Bluth's had an interesting career, definitely carved out his own niche as the animation guy who wasn't Disney. He was Disney, and was being fast tracked to take over, but got jack and set up his own shop making The Secret of Nimh. He cough and spluttered along afterwards, never seemed to really crack it but also managed to make eleven films, including An American Tail, Land Before Time and Anastasia.
Bluth wanted to be an animator from an early age but still took a lot of detours - he got a job at Disney then quit it to be a Mormon missionary in Argentina (he's still a Mormon), he went back to Disney later, set up his own shop later.
Bluth refers to some young romances but never got married and never talks of girlfriends. This is odd for such a memoir.
The book is at its best discussing the films - at least that's what I'm most interested in. The dealings of Disney in the 70s, the emergence of the CalTech kids such as Brad Bird, John Lassiter and Tim Burton (a powerhouse of talent) who Bluth says didn't like him (I'd like to know more about this), moving out on his own, going into video games, the comfort and challenges of Spielberg, moving to Ireland, difficulties with writers, eventually going bust, being rescued by Fox then going bust again.
Where does Bluth stand in cinema? He had a the soul of an artist. Made a lot of films people are fond of. Was independent in animation when that was really brave (I guess it's brave now). Maybe he didn't have the talent to match his dreams but he had the dreams and enough talent to go his own way. As he himself admits his greatest legacy is probably providing Disney with some competition and independent operators such as Pixar with someone to emulate.
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