Don Bluth's Beauty and the Beast

[supertalies]

"From Nan, the clairvoyant dog, Max, a bird detective, and Otto, an escape artist lizard, to the King Bats, the Wee Beasties and Queen Livia, herself, this picture has something for everyone."

It's not the beast, but it's the dog, Nan.

[Mooky]

A clairvoyant dog?

[supertalies]

Please, don't get me started on that one..LOL

[toonaspie]

Don Bluth seemed to have a thing for anthromorphic animals/creatures, yeah?

It's weird but intriguing at the same time.

But I do agree that it probably wouldnt have been nowhere near as good as Disney but I still wouldve been interested in seeing this.

I wonder what the beast concept art looked like.

[Sotiris]

Following the success of Dragon's Lair, he began to develop some stories to adapt to screen. He initially focused on two stories, one of which was Beauty and the Beast. He began working on a screenplay, on some storyboards and some concepts art but had trouble in financing the film. Even with the successs of Dragon's Lair, producers were sceptical to finance a film based on a classic fairy tale since it was considered too old-fashioned for that time.

Don Bluth, nevertheless, continued to work on this project, while he was working on a second video game, Space Ace. Then he struck a deal with Spielberg to produce two films for him on the condition that Bluth would choose which stories they would make. Since his proposal to produce Beauty and the Beast was rejected, he proposed the stories of The Land Before Time and An American Tail.
Both films met with a box office and critical success thus allowing Bluth to resume his work on Beauty and the Beast. However, it was too late, since Disney had announced and already begun preparing their version of the story. As it would be impossible for him to finish the film before Disney's version was released, he cancelled the project and gave it up entirely. It is equally ironic that Don Bluth had (at the same time) also considered to adapt Aladin (and not Aladdin) which was also taken up by Disney right after Beauty and the Beast.

Regarding character development, we know very little about it except that Don Bluth had in mind a very different idea from that of Disney's. It seems that he wanted to make a version that was closer to the 1949 film which he loved. We also know that his film was going to include the witch Queen Livia, who, being jealous of the Beast, would have attempted to manipulate Beauty in her sleep so she would leave the castle and let the Prince die.


Source: http://theredanimation.canalblog.com/ar ... 66748.html

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Interesting. Anyone who has read one of the others cataroo articles?:

The failure of NIMH was a blow to Don and his followers. Don was disappointed, but simply put more energy into his next project. Even more hope now hinged on their second feature, EAST OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON.

Prior to the release of NIMH, Don discussed his proposed second feature in a Canadian interview. "The next picture we're doing is a modern-day fairy tale, but it's based on a very old fairy tale. It's Norwegian, called EAST OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON. And the old fairy-tale is very convoluted -- it has a lot to do with a prince and princess, of course. The prince is enchanted and he's a polar bear. And the polar bear talks to the princess and says, 'You must never look upon my face, because if you look upon my face, I'll be whisked away somewhere, and you'll never see me again.'

"So she sneaks in through his bedroom in the middle of the night and lights a candle to look at him, because he's in mortal form at night. Consequently, the curse is complete and he is thrown into some land that lies East of the Sun, West of the Moon. And she has to rescue him.

"Now the story that we're telling takes place in the future, about the year 2500, and it has much the same elements in it, except it's about a young boy and a young girl. She gets the boy in trouble in much the same way. He is discovered - he's a fugitive from another world. He is discovered because of her, and is taken away to be put to death, and she sets out to rescue him.

"It has some fantastic visuals in it, too. We go down to the lost city of Atlantis in one sequence; how she journeys to this land East of the Sun, West of the Moon is on the back of the North Wind, so it has, I think, some beautiful things in it."

Unfortunately in August of 1982 the animation industry was hit by one of its most devastating strikes since the famous Disney strike of the Forties. Considered by many a "showdown" between the major studios and the union, the strike lingered for several months. The union tried to curb runaway (foreign) production, mostly used for Saturday morning and syndicated series. The major studios tried to weaken the general union contract. In fact, after the strike was finally settled, there was no more "standard" union contract as each studio had customized contracts. (Union workers finally went back to work in late September, many with contracts to be negotiated at a later date.)

Work stopped on several projects. Besides Bluth's EAST OF THE SUN, Disney's MICKEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL and Welcome Entertainment's ZIGGY'S GIFT were affected. Picket lines were set up in front of the major studios, with the line of strikers in front of Disney getting plenty of TV coverage.


http://www.cataroo.com/DBvidgames.html

[Semaj]

Bluth, at some point tried using ideas that were long rejected by Disney. One of those that did survive was Chanticleer.

Disney's story was of a rooster who believed his crowing every morning welded control over the sun. Development went on and off between the 1940's and 1960's, with Marc Davis providing some character designs in the early 60's after finishing up on 101 Dalmatians. For some reason, they had something against animating chickens, let-alone doing an entire feature around them, so the animators went to work on The Sword and the Stone instead, while Davis spent the rest of his career working for Disney's theme parks.

Bluth's resulting film, Rock-a Doodle had very little to do with what inspired it in the first place, and instead drew a lot of influence from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

It would be interesting to see what both Disney had in mind for Beauty and the Beast back in the 1950's when it was first proposed, and what Bluth had in mind. The challenge for Bluth would have been to give the story a modern feel to justify his proposal to revive the fairy tale genre.

[Jackoleen]

Dear Disney Enthusiasts,

I'd like to thank Sotitis for this new information! I had no clue that Don Bluth was planning to make such an interesting movie!

I LOVE those colored drawings! Beauty has something of Thumbelina's blonde innocence about her, no? She looks pretty! The Beast looks rather Buffalo-like, and the animals seem to add a truly warm feeling to the picture wherein Beauty is on the bed. That picture makes me think of Disney movies like "Tangled" and "Sleeping Beauty".

Don Bluth certainly did love friendly, yet slightly rough-looking animal sidekicks...particularly Afgan Hounds. I love his squirrels! The world of animation could use more squirrels!

I love that quote about someone having to be loved before they can be lovable! The quote seems to have been super well thought out; Don Bluth seems to have looked at the human condition, rather than having simply focused upon The Beast himself, or the love story itself, etc.

I am actually saddened to know that we will never be able to know what Don Bluth's "Beauty and The Beast" would have looked like, and how it would have played to audiences.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

[robster16]

on Don Bluth's website there is apparently a video of some sort, but it's only available for members of the website!

[Super Aurora]

One annoying thing Don Bluth does in majority of his films is make too many fucking animals. Just looking at that post already scream ridiculous.

[Disney Duster]

I was just about to say that! Waaay too many animals! Actually, way too many side characters in general!

I want to say...I would love, very much, to see this! I like Beauty's design very much, and from what I can tell, I would like the Beast's design and that witch's design (the one with black hair in green) if they were just tweaked a bit. And Beauty should probably also be tweaked to look a little less like Thumbelina or any other previous Don Bluth girl.

I think that witch functions as the enchantress, or rather, the original story's fairy which tried to get the Prince to marry her, but she turned him into a beast when he refused. The difference is the fairy was not evil though, she made him a beast to learn what real love was. But Don Bluth's design for her reminds me of the Disney enchantress actually.

So, I would like to see this, just without the goofy, completely uneccessary and annoying-sounding animal sidekicks. It looks like Don drew the prince, Beauty's father, and maybe her sisters, and they look pretty good (even though the sisters were supposed to be a little prettier than that, I think).

I love that quote about someone having to be loved before they can be lovable! The quote seems to have been super well thought out; Don Bleuth seems to have looked at the human condition, rather than having simply focused upon The Beast himself, or the love story itself, etc.

I actually thought the quote didn't make sense. Would you mind explaining it to me?

I love Lady Lovely Locks

Me too! Takes me back to a very happy and centered time in my childhood. I have a cheapo DVD with a few episodes, but I'd dearly love to see official seasons released.

Me three! I remember that from my childhood. I only rented one VHS tape but there was something about all of it I couldn't help but like. They actually had more than one season of the show? Wow. Hey, um, what did you mean by centered?

[Sotiris]

on Don Bluth's website there is apparently a video of some sort, but it's only available for members of the website!

I would so love to see that!!! Let's hope that a member will eventually upload it on YouTube.

[PatrickvD]

Beauty looks like all the other brainless females of Bluths films. What I love about Disney's version is how incredibly strong a character Belle is. She reads while others think it's weird and she doesn't take crap from anyone.

Imagining her as the damsel in distress that Bluth would have turned her into is tough. Thumbelina is unbearable. "It's impossible" and "I can't" were her catchphrases and let's not even get into the whole "we're meant to be together even though we've known each other for 7 minutes while re-enacting a scene from every single Disney film ever made".

Bluths work from the 80s was pretty decent. Secret of NIMH is work of art even, but when the 90s came around and Disney found its way, his movies became awful beyond belief. A Troll in Central Park takes the cake. Man that sucked.

This bit of history is fascinating though. Thanks a lot for sharing!

[disneyboy20022]

As it would be impossible for him to finish the film before Disney's version was released, he cancelled the project and gave it up entirely. It is equally ironic that Don Bluth had (at the same time) also considered to adapt Aladin (and not Aladdin) which was also taken up by Disney right after Beauty and the Beast.

I wonder...could there have been....oh Let Dr. Evil Say it


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[DancingCrab]

Goodness...Don Bluth's character designs drive me nuts. It's one thing to have a similar style. All artists do, but he makes them all look like clones of eachother. "The Secret of NIMH", "An American Tail" and "The Land Before Time" were his best work...everything else, even "Anastasia" pisses me off one way or another.

I'm still bummed he got to "Thumbelina" before Disney.

[disneyboy20022]

A clairvoyant dog?

Well we Have now in Disney's Tangled a clairvoyant horse....

The term clairvoyance (from 17th century French with clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "vision") is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses,[1][2] a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clearly").

[Jackoleen]

Dear Disney Enthusiasts,

I don't mind explaining the quote. "A thing must be loved before it can be lovable." basically means that lovability is a concept of perception and perspective. When you've yet to experience the power of love, you may know that you're lovable, but your knowledge doesn't count, because nobody ELSE knows that you're lovable; when you've yet to experience love, you may not even truly be lovable, and once you're loved by someone else, their love may make you lovable. Once another person loves you, your lovability now exists, because it is known by another person, and/ or you may actually BECOME lovable because you are responding, with love, to the love of another.

I don't actually know which of these ideas was intended by Bluth. The first idea seems to be slightly shallow (You CAN be lovable without your lovability being known by another person), and yet, the second idea seems to be typical (Does lovability REALLY exist only AFTER someone is loved by someone else?) The entire issue brings up the question "If a tree falls in the woods, but nobody is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?"/ "If somebody is alone, and they've never experienced love, are they still lovable?"

I don't know if Don Bluth has always created too many animal sidekicks, but I know that a great many of his animal sidekicks are slightly annoying. If Disney's animated animals seem sweet, Don Bluth's animated animals are sour, zingy, odd, etc. In addition, his animation style is sometimes too rough and angular for me; I prefer my animated characters to be rounded, idealistic, perfect, almost pinup-esque. In my opinion, animated ideals create goals for real life, and there needn't ever be a strong division between fantasy and reality.

I love that letter that Bluth wrote. His grammar seems to be almost perfect, and that makes me like him even more. Animators are an unusual and fascinating lot; there's always a seductive aura about them!

I know that many of Bluth's leading ladies seem to be cutesy, ditzy, and even sickeningly sweet. Mrs. Brisby and Thumbelina, anyone? Yet, there's always a likable quality about each of Bluth's heroines (Mrs. Brisby's helplessness, and her idealistic wife-and-mother personality, are strangely likable, and Thumbelina's untouched-yet-ripe innocence, and her enthusiasm, are likable, too).

I think that Bluth's Beauty looks to be a slight bit more serious than some other Bluth heroines. I think that she looks like a romantic, tortured girl, who can be cutesy at times. She looks like a Catherine/ Katherine to me, a sort of mature, sensitive creature who is almost motherly, yet childlike, in the presence of the animals who advise her. She's in the innocent position of characters like Ariel and Thumbelina, but she has an immensely tortured, emotional journey to make, even as she is pulled, persuaded, and anesthetized into being cruel by the queen who is determined to steal all of The Beast's powerful wealth from him! How will poor Beauty ever love her Beast when she is literally feeling as though she wants to sabotage him.

I like the idea of Beauty being a blonde, because her blonde hair represents her emotional innocence, which will be corrupted, and then restored. I think that this blonde Beauty, "Catherine", is a pensive, thoughtful, oft-worried child of deep thoughts.

Her hairstyle seems more frothy, and less typical, than the hairstyles of other Bluth heroines (You know about the center curl, which often looks like a perfectly photo-shopped drip of seasoning sauce from a McDonald's ad, and about those little side pieces of hair, which grace the fronts of the ears of ALL of Bluth's teenaged, human heroines) She has that "dripping" piece of hair in the center, but those stereotypical side pieces are covered!

My message to Don Bluth is as follows:

"I say that you should go for it! Produce your "Beauty and The Beast" movie anyway, and release it at a film festival! If all of those other companies can release super cheap animated versions of stories, then YOUR "Beauty and The Beast" will be more than welcomed, because your movies have always been of a studio quality. The world deserves to see your rendition of the timeless tale of "Beauty and The Beast", and there are people who will always be asking "What if?", should your lost movie never come to fruition.

I will always be willing to provide the voice of Beauty. I won't even mind auditioning for the role. I have always wanted to voice an animated character."

I should see what that website expect me to do in order to be able to see that video.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

[PatrickvD]

My message to Don Bleuth is as follows:

"I say that you should go for it! Produce your "Beauty and The Beast" movie anyway, and release it at a film festival! If all of those other companies can release super cheap animated versions of stories, then YOUR "Beauty and The Beast" will be more than welcomed, because your movies have always been of a studio quality. The world deserves to see your rendition of the timeless tale of "Beauty and The Beast", and there are people who will always be asking "What if?", should your lost movie never come to fruition.

I will always be willing to provide the voice of Beauty. I won't even mind auditioning for the role. I have always wanted to voice an animated character."

I should see what that website expect me to do in order to be able to see that video.

Thank you in advance for your replies.

oh Jackoleen, you're so funny!

Somebody get Don out of that retirement home, the internet community is demanding his version of Beauty and the Beast! We already have our leading lady!



Long story short, Don hasn't directed anything in 11 years. He probably has better things to do. Like say, oh I don't know, enjoy his retirement?

[Jackoleen]

Dear PatrickvD,

Don Bluth may be retired (I honestly didn't know that he was retired), but his company must still exist. Somebody must be running it.

Well, anyway, there are several talented people who have been called out of retirement for various reasons. Maurice Chevalier and "The Aristocats", anyone?

There are always nay-sayers everywhere, but those who don't listen to them often go on to surprise everybody with their social successes.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

[Refael]

Oh how I love this artist,
He has a rather unique style.
Attention! Image of Beauty and the Beast girl
Figure very similar lines of Thumbelina
Don one of the great artists they grew up
His film is very successful and beautiful
Anastasia is the perfect animated film has always been