A boy in 1940s El Paso rode a horse into town to watch Walt Disney films and went home to copy every Disney comic he could find. That boy, Don Bluth, grew up to lead a walkout from the Walt Disney Company that nearly toppled its animation empire. This episode traces his path from in-betweening on Sleeping Beauty in 1955, a mission in Argentina, a musical theater in Culver City and an English degree, to his second Disney stint animating Robin Hood and directing animation on Pete's Dragon.

The conversation examines why he resigned on his 42nd birthday in 1979 with Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy and nine other animators, the industry's first profit-sharing contract on The Secret of NIMH, two bankruptcies, and the laserdisc ingenuity of Dragon's Lair. It follows the move to Dublin that birthed the Irish animation industry, the Spielberg partnership ...