Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluthis an American animator, film director, producer, writer, production designer, video game designer and animation instructor who is known for directing animated films, such as The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heavenand Anastasia, and for his involvement in the LaserDisc game Dragon's Lair. He is also known for competing with former employer Walt Disney Productions during the years leading up to the films that would make up the...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAnimator
Date of Birth13 September 1937
CityEl Paso, TX
CountryUnited States of America
When we originally made the game Dragon's Lair, we had no idea the impact it would have on the game market. It was something new at the time; it was the first of the laserdisc games, and random-access was a brand-new technology.
There's about 260 rooms in the new castle which you go through, but it's all about the game play.
If you look at the game and everything, it's not quite like looking at an animated film, because that's total character. This, this is really movement, but it's got funny little things if you look for the humor. They're actually getting to the character.
Shelf-life for a regular video game usually is about three to five years, and that's it.
But I've been surprised over the years. I mean, someone told me the other day that maybe 360 million people have played this game in the world. That's a lot of people.
I think the Web is sufficiently different, that it has access to people, and that you can probably distribute your own film right there
When I think about how fat the studios have become, I laugh. You have 24 people in the layout department-we're fat with personnel. All the rules and attitudes change in that kind of environment.
I think since all the studios have entered into the business, everything is about 'get it done, get it cheaper, get it faster, make more money, and please the stockholders.'
We've written a song for this game, which is a bubble-gum song and is only to be listened to once, I think.
I'm saddened to see that everyone's pitched out the baby with the bath, in that we say that it can't be one or the other, it could be both. I mean, just because we listen to classical music doesn't mean that we can't listen to jazz.
You know what, the second Dragon's Lair game... I think very few people saw it. And Dirk and Daphne did get married and they had children. They have 13 kids. And she still looks great!
Universal, they've been pretty good too, but Steven rules his own kingdom, so you don't tell him what to do with his pictures.
We started getting the script to different people and we were in the business of trying to fund it so we could get it off and running, and all the characters and sets designed and everything.
I can look at one that Warner Brothers just did - The Iron Giant. A really cool movie. I truly enjoyed that movie.