
The Melancholy of Don Bluth (2017) - indigodaddy
https://filmschoolrejects.com/the-melancholy-of-don-bluth-1be72847b858/
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bane
If you didn't grow up with Bluth's work and only know his studio's output from
the later years (the unyielding torrent of direct to video Land Before Time
sequels)...you really owe it to yourself to watch his studio's earlier stuff.
It came at the moment where he had just struck off from Disney,
disenfranchised by the output of the other major animation houses, and has his
clearest vision.

 _The Secret of NIMH_ is, IMHO, one of the finest animated movies ever made,
but _An American Tail_ , the original _Land Before Time_ and _All Dogs Go to
Heaven_ are all masterpieces in the own and couldn't really be matched in
terms of narrative and animation excellence until the early Pixar movies. They
definitely have a distinct aesthetic and a certain style of animation and
storytelling unique to the production house.

They lost their way somewhere, I think it was Rock-a-Doodle, and the studio
just started hemorrhaging money and losing connection with their audience.
Their last two major gasps were Anastasia, a beautifully animated film with a
poorly targeted audience demographic and Titan A.E., an ambition mixed-media
project, which apparently ran out of money (among other problems) during
production and resulted in some hilariously bad computer generated graphics at
the end but I think stands up better than Disney's _Treasure Planet_ response.

In the end, the studio floated themselves on cheaply produced, but child
friendly, direct to video sequels of _The Land Before Time_ , which is notable
as being an unbroked series of sequels dating from 1988 to 2016 which at least
has had the advantage of being a series of characters I can share with nieces
and nephews who also grew up with the same characters...almost like Star Wars.

~~~
WorldMaker
Treasure Planet was a labored planning process starting soon after (and some
sources claim before) The Little Mermaid, so it's not entirely fair to call it
a response to Titan AE. Convergent evolution at work.

Also, if you are going to point fingers at possible reasons that Bluth's
studio failed, its hard not to point more directly to the interesting but
failed experiments that were its LaserDisc games division (Dragon's Lair,
Space Ace, ...).

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baldfat
It was a good read. I have been saying how I can't stand how kids are served
at Disney and Nick. Every show has someone kissing someone or some other
story-line that is good for teenagers but for kids 6-12 year-olds they just
see it as "Not Kiddy."

Parents are side notes and they are either dead or your on an awesome Cruise
Ship School without your parent. Also everyone is always happy happy or they
are sad because they are disappointed. If it is sad and disappointed the plot
line is 100% they get what they wanted and now are happy no matter if it was
due to bad choices by the main character.

I don't let my kids watch much TV and I just watch YouTube Science videos with
them at night (Why is Science and Social Studies the enemy of Math and English
and must be only studied every other year or not at all for K-7 grades?) Books
usually have better story lines, but I don't have the time to read to them
more than about 10-15 minutes :(

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chaostheory
Disney produced animated TV shows aimed for kids are the worst. The pattern is
really set:

1\. There is a problem.

2\. The problem is fixed with either "pixie dust" or a "Mouse ka Tool". Both
fix problems magically and immediately. They require no work, sacrifice, or
even waiting from the characters

Pixar's rule of "Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great;
coincidences to get them out of it are cheating" applies here

Hopefully with Lasseter at the helm things will change drastically not just
for Disney movies, but for Disney TV shows as well.

~~~
setgree
> Disney produced animated TV shows aimed for kids are the worst

Gravity Falls season 1 is perfectly fine children's programming.

~~~
chaostheory
It is to a degree. It's also for a different audience and purpose. I should
have been more specific. I was referring to Disney shows targeted towards
really young children as educational like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Jake and
the Neverland Pirates

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jihadjihad
Great little article. I was just talking to my mom the other day and I
mentioned that I never forgot the day we were in the McDonald's drive-thru and
I somehow convinced her to spend the 5 extra bucks to get the Land Before Time
on VHS. I haven't thought of those movies in the article in years, and never
knew the same team was behind them. I just remember being a kid and knowing
that _something_ was different about those films that separated them from
other kids movies, even throughout the entire '90s. It's definitely an
aesthetic that sticks with you, I can attest!

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gdubs
The Land Before Time _really_ stuck with me. My parents went to a banquet
dinner at some hotel, and all the kids were kept in an adjacent room with some
baby sitters. I remember them turning the lights down, wheeling in the TV and
VCR. I remember us all sobbing. I don't remember the exact storyline, but I
remember the mood. One of my most vivid childhood memories.

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setgree
1) My first thought on reading this: 'LaTeX never seemed all that melancholic
to me..." took a second to get reoriented

2) A lot of his films were favorites of mine in childhood, and I didn't know
until much later that they shared a creator. Having said that, two of the
disney movies mentioned here as not being so great, "The Fox and the Hound"
and "The Great Mouse Detective," were also childhood favorites.

3) For anyone thinking "they don't make them like that anymore," I'd highly
recommend you watch and then make it all the way through "Adventure Time." The
Ice King's arc is as sad and haunting as anything in Bluth's works. Season 9
begins with the effects of PTSD, complete with auditory hallucinations.

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VyseofArcadia
When I was young, Don Bluth movies, along with few others, were placed by my
mother on that high shelf I couldn't reach of movies that made me sob
uncontrollably and spend the rest of the day depressed.

I highly recommend them.

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carussell
If you publish an article that uses embedded media, please don't do it like
this. Not one of the media embeds in this article is accompanied by anything
resembling a useful byline or caption.

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khazhoux
No mention of Space Ace or Dragon's Lair!

These were very formative to me.

~~~
smacktoward
Here is more information on Dragon's Lair/Space Ace/etc. than you knew you
wanted:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnPOQr1pxY8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnPOQr1pxY8)

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fossuser
I liked this, but the repeated 'fuck you for X' took away from the quality of
the writing.

Which is a shame - still good, but would have been really good without it.

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empressplay
Bluth brought Dickens to the 80s. I grew up to his movies (and arcade
games!)... I don't think I'm a worse person for it.

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gt_
Great post!

I am reminded how much these films contributed to my learning to embrace
change and loss. I think I would be much more inclined to run from these
things if it were not for these films.

