The spectacular animated world of U.S. filmmaker Don Bluth is the focus of Episode 82, with Chris and Alex journeying to the Great Valley for this discussion of The Land Before Time (Don Bluth, 1988). Joining them is Dr Mark Witton, vertebrate palaeontologist and palaeoartist (based at the University of Portsmouth), who is best known for his scientific research and illustrations around the habits and behaviors of pterosaurs, as well as his consultancy work with museums and on the BBC television series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) and Planet Dinosaur (2011). Listen as they discuss the importance of Bluth to the landscape of 1980s animation, including his work as a stylistic and ideological forbearer to the Disney Renaissance; The Land Before Time as a collision between mid-/late-twentieth century dinosaur science; the long history of ‘marketing’ dinosaurs that first began in the 1850s within a number of cultural institution and museum exhibits (especially in London and, later, across the U.S.); the storytelling structures and segmentation of the film’s framing journey narrative; Bluth’s tone and characterisation of the dinosaurs that falls back on the physicality and physiology of modern dinosaur images, including discourses of ‘monsterisation’ that have marked several media depictions; the problems of animating science and the artists’ creative latitude in constructing dinosaur performances; and why so many filmmakers across animation history have been continually drawn to the figure of the dinosaur as a creature of fascination.
Footnote #48 - Visual Effects
Dungeons & Dragons - The Fantasy Adventure Board Game (with Cat Mahoney)
Footnote #47 - Aura
Toy Story (1995) (with Lucy Fife Donaldson)
Footnote #46 - Multiplanarity
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) (with Sarah Thomas)
Footnote #45 - The Disney Renaissance (with Peter Kunze)
Beauty and the Beast (1991) (with Peter Kunze)
Footnote #44 - Hanna-Barbera (with Jared Bahir Browsh)
The Flintstones (1960-1966) (with Jared Bahir Browsh)
Footnote #43 - Disney Princesses (with Robyn Muir)
Wish (2023) (with Robyn Muir)
Footnote #42 - Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Footnote #41 - Canons
Life, Animated (2016) (with Janet Harbord)
Footnote #40 - Puppetry
The Dark Crystal (1982) (with Tanya Kirk)
Arthur Christmas (2011)
Footnote #39 - Special Effects
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