DON BLUTH AND THE HAND OF THE ARTIST

Striking the right balance of mood between light and darkness is important when you’re painting an image, and equally important in how the story and world are conveyed. Tony grew up watching Disney classics, but the studio had lost its way in the 80s. For him, it was former Disney artist Don Bluth who nailed it – tonally and aesthetically – in the Dragon’s Lair arcade game and the feature film, The Secret of NIMH.

“I haven’t read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH in a long time, so maybe now I’d be more sceptical, but at the time I felt Bluth captured the weirdness of Nicodemus, the spooky scene with the great owl, and the humour of Jeremy the crow. It was so full of life,” says Tony.

He also loves the sketchy quality of the animation and how you can see the construction lines momentarily, here and there on cels, echoing Disney’s xerographic animation process of the 60s and 70s. “It’s not so polished. You feel the artist’s hand in it,” adds Tony.

I felt Bluth captured the weirdness of Nicodemus […] the humour of Jeremy the crow. It was so full of life

NO PLACE TO HIDE One of Tony’s favourites is Don Bluth’s cel art from the 1983 arcade game Dragon’s Lair.

THE SECRET OF NIMH This Don Bluth-directed animation made a big impact on Tony in the early 1980s.