Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Don Bluth Thumbelina Ltd liquidation

I know there are a fair number of ex-Bluthies out there, so this posting on Animation Nation may be of interest . . . Here's the post from Michael on AN, though you should check out the entire thread because others have chimed in with important information: Any creditors (people who are still owed money) of Don Bluth Thumbelina ltd. who think they can produce evidence of a claim against this company ought to get in touch with McStay Luby* as soon as possible. The hearing and adjudication will take place on the 25th May, and all claims must be lodged by the 18th May 2006 The current estimate is that a dividend in the range of 20 - 25% will be paid by the end of this year. This works out at less than 20 - 25% of the original invoice value (which would have been in Irish Punts), because the currency has since been revalued in Euros. *John McStay, Official Liquidator McStay Luby, Chartered accountants Dargan House 21-23 Fenian Street Dublin 2 Ireland Telephone (Ireland) + 353 1 676 3566 Fax (Ireland) +353 1 661 1351 e-mail: rescue@mcstay.ie Good luck with your claim. My thanks to Jane Smethurst (now Jane Wright) for tipping me off about this! I guess 20 to 25 cents on the dollar is better than nothing. Thumbelina is a fascinating movie to watch in small, random doses. Several times I've flipped channels, come onto the movie at some random point, and been briefly fascinated. Such intense, garish colors; such bizarre characters interacting (sometimes in disturbing ways) with beautifully drawn, slavishly rotoscoped humans. The animation also struck me as some of the best in any of the Bluth movies. Without watching it from the beginning, I've never been sure what was supposed to be happening, or even who the antagonists were. Unfortunately, the more I watched Thumbelina, the less interesting it became, and I've never sat through the whole thing, or even seen the beginning. It's always seemed to me that someone could chop the film up, re-edit and re-dub it, and end up with a strange, hallucinatory (and more adult) cartoon that was far more interesting than the actual film. But then, maybe that says more about me than the movie. ADDENDEM: Jeff Massie at the Guild office tells me that this liquidation probably only applies to those who were working in Ireland. If you were working Stateside, you might be out of luck (this is from the union's prior experience trying to help collect money owed to LA animators by Bluth companies). That said, it can't hurt to forward your current address, and hope for the best.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've just spoken with McStay's office and this settlement involves only those working in Dublin for DON BLUTH ENTERTAINMENT LTD.(his Irish company). Those of us who worked in Dublin on Thumbelina and were handed signed IOU's on"Bluth Ltd" letterhead (Therein lies part of the fraud) for each
week we worked are STILL out in the cold along with everybody else who were technically employed by the California "INC." company in California. McStay's office was careful to point out that the Irish Courts still haven't made a final decision on whether to exclude the "INC." employees and will make it within a month. Don't hold your breath...

Kevin Koch said...

Thanks for the info. Jeff Massie at the Guild's office told me after I made this post that, from prior experience in the matter, he expected exactly what you wrote to be the case.

Site Meter