After nearly two years of animation work, producer-director Don Bluth has completed his feature "The Secret of Nimh," due to bow domestically July 2 via MGM/UA. And he's already into pre-production on his second pic, due to begin its 2 1/2 year animation schedule in June.
"We brought in "Nimh" on a $7,000,000 budget for Aurora Productions," Bluth averred, "and our secret to keeping costs down on a full animation picture is to not waste resources. Everybody is working on a screen effect, with our animators and departments not sitting waiting for an assignment. You have to get the completed work out of each department as fast as possible," he said.
Bluth, in Manhattan to give a lecture on animation to students and public at The New School, sounds almost evangelical at times in his quest to bring back the "classical" type of animation pioneered at Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s and 1940s. "Many of the techniques used on great pictures such as 'Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs,' 'Pinocchio' and 'Bambi' have been lost or forgotten in recent years, with the growing reliance on short cuts and no-frills animation. When I was working at the Disney Studios in the 1970s I would ask the oldtimers how to, say, make water look "wet" as in 'Fantasia,' but I found that the method wasn't written down, the cels and drawings in the studio morgue were incomplete, and nobody remembered. We've had to reinvent many techniques, including contact shadows for characters."
Bluth's much-publicized resignation from Disney and formation of his own production compnay with other Disney former personnel has already had an impact on the animation giant. "Since we left, they increased the salaries of the remaining animators, and more significantly, have brought in new writers and directors such as Steve Lisberger for 'Tron.' We'll worry them into reformation, with our competition a useful impetus for Disney Studios to make improvements," Bluth contended.
Bluth has a staff of 11 animators out of 75 full-time employees, the staff swelling to 120 at peak periods during feature work. Since many of his animators are "rookies," there was a lot of training involved in producing "Nimh," with Bluth emphasizing story sessions and characterization. "When you 'cast' a scene to an individual animator, you must make sure he understands the personality of the character to be drawn. The first thing you animate is the brain -- move the brain and the body follows," he explained.
While conceding the breakthroughs in differing animated styles forged in recent years by Ralph Bakshi and others, Bluth is convinced that only a "classical" approach will work in capturing a wide audience for features. "To hold an audience's attention for a feature-length animated film, you have to achieve an identification -- a catharsis for the viewere as you tell your story. The artist's presence must be removed, so that style does not intrude on this process of identification. You can't have the appearance of sketchy lines, paint marks or other reminders that it is not real, if you want to sustain interest. This is why shadows, movement and other detail work are so important in bringing a film to life," he said.
One hurdle he will have to surmount in making "Secret of Nimh" a top grosser at the boxoffice is the film's G-rating, which in industry terms brands it as a children's picture.
"Animation has a built-in stigma: cartoons are for children, so the rating isn't that important. Our investors wanted a G rating to be on the safe side, but in making the film we positioned the story on several levels. There are parts of the picture exclusively for teenagers and other parts for adults. We were careful to include bite: there are moments of safety and moments of threat in 'Nimh,' but the ending rescues you."
Don Bluth Prods. has an $11,000,000 budget for its next Aurora-backed film, yet to be titled but based on the Norwegian fairy tale "East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon."
"Secret of Nimh" was picked up by MGM-UA domestically (with UIP handling foreign distribution kicking off first in July in West Germany and England, followed by Christmas bows in Japan, France and many other markets), while the next pic's distribution will depend upon "Nimh"'s boxoffice performance. "Except for Disney, other animated features have been unable to break into the ranks of top-grossing films. We hope for 'Nimh' to make the commerical breatkthrough," he concluded.