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Don Bluth Entertainment

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Sullivan Bluth Studios
IndustryAnimation
Founded1985
FounderDon Bluth and Morris Sullivan
HeadquartersUnited States Van Nuys, California, USA
Republic of Ireland Dublin, Ireland
Key people
Don Bluth
Gary Goldman
John Pomeroy
ProductsAnimated feature films
Number of employees
350 at peak
Website(none)

Sullivan Bluth Studios was an animation studio set up by animator Don Bluth and several colleagues. It was known for its work on movies such as An American Tail and The Land Before Time. In earlier incarnations, under the names Don Bluth Productions and Bluth Group, it produced movies such as The Secret of NIMH and the animation for video games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.

History

Early history

In 1979 Don Bluth, an animator and animation director at The Walt Disney Company, along with 11 other animators, left the studio shortly after production began on The Fox and the Hound, citing as his reasons dissatisfaction with the studio's stifling bureaucracy[1] and its “churn 'em out”[2] attitude to filmmaking. Bluth and fellow animators John Pomeroy and Gary Goldman had been working for five years prior to leaving Disney on a project of their own, Banjo the Woodpile Cat. Upon leaving Disney they and the other defecting animators formed the independent studio Don Bluth Productions, working out of Bluth's garage and home in Ventura, California, and made the completion of this short film their first project.[3] After four years of production, much of it part-time, Banjo the Woodpile Cat was completed and given theatrical screenings in two theatres in December 1979. The short was then offered to various television stations, airing on HBO in February 1980 and ABC in 1982.[4]

After the completion of Banjo, the studio moved out of Bluth's house and into a two-storey facility in nearby Studio City.[5] The studio's first commission was to produce a two-minute animated sequence for the song “Don't Walk Away” in the live-action musical Xanadu. The brief sequence might ordinarily have taken four or five months to produce; Bluth's studio completed it in under three.[6] The studio then started work on its first feature film, an adaptation of the Newbery Medal-winning children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Backed by Aurora Pictures, The Secret of NIMH started production in 1980 and was completed in 1982.[3] Though generally well-received, with praise for the richness and fluidity of the animation, some critics found the narrative unsatisfying.[7][8] The Secret of NIMH returned only a modest box office performance,[9] which was blamed on both distributor MGM/UA's poor promotion,[3] and competition from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which had been released the previous month. Between this and the industry-wide animators strike in 1982, the studio found itself in financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy.[10]

Reforming under the name Bluth Group, the studio's next project was to produce the animation for Cinematronics' arcade video games Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which were released in 1983. The games were very successful, attracting considerable attention for the animated visuals quite unlike the simplistic graphics of other games of the era, but were criticised for their limited interactivity. The collapse of the video game industry in late 1983 and early 1984 halted production on the sequel Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp. Cinematronics, now in debt and trying to cut its own losses, froze fees and royalties of over US$3 million to Bluth Group, driving the studio once again into bankruptcy.[11] The unfinished sequel to Dragon's Lair, despite having almost all of its animated footage completed, remained unreleased until 1991.[12]

Sullivan Bluth, Amblin and Spielberg

During Bluth Group's period working with Cinematronics, Don Bluth met Irish-American Morris Sullivan, a mergers and acquisitions broker and enthusiast of traditional animation, who quickly saw the potential in the studio. When the studio declared its second bankruptcy, Sullivan stepped in to assist, combining his experience of the business world with Don Bluth and his crew's talent to form Sullivan-Bluth Studios (later dropping the hyphen to become Sullivan Bluth Studios).[11] Moving out of the smaller Studio City facility and into a dedicated building in Van Nuys, California, the studio opened in 1985.[3]

In its early days the studio worked on a number of smaller projects such as commercials while seeking a suitable feature film project. In 1984, as the studio was preparing to move to its new headquarters, Bluth was approached by Steven Spielberg with an idea for a feature film about a mouse family emigrating to America, An American Tail. Bluth and Spielberg worked together to develop the story for the film, and production began in earnest later that year. With backing from Spielberg's production company Amblin Entertainment, and distributors Universal Pictures, the film was released in November 1986, accompanied by a major publicity campaign.[13] An American Tail was very successful at the box-office, grossing US$47 million in the US[14] and becoming the highest-grossing animated film on an initial release.[10]

During production on An American Tail, Morris Sullivan drew plans to move the majority of the studio's operations to Ireland to take advantage of a scheme set up by the Industrial Development Authority encouraging filmmakers to invest in the country by offering grants, tax benefits and lower operating costs.[15] The IDA offered Sullivan Bluth Studios the largest grant in the country's history to relocate to Dublin, in return for a 5% government ownership of the studio.[16] This, along with Sullivan's own investment, funded the foundation of a large and sophisticated new animation studio near Dublin's Phoenix Park. The studio opened with a staff of 85, mostly handling the ink-and-paint process, but expanded to employ over 300 people, including some 100 staff relocated from the California studio, and to cover all aspects of the animation process and even film processing. To build up this workforce, the studio brought young Irish people to the USA studio to train, and Bluth helped to set up an animation course at the nearby Ballyfermot Senior College.[15] Despite the majority of operations eventually being moved to the Dublin studio, an executive office was retained in Burbank, California to maintain ties with US producers and distributors.

During the move to Ireland, production had started on the studio's second feature, The Land Before Time. Again, Amblin and Spielberg backed the production, with additional input from George Lucas, who had worked with Spielberg on the inital story treatment. The movie had been rushed into its early production stages even before the release of An American Tail to meet an Autumn 1987 release date, a very tight schedule for a feature-length animated film. However, between delays caused by the disruption of the move to Dublin, and the unwillingness of Amblin and Universal to fully commit to the project until An American Tail's release, production fell behind by several months, and it was Spring 1987 before it reached full stride.[17]

Spielberg and Lucas' control over the story and production of The Land Before Time was notably greater than with An American Tail; substantial changes to the story were imposed mid-production,[18] and around 10 minutes of footage, an expenditure for the studio of over US$1 million, was removed.[17] Production was completed in 1988 for a November release, the film vying for box-office receipts with Disney's Oliver & Company. Despite a generally lukewarm reception by critics, The Land Before Time broke the record for the highest-grossing animated film on its opening weekend, and would have retained the record for highest overall gross (US$48 million)[19] had Oliver & Company not surpassed it (US$53 million).[20]

Diversification

During the production of The Land Before Time, Morris Sullivan detailed plans to diversify the studio's output into other areas. In late 1987, a further US$4.5 million was invested in improvements to the studio as part of a plan to move into television. At around the same time, plans were also announced to go into live-action film production, and to purchase a film distribution company to distribute not only the studio's own output but also other Irish productions. However, the live action and distribution plans were put on hold when the studio struck a deal with UK producers Goldcrest Films in early 1988 to partially finance and distribute three further animated films.

Later that year the plans were revived, along with the possibility of opening an TV animation division to produce high-quality Saturday morning cartoons. However, these plans were halted by Spring 1989. Out of all the plans to diversify, only the studio's commercial animation department was kept, producing advertisements for US and European television.[16]

Goldcrest

During the production of The Land Before Time, development work was already beginning on the studio's next feature. Sullivan had been keen to fund the next feature with a combination of the studio's own revenue and Irish investment, as opposed to Hollywood producers;[16] the deal with Goldcrest Films would make this possible. Working under Goldcrest also afforded director Don Bluth freer rein over the development of the story than under Amblin and Spielberg.

Early ideas for a dog-based story starring Burt Reynolds had been mooted after the completion of The Secret of NIMH, but never progressed beyond rough storyboards.[21] The idea was revisted in late 1987 and developed into a feature-length story, titled All Dogs Go to Heaven. The film entered full production in late 1988, following directly on from The Land Before Time.

In 1989, during the production of All Dogs Go to Heaven, founding member John Pomeroy and several original crew members left the Dublin studio to return to the US, setting up a studio in Burbank, California named West Olive, later to become Sullivan Bluth Animation Studio. The new studio handled some of the animation for All Dogs Go to Heaven, as well as some television commercials. The move helped strengthen the studio's presence in the US market, and early promotion for All Dogs Go to Heaven included a presentation at the 1989 San Diego Comic-Con and sales of animation cels from previous productions. Initially the new US studio handled only the rough animation, with the drawings then sent to the Dublin studio for cleanup, ink-and-paint and shooting. As the studio expanded, it took on more and more of the animation process, with the paper animation completed there and sent to Dublin for Xerography and painting.[22]

All Dogs Go to Heaven was completed in late 1989, opening in November. On Pomeroy's insistence, some cuts were made to bring the film down from its inital MPAA rating of PG to a G rating.[21] Like their previous feature, the studio's latest would be going head-to-head against Disney's newest release, this time The Little Mermaid. Critical reception to the movie was mixed, and some drew unfavourable comparisons with The Little Mermaid.[21] At the box office it fell short of the studio's previous two features, grossing US$26 million domestically.[23]

The critical and commercial reception for All Dogs Go to Heaven led the studio to reconsider its approach to public relations. For its next feature film, Rock-A-Doodle, a greater emphasis was placed on audience reception. Several screenings of early test footage were held, and changes were made to the film's content to reduce the intensity or suggestiveness of several scenes and broaden its commercial appeal.[24]

Rock-A-Doodle was loosely based on the play Chantecler by poet and playwright Edmond Rostand (itself based on a fable popularised by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales). The idea for an adaptation of Chantecler dates back to the late 1930s at the Walt Disney Company, and was revisted repeatedly in the decades to follow, but never entered production.[25] It was not until 1982 that Don Bluth, having left Disney, took a similar idea into pre-production, though the project stalled with the collapse of Don Bluth Productions in the same year. As work on All Dogs Go to Heaven neared completion, the idea was revived and Rock-A-Doodle entered production in late 1989.[24]

During the production of Rock-A-Doodle, the studio found itself in difficulties again. Following a buyout of Goldcrest Films, the new owners of the production company decided to end its dealings with Sullivan Bluth Studios. Shortly after, Goldcrest took steps to liquidate the studio, claiming it could not pay back a US$300,000 loan and other debts. However, the petition was withdrawn and the issue settled outside court.[24] Though the precise reasons for the withdrawal were not made public, as part of the settlement the ownership of the studio's artwork was turned over to Goldcrest Films, putting an end to the studio's selling of animation cels.[22]

After Closure

The last film in Ireland in a studio with Don Bluth's name was The Pebble and the Penguin, made before the studio was bought by Irish film production company Merlin Films (headed by respected English filmmaker John Boorman), and Hong Kong company Media Assets,[26] which in turn was bought by part of the Rupert Murdoch media conglomerate. Eventually the story goes that Murdoch found he owned an animation company in Ireland and instead of closing it down his company engineered a move back to the US of most of the talent along with Don Bluth into a new division of 20th Century Fox, Fox Animation Studios, in Phoenix, Arizona. The old studio in Ireland, under a new name, produced the sequel All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 in conjunction with MGM, after which Fox pulled the plug and the biggest animation studio in Ireland closed its doors.

Don Bluth continued with Fox to complete the film Anastasia (1997), a video spin-off Bartok the Magnificent (1999), and Titan A.E. (2000), an ambitious space epic which performed poorly at the box office and resulted in the studio's eventual closure.

Filmography

Laserdisc Video Games

Feature Films

Short Films

(Years given are dates of release, not completion of production)

Notes

  1. ^ Hildebrandt & Bohus, Interview with Director Don Bluth
  2. ^ Plume, IGN: Interview with Don Bluth (page 1)
  3. ^ a b c d "Don Bluth Biography". Retrieved 2006-11-28.
  4. ^ Cawley, Banjo the Woodpile Cat.
  5. ^ Cawley, Walkout to Independence.
  6. ^ The Big Cartoon Database: Xanadu
  7. ^ Canby, Vincent (1982-07-30). "'N.I.M.H' Shades of Disney's Golden Era". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "The Secret of NIMH review". Variety. 1982-07-26. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "The Secret of NIMH - Box Office Data".
  10. ^ a b Cawley, Don Bluth Biography.
  11. ^ a b Cawley, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Spielberg.
  12. ^ Dragon's Lair Project: Dragon's Lair II
  13. ^ Cawley, An American Tail.
  14. ^ "An American Tail - Box Office Data".
  15. ^ a b Clancy Animation in Ireland, National College of Art and Design.
  16. ^ a b c Cawley, At Home in Ireland
  17. ^ a b Cawley The Land Before Time
  18. ^ Cowan, John Pomeroy: Producing The Land Before Time
  19. ^ "The Land Before Time - Box Office Data".
  20. ^ "Oliver & Company - Box Office Data".
  21. ^ a b c Cawley, All Dogs Go to Heaven.
  22. ^ a b Cawley, An American Branch.
  23. ^ "All Dogs Go to Heaven - Box Office Data".
  24. ^ a b c Cawley, Rock-A-Doodle
  25. ^ Hill, The “Chanticleer” Saga - Part Three
  26. ^ Dawtrey, Court puts stamp on Bluth sale.

References

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