Here is the conclusion of my article that began in The Amazing And Not So Amazing World of Don Bluth Part 1.
Thumbelina, released in 1994, is an adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson story of the same name. Interestingly, the character of Thumbelina was voiced by Jodi Benson, the same actress who voiced Ariel from The Little Mermaid, an adaptation of another Hans Christian Anderson story. The movie Thumbelina begins with a widow, who longs for a child, receiving a seed from a witch. This seed eventually produces a flower which reveals a tiny girl who is adopted by this old lady and named Thumbelina. Thumbelina feels isolated due to her size, despite the love of her adoptive mother, but eventually comes across a fairy prince called Cornelius and falls in love. However, a travelling show troupe leader called Mrs. Toad decides to kidnap Thumbelina and have her marry one of her sons. The film got only a more marginally positive reception than Rock-A-Doodle and grossed $17 million, well short of its $28 million budget.
Quite often referred to as Don Bluth’s worst film, A Troll in Central Park was also released in 1994. A troll called Stanley, with a literal green thumb that can create plant life, is banished by his troll queen Gnorga to New York City. After taking refuge in Central Park, two kids called Gus and Rosie come across him. However, Gnorga, via her crystal, notices Stanley and decides to use Gus and his negative feelings to make Stanley suffer. The film got incredibly negative reviews and became Don Bluth’s lowest grossing film at a little over $70,000.
Sullivan Bluth Studios’ final film would be The Pebble and the Penguin which was released in 1995. A penguin called Hubie wishes to impress a beautiful penguin called Marina. The mating season sees male penguins collect a pebble to present to a female penguin and Hubie notices a pebble, which is actually an emerald, fall from the sky. Once he gets the pebble however, he encounters Drake, a muscular penguin who desires Marina for himself. He attempts to take the pebble for himself but, when Hubie refuses, he throws Hubie into the sea where he is swept away and must find a way back to Antarctica. The film gained negative reviews and was a box office bomb, grossing around $4 million against a budget of $28 million. This spelled the end for Sullivan Bluth Studios and they declared bankruptcy in 1996.
However, when Fox decided to establish Fox Animation Studios, they hired Don Bluth to head the new studio. The first film released under this new subsidiary was Anastasia in 1997. The film follows the character of Anastasia, based on the Russian royal of the same name, who manages to escape the execution of her family by communist revolutionaries who were magically coerced by Grigori Rasputin. However, a head injury she suffers during her escape causes her to suffer from amnesia. Eventually, she runs into Dimitri, former servant to the Russian royal family turned con man who wishes to use her to gain the money that the former Empress Marie is offering to find her granddaughter. The film became Don Bluth’s most critically acclaimed film since The Secret of NIMH and was a box office success, managing to gross about $140 million worldwide.
In 1999, Don Bluth directed his first, and so far only, direct to video film Bartok the Magnificent, a spin-off and prequel of Anastasia that follows Bartok, the comic relief sidekick of Rasputin, as he arrives in Moscow and faces off against Baba Yaga when she kidnaps the Tsar. The film received a mixed reception and I’m unable to find any information about how much the film grossed in VHS and DVD sales.
Don Bluth’s final theatrical film, as of this article, and Fox Animation Studios final production was Titan A.E. Released in 2000, the film is set in the year 3028 and follows Cale Tucker, one of many humans who now live across space since Earth has been destroyed, who discovers a map that leads to the Titan, a device that was being constructed by humans before Earth was destroyed. The film received a mixed critical reception and ended up being a box office bomb with Fox losing $100 million because of the film. Fox Animation Studios was shut down and Don Bluth was let go.
While Don Bluth’s films have been a decidedly mixed bag when it comes to quality, there can be no doubt of his legacy to animation. He was the only major competitor to Disney animated films in the 1980s and some say that this competition helped push Disney to improve the quality of their films, eventually leading to the Disney Renaissance. Now that Don Bluth has set up a new animation studio, I’ll be curious to see what types of films he’ll end up creating but, even if nothing ever comes of it, I will always remember Don Bluth as one of the most important animators in history.
Let me know your thoughts on the amazing and not so amazing world of Don Bluth, which Don Bluth movies you have seen, your thoughts on them, your thoughts on his legacy, whether you are excited about his new animation studio and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!