I enjoyed a thirty year career in the business of Motion Picture and Television (traditional-hand drawn) Animation, four of those early years with the Don Bluth Studio. I joined the Studio just a few months after the group's departure from Disney, and it was on the strength of viewing "Banjo The Woodpile Cat" for the first time on cable television in 1979 that inspired me to apply with them. I had been working at Hanna-Barbera Studio on their next-to-last feature: "Heidi's Song", and felt I was not learning what I really needed to know about executing the classical form of animation techniques on display in beloved features such as Disney's Bambi, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty; and the myriad of films that came out of the Max Fleischer Studio in the thirties and forties. "Banjo" had all the qualities of the kind of animation I had been wanting to make. I was hired on in 1980 to Key-Assist on the "Secret Of NIMH", and so began a new, glorious career in Animation! "Banjo" is a milestone in contemporary animation history, for so many reasons. Many of those reasons are all detailed on the second supplementary disc of this DVD set, which is exceptional! The documentaries offer information that even I was previously unaware of! Great behind-the-scenes footage and photos, circa-1979. And Don Bluth's personal encouragement to the young animators of today throughout the supplemental material is well-worth repeated viewing! Any student of today's forms of animation could benefit from this well-constructed look at "Banjo" and it's making, an important component of American Traditional-Animation History. Please enjoy!Philo Barnhart.........
