He quit Disney, set up a rival studio, and made a lot more films – and now the story of Don Bluth has been told in a new documentary.

UPDATE: The first trailer for the documentary has landed, and it looks like this…

Previously (November 2025).

The story of mainstream movie animation of the last 50 years is surely not complete without a proper appreciation of a certain Don Bluth. Bluth was the man who walked away from Walt Disney Animation Studios in the early 1980s to set up a rival studio.

By splintering off, he brought to the screen the likes of The Secret Of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go To Heaven, Rock-a-Doodle and then the likes of Anastasia and the infamous Titan A.E. In all, he made 12 films after leaving Disney.

Don Bluth also, videogame nerds, was the person behind the visuals for the Dragon’s Lair videogame.

He’s the subject of a new documentary feature by the name of Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There, that’s been directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad Walker. They’ve dug into Bluth’s archives, interviewed the man himself, and brought together a host of footage.

The documentary has premiered at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, and so there’s still some way until it gets into more general distribution (basically, so mere mortals like me can get to feast their eyes on it.) But this instantly looks like a fascinating slice of cinema history. The film debuted a week or two back, and it’s been confirmed that a festival run is currently being mplanned.

Bluth too, I only just learned, published his own memoir a few years’ back, entitled Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life. You can find that for sale here.

As for Don Bluth: Somewhere Out There, you can find more on the film for the moment via this report here. As soon as I hear more about possible UK screenings, or any kind of general release, I’ll pass the news on.