Biography
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated classics such as The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986),The Land Before Time (1988), and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), as well as his involvement in the laserdisc game Dragon's Lair. He is also often credited for providing competition to Disney, and forcing them to improve from their streak o...
Known For
Complete Filmography
Dragon’s Lair: The Movie - Pitch Presentation
2017
Writer, Producer, Director
Animated short created to pitch a full-length Dragon's Lair film to investors.
Gift of the Hoopoe
2009
Director
Propelled through a magical fantasy world of imagination, two children learn how little changes in their lives can lead to great things in their futur...
Waking Sleeping Beauty
2009
as Self (archive footage)
By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovat...
Going Back to Xanadu
2008
A documentary about the movie Xanadu.
Titan A.E.
2000
Director, Producer
A young man finds out that he holds the key to restoring hope and ensuring survival for the human race, while an alien species called the Drej are ben...
Bartok the Magnificent
1999
Director, Producer
Albino bat Bartok – former sidekick to the wicked Grigori Rasputin – ventures to prove his true worth on a new quest to defeat the legendary Russian w...
Anastasia
1997
Director, Producer
Ten years after she was separated from her family, an eighteen-year-old orphan with vague memories of the past sets out to Paris in hopes of reuniting...
The Pebble and the Penguin
1995
Director
A bashful bachelor penguin named Hubie, who's partial to a pretty female named Marina. Ancient penguin ritual dictates that males present a pebble to ...
A Troll in Central Park
1994
Director, Producer
A friendly troll with a magic green thumb grows one flower too many for the queen, whose laws require all trolls to be mean ugly and scare humans when...
Thumbelina
1994
Screenplay, Director, Producer
Born of a flower and growing to only a couple of inches tall, poor Thumbelina is worried she'll never meet someone her own size, until she happens to ...
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
1991
Characters
Some time after the Mousekewitz's have settled in America, they find that they are still having problems with the threat of cats. That makes them eage...
Rock-A-Doodle
1991
Director, Story, Producer
Chanticleer is a foolhardy farm rooster who believes his crows can actually make the sun come up and shine. When the sun rises one morning without Cha...
All Dogs Go to Heaven
1989
Director, Story, Production Design
When a casino-owning dog named Charlie is murdered by his rival Carface, he finds himself in Heaven basically by default since all dogs go to heaven. ...
The Land Before Time
1988
Producer, Director, Storyboard Artist
An orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot sets off in search of the legendary Great Valley. A land of lush vegetation where the dinosaurs can thrive a...
An American Tail
1986
Director, Producer, Production Design
A young mouse named Fievel and his family decide to migrate to America, a "land without cats," at the turn of the 20th century. But somehow, Fievel en...
Space Ace
1983
as Commander Borf
Commander Borf plans to reduce all of humankind to infants and take over the planet. Only two people have the courage and strength to stop Borf and sa...
Space Ace
1983
Producer, Animation
Commander Borf plans to reduce all of humankind to infants and take over the planet. Only two people have the courage and strength to stop Borf and sa...
The Secret of NIMH
1982
Screenplay, Director, Producer
A widowed field mouse must move her family -- including an ailing son -- to escape a farmer's plow. Aided by a crow and a pack of superintelligent, es...
The Fox and the Hound
1981
Animation
When a feisty little fox named Tod is adopted into a farm family, he quickly becomes friends with a fun and adorable hound puppy named Copper. Life is...
Xanadu
1980
Animation
A beautiful muse inspires an artist and his older friend to convert a dilapidated auditorium into a lavish rollerskating club.
Banjo the Woodpile Cat
1979
Director, Writer, Producer
Banjo is a curious and rebellious kitten who is always getting into trouble. When he decides to jump off a roof of a chicken coup to see if he can lan...
The Small One
1978
Director, Producer, Animation
Ordered by his father to sell an old mule called Small One, a Hebrew boy in the ancient Holy Land takes the donkey to the Jerusalem market. Finding no...
Pete's Dragon
1977
Animation Director
Pete, a young orphan, runs away to a Maine fishing town with his best friend a lovable, sometimes invisible dragon named Elliott! When they are taken ...
The Rescuers
1977
Animation Director
Two agents of the mouse-run International Rescue Aid Society search for a little orphan girl kidnapped by sinister treasure hunters.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
1977
Animation
Whether we’re young or forever young at heart, the Hundred Acre Wood calls to that place in each of us that still believes in magic. Join pals Pooh, P...
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too
1974
Story
Rabbit is tired of Tigger always bouncing him, so he gets Pooh and Piglet together to come up with an idea to get the bounce out of Tigger. Then, Tigg...
Robin Hood
1973
Animation
With King Richard off to the Crusades, Prince John and his slithering minion, Sir Hiss, set about taxing Nottingham's citizens with support from the c...
Journey Back to Oz
1972
Layout
Dorothy and Toto return to the Land of Oz to find the Scarecrow as ruler of the Emerald City. Unfortunately for the new mayor, the wicked Mombi is con...
Archie and His New Pals
1969
Character Designer
Reggie nominates Moose to run against him for class president, thinking it will be no contest. Meanwhile, Sabrina can't seem to make any friends when ...
The Sword in the Stone
1963
Animation
Wart is a young boy who aspires to be a knight's squire. On a hunting trip he falls in on Merlin, a powerful but amnesiac wizard who has plans for him...
Dragon's Lair
N/A
Producer, Video Game
A live-action adaptation of the popular ‘80s video game.