Episode 201 - TITAN A.E.

Don Bluth's directorial swan song Titan A.E. straddles the line between two eras of animation, merging  hand-drawn and computer-generated visuals to create a look befitting its extremely-Y2K style, soundtrack, and overall attitude.

We blast off with John Parton and Ace Cordova to chart a course for the future of humanity...or at least the future of big-budget epics from animation auteurs!

Titan A.E. (2000)
Directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman
Written by Ben Edlund, John August, and Joss Whedon
Story by Hans Bauer and Randall McCormick
Starring Matt Damon, Drew Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, Ron Perlman, Tone Loc, and John Leguizamo

Episode 165 - ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN

Arriving to mixed reception upon release and with stiff competition from a juggernaut of the Disney canon, All Dogs Go to Heaven is a film whose dark sensibilities nonetheless left an indelible mark on young minds of a certain age. But you can't keep these good dogs down, as further examination unearths the occasional moments of haunting beauty contained in this uneven exploration of life, death and resurrection.

Does an intersection between the strong creative voice of Don Bluth and comedic stylings of Burt Reynolds and Dom De Luise make any kind of sense on screen? What exactly are the religious implications of Charlie's ascent to, and rejection of, heaven? And why in the world is there a singing alligator in this movie? Guest hosts Brian Rudloff and Sam Stovold make music together in tackling these questions and more in a very special episode that could only release on April 1st! Treasure it now, because after this you can never come baaaaack.

All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
Directed by Don Bluth
Produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy
Written by David N. Weiss
Starring Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Judith Barsi, Vic Tayback, Loni Anderson, Ken Page, and Charles Nelson Reilly

Episode 118 - THE LAND BEFORE TIME

In the 1980s, the partnership of famed animator Don Bluth and cinema wunderkind Steven Spielberg signaled an evolutionary change in the cartoon business. The Land Before Time was perhaps their most moving collaboration, presenting compassion and friendship as the best antidote to bleakness and despair.

Eric Wheeler of Text Before Calling joins us to recount the film's cataclysmic impact on his young mind and its memorable framing of the Darwinian struggle for survival. Whether you're a longneck, a threehorn, or a bigmouth, it's the perfect way to conclude our Jurassic June series, yep yep yep!

*Fun Fact: This episode is just about the exact length of the actual movie! Theoretically, one could press play on both simultaneously for some sort of weird commentary experience... We haven't tested it ourselves, but perhaps a dedicated listener can report back with the results!

The Land Before Time (1988)
Directed by Don Bluth
Produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas
Written by Stu Krieger
Starring Gabriel Damon, Candace Huston, Judith Barsi, Will Ryan, Helen Shaver, and Pat Hingle

Episode 94 - AN AMERICAN TAIL and FIEVEL GOES WEST

Scrappy cartoon mice are as American as baseball, apple pie, and an abiding sense of optimism that somehow endures constant alienation and glaring injustice. That combination of the wholesome and the serious defines An American Tail, a poignant re-imagining of the immigrant experience from legendary artist Don Bluth and wunderkind executive producer Steven Spielberg that dared to challenge Disney for animated musical supremacy.

Just because you find some success in America, however, doesn't mean you relinquish your underdog status. By the release of the sequel Fievel Goes West, Bluth was gone, Disney was ascendant once more, and the Mousekewitz family was still seeking a better lot in life. It was time to change the approach.

Brian Rudloff joins us for this special double feature episode, as we try to reconcile two very different films with the same core message: somewhere out there, dreams can still come true.

An American Tail (1986)
Directed by Don Bluth
Produced by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy
Written by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss
Starring Phillip Glasser, Amy Green, Nehemiah Persoff, Erica Yohn, John P. Finnegan, Christopher Plummer, Madeline Kahn, and Dom DeLuise

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)
Directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells
Produced by Steven Spielberg and Robert Watts
Written by Flint Dille
Starring Phillip Glasser, Cathy Cavadini, Nehemiah Persoff, Erica Yohn, Dom DeLuise, Amy Irving, John Cleese, and James Stewart