Don Bluth facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Don Bluth
Bluth at GalaxyCon Raleigh in 2023
Born	Donald Virgil Bluth (1937-09-13) September 13, 1937 (age 87) El Paso, Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	Brigham Young University
Occupation	Film director animator producer writer production designer animation instructor
Years active	1955–present
Employer	Walt Disney Animation Studios (1955–1979) Filmation (1967–1970) Sullivan Bluth Studios (1979–1995) Fox Animation Studios (1994–2000)
Notable work	The Secret of NIMH (1982) An American Tail (1986) The Land Before Time (1988) All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) Anastasia (1997) Titan A.E. (2000) Dragon's Lair (1983) Space Ace (1984)
Relatives	Toby Bluth (brother)
Family	Pratt family
Awards	Inkpot Award (1983)

Donald Virgil Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is famous for directing many animated movies. These include The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, and Anastasia. He also helped create the popular video games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Don Bluth was a big competitor to Disney in the animation world for many years.

Early Life of Don Bluth

Don Bluth was born on September 13, 1937, in El Paso, Texas. His parents were Emaline and Virgil Bluth. As a child, he loved to watch Disney movies. He would even ride his horse to the movie theater. After watching, he would go home and try to copy the drawings from Disney comic books.

When he was six, his family moved to Payson, Utah. They lived on a farm there. Later, in 1954, his family moved to Santa Monica, California. Don Bluth went to Brigham Young University in Utah. He studied English there.

Don Bluth's Career in Animation

Starting Out in Animation

After college, Don Bluth started working at Walt Disney Productions in 1955. He was an assistant animator for the movie Sleeping Beauty. In 1957, Bluth left Disney because he found the work a bit boring.

For two and a half years, he lived in Argentina. He was on a religious mission there. When he came back to the United States, he opened a theater. He produced musicals like The Music Man.

Bluth went back to college and finished his English degree. In 1967, he returned to animation. He joined Filmation and worked on TV shows like The Archie Show. In 1971, he went back to Disney full-time. He worked on movies like Robin Hood and The Rescuers. He was promoted to a directing animator. His last project with Disney was a short film called The Small One.

Leaving Disney and Finding Success

While working on The Fox and the Hound, Don Bluth had different ideas than Disney's leaders. He wanted more artistic control. So, on his 42nd birthday in 1979, he left Disney. He started his own animation studio called Don Bluth Productions. He teamed up with other animators like Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy.

Their first big movie was The Secret of NIMH. It was not a huge hit in theaters, but critics loved it. Later, it became a very popular movie when people watched it at home. However, the studio faced money problems and had to close down for a while.

In 1983, Bluth and his team created the arcade game Dragon's Lair. This game was special because it used animated cartoons. Players would choose simple paths for the character. This was followed by another game, Space Ace, in 1984. Don Bluth even voiced the villain, Borf, in Space Ace. But then, the video game business had problems, and Bluth's studio went bankrupt again in 1985.

Working with Steven Spielberg

In 1985, Don Bluth started a new studio called Sullivan Bluth Studios. He partnered with businessman Morris Sullivan. They even moved the studio to Dublin, Ireland. There, they taught animation courses.

Bluth then teamed up with the famous producer Steven Spielberg. Their first movie together was An American Tail. It became the highest-earning non-Disney animated film at that time. Their next movie, The Land Before Time, did even better. The main character from An American Tail, Fievel Mouskewitz, became a mascot for Spielberg's animation company.

After these successes, Bluth and Spielberg stopped working together. Bluth directed All Dogs Go to Heaven. This movie did well when it was released on home video. He also directed other films like Rock-a-Doodle and Thumbelina.

Youth Theater and Fox Animation

In the 1990s, Don Bluth started hosting theater shows for young people at his home in Arizona. This grew into a group called Don Bluth Front Row Theatre. They now have their own small theater.

In 1997, Bluth had a big hit with Anastasia. This movie was made at Fox Animation Studios in Arizona. It earned almost $140 million worldwide. Critics praised it for having action, romance, and music, like popular Disney films. Anastasia was Don Bluth's most successful movie. It made 20th Century Fox a competitor to Disney for a while.

However, his next film, Titan A.E. (released in 2000), did not do well in theaters. After this, Fox Animation Studio closed down. Titan A.E. was Don Bluth's last movie released in theaters as a director.

Recent Work

In 2002, Bluth worked with a video game company called Ubisoft. They made Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair. This game tried to bring the original Dragon's Lair into a 3D world. Don Bluth also helped create animated scenes for the game I-Ninja in 2003.

He also wrote books. In 2004, he released The Art of Storyboard. In 2005, he released The Art of Animation Drawing. In 2011, he worked on a modern version of the arcade game Tapper, called Tapper World Tour.

Return to Animation

In 2015, Don Bluth and Gary Goldman started a Kickstarter campaign. They wanted to bring back hand-drawn animation. Their goal was to make a full-length animated movie of Dragon's Lair. They raised money through crowdfunding. A live-action Dragon's Lair movie is also planned.

In 2020, Don Bluth opened a new animation studio called Don Bluth Studios. He wants to bring back hand-drawn animation. His first project there is Bluth's Fables. These are short stories written and drawn by Bluth himself. They are like Aesop's Fables. The studio shares its work online, including on YouTube.

Don Bluth also wrote a book about his life called Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life. It came out in 2022. His first children's picture book, Yuki, Star of the Sea, was released in 2024. It tells the story of a whale who becomes a movie star.

Unproduced Projects

Throughout Don Bluth's career, some projects were never finished. This happened because studios closed or partnerships ended. Many drawings and animation tests from these projects can still be found online.

Some of his unproduced films include an animated version of Beauty and the Beast. This project was stopped when Disney announced their own Beauty and the Beast movie. He also planned a film called East of the Sun and West of the Moon, but it lost its funding. Other ideas included The Velveteen Rabbit and Satyrday.

He also planned several arcade games after Dragon's Lair. These included "The Sea Beast" and "Devil's Island". But these were also canceled due to money problems in the video game industry.

Filmography

Filmmaking Credits

Animation Department

Video Games

See Also

In Spanish: Don Bluth para niños

• Sony Pictures Animation
• Fox Animation Studios
• Don Bluth Entertainment
• Threshold Entertainment
• Vanguard Animation
• Worker Studio