Producer/director/animator Don Bluth and his artistic partner, Gary Goldman, signed a major gift agreement to give Savannah College of Art and Design a collection of more than one million pieces of art including animation cels, drawings and by these animation legends.
SCAD will honor Bluth and Goldman at the Savannah Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Animation on Nov. 5 at 7:00 pm.
The collection, valued in the millions, includes original animation art from Bluth and Goldman's 30-year creative partnership, including art from THE SECRET OF N.I.M.H. (1982), AN AMERICAN TAIL (1986) and ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN (1989,) and their classic videogames DRAGON'S LAIR (1983) and SPACE ACE (1983).
"Don Bluth and Gary Goldman are icons in the animation world," said SCAD dean of the School of Film and Digital Media Peter Weishar. "This collection will enhance academic studies and understanding and inspire new creative endeavors for the more than 1,750 students in the School of Film and Digital Media. Students studying animation, broadcast design, cinema studies, interactive design and game development, and other disciplines, will benefit from this magnificent gift. We are very fortunate and grateful to Don Bluth and Gary Goldman."
"We are very familiar with SCAD's recent accomplishments in the field of animation and their large animation student population," said Goldman. "We felt that having access to our archive of animation art would be of value to SCAD animation students and faculty."
Goldman added that he and Bluth felt that students would benefit from studying the collection, whether seeking a career in traditional or computer-generated animation. "A thorough knowledge of traditional or classical animation and its history will help teach new artists in the field of animation," he said. "Having access to the original art for storyboarding, character and FX animation, layout and background painting, will enable the students to see the analyzation and research involved to bring animated characters and environmental phenomena to life."
Spanning 50 years, Bluth's career includes work with studio giants such as Walt Disney Prods. and 20th Century Fox Film Corp. Bluth has distributed his independent films through MGM/UA, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros. and The Samuel Goldwyn Co., all produced at his own studio, Don Bluth Ent.
Originally an English literature major at Brigham Young University, Bluth auspiciously began his career in 1955 as an assistant animator to John Lounsbery on Walt Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY (1959).
Bluth has worked the gamet of jobs in traditional animation, from mixing colors for ink and paint to writing scripts, directing scenes and even composing songs. He rose through the ranks at Disney to become an animator for ROBIN HOOD (1973), directing animator for WINNIE THE POOH AND TIGGER TOO (1974) and THE RESCUERS (1976), director of animation for PETE'S DRAGON (1977), and producer and director for THE SMALL ONE (1978.
In 1979, Bluth grabbed professional and public attention 1979 when he led an exodus from Disney with long-time partners and fellow animators Goldman and John Pomeroy to start Don Bluth Prods. Since that time, Bluth has written, directed, produced and designed characters and environments for 12 films, one featurette, the two-minute animated sequence in the film, XANADU and three laser disc video games. Additional films by Bluth & Goldman include THE LAND BEFORE TIME (1988) and THUMBELINA (1994). Working with Fox Animation Studios, Bluth created ANASTASIA (1997), BARTOK THE MAGNIFICENT (1999) and TITAN A.E. (2000). Goldman began his career in 1972 on ROBIN HOOD as a rough assistant animator to supervising animator Frank Thomas. He was an animator on Disney's WINNIE THE POOH AND TIGGER TOO (1974) and THE RESCUERS (1976), and as directing animator on PETE'S DRAGON (1977) and THE SMALL ONE (1978).
Goldman worked as a directing animator, producer, co-director and supervised post-production on all of their independent films, as well as their film for Fox.
In 1994, Goldman co-helmed the establishment of Fox Animation Studios in Phoenix at the invitation of 20th Century Fox executives Bill Mechanic and Peter Chernin.
The collection is currently being assessed and cataloged and permanent plans for the collection will be announced.
