With the news that Don Bluth’s films for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, An American Tail and The Land Before Time, were due for release on DVD from Universal, I asked via the Don Bluth Website about Amblin’s cutting ties with the Bluth Group, why they are not involved in the disc production process, and what aspect ratio we should really be watching these films in. Don’s producer partner Gary Goldman was kind enough to answer all these queries and more – also revealing the behind-the-scenes material that could have been put into a collectors edition. Here’s the word from the man himself:
“Ben, Thank you for writing.
We heard that there will be a DVD released on January 20th, 2004. We are not aware of the format. We have not been included in any discussions of the release of this film on DVD. We would agree that the DVD would be great if it had a choice of letter box and/or full-screen versions. Personally, I would prefer the letter box, showing the full 1:1.85 theatrical version. But, we are not part of this presentation. We would have also agreed to do a Producer/Director commentary but then, no one asked.
There is a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ art work that is archived at Universal/Amblin, that could have been shown on the the DVD and they could include the trailers from Universal and the promo pieces done for Sears and MacDonalds’ TV ads. There were also some great PR photography that was shot during the production that could be used with a good script and narration. Plus a ton of video taped interviews with Don, Gary and John during the press junket done domestically. Not sure who at Universal is producing the DVD material. Maybe it is just going to be a straight transfer from the original video master. You should be asking the folks at Amblin or MCA Home Entertainment.
Actually, we do not remember a “rift”. We had a two-picture contract with Universal and Amblin’. It was a good relationship. Steven liked our work. During LBT, Steven was very busy with his own films, like Emperor of the Sun and was at distant locations during the Land production. He still managed to send notes on the storyboards we submitted. When they decided to do An American Tail II, we were approached to do the film, however, at the same budget as the first An American Tail. That budget was about $9.6M., done between January of 1985 and October, 1986. The Land Before Time’s budget was $14M., done between June, 1986 and October, 1988. We responded that we could not cut the costs of production without cutting the crew’s salaries. This, we would not do. They said fine, there were no negotiations, no further dialogue and, they elected to start their own studio in London. I believe it was called Amblimation or Universal Cartoon. Our understanding is that An American Tail II: Fievel Goes West (1991), cost $25M to do in London. Our next film was All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989). We did it on a budget of $13.8M., in Dublin, Ireland. We still do not know what we did to cause a split in the collaboration.
The original negative [for An American Tail] was shot at full aperture or 1:1.33. I believe that the dupe negative used for creating the release prints was matted to the standard 1:1.85 for the theaters. The video was created from an IP (inter-positive) protection master which came from the original negative. The film was shot at the full academy aperture, 1:1.33 and screened theatrically at 1:1.85. The video is at the full aperture (1:1.33) and does cut off some of the east and west areas on your monitor. The clipped (1:1.85) version actually removes areas at the north and south of the frame, giving you the wide-screen appearance. The laser disc versions are the correct aspect ratio, shot for the original negative. Regards.”
