Don Bluth

**Donald Virgil Bluth** (/bluːθ/ *BLOOTH*; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production 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), and for competing with former employer Walt Disney Productions during the years leading up to the films that became the Disney Renaissance. He is the older brother of illustrator Toby Bluth.

*The Secret of NIMH* is his most critically acclaimed film while *Anastasia* is his most commercially successful film.

## Why He and His Films Rock

1. The animation in each and every one of his films is beautiful to look at.
2. Just like Disney themselves, his movies, despite being normally aimed for kids, is not afraid to have mature elements so even adults can watch them.
3. Likable and iconic characters in his movies:
	* **The Secret of NIMH:** Miss Brisby and Jeremy
	* **An American Tail:** Fievel Mouskewitz, Tanya Mouskewitz, Tiger, and Warren T. Rat
	* **The Land Before Time:** Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike
	* **All Dogs Go to Heaven:** Charlie Barkin, Itchy Itchiford, Anne Marie, Carface, and Killer
	* **Anastasia:** Anastasia, Dimitri, Pooka, Bartok
4. His movies have amazing soundtracks that use compositions from live action films, therefore making an animation debut:
	* + Jerry Goldsmith (The Secret of NIMH)
		+ James Horner (An American Tail, The Land Before Time)
		+ David Newman (Anastasia)
5. His movies have emotional, beautiful, dark, and heartbreaking moments, including Littlefoot’s mother’s death in *The Land Before Time* (1988).
6. His movies have fantastic voice acting from famous actors including:
	* Elizabeth Hartmann, Phillip Glasser, Gabriel Damon, Judith Barsi, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Christopher Plummer, and more.
7. Just like Pixar, he never actually makes sequels to his movies (if not counting the direct to video film, Bartok the Magnificent or any other direct to video film based on his franchises). Instead, he only focuses on original movies and concepts during the 80s, 90s, and even the 2000s.
8. Even if most of his movies have serious elements, it can’t stray away from having touches of humor.
9. Eversince Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, his most famous film, Anastasia is now on the ranks of an official Disney Princess film just like Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, etc.

## Bad Qualities

1. Ever since 1991, he has started to drop in quality with most of his films in the 90s being average, while A Troll in Central Park was considered his worst and most despised film to date. However, there are some people who still like the early 90s films.

## Movies with their own pages

* 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)

## Trivia

* Like Pixar, Blue Sky Studios and DreamWorks Animation, all Don Bluth films have a different theme:
	+ The Secret of NIMH — A mouse who seeks to cure her children of a disease.
	+ An American Tail — A family of Jewish mice who move to the United States to escape persecution by cats.
	+ The Land Before Time — Dinosaurs living in a valley in prehistoric times.
	+ All Dogs Go to Heaven — Dogs who go to heaven when they die.
	+ Rock-a-Doodle — A rooster who is a rock and roll singer.
	+ Thumbelina — A tiny human girl who lives alongside fairies, bugs and other small animals.
	+ A Troll in Central Park — A magical world in the heart of New York City,
	+ The Pebble and the Penguin — A Penguin who fights a strong opponent for his crush.
	+ Anastasia — A Russian princess who travels to Paris to find her family.
	+ Titan A.E. — Humans and other aliens searching for a hidden spaceship to save the universe from an evil alien menace.
* Each and every one of his five commercially successful films, The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go To Heaven and Anastasia have all received sequels and became franchises.