"Usually with things, you go where you can find the financing to do it"
About this Quote
Don Bluth is stating a hard truth about creative work: the path of a project is often dictated less by inspiration than by the availability of capital. For artists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs alike, ideas do not move on passion alone. They move where backing, tax incentives, and willing partners make the leap possible. That realism shaped Bluths own career. After leaving Disney in 1979 to champion more classical, artist-led animation, he repeatedly had to anchor his ideals to whoever would fund them.
The pattern is unmistakable. When traditional studios were wary, he turned to the arcade industry with Dragon's Lair, using LaserDisc technology because game companies had money when film investors did not. When major backing arrived through Steven Spielberg, he made An American Tail and The Land Before Time, proving that financing can unlock both creative freedom and mass reach. In the mid-1980s he moved operations to Ireland, drawn by investors and state support that made an independent animation studio viable. Later, he joined forces with Fox in Arizona for Anastasia, again following the capital to a new hub.
The line is not a surrender of artistic standards; it is a recognition that art is a material practice requiring teams, time, and tools. Financing shapes not only what gets made but where talent clusters, which styles are nurtured, and which risks are tolerated. It also reveals a tension: the need to secure funds can bend a vision toward market expectations, yet without that support the vision never reaches an audience at all.
Bluths career demonstrates that pragmatism can serve principle. By going where the financing existed, he protected a commitment to hand-drawn storytelling through decades of shifting tastes and technologies. The lesson is sober and empowering at once: adapt your route without abandoning your destination, because sustainability is the bridge between an idea and its realized form.
The pattern is unmistakable. When traditional studios were wary, he turned to the arcade industry with Dragon's Lair, using LaserDisc technology because game companies had money when film investors did not. When major backing arrived through Steven Spielberg, he made An American Tail and The Land Before Time, proving that financing can unlock both creative freedom and mass reach. In the mid-1980s he moved operations to Ireland, drawn by investors and state support that made an independent animation studio viable. Later, he joined forces with Fox in Arizona for Anastasia, again following the capital to a new hub.
The line is not a surrender of artistic standards; it is a recognition that art is a material practice requiring teams, time, and tools. Financing shapes not only what gets made but where talent clusters, which styles are nurtured, and which risks are tolerated. It also reveals a tension: the need to secure funds can bend a vision toward market expectations, yet without that support the vision never reaches an audience at all.
Bluths career demonstrates that pragmatism can serve principle. By going where the financing existed, he protected a commitment to hand-drawn storytelling through decades of shifting tastes and technologies. The lesson is sober and empowering at once: adapt your route without abandoning your destination, because sustainability is the bridge between an idea and its realized form.
Quote Details
| Topic | Business |
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