First shot of animation: Nicodemus writing in his exposition tome

During the production of The Fox and the Hound, Don Bluth resigned to form his own animation studio, and took around a dozen other animators with him. This is that studio’s first feature.

You can’t go two minutes in this movie without some technical flourish that gets animation nerds excited. The lighting, the splashes seen from underwater, reflections and refractions, the Great Owl’s cobweb cape; I could never list them all. Maybe the most impressive is maintaining the length and weight and tension of strings and ropes. It’s even the entire last shot, just to rub it in.

But what the kids would really notice is the grotesquery, the blood, and the constant threat of death. Disney hadn’t killed anybody in a feature since Maleficent maybe? Over 20 years before? And nobody ever bleeds. It’s all the work of people with a point to prove.

And in the end it’s fine. It took the company they left five movies of innovation and experimentation to make a truly great one, so there’s nothing wrong with fine. But in the push to make every scene dazzle, and every plot beat weave together in setups and payoffs, there’s no heart. It’s missing the undefinable magic that sets a real classic apart. Again, the Mouse hasn’t brought it either in a long time. But I had hopes. Elizabeth Harriman’s voice performance is fantastic, and nearly lifts the whole movie to that point, but there’s nothing to meet her. Just a little wonder, please.

If I’m including former employees making animated films in direct response to their time at Disney, does that mean Shrek goes on the list? Do I have to watch Shrek?