Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There - The Rise, Fall and Redefinition of an Animation Master

When you first think of Don Bluth, your mind often goes to the vibrant colours and imaginative

stories that defined childhood for many millennials growing up. But most people probably never

think about Don Bluth the person. Who exactly was he? What were his thoughts and opinions on

the animation industry at the time? And where is he now? Well these very questions are finally

answered through the 2025 documentary “Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There”, directed by David

LaMattina and Chad N. Walker. Told through a series of audio interviews with Bluth and those

associated with him against the backdrop of hundreds of hours of archive and home-video

footage, the film explores the complexities of a man who struggles to find a balance between

commercial success and artistic integrity. Interestingly, the film’s opening question of the burden

of being an artist is answered by Bluth, who recalls the 1948 film “The Red Shoes” where the

protagonist’s love of dance and inability to stop her artistic passion ends in tragedy, mirroring his

eventual fate.

The film slowly brings us through Bluth’s life/career, growing up Mormon with a caring mother

but a domineering father and never feeling like the stereotypical image of what society deems a

man to be. His love of drawing/animation would lead him to work for Disney in 1956 and again

in the 1970s, where he remained for 9 years before becoming disillusioned with the lack of

artistic quality the decade produced, resulting in him walking away with several other animators

to form their own studio. This is where Bluth’s story really begins, moving the studio to Dublin

and helping to revolutionise Ireland’s growing animation industry. The 1980s would prove very

fruitful for the new studio, which produced instant commercial hits like “The Secret of NIMH”

(1982), “An American Tail” (1986), and “The Land Before Time” (1988).

This was a turning point for Bluth whose work was actually surpassing Disney’s and harkening

back to the golden age of animation, where the art was expensive to produce and the story

structure was of the highest quality. One question the film frequently asks is if Bluth wants to

replace Disney. He answers this with brutal honesty, where his goal was to create art that wasn’t

being produced anymore, in the hope of getting Disney to reevaluate what made them great in

the first place and try harder. This method proved successful by the 1990s, where Disney was

back producing high-quality work. Unfortunately, apart from one commercial success

(“Anastasia” 1997) the decade wasn’t kind to Bluth, whose next few films were failing one after

another, resulting in bankruptcy and the closure of the Dublin studio.

While it's easy to look at this story as tragic, perhaps the biggest take away of the film is that

Bluth actually did achieve his goal, where animation was once again taken seriously as an

artform and that it's ok to take risks for that art, as long as one believes in their own message.