Editing Don Bluth (section)

=== Early work ===
After graduating high school,<ref>{{cite web |title=Don Bluth University - About Don Bluth |url=https://www.donbluthuniversity.com/about.html |website=Don Bluth University website |access-date=5 April 2025}}</ref> Bluth was hired in 1955 by [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]] as an assistant to [[John Lounsbery]] for ''[[Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)|Sleeping Beauty]]''. In 1957, Bluth left Disney, recalling he found the work to be "kind of boring".{{sfn|Cawley|1990|page=[http://www.cataroo.com/DBbio.html 13]}} For two and a half years, Bluth resided in [[Argentina]] on a [[missionary (LDS Church)|mission]] for [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]. He returned to the United States where he opened a local theater in [[Culver City, California|Culver City]], producing musicals such as ''[[The Music Man]]'' and ''[[The Sound of Music]]''.<ref name=NYTimes8.1.76/>

Bluth returned to college and earned a degree in English literature from Brigham Young University. In 1964, Bluth illustrated ''Affairs of the Harp'', a [[harp]] maintenance manual by Samuel O Pratt, with dozens of anthropomorphic cartoon harp characters he called "Harpoons".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pratt |first1=Samual O |others=Illustrated by Don Bluth |title=Affairs of the Harp |date=1964 |publisher=Charles Colin |location=New York}}</ref> In 1967, Bluth returned to the animation industry, and joined [[Filmation]] working on layouts for ''[[The Archie Show]]'' and ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1970 TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''.<ref name=NYTimes8.1.76/> In 1971, he returned full-time to Disney as an animation trainee. His first project was ''[[Robin Hood (1973 film)|Robin Hood]]'', in which he animated sequences of [[Robin Hood (Disney character)|Robin Hood]] stealing gold from [[John of England|Prince John]], rescuing a rabbit infant, and romancing [[Maid Marian]] near a waterfall.<ref name="MormonInfluence">{{cite book|last=Hunter|first=James Michael|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5oM1B1VE-yMC&q=eric+larson+robin+hood&pg=PA59|title=Mormons and Popular Culture: The Global Influence of an American Phenomenon|chapter=The Mormon Influence at Disney|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Praeger]]|year=2012|pages=58–61|isbn=978-0-313-39167-5}}</ref> For ''[[Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too]]'', he animated [[Rabbit (Winnie-the-Pooh)#Disney adaptations|Rabbit]] alongside John Lounsbery.<ref name="MormonInfluence"/> During production on ''[[The Rescuers]]'', Bluth was promoted to directing animator alongside the remaining members of [[Disney's Nine Old Men]]. He then worked as an animation director on ''[[Pete's Dragon (1977 film)|Pete's Dragon]]''. His last involvement with Disney was the short ''[[The Small One]]''. Meanwhile, he produced his first independent film, ''[[Banjo the Woodpile Cat]]''.