Secret of Nimh initially didn't break even, but got huge on home-media and TV re-runs
American Tail notoriously beat Disney's Great Mouse Detective.
Land Before Time was also a huge hit, and spawned god knows how many sequels.
Anastasia was another big hit.
>>149269288 >>149269352 >>149269391
Is it me, or is Sharkfag becoming more obnoxious? How do you see an image of Secret of Nimh and then start hyper focusing on a movie no one cares about?
>>149269179 (OP)
I think the biggest tragedy of Bluth is that he pivoted to directing Direct-to-Video too late;
Bartok is a good, straightforward movie dragon transformation scene aside and shows what Bluth and Goldman could do in a production environment that does not let them be overly decadent like in their feature works after NIHM
>>149269179 (OP)
Wrong place at the wrong time. The 80s in general were hell for cartoon movies at the box office. Little Mermaid was the only fully animated movie to break the top 50, and didn't even break the top 30. All the big family movies were live action, and animation was relegated to television and DTV.
>>149269179 (OP)
It's always been rough for smaller creators. When Anastasia was released in theaters, Disney suddenly decided to re-run The Little Mermaid in theaters.
>>149269352
Is that Titan A.E.? I remember seeing tv spots for that once or twice before all traces of it completely disappeared off the face of the Earth
I still want to see Bluth-directed Little Blue Whale, East of the Sun West of the Moon, and Satyrday. The last one he abandoned by himself, since he could not figure out how to adapt the story and make it his own. I'd be okay with a mostly straightforward adaptation with only small changes, but...... eh. The other two got sidetracked as Spielberg's American Tail and Land Before Time projects became the focus. East of the Sun would probably be the most "epic" of the scrapped projects, and be more successful with the audience.
>>149269566 >production environment that does not let them be overly decadent
Decadence is when you have too much leisure and freedom, please learn what words mean. Don (and Gary who everyone forgets) had less and less freedom with each movie following NIMH, and Bartok was the first time in a LONG time when Don and Gary were actually given near complete creative freedom.
here's his track record for directing animated films box office wise
The Secret of NIMH >Budget $6.3-7 million >Box office $14.7 million
An American Tail >Budget $9 million >Box office $84 million
The Land Before Time >Budget $12.3 million >Box office $84.5 million
All Dogs Go to Heaven >Budget $13 million >Box office $27.1 million
Rock-a-Doodle >Budget $18 million >Box office $11.6 million
Thumbelina >Budget $28 million >Box office $17 million
A Troll in Central Park >Box office $71,368
The Pebble and the Penguin >Budget $28 million >Box office $3.9 million
Anastasia >Budget $53 million >Box office $140 million
Bartok the Magnificent >Budget $24.8 million
Titan A.E. >Budget $75–90 million >Box office $36.8 million