My cousin wanted to check out the spring Sacanime convention. To my astonishment, Don Bluth was one of the guests. That's right - the guy responsible for films such as The Land Before Time, and Secret of NIMH. Who gave Disney a run for its money for a while. One of the most famous American animators.
While we waited in line, I checked out some of the other convention guests. Jeff Bennett would have been cool to meet. He played characters like Kiki's dad in Kiki's Delivery Service. I never got the chance to talk to him though.
I really wanted to meet Sam Vincent. He voiced Julian in Cardcaptors (or Yukito, if you don't watch the older English version). I really liked Julian as a kid, though it's only recently that I realized why. In the shows/movies I had, he was the only teenage boy that was really sweet and kind. I wanted to tell the actor how much that character meant to me, but once again I didn't get the chance.
It took about an hour for my cousin and I to reach the front of the line. We read the price list, bewildered. A signed poster was $120. He'd also written a book, and an autographed copy of that was $80. So I bought the book. I want to read it anyway. To get the book personalized in any way, even just your name, would cost an extra $40. When they asked for my name, I gave it. And when they tried to charge me for it, I said no. So they crossed it out.
Seriously, how do they figure out these prices? Fanime hasn’t charged me for an autograph. Does Sacanime just do this so they can skim off a lot of the money? Because some of these guests don’t seem like their autograph should cost $50.
When we stepped up to meet Don Bluth, he autographed my book, and wrote my name anyway. So that was cool. He said that if I bought his book, I must be able to read. I said I like learning how things are made. And that my graduate project had been about environmental fiction, so I’d discussed themes in The Secret of NIMH and Titan AE. He didn’t have any response of that. But I think he commented on my Haku plush, because I ended up saying that I should make a Mrs. Frisby plush. He encouraged that idea. So I guess I’d better do it. I wish I could show him the result. It sounds fun. I already have the perfect pattern.
It was a pretty quick meeting, after waiting for an hour and paying $80. I asked my cousin if she’d talked to him. She said she smiled at him, and was charged $5. I laughed. It sounded like the kind of thing that would have been on the price chart.
Don Bluth had a panel coming up. Joining him were three voice actors from The Land Before Time: Gabriel Damon-Littlefoot, Candice Hutson-Cera, and Dan Molina-Spike. I was crazy about that movie in preschool. Me and some friends would pretend we were the characters. One of those girls ended up playing in band with me years later. She was an absolutely fabulous trumpet player. We played a whole piece featuring her. I hope she still plays.
The four panelists talked for a bit. (Spoilers) Don Bluth talked about the scene where Littlefoot’s mom dies. He said that it was inspired by the scene in Bambi. Then he recited the whole build-up to the meadow. He combined the two meadow scenes, but the dialogue was spot-on.
He said that digital animation is just puppetry. I can see his point of view. It's an entirely different art form to hand animation. He also said that AI isn't art. It doesn't feel. Amen to that.
It opened up for questions. One person asked Don Bluth which movie he though was worse: A Troll in Central Park, or The Pebble and the Penguin. The crowd erupted in protest and I laughed. Don Bluth said that he’d trash both of them. Either he was joking, or he hadn’t gotten to do those movies the way he wanted to.
At another point, he said that all of his films are about bringing family back together. And that someone had calculated how long it would have taken Walt Disney to animate and ink Pinocchio all by himself. 400 years. So the entire crew of the film is worth praising.
I got in line to ask a question. I figured that this was my first chance to ask a filmmaker about environmental themes in their work. But Don Bluth didn’t answer that question. Instead, because I mentioned Secret of NIMH, he talked about his idea for a sequel in which NIMH realized that the rats were smart, and came after Mrs. Brisby’s family. I thought it was hilarious that he answered a totally different question, but it was a cool response. I wonder if he’s not interested in environmental problems, and it was just a side-effect of story. But I'm curious what that sequel would look like.
Hmmm.
