The Disney/Don Bluth Animation War - The Story of A Rise, Fall & Renaissance
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- A look at the animation war between Don Bluth and Disney Animation, which saw Bluth's rise, fall, rise, and fall again throughout the 80s and 90s, and how Disney left The Dark Age of Animation and entered the Disney Renaissance, with both sides of this animation war changing the medium forever.
PATREON - / mattdraper
TWITTER - / mattdraperyt
#Disney
#DonBluth
#Animation
Music:
"The Outliers" - Droid Bishop & Sean Ivry
"Robin Hood" OST - George Bruns
"I Wish It Would Never Stop Snowing" - Sleep Fish
"Secret of Nimh" OST - Jerry Goldsmith
"Paradise Warfare" - Carpenter Brut
"Transformation" - Alan Menken
"Castle In The Mist" - Michiru Oshima
"Sweet Sensation" - Traxx
"America Online" and "Vampires" by The Midnight
Sources:
www.deseret.co....
www.avclub.com...
collider.com/d...
screenrant.com...
disney.fandom....
www.cbr.com/di...
www.pastemagaz...
www.cinemablen...
www.dizavenue....
www.wdw-magazi...
www.hollywoodr...
www.parkeology...
www.cinemablen...
www.syfy.com/s...
www.crescentblu...
www.vulture.co...
www.ign.com/ar...
• 80s Television intervi...
I believe that Don Bluth is one of the most underappreciative animation filmmakers ever. He deserves more praise and recognition.
Not only that, his embarassing defeats of Disney in the mid-80s forced them to up their game. So, ultimately, we can thank Bluth for the Disney Renaissance.
@@crazydud3380 I think the Disney Renaissance primarily because of Steven Spielberg because he produced Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
@@patrickshields5251 Sure, but Spielberg was also a producer for An American Tale
@@crazydud3380 Actually, I'm mainly saying that to discreddit Bluth, because I'm not a fan of his films.
I think that he was an amazing animator with great ambition, but I struggle to like any of his films except for NIMH. How ironic that the guy who left Disney because of their cost cutting measures ended up leaning on creepy looking rotoscoping far too often, not to mention moving to Ireland to screw over animators.
The character design of most of his movies is absolutely horrid, with the same old fat bottom lips, eyes and over accentuated facial movements blurring together into a crappy soup of mediocrity.
Don’t get me wrong, there is still some amazing animation proficiency going on in a lot of those terrible movies, but those character designs are so bad.
This guy, Ralph Bakshi and Richard Williams were all animation masters that tried to compete with Disney during this time. They proved that you didn't need Mickey Mouse to be successful in the animation industry.
Bakshi was an insane person, but also a brilliant one. LOL
@@crazydud3380 He's a mad genius.
They weren't successful, though.
Not sure I'd say Richard Williams was as successful though... the Thief and the Cobbler is a sad instance of that. I'd say Bluth was far more successful by comparison, even with his lows.
Bakshi was never really a challenge for Disney and honestly most of his films weren’t that good. They were more unique and had interesting concepts but his execution for most of them sucked.
One of the greatest strengths of Don Bluth films is how they'll not only bluntly admit "yeah, messed up stuff happens in life," they also make _processing_ the grief and trauma that comes afterwards a central part of the narrative. They normalize the concept of _"No one is fine all of the time. We all go through periods of our life that turn us into a hot mess, that make us feel like the world has ended even though it keeps on turning. It's okay to admit that you're not okay."_
He's one of my dad's cousins and I know he's absolutely drawing from personal experience.
You missed the part about Katzenberg taking literal scissors to the film cells of black cauldron, destroying the sequences he demanded should be removed completely by literally cutting them out. It's why there's so little consistency between certain scenes because parts were just destroyed beyond repair.
Such a fucking shame. I would be willing to pay a lot to see an uncut version of this film.
He's an objectively horrible person.
And that’s just one of the reasons he was fired from Disney, other than making the Black Friday reel in Toy Story.
@@WobblesandBean a lot of his former employees would concur
Source?
Don bluth is no doubt a legend as his animated films pushed so many boundaries of animation being not only for children but for adults to enjoy. My childhood favorite film of his was robin hood I still hold that close to me to this day.
A lot of adult animation filmmakers today (mostly in TV), cite Don Bluth as an influence, so yeah, without him, the animated landscape on TV would look very different.
Love Robin Hood. It was only Disney animated film I liked.
Underappreciated is the word. If Bluth only had stable financial backing, he could've made a Dragon's Lair movie or even a Space Ace movie somewhere down the line.
My Mom and I still quote the film.
SAME
This video was messed up man. Filled with childhood trauma, nostalgia, and Dom DeLuise. Thanks, for the excellent work as always Matt. Now I got to somehow rewatch Land Before Time, All Dogs go to Heaven, and Secret of NIMH. And for good measure Brave Little Toaster.
The Brave Little Toaster is super fucked, lmfao. I watched it last year tripping balls on 6 tabs of acid and I was horrified. Still a great film.
Even though this video was amazingly put together because of its emotionality and greatly researched history, one thing Don Bluth made (or was about to make had Namco not been so stuck up their own asses before we could get a Pac-Man Eorld 4 or anything like Pac-Man World 1 & 2 for home consoles) that you forgot to mention would have to be Pac-Man Adventures.
Might as well throw in Watership Down.
The Brave Little Toaster is actually Disney (technically), believe it or not, not Bluth, but I get it.
Don Bluth films were Like American anime or adult swim before adult swim.
Don Bluth is so underrated. He deserved much more support during his career and maybe an editor. He seems to have the same issues as George Lucas, he needs someone to help reel his ideas in. I hope he succeeds this time around with his new studio.
Underappreciated is the word. If Bluth only had stable financial backing, he could've made a Dragon's Lair movie or even a Space Ace movie somewhere down the line.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth There was going to be a Dragons Lair movie a few years ago via Kickstarter but unfortunately it seemed to have fallen through. I hope he tries again!
@@TheSteveTheDragon I think Don Bluth said he would need $70 million to make an actual Dragon's Lair movie. The Kickstarter campaign was just to make a teaser trailer I think, and to attract a studio and investors. Then in 2020, a certain Netflix has gotten rights to make a live action movie with Ryan Reynolds starring as Dirk, though not much has been heard from that since.
@@mr.sinjin-smyth Ryan Renolds would make a great Dirk the Daring! Though I wouldn't mind if they even did it in 3D instead if they couldn't do it in 2D.
@@TheSteveTheDragon I'm cool with a CGI animated Dragon's Lair if done well. And yeah, Ryan Reynolds' got the personality, acting style and charisma to pull a solid Dirk the Daring. I hope Netflix reconsiders from going live action for a hybrid 2D/3D animated style (think that 2019 KLAUS movie), but I'm not gonna get my hopes up.
What I love the most about Don Bluth's best films is they felt like limit pushers on what you could show in children's animation. An American Tail is a brutally dark film, but still ends on a good note, giving the message that there is light even in darkness.
Children are human beings just as much as teenagers and adults, and while there are definitely limits on the kind of content they can be exposed to, that doesn't mean they should only view sugarcoated entertainment. It's good to have a healthy balance of both easy going and challenging content. There's value in both the better and worse, even though the latter fails to consistently hold up as the years go by.
I agree. Look at the kids movies in Japan (like the Doraemon films) and they tend to be FAR more mature than the stuff we generally put out. I feel like Bluth was subconsciously trying to emulate that sort of maturity and sophistication and make films that anyone could enjoy and connect with, just like Walt at his best.
@@KingdomHeartsBrawler I'd say that Bluth was the closest to being another Walt at the time until Howard Ashman began working in feature animation.
Don Bluth wasn't afraid to show scenes in Hell and monsters and people & animals dying....
I think so many audiences today really underestimate just how revolutionary and brilliant the majority of Bluth's films really are. Especially 'Secret of NIMH', 'Anastasia', and 'Titan A.E.'. (and yes, I agree; the OST totally slaps!) =)
Thanks for the feedback! And thanks especially for highlighting this underrated Auteur. =)
I kinda wish Don Bluth would’ve been given Black Cauldron and had it his way without anyone telling him to cut scenes out that were deemed too scary.
Yes! The Black Cauldron could've been Beauty and The Beast of the 80s.
@@Clay3613 I even wish we could see Don Bluth's version of Beauty and the Beast.
@@Clay3613 Nope. It was shockingly dark for the 80s, when everything was full of colour
The American thing about animation being a children’s medium is so true. I remember sharing in class that over the weekend I saw Anastasia with my mom. I was made fun of for being a baby and a little kid.
I was freaking NINE YEARS OLD.
Heck, when I was in high school I was laughed at for enjoying old Looney Tune cartoons and those were basically made for adults back in the day.
Even in 2010s when I was a kid, I refused to tell anyone I liked cartoons since in my mind it would make people think I was a little kid.
WTF?
Funny how as kids we'd make fun of watching animation after getting older and hanging out with your Mom too much. Then fast forward to current year and now anime and animation in general is more mainstream than ever and checking in on your parents and taking care of them is seen as a huge W.
I never got no hoes as a kid though so I just did whatever I wanted, and now watch my high school and middle school classmates asking me for anime recommendations lmao. Finna send them several links to Bocu no Pico and Kiss x sis with no context
@@curtailedbike4123 This is ageist bigotry and it has got to stop.
Though they rarely reached the popularity of Disney's late 80s/90s greats, The Land Before Time had the highs, lows and heart that could have easily served as inspiration for something as grand as The Lion King. We all cried during TLK, but somehow The Land Before Time was more heartbreaking and personal. Great video!
I think because his mom was his only parent and Littlefoot so clearly still needed her. I’m a mom of little boys now and I full on sob during that scene now.
Both of those were throwbacks to *Bambi,* but unlike that film, these actually show the dead bodies.
And when Disney copies TLBT, we get *Dinosaur.*
@@dvsdawlEmaline (yes, HIS mom) is my great aunt.. my late paternal grandfather is one of her little brothers. She dearly loved and still loves all of her children.. that was made very, very clear many years ago. His late brother Frederick "Toby" also worked for Disney and I hope my father still has the children's books Toby personally signed.
Forever my favourite❤
Atlantis just failed because people didn't liked the art style UNTIL LITERALLY YEARS LATER. Now lot of people love it. And it's amazing! Fucking Mike Mignola worked with the damn film!
Imagine genuinely thinking that the creator of Hellboy and one of the guys who worked on BTAS has a bad art style.
@@KingdomHeartsBrawler I never said that, but the art style was disliked very much at that time because it was not too "Disney", just as "The Emperor's New Groove".
Also, violence was one of the things people really dig at the time (we did had Clayton's death in "Tarzan" tho)
But yeah, people at that time didn't really went with the film until years later...
@@TheAceSpaceman Wasn't talking about you, I was talking about the dumb critics at the time who complained about the style, sorry if it came across as directed at you.
That's why it failed? Geez, I guess a lot of people those days were really stubborn.
Pixar and DreamWorks CGI animation took over
I loved Titan A.E. as a kid and still think it’s a good space opera movie with many moments that stuck in my memory. I didn’t see it in theaters, I actually read the novelization in elementary school for a book report and then watched the movie on DVD.
I saw it in theaters, it was okay, I guess, but then again I don't care for Sci-Fi and I view mixing 3D with hand drawn cells a sin.
With that being said, the fact I could still appreciate the film for what it was is a very strong point for me personally.
Even with a genre I didn't appreciate, even with a mishmash of animation I don't approve of, it was still watchable.
I was really rooting for Titan A.E. as something that will score a point for mature American made animation, but it was not to be.
I still love Titan A.E. I saw it in theaters, and it kills me that there was never a bluray release.
Don Bluth remains my favorite animator. Yes, his films are messed up but they have such a unique style.
I guess I was a messed up child because they were my favorites 🤣 I loved all the scary stuff
I have nothing but the DEEPEST respect and love for Don Bluth.
Loved his movies when growing up and I enjoyed most of them a lot. His artisitc style was for med an eye opener and I could in many of his movies relate to the stories, like losing your family, been all on your own and against all odds find a way back to your family. Why so? Me and my lill bro had to live in a series of foster homes in our early childhood and things was not always that bright so movies and cartoons was a way for me to have something posetive and something that filled my fantasy.
Bluth is a genius, full stop. Even as a kid, I knew these Bluth films were different than the Disney movies I also liked. (And unlike most kids in the 90s it seems, I also was aware that they WEREN’T Disney!!) The movies I watched the most as a kid were probably The Lion King and All Dogs Go to Heaven. I can easily put both The Secret of Nimh and the Little Mermaid on my list of top favorite movies even though the part in Nimh where her house sinks into the mud with her kids inside used to (and still does) scare the $#*! outta me (my top irrational fear next to spiders)… And imagine my surprise when, after re-watching Anastasia a few years back, seeing how well it holds up and how timeless the soundtrack still is even though the story is complete fiction! Heck I even had a soft spot for Rock-A-Doodle and Thumbelina and I had a Fievel plushie long before I ever had a Disney Princess doll (though I did have Beauty and the Beast bedsheets and was Belle for Halloween one year…) Both of these entities greatly shaped my childhood, for better or for worse, that much is certain.
Great video! 👍🏽
Underappreciated is the word. If Bluth only had stable financial backing, he could've made a Dragon's Lair movie or even a Space Ace movie somewhere down the line.
An American Tale will always hold a very dear spot in my heart. My sister's kids are now 6 and I've been introducing them to all of his films.
All Bluth films are classics 💗
Don Bluth just fucking GETS IT. I will forever enjoy his work and hope now he does what he loves. Truly the Hayao Miyazaki of the west.
Don't forget my name Joaquin Valeri and i will become Hayao Miyazaki of South America and also Stanley Kubrick of Animation
Having read Don Bluth's memoir, I have to say it's amazing how little anger or bitterness he has over how Disney treated him. Even when he talks about some of his mentors at Disney being pretty cruel to him, and remembers meetings where they told to his face they'd crush his movies, he just kind of laughs it off.
Secret of NIMH remains an all time classic.
So is An American Tail.
It's been my favorite animated movie since I was a kid back in the 80's.
The Land Before Time is definitely a tearjerker, it was that when I was a kid, and it still is. Same goes with All Dogs Go To Heaven.
All things considered, Don Bluth saved Disney Animation.
Bluth wanted Disney to get it's act together and do good animation. Sounds like he got his wish.
I would have liked to see his Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
I'm an older millennial, so Disney and Bluth were massive parts of my childhood. As much as I loved Disney, Bluth's films were the ones I gravitated towards more because of their dark themes. Yes, they sure as hell scared the crap outta me, but man they were/are amazing. Secret of Nimh, American Trail, and All Dogs Go To Heaven were watched so many times. I think Secret of Nimh was watched way more, though, because that damn movie had the threat level turned up to max during every single damn minute until the very end. Let's not forget the stellar soundtrack. Don't even get me started on how, to this day, the eerie, unsettling music that starts in slow from silence the morning that Brisby wakes up and senses something is wrong still gives me chills. Just watching her sniff the air warily as Shrew tells her to move her children asap of they'll die, to the moment the tractor is turned on in the distance and the music becomes terrifying as Shrew runs and shrieks for all the animals to run for their lives. It's pure terror that nearly crosses a line into the horror genre. Out of a lot of old animated movies I grew up with that my fiance didn't, that movie is one of the few he really, really likes.
I never claim to have grown up in the "perfect time", because I didn't. However, I'm so unbelievably happy that I grew up when Don Bluth was at his best. I'm glad I grew up on animated movies that terrified me, because I didn't feel like I was watching something for kids. I felt like I was watching content I shouldn't be watching, since most kids media at the time was happy and joyful, with a few exceptions. Bluth made me feel older than I was. Even when the Disney Renaissance happened (which was awesome, especially seeing those hits in theaters on opening weekend), I never stopped watching Bluth films.
I could gush for hours about that guy. 😋 I wish I could meet him and thank him for creating family movies that weren't of the typical fare we'd all grown accustomed to. ❤️
Also, Balto is a great movie. 😉
In my opinion, An American Tail is the best movie ever.
@@retrofan4963 it's definitely an amazing movie
The 😋 emoji makes you look like you're thirsty for this man
@@allie_Am lmao, I can see why you'd think that. 😜 I have a lot of admiration for him. He was such a staple of my childhood and made some of the best animated movies of the time.
Hello. Don is one of my dad's cousins and Dad followed him as religiously as I could. He's not just part of my childhood, he's part of my family. I thought for a time Dad was putting me on but I looked Don up in the genealogical records and everything my late paternal grandmother told me was more or less confirmed.
The silver age ends with The Jungle Book in 1966. Disney was still involved with Animation and in Jungle Book particularly he was more like his Golden Era Walt
That and the Jungle Book was the last film made with Walt Disney himself overseeing it before his death.
An American Tail and The Land Before Time were two of the first VHS tapes I ever owned. Both of them were great movies for a kid.
Not only are they great movies for a kid, they also still highly hold up. To me, An American Tail is still a masterpiece film that's easily 10/10, even to this day in my opinion. A timeless classic for sure.
I'll be 44 this summer. I still watch An American Tail and Secret of NIMH once a year. Never too old for art.
@@Shernickyholmes221 That's the spirit Nicole :) I'm 26 years old, and I still love these movies.
I got The Land Before Time VHS at Burger King. Or my parents did. I remember there was a BK advertisement on the sleeve.
I think that the true end of Bluth studios was "All Dogs Go to Heaven", and the rest from there was the downhill slide. That film was so scary, so distrubing, that it resulted in a studio-ending move: losing parent's trust. Parents reallized that they couldn't bring kids to see a Bluth film without screening it first. So the films didn't gross enough money to keep them in the public consciousness long enough for the VHS release.
Bluth: *amazing animator
Disney: There can only be one! ⚔️
Wait, around the 2000s, Disney had competitor's. DreamWorks was a rising power, and Blue Sky popped up. Pixar was outshining Disney, and Disney was stuck in the past again.
And now Disney has flop after flop after flop. They deserve it.
Treasure Planet and Atlantis were just ahead of their time
I'm not sure I can take the "Bronze Age" timeline seriously calling the 60's "dark ages" there's a distinct line post-Walt death that has to be acknowledged. And I mean The Rescuers even was one of their highest grossing theatrical releases ever and was the only Ron era success. There's way more to unpack in terms of the CalArts graduates starting in making the new era
I agree
I agree with you too. Walt only lived to rarely work on The Jungle Book when he passed away. No one at Disney was prepared for this and it was a huge blow taking decades to get the right people in charge, but no one compares to the magic Walt gave his movies.
And even still, the “Disney renaissance“ feels less like a renaissance - the real one lasted more than five years and produced more than four great paintings -and more like a last hurrah at this point for an art form they they themselves threw on King Arthur’s sword for a bunch of acquisitions they don’t need and don’t know how to manage. This is how RCA, founder of NBC, went under and why NBC’s *Cheers* -era ascent from third to first place in the ratings couldn’t save RCA from being bought by GE.
19:02 I agree with everything in this video EXCEPT ONE THING.. 19:02 good sir... Balto was NOT forgettable... it was fantastic and severely underrated!
Most excellent video sir! the 30 mins whizzed by, really enjoyed it!!!!
Out of curiosity, what happened with the kickstarted Bluth did for animatics for a Dragon's Lair animated movie?
What does “whizzed” mean?
Netflix picked it up and is making it a live action project instead. I have no idea how involved Bluth is with it now.
@@CoinBox170 ah I wondered that myself.
Don Bluth is an amazing animator! I can only imagine an animated world where he was the one who won the war against Disney.
That would truly be something beautiful to see. A 2D animated world with no 3D or live action remakes, and animation not just for kids, but for teens and adults as well. Perhaps we can find it in the afterlife, or in another dimension, like in the Marvel What If... series.
I was talking about this with my Mother tonight actually. Imagine if Disney wasn't such a fucking awful company and shared the animation space instead of intentionally going out of their way to fuck Bluth.
The world would be a better place because of it.
@@Uncle-Jay Imagine if Don Bluth's movies were more successful than Disney's, we would have more Don Bluth movies than Disney, and lots more 2D animation. Maybe maybe even a Don Bluth amusement park.
Such an interesting topic, great video
I was surprised that more of Bluth's films weren't big hits, as I vividly remember watching them on home video as much as the Disney films of the time.
Disney launched a smear campaign against him basically as soon as he left. Ron Miller never forgave him for walking out on the studio and taking what at the time constituted a tenth of their staff when *The Fox and the Hound* was only halfway done.
Some of Bluth's great early ones seem like tributes to some of the Golden Age Disney movies.
An American Tail - Dumbo. Make a ridiculously adorable character with oversized ears and abuse him throughout the movie so the happy ending hits harder.
The Land Before Time - Bambi. Kill off the mother and follow the lives of some young characters of different species with fantastic animation
All Dogs go to Heaven - Pinocchio. Flawed character gets redeemed as a good boy to a shiny heavenly character with some messed up sequences along the way. Some obvious nods to Fantasia and Snow White in this one as well
Can't really think of one for the Secret of NIMH though, that one is pretty unique
9:45 I think this was mostly impacted for those Saturday morning cartoons that had low-budget animation and was less of a worry for the movies from Disney and Don Bluth.
I'm glad this strike saved television animation (even if everyone didn't get used to higher quality animation until The Simpsons and Tiny Toons came in). It was really important for those who got bored of the same Archie/Scooby-Doo style.
I really love animation. It’s probably one of my first big loves long before movies and comic books. And I love learning about the history of the medium. Don Bluth has had a long history filled with highs and lows but his style comes out in his best work. NIMH, American Tail and Land Before Time are almost on par (or many ways better than) with Disney’s input. Obviously, Disney as a corporation stinks, but with the animation division there’s a lot of interesting stories that happened especially during their Dark Age and the beginning of the Renaissance. Waking Sleeping Beauty in particular is a great documentary about this period. As for Bluth, he is a great animator/director and I’m glad over time he has received his status as one of the greatest in the medium, hope the Dragon’s Lair movie works out. Would love to see you cover the 2000s era of Disney and great video as always.
Thanks! Waking Sleeping Beauty is such a great documentary. I'd love to do more videos like this!
Yeah, it is too bad the corporation is so screwed up now, as their animation department is still in great form!
@@MattDraper got to very strongly disagree with you on Balto being "forgettable" Saberspark just did a great video where he perfectly summed up why that film is such an underrated gem.
"It's MESSED up, man!" Best way to sum up Bluth's best work.
That was what we liked about it. These were the movies Disney could have made if they hadn’t let proto-Karens nerf them.
It's a shame that East of the Sun and West of the Moon never came to fruition. There was a copy of the story at my daycare and I read it to death as a child. I loved the illustrations and the story was imaginative, perfectly marrying a Beauty and the Beast story with the myth of Eros and Pysche, but still having its own twists and turns.
What is that story about?
Aw, the 80s and 90s animation. No doubt why I need therapy now lol
Bluth represented a wave in that era of cinema nominally aimed at kids, but which didn't hesitate to make kids feel emotions like sadness and fear, ala films like The Neverending Story, or Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal. The seeming loss of that approach to animation and media, more generally, leaves the art of the era worse off, though funny enough it wound up being animated TV that picked up some of the slack in shows ranging from the 90s Batman to the 2010s Avatar.
...also, as a small child I would always watch The Land Before Time, then immediately run to my mother to cry. Yet, I'd keep watching it!
see also Return to Oz, to quote Nostalgia Critic "we need more 80s PG"
It's funny how a "low-budget" animated Disney movie from the 60s is still 1000x more impressive than most animated stuff on TV today. I see Robin Hood and I don't think "low-budget". I just think wow this is some beautiful animation.
29:42 "I love u Charlie" *ME crying unconsolably*
Wow I did not know Don Bluth did “Titan A.E.”. That movie was truly ahead of his time. I can’t believe that movie made less money than the production. That was a excellent animation and good story.
It's an outrage that Disney took Anastasia for its own and put it on Disney+. Everyone knows (and should know) that Anastasia is a Don Bluth princess and she should stay that way. If only there was a knight in shining armor to rise up and rescue Anastasia from a company who is now stealing other people's studios and companies, and claiming them for its own. Not to mention, killing the true magic of Disney by making nothing but 3D and live action remakes and no more 2D. You mark my words, if Disney keeps going a dark path like this, it will someday fall harder than Rome did.
(Sigh) It's times like this I wonder what life might've been like if Don Bluth won the war. Maybe things in life might've been better. Plus, we might've had more 2D animated arcade games.
P.S. Let's not forget, it was Don Bluth who made an Iphone App game that I for one wish I had the chance of playing, Tapper: World Tour.
At some point I believe Disney WILL have another fall because like all great empires, all suns must set and what made them great and sustained their success is what will contribute to their downfall.
Ok, I can understand where you're going, but the part about no more 2D? Who even cares?
Anastasia actually got removed from Plus sometime last year due to some legal snafu with FOX or something(it was not because of the Ukraine/Russian war contrary to what some believe).
@@joshuaguste6883 well, taking other studios, along with even anything related to marvel or whatever has proven to be their desperation to try and stay in power. Clearly they’re running out of money after the pandemic they decide to charge people even double the price, so yeah that really is telling you they are losing billions of dollars along with putting all woke in there. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was actually celebrating their downfall, I mean yeah the guy literally was the first one to ever take on Disney. Looks like he’s actually winning even though he’s no longer fighting anymore he’s winning. I will say this, I like some of his movies, but I also want to say good on those non-Disney studios for taking on Disney. So far the only good 3-D animated films I’ve ever seen had been illumination and DreamWorks both Mario brothers movie, and Puss in boots. Otherwise every single Disney film I have not even watched or gone to see bother doing any of that because it’s bullshit.
i'd rather have ALL don bluth movies on disney+, rather than becoming lost media, which is what's happening to all the others right now
Now do “Brave Little Toaster and the fall (and rise) of John Lassiter”
Dob Bluth has an animation school at the moment and I'm one of his students, he is a fascinating man who speaks about animation so passionately well into his 80s, he is extremely humble for a legend as himself.
Secret of Nimh was absolute magic for me growing up. And a movie I shared with my mother who loved it. So incredibly special.
I always love watching these Don Bluth documentaries on TH-cam and this one's no different! Usually they go heavy on what goes into Don's process; but this one's special as we get "Childhood trauma, Messed up man and Don Deluise!!!" Tagged on! Its almost like a drinking game! What I'd to say is great job and excellent coverage! As mentioned, this is yet another great video on my all time favorite animator!
The scenes with the Great Owl in The Secret of NIMH are among animation at its best. Those glowing yellow pupil-less eyes! The creaking of the Great Owl's neck as he turned his head! Scrared the pants off of me, still does.
The Black Caulderon was the very first movie I saw in the cinema. I was 5 years old and it scared the bejeezus out of me. But that was kind of a theme in the 80s- tramatizing kids with scary movies (The Secret of NIMH, Return to Oz, The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Clash of the Titans, Legend, Willow...even The Care Bears movie had its dark parts).
American Tail also started the trend of a celebrity doing a radio version of a film's big song & "Why Should I Worry" is a total jam
I say the same thing. Somewhere Out There in the movie with the two mice singing hitting extra high notes was a tearjerker, but I remember my family talking about it before going in to the movie specifically bc of the massive star power in Linda Rondstat and James Ingram. Disney then went out and started winning academies for soundtracks.The lineup that followed Somewhere Out There, lol. Early Celine Dion. Elton John AND Phil Collins.
You should cover Jim Henson's labyrinth and the dark crystal.
The land before time is one of my favorite movies of all time, makes me cry every time 🤧
Same can be said with An American Tail for me.
Don Bluth and Disney both had massive impacts on my childhood and my love of movies. These and the original star wars trilogy. I'm now a tiny TH-cam person today but I have big dreams and ambitions. Thank you so much for making this good video. :)
How dare you call Balto forgettable!
Otherwise great video
Yeah what is this Balto slander
It was so weird when I grew up and learned that the Secret of NIMH was just barely NOT a flop during its release, and that the Black Cauldron (which seemed to be taking more than a few lessons from NIMH) had fared even worse. The Secret of NIMH was like THE sleepover movie of choice for me and all my friends, even though it was scary as HELL!
I was a little older by the time I saw the Black Cauldron, so it wasn't quite as scary despite the PG rating and the creepy villain design. But it was still SO COOL that I went out and made my mom buy me the video game for PC. And then that game got me hooked on Sierra games for the rest of my young life, until about the time I started getting into kissing situations with other people.
I have the video game on Apple II GS since the movie was hidden from view until the end of the 1990s and even to this day is only available in the obviously truncated Katzenberg cut.
Secret of NIMH could've been a big hit if more major theaters had played it as it did do pretty well in the few theaters that would allow it, but too many didn't think it would work.
11:00 In 1993 I saw a line of people waiting to play Dragon’s Lair. Once you played it, it lost its charm but for new players it was still impressive a decade later
I personally feel like once you beat it, the magic was gone, but until then the game remained awesome.
Dude the movies that you are intentionally under playing are highly underrated. Rescuers down under is among them.
I came to his films older than most here when I worked in a small animation studio. Major kudos to the guy for striking out on his own and taking a huge chance. In the end, "Banjo the Woodpile Cat" will always be remembered fondly by this family. What a sweet story.
Ron’s Gone Wrong is not a Disney movie
❤ Don Bluth animations!!! Gave me my first ever VHS "Land Before Time" and so many more favourites.
Solid video. Bluth was a huge part of my childhood and teenage years. I too saw Titan AE in the theater and loved it. One of the first movies I drove myself to after I got my license. Secret of Nymh and Dragon's Lair hit hard as a kid. Aladdin is my favorite Disney Reneisance movie by far. I watched or had that movie playing in the background every single day of my Senior year of high school. It was my almost adult Night Light.
Don is one of my dad's cousins so this is basically family stuff for me.. what I have heard is that everyone of Rey L Pratt's (Don and Dad's grandather) descendants have some sort of artistic aptitude, even if it doesn't amount to commercial success. That includes me and my kids.
I think to sum it up analogously, Disney's "Bronze Age" era was essentially the studio emulating Hanna-Barbera, cutting corners to make it seem more fitting for Saturday-morning cartoons. The movies weren't bad, but by applying Hanna-Barbera standards they made their animation more limited and shoddy.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the 2000s era Disney and particularly the DTDVD movies. It’s especially interesting for me because that’s the era I grew up in, so I have a certain amount of nostalgia for some of those films.
As for Bluth, his work has always been something I’ve wanted to see more of, but never got around to. I have vague memories of watching All Dogs, Anastasia, and American Tail when I was younger, but beyond that I only know Bluth through reputation. Hopefully I can fix that
My family and I viewed most of the direct to movie films as garbage.
I'm not even saying they were that bad, most of them were passable, but the fact remains, if they had effort put in to them, they'd have been classics, not cheap, direct to video knock offs that often didn't even have the same VAs.
My name is Don Moore, if you read the credits of Don Bluth movies you know I was head background artist from "The Secret of Nimh" through "All dogs Go To Heaven". Was a great experience
The Lion King II can ABSOLUTELY get it
same here I remember those DTV films being advertised a lot.
@@Uncle-Jay I thought they were decent at the time and some still hold up though others aren't good.
Burny Mattinson was also a director of The Great Mouse Detective. He was left out. I am surprised he wasn't included as his career has spanned 70s years across all the eras starting in the 1950s. He also was famous as he was the one who pitched the great mouse detective to Michael Eisner at Eisner's home which lead to the green light later that day which saved the animation department.
His career managed to survive pretty much every form of bad corporate governance you can name.
Growing up, before we had Disney+ for a couple years, my mother had a series of DVDs of animated films that we would all watch every now and then, mostly the old Disney pictures everyone recognizes, but also a couple of obscure ones (specifically _The Great Mouse Detective,_ _The Aristocats,_ and _Atlantis: the Lost Empire,_ maybe even also _Robin Hood_ among them). I probably saw each one once or twice, though I can’t recall the plots of any of them in any detail. There were even two Bluth films in the mix: _An American Tail_ and _Anastasia._ Most of what I remember about them is how little they seemed to surface in general Disney advertising, and how different they all were from the more notable Disney productions. I’m not even sure why it occurred to my mother to purchase the DVDs for us, except if she herself grew up watching some of the films and, vaguely remembering them, wanted to revisit them with us. Something about the Bluth films in particular struck me as different from the Disney ones, though I could never quite place it.
Figuring out the whole history behind them, and even about films made back then I never had the chance to see, gave me a whole new perspective on a lot of that.
If you listen to the voice of actress Elizabeth Hartman as Mrs. Brisby in Secret of Nimh she nails the despair in the heroine's voice. The main reason for this imo is that Hartman was suffering from severe depression that was so bad that she refused to leave her house and had practically stopped acting. Her friends who tried to help her talked her into doing the voice. It was the last thing she ever did as a few years later she committed suicide while still in her early 40s.
The thing is about the Bluth films is that had strong stories almost all of them didn't shy away from things they were much more realistic in this way. Disney had a way of sugar coating everything no one can ever truly die, not a drop of blood can be shown, every bad guy was once a good and turned bad yadda yadda yadda even to this day. The 4 or 5 renaissance Disney films were excellent no denying that at all. All Dogs Go To Heaven was a very good film though even though it did have a darker subject. Disney was on a role and if anything Disney should be thanking Don Bluth for giving it a shot in the arm to actually do something.
now disne PUT that sugar thing on the mcu...ruining it
I would love to see you cover more animation history, perhaps different studios or even television networks?
I agree. Maybe a longer, more comprehensive video that also covers Japanese anime and Pixar.
I always found his character designs odd yet appealing. Good work.
I want to live in a timeline where Don Bluth would've been running the Disney company.
Bluth running Fox's full fledged animation studio (Sullivan-Bluth Ireland) into the ground led to Fox buying the existing Blue Sky Studios, an outfit that made some excellent features ("Robots," "The Peanuts Movie") - which Disney shut down as soon as they bought Fox. ("Hey, we already own Disney Animation and Pixar, what do we need a third studio for?") I really liked Blue Sky's work...so thanks a lot, Don.
"Disney in the 2000s didn't have a competitor" yah like that's ever going to happen
"this film is messed up....Oh and has Dom Deluise" Truer words were never spoken.
I always found it really sad how many people mistake Bluth's films for Disney films. I have met many who think Anastasia was a Disney film.
I loved Titan A.E. seeing Earth's destruction in that movie was beautiful. It and Frieza's destruction of planet Vegeta were super impactful on me as a kid.
An American tail is still one of my favourite films to date and the land before time is a classic to me
My heart will always belong to Don Bluth. My childhood wouldn't be the same without his movies, they don't make movies like that anymore.
What a great tribute to Bluth. I've loosely followed his career starting with Nimh and Dragon's Lair. I could always recognize his work. I never knew the behind-the-scenes story. Truly brilliant. What's amazing his your observation that Bluth was basically a one man show competing with the huge Disney juggernaut. Wonderfully done. I'm subscribing.
"There was a time when the house of mouse was falling apart."
Oh, you mean like right now?
I attended a talk Don Bluth gave in London at an advanced screening of American Tail. Interesting to hear his answer to "how did you find the transition to animating in Ireland?" Don shared his views on the personal hygiene of some of his Irish crew!
No doubt about his personal talent as an animator, but as a leader he was more driven than gifted. His projects after "Tail" were just turgid, with terrible character design, a problem that eventually affected Disney too. Secret of Nimh was artistically Bluth's best work, he never topped it.
So I went and saw Titan AE with my girlfriend at an early in the day showing I think about a week after it came out. We were the only ones in the theater and I really really loved it. She thought it was just OK but I bought the movie when it came out on VHS and we watched the bunch and she learned to love it. It’s my 3rd favorite Bluth movie, behind the land before time as my second, and Secret of Nimh is my first. Secret of Nimh is one of my favorite movies of all time, regardless whether we are talking animation or anything else. First saw it as a kid and I’ve never forgotten about it and I probably watch that movie about every 2 to 3 years at least once. I just think it works so well and it has aged better than a lot of other movies of that time.
Really interesting video. I rarely see people talk about this and I’ve always found it interesting, you have so much variety on this channel when talking about pop culture, I would love to see you talk about the 90s Disney straight to DVD disaster.
One thing I never understood is why they would release animated movies on the same day. Even the Carebears did it. I get trying to beat the competition but feel like your just shooting your total box office potential in the foot.
I personally feel if animation studios learned how to share the space instead of trying to fuck each other over, the world would be a better place.
Balto is not forgettable.
What a great video! It's the first I've seen of your work. Gonna start working my way through your catalog of content!
10:00 tut tut… it’s well documented that Don Bluths involvement with the creation and development of Dragons Lair has long been way overstated.
What's _messed up_ ?
Death
Destruction
Child EnDANGERment
*Dom Deliouse*
They call that The Quadruple D
Don Bluth gave me early childhood existential dread! Thanks Don!
I like his style
I love Titan AE!! for years I was convinced it was a fever dream since my brother did not remember it at all. It took me ages to track down a copy.
what a nostalgia trip. LOVED the video man. Don Bluth is a legend!
Disney in the 2000s: We're not done yet look at all our great animate--
DreamWorks: SOMEBODY ONCE TOLD ME...
I wish they would have more hypnotic backgrounds in films nowadays. Don Bluth and Ralph Bakshi were great at hypnotic backgrounds!
The backgrounds remind me of area backgrounds from the early Dark Souls games and how you can see far off areas in some Kingdom Hearts games.
What a great video, Matt. I would LOVE to see you do a companion video on the death of the Disney renaissance. As much as I watched the hit cinematic releases of the 90's, my family and I watched just as many of the direct to video sequels (I still love Lion King 2 and Aladdin 3). Keep up the awesome work, mate and greetings from Tasmania, Australia.
Titan AE was the first DVD I ever saw. Memories man 🥹
"Pebble and the Penguin" is one of my absolute favorite animated movies. It's so underrated! Great documentary. Thanks for sharing.
Thumbelina and Anastasia were some of my favorite movies as a kid. His movies were definitely distinct from Disney in a great way. I love that they had an edge to them, something that's really lacking in modern animated movies especially from Disney. Thanks Don Bluth for not being afraid to follow your own path.