Legendary Animator Don Bluth Reveals the Time He Literally Ran Into Walt Disney

MegaCon is taking place in Orlando this weekend, and ComicBook.com hosted a panel called “History of Animation with Don Bluth.” Throughout his career, Bluth has directed The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, All Dogs Go to Heaven, Thumbelina, Anastasia, and more. He also worked on Disney films such as Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon, The Fox and the Hound, and more. During the event, Bluth spoke about some of his most popular projects and shared his thoughts on the future of animation. Bluth also shared a fun story about literally running into the biggest name in animation history: Walt Disney.

“I bumped into him and I was playing volleyball with all the rest of the artists, and I had no idea that he was even in the animation building,” Bluth recalled. “I didn’t even know. I was all sweaty and dirty after an hour playing volleyball. and we were going in to take showers at the bottom of the animation building, they have a shower of course down there. So someone threw me the ball I turned and I caught the ball. And then as I turned again, I bumped into…Walt Disney.”

“And I didn’t know it was Walt,” Bluth continued. “Down I went on the ground. He was standing. And anyway, I looked up and it was like a scene right out of Bambi where the little deer is looking up at the stag. It’s that scene right there. I’m looking up and I didn’t know who it was. He stepped over me and turned and said, ‘You’ll go farther if you slow down. That was personal advice.’”

“That was all over the studio within half an hour,” he continued. “I was the laughingstock. But my dear friend John Lounsbery, he said to me, ‘You know what, you bumped into him. So what? And he’ll ask about you.’ And he did. So it’s a wonderful story and it had a happy ending.”

During the panel, Bluth also explained that ballooning budgets might result in animation going back to 2D. 

“I believe that there will be a moment when, the suits I call them, when the suits finally say to themselves ‘We can make more money with 2D drawn animation than we make with 3D,’” Bluth explained. The animator pointed out the $200 million films that became the norm over the last decade or so. With production companies cutting back, 2D could provide a way to cut back on big budgets. 

“I watch the amounts of money spent on a 3D picture, and it’s up to something like $200 million or $300 million. And it’s more people, I grow old watching the end credits. So it seems to me that hand-drawn animation, let me take, for example, The Secret of NIMH, we made that movie for $6.5 million. So how in the world, in your sane mind, can you say $300 million is justified?”

MegaCon is taking place all weekend, February 2nd through February 4th, in Orlando, Florida.