave the overarching ideas for the film. He told Gary and Don to read Anna Anderson’s book to get the imagination flowing.
They began by actually shooting a start to finish live action version! He had not publicly admitted this until his biography book, but as beautiful as the animation was, Don prefers the live action version. It is stored in a temperature controlled vault somewhere.
Don drew hundreds of Anastasias to get her right and as for the script, it was mostly fleshed out by Eric Tuchman. Many people worked on the script, even Carrie Fisher!
The two leads of the film were Meg Ryan and John Cusack. Don had enjoyed Sleepless in Seattle and thought she would have the right amount of sass and vulnerability as Anastasia. In order to convince Bill Mechanic that she was the right choice, they made an animated test that used a snippet of her voice from Sleepless in Seattle. John Cusack was perfect for Dmitri as he had a lot of energy and was a fantastic actor. When put in the sound booth together, they had a great back and forth exchange. Dmitri was almost Johnny Depp, but he turned it down. Robert Downey Jr. was also reportedly considered for the role, but his reputation wasn’t quite what the studio wanted at the time.
The film was a financial success and many people even mistook it for a Disney movie!
In 2023, Don Bluth released his autobiography entitled, “Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life.” It recounts many stories about his life and career that we didn’t cover today, so if you’re interested in learning more, check it out!
Recently Don Bluth formed Don Bluth Studios LLC. According to the business website, his goal is to create new characters and stories that will start as children’s books and will be later pitched as TV shows. This is a collaboration with Lavalle Lee from traditionalanimation.com. Their goal is to start a hand-drawn animation renaissance.
Awards
Don was awarded the Time- Machine Honorary Award in 1993 at the Catalonian International Film Festival. He was also awarded the Winsor McCay Award in 2005 at the Annie’s. His films have garnered a few wins such as Anastasia with a Critics choice award for Best Family Film and An American Tail with the Song of the Year at the Grammys. Others were nominated such as The Land Before TIme for a Saturn award for Best Fantasy Film but lost to Who Framed Roger Rabbit that year.
In the 1980s and 90s, Don Bluth and his team of animators changed animation forever. Although his animation studio was short-lived in comparison to Disney, it produced content that the world desperately needed. Some say that Don Bluth took on Disney and “lost,” because his films never achieved the same status as a Disney Animated Classic. But if we look at Don Bluth’s ultimate goal, he didn’t lose at all. He and his fellow animators proved what many thought was impossible: they struck out on their own and rivaled the biggest name in animation. His studio produced films that revived audiences’ love of animation. He took risks that would have been heavily discouraged at Disney, producing films that challenged the public’s idea of what a G or PG rated animated film could be.
Don Bluth wanted to push Disney to be its best by creating films that could compete with the animation juggernaut both critically and commercially. And by doing so, he likely contributed to the studio’s renaissance.
But beyond that, the Don Bluth movies of the 80s and 90s raised a generation of animation-lovers that hung on every frame. Every child of that era seems to have a favorite Bluth film, whether it’s the ever-popular Land Before Time or the more obscure Rock-a-Doodle. But if you haven’t found your favorite, give some of these titles a chance. Somewhere out there…is a Don Bluth movie for everyone.
Sources:
https://www.vulture.com/article/don-bluth-steven-spielberg-an-american-tail.html
Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life