A new documentary, Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There, will be available on Amazon from 20th November, directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker.
Before he defined childhood nostalgia and arcade history with Dragon’s Lair, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, and Anastasia, animation legend Don Bluth did the unthinkable: he walked away from Disney to wage an independent war for the soul of traditional animation.
Weaving intimate modern conversations with hundreds of hours of never-before-seen personal archives, Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There (Executive Producer, Lavalle Lee), reveals the unvarnished story of a master craftsman caught between art and commerce, ego and faith, and the cost of building an empire on his own terms.
Donald Virgil Bluth, born 13th September 1937, is an American film director, animator, production designer, video game designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), Anastasia (1997), and Titan A.E. (2000), for his involvement in the LaserDisc game Dragon’s Lair (1983), also made into an animated series, and for competing with former employer Walt Disney Productions during the years leading up to the films that became the Disney Renaissance.
Don Bluth, founder of the animation school, the Don Bluth University, never felt like a Donald. So people have always called him Don. A matinee of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs awakened something within him. Despite growing up in rural Texas and Utah, he practiced and worked hard to become an Hollywood animator.
After working alongside his idol Walt Disney, and on films including Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, Winne the Pooh, The Rescuers, and Pete’s Dragon, he realised that the company had changed into something he didn’t necessarily believe in. So made the industry-shocking decision to start his own animation studio.
For those curious about his incredible career Don has previously told his own story in Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life, published in 2022 by BenBella Books, revealing how his passions for artistry, integrity, and his Mormon faith shaped him into the icon whose creativity, entrepreneurship, and deeply-held beliefs entertained, enthralled, and inspired millions across the globe.
His first children’s book, Yuki – Star of the Sea, the first of his new series “Don Bluth Fables”, was published in 2024, the art featured his first time painting with gouache. At present, it only to be available through Amazon.com, not other Amazon outlets, the story of a little whale who loves adventure. Who always gets in trouble… hang on, that sounds almost autobiographical!
Head downthetubes for…
• Cartoon Research: Dragon’s Lair: The Movies That Never Were
• Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life by Don Bluth (book)
• Yuki – Star of the Sea is available on Amazon.com
Yuki, star of the sea, is a delightful story of a little whale who loves adventure. Who always gets in trouble. Against mama Orca’s warnings, he swims too close to the shore where he is captured and taken into a world of entertainment. There he does tricks in a tank in Mexico. Hundreds of people buy tickets to see this fabulous little whale. Hollywood cashes in on Yuki’s popularity and contracts him to play a part in a film about a whale who is homesick and longs to go home. So well does Yuki play the part that it makes him homesick too. Ah, but Hollywood won’t let him go. Yuki has become a great star. He is worth millions. Children from all over the world write letters to the director of the film begging him to return Yuki to the sea. Finally the director caves in. The whale is put in a plane and flown back to Iceland’s cold bay and there he is welcomed into the arms of his family – and friends.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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