Because my department was immediately able to release Banjo in 16mm, we required still photos, slides and other materials from Bluth. We had a small staff, so when it came time to request these things I made the call to Gary Goldman and immediately hit it off with him. He invited me to visit the studio if I ever came to Los Angeles and I took him up on his offer.

The following summer I vacationed in L.A. and San Diego, but the highlight of my trip was visiting the Bluth studio, then heavily into production on NIMH. The feeling of optimism was infectious. This wasn't just an animated feature, it was a cause. I came away knowing I had to do more to help.

A Full-Fledged "Bluthie"
Back in New York, I connected with NIMH's unit publicist and concocted a slide presentation on the film which I presented at comic book conventions on the East and West Coasts. I was a full-fledged "Bluthie," preaching the gospel to whoever would listen.

In Spring 1982, I visited Bluth one more time and got a look at the most complete version of the film that one could see: the entire leica reel, mostly in color, except for the final reel. I was so happy to see this much incredible footage, I never asked about the final reel; besides, it gave me something to look forward to when the film was finished. But I should have suspected something. When I finally saw the finished film a few weeks later at a press screening, I was disappointed.

But the studio still held such promise. MGM/UA did a lousy job releasing the film, doing it regionally instead of nationally all on the same date. Summer 1982 also saw the release of Steven Spielberg's E.T. The xtraterestrial, which blew away all other family entertainment. The Secret of NIMH failed at the box office.

That failure caused Aurora to back out of producing Bluth's next film, East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Bluth's studio stayed alive animating two innovative video games, Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which created a short-lived sensation in the summer of 1984. Luckily, through Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote the music for NIMH, Spielberg caught on to Bluth and An American Tail was released in 1986.

Dragon's Lair.	Space Ace.	Xanadu.
Images courtesy of Jerry Beck.

Xanadu, The Secret of NIMH, Dragon's Lair and Space Ace pointed toward a potential that has not been realized by the subsequent Bluth productions. But it was Bluth, Goldman, Pomeroy and 11 other renegades from Disney who, in 1979, caused a chain reaction which led to today's feature animation boom. They shared a dream for animation's future which has just begun to happen.

Jerry Beck is Vice President Animation, Nickelodeon Movies, in New York. He is also an animation historian, whose most recent book was The 50 Greatest Cartoons (Turner Publishing).