Wealth & Money Quote by Don Bluth

“The studios will go wherever they smell money. It’s like sharks to the blood” lands with the blunt clarity of a working artist who’s watched the business side of entertainment up close. Don Bluth isn’t moralizing from a distance; he’s describing a predatory ecology he’s had to navigate, where creative decisions often trail behind the scent of profit.

The line works because it turns an abstract complaint about “commercialism” into a sensory, animal image. “Smell” implies instinct rather than strategy: studios don’t merely choose; they react. The shark metaphor finishes the job. Sharks aren’t evil; they’re efficient, inevitable, and indifferent. That’s the subtext: the problem isn’t a few bad executives, it’s an industry design where capital flows toward whatever is already bleeding attention - trends, franchises, test-marketed IP - and away from risk. Blood in the water is a new fad, a breakout hit, a demographic spike, a merchandising angle. The moment it appears, the swarm arrives.

Bluth’s context sharpens the critique. Coming out of Disney and later positioning himself as an alternative voice in animation, he saw firsthand how fragile originality can be when it’s forced to justify itself quarterly. His choice of metaphor is also a warning to fellow artists: don’t expect the system to protect craft for craft’s sake. If you want space for something personal, strange, or unproven, you may have to build it outside the feeding frenzy - or learn how to survive inside it without becoming the bait.