chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Zonker T. Chuqui) (10/05/84)
> If you like Fantasia, or if you didn't see Fantasia, check out > Allegro non Troppo. Just as an aside, there is a small cut of animation in 'Xanadu' that was about as close a ripoff of Fantasia as you'll ever find. It was done by the people at Bluth (Secret of NIMH) Studios who should know how to animate like classic Disney-- when Don Bluth got fed up with Disney Studios after Walt died, he took most of Walt's animators with him. Bluth was one of the primary animators on Snow White, by the way.. I've seen reports that the Black Cauldron is about ready to be released (perhaps at Christmas or next spring). This is one of the single most complicated pieces of animation ever attempted, and from the reports I've gotten Disney succeeded in botching it up royally. Bluth at one time attempted to buy the rights to finish BC from Disney because he felt that it was the only way to get it done right, but Disney tends to hold a grudge against him (interesting point-- Disney supports the California School of the Arts in the LA area, one of the better fine arts school in the country. A little while ago they were planning a Don Bluth retrospective and Disney threatened to cut off their funding if they went through with it... Walt is dead, that's for sure). At one point Disney studios called all of the animators at Bluth offering them essential blank checks to come back and finish the Cauldron for them, and not one moved. If the quality of the last piece of animation from Disney (Fox and the Hound) is any indication, Black Cauldron, if and when it shows, will be a travesty. I'm just glad that someone like Bluth is trying to carry on the traditional animation styles and qualities of Walt. I'm just very sorry that it couldn't have been at Walt's own studio... chuq -- From the Department of Bistromatics: Chuq Von Rospach {amd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA What do I know, after all I'm just a begonia...
td@alice.UUCP (Tom Duff) (10/17/84)
I received the following in the mail from John Lasseter, a good friend at
Lucasfilm. He asked me to post it for him. Feel free to flame in my
direction; I will pass along anything I receive.
-Tom Duff
{allegra,ihnp4,ucbvax,...}!research!td
Forwarded message begins now...
I'd like to correct a few things about a recent article on Don Bluth,
Disney and The Black Cauldron that was written by a chuqui@nsc, 10/5/84.
______________________________
> When Don Bluth got fed up with Disney Studios after Walt died, he took
> most of Walt's animators with him.
Walt Disney died in Dec. 1966 and Don Bluth left the Disney Studio in
Sept. 1979. When Don Bluth left, some animators and assistants did leave
with him to form Don Bluth Productions to produce "The Secret of Nimh".
In actual numbers of animators, it was less than 1/4 of the animators
at Disney at the time. None of the ones that left were "Walt's animators",
they were all younger animators, many of whom Bluth hired and trained
himself. Bluth was a Sequence Director at Disney when he left and the
group that left with him was the unit that worked under him. There was
a lot of friction between Bluth's unit and the rest of Disney for quite a
while before they left and as one animator put it after Bluth left,"The
cancer is gone." The reasons that Bluth left the studio are different
depending on what side you talk to. The Bluthies say that the Disney
studio did not care about the quality of the animation and the artform
was dying there and the only way to keep it going was to continue it
outside of Disney. Disney's side of the story is Ron Miller (President
of WDP and Walt Disney's son-in-law) gave Bluth more or less total control
of the animation dept.to do the type of animation that Bluth wanted to do,
but Bluth turned it down because most felt that he wanted his own name above
the title not Walt's.
> Bluth was one of the primary animators on Snow White, by the way..
Snow White began production in late 1934 and was released in December,1937.
Don Bluth was born in 1939... by the way.
> Bluth at one time attemped to buy the rights to finish "The Black Cauldron"
> from Disney because he felt it was the only way to get it done right...
Don Bluth Productions can't even raise enough money to keep their workers
employed much less buy the finishing rights to a film that will cost Disney
in the end around $32 million."The Secret of NIMH" was a failure at the box
office,"Dragon's Lair" (the laser disc video game) was a huge success, but
their next game "Space Ace" failed and they lost their financing during the
production of "Dragon's Lair II" and had to layoff their entire staff,
including the animators that originally left Disney with Bluth. He has tried
unsuccessfully to raise money for new features including "East of the Sun,
West of the Moon", and a Dragon's Lair feature.
> Interesting point-- Disney supports the California School of the Arts in the
> LA area... A little while ago they were planning a Don Bluth retrospective
> and Disney threatened to cut off their funding if they went through with it.
In the four years I studied at the California Institute of the Arts, Don Bluth
was invited and came to the end of the year screenings of student work along
with top people at Disney. The following years, his films were screened and
he and his producers came out and talked to the students. CalArts is still
there and is still funded by Disney. In fact, before his financial trouble,
Bluth was giving more CalArts students jobs than Disney was.
> Walt's dead, that's for sure.
Correct.
> At one point Disney studios called all of the animators at Bluth offering
> them essential blank checks to come back and finish Cauldron for them, and
> not one moved.
You were correct when you said "Disney tends to hold a grudge against
(Bluth)". Disney did not offer any Bluth animators "blank checks" to come
back, in fact they had to re-do many of the scenes for "Fox & the Hound"
that some of the Bluth animators did because they were not up to the level
of quality of the rest of the film (that tells you the quality of
some of the Bluth animators). When Bluth laid off his staff, many tried
to get jobs back at Disney, they hired one back and he was not one of the
original group, he was from CalArts.
> What do I know, after all I'm just a begonia...
Nothing and yes you are.
______________________________
Where did you get your facts about this information, Starlog?
And you're probably asking where I got my facts, well I went to CalArts
for 4 years in the Character Animation (Disney) program and worked at
Disney as an animator for 5 years.... But what do I know.
John Lasseter
Lucasfilm Ltd.