Don Bluth Movies and Career Information

Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth (born September 13, 1937) is an American animator, video game designer and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films 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 during the years leading up to the films that would make up the Disney Renaissance. Bluth was born in El Paso, Texas, the son of Emaline (née Pratt) and Virgil Ronceal Bluth. His great-grandfather was Latter Day Saint leader Helaman Pratt, and politician Mitt Romney is his (half) second cousin. At the age of six his family moved to Payson, Utah where he lived on a family farm. In 1954 at the age of 17 his family moved to Santa Monica, California, where he attended his final year of high school. Bluth attended Brigham Young University in Utah for one year and after got a job at The Walt Disney Company. He started in 1955 as an assistant to John Lounsbery for Sleeping Beauty. In 1957 Bluth left