Don Bluth has made some amazing and iconic movies.
Though they were marketed towards children, there were a lot of dark
themes in his films. One of the most common of which was seeing the heroes fight for survival,
which leads us to our topic for today. Who had the most gruesome end in Bluth’s movies?
I’m Brad with WickedBinge and this is Don Bluth Deaths: Gruesome to Most Gruesome.
Starting off this list we have the characters that had Sudden and/or Painless deaths.
Our gold medal of least gruesome death goes to the lovable mutt Charlie for his return to Heaven.
After losing his life the first time, Charlie had spent a majority of All Dogs go to Heaven
protecting the clock that held his time on Earth. However, when Anne-Marie was at risk of drowning,
Charlie made the choice to save her rather than himself. Though it was a heart-breaking scene to
watch Charlie say goodbye to Anne-Marie, it was clear he was content with passing over.
Following is our silver medal for most gruesome death with Itchy. After his passing in the second
film, Itchy and Charlie were given a chance to return to Earth. While Charlie was more than happy
to return and be with Sasha and David, Itchy had other plans. He decides to part ways with Charlie,
returning to Heaven alone and awaiting Charlie’s death again. Like with Charlie in the end of the
first All Dogs go to Heaven movie, it's an emotional yet pleasant exchange of goodbyes.
Taking our bronze medal of most gruesome death is Sam Tucker. Since this was an
offscreen death, we had to place this as one of the least gruesome. All we know for sure
is that Sam was eventually hunted down by the Drej and that his death was confirmed.
Next up we have another listing from Titan AE:
Preed. Preed was more than happy to betray the Titan if it meant an easy buck or two.
After siding with the Drej, he helps to hunt down Cale and the others in order to keep them
from interfering with the Drejs' plans. While he's distracted by Cale, Preed is grabbed from
behind and his neck is snapped. While it's a brutal murder, it was also relatively quick.
Titan AE was clearly one of the darkest films Don Bluth made because we have another death to
mention: Cook. After he offers information on where he saw Cale and Korso heading,
Cook is shot by the Drej. It would have been a scary encounter, but it was an easy death.
Finally we have the people of Earth that had been unable to escape the Drej attack.
While many were able to be sent into space and away from the carnage, there were millions of
others who weren't so lucky. We had to place this tragedy as one of the least gruesome due to how
quickly the attack occurred and how many people were likely unaware as to what was taking place.
In this section we’ll be covering those that met their end through Impacts and Crushing.
We wanted to mention a very small character for this next spot:
the spider that attempted to kill Mrs Brisby. This scene
was most certainly responsible for causing a lot of kids to become terrified of spiders.
Seeing that thing drooling as it silently stalked Mrs Brisby through the dark was chilling and put
viewers on the edge of their seat the first time they watched it. However, as soon as it looks
like it was going for the kill,, the spider is seen crushed by The Great Owl's talons.
We’ve already mentioned Charlie’s return to Heaven, but how did he get there in the
first place? Charlie had escaped death row only to be betrayed by his former partner
Carface. After getting Charlie as drunk as he could, Carface and his lackey Killer push an
old car to hit our favorite mutt. Since the scene was edited to not show Charlie actually being hit,
it’s hard to say if he died before or after he hit the water. With the footage we currently have,
we have to make the call that he died on impact before the car kept going off the dock.
The following spot goes to Nicodemus. As the rats are assisting in moving Mrs Brisby’s home,
Jenner moves to kill the older rat. Once the home was hovering above Nicodemus,
Jenner cut the ropes, sending everything crashing down with Nicodemus caught below.
Though Justin led a party to quickly rush and try and save their fallen leader,
we see for ourselves that it was too late. The wise old rat was already dead.
Next up we have the main antagonist from The Pebble and the Penguin:
Drake. After having his plans foiled, Drake lashes out by picking up a large boulder and launching it
at Hubie. In his anger, however, Drake failed to notice the tower becoming structurally unsound.
In his final moments, we see him look up and see the pile of rocks tumbling down.
He was unable to escape and we are left to witness him getting crushed as the tower fell into ruins.
No matter how strong of a hero or villain you are,
having a serious Lack of Air will ultimately do anyone in.
First up in this section is Itchy. Itchy's death wasn't one we got to see,
but it is confirmed that he choked to death on a drumstick. While we didn't witness Itchy's panic
in his final moments, it isn't hard to figure out how frightening of an experience it was.
Luckily all we see is Itchy's immediate arrival into Heaven where he's told that he died,
and Itchy takes well to the afterlife. As scary as his actual death was,
it looks as though it happened too fast for Itchy to really process what happened.
Our next spot goes to the evil and fearsome Rasputin. When he first declares revenge,
Rasputin watched on with delight as the family he believed shamed him was massacred. When he
spotted Anastasia and her grandmother fleeing, he tried ambushing them and grabbing the small girl.
Unfortunately for Rasputin, ice can only hold so many people and he sunk into the frigid depths.
Finally we have the Sharptooth from The Land Before Time.
Though the massive predator was presumed dead after facing Littlefoot’s mom,
this beast managed to survive until the end of the film. When our heroes had finally had
enough of running, they concocted a plan to send the Sharptooth to a watery grave.
Though we now have evidence that t-rex were good enough swimmers, that huge boulder crushing them
and falling from that height would have definitely thrown any one off.
While these are technically childrens’ films,
there have been a couple of times we’ve seen someone die after a Brawl.
While the Drej killed a lot of the Titan members, that doesn't mean they didn't have casualties on
their side. During the final scenes, Drej are shot from the sky and killed in the heat of battle.
As we don't really form a relationship with the Drej like we do the main cast,
we aren't able to rank the deaths as more gruesome. Yes, battlefields are bloody
even in a sci-fi setting, but the deaths of the Drej soldiers are treated like shooting
down mindless zombies. They don't really give any indicator of pain or suffering once they're shot.
Though the Sharptooth survived to the end of the movie, the same can’t be said
for Littlefoot’s mother. This scene not only took its place as one of the most
tragic deaths in animated history, but also one of the most graphic fights in children’s film.
During this fight, we see a huge chunk of Littlefoot’s mother torn from her back.
Considering the t-rex had leapt onto her and gotten a few good blows in, we can only imagine
the internal damage she took. Not to mention the fact that she wasn't given any time to
rest and had to attempt to flee the divide of the earthquake with her son. Once the dust settled,
we see Littlefoot seeking out his mother. This would imply that her injuries were so severe that
she collapsed while Littlefoot kept running, leaving him to have to turn back to find her.
Just like with Charlie, we had to have two mentions for Rasputin. Rasputin had attempted
to turn the tables when finally facing Anastasia again, setting things up to send her into the
waters. However, he was so busy gloating and keeping Demetri from diving in after her,
Rasputin failed to notice the lost princess hadn’t fallen. Instead, Anya was able to get ahold of the
relic that hed Rasputin’s power. When it was destroyed, Rasputin didn’t get a peaceful end.
Instead his very being was ripped apart until nothing remained.
Our next spot goes to Sullivan. After Mrs Brisby tries to warn everyone about NIMN coming to the
farm, Jenner attacks her. Sullivan gained Justin's attention to try and protect Mrs Brisby from their
former friend before retrieving Justin's sword for him. Getting too close to the maddened Jenner,
Sullivan is slashed and violently thrown across the mud. After Jenner attempted to kill Justin,
Sullivan used the last of his strength to stop his former boss.
He then slumped into the mud with his final breath.
Our last spot in this section goes to Jenner. Jenner was eager to hold his power over the
rest of the rats after his successful murder of Nicodemus. When Mrs Brisby threatened all that he
gained, Jenner drew his sword and attacked. The conflict drew the attention of Justin who came
to Mrs Brisby’s aid. Though Justin fatally wounded Jenner, he ultimately let the traitorous rat live.
It wound up being a bad call to make as Jenner used the opportunity to try and kill Justin while
his guard was down. Thankfully, Jenner's former accomplice Sullivan delivered the final blow.
Jenner's downfall was a dagger impaled deep into his back. It was a fitting
end considering his own betrayal to Nicodemus and the other rats of NIMH.
With so many animal characters, it was inevitable that we would have
a section for our Hunted and/or Eaten characters.
Our first ranking in this section goes to Mrs. Brisby’s husband, Johnathon. This scene isn’t
shown in the movie, but Johnathon’s death was confirmed by The Great Owl.
Johnathon had apparently tried to drug the farmcat Dragon and was caught, leading to him being eaten.
As we've seen Dragon on the hunt in this movie, we have to write Johnathon’s death as a terrifying
one. We don't get much personality development with Dragon but it would be safe to assume that
like most cats, he would have toyed around with his pray. Picturing a wounded Johnathon
batted back and forth just for trying to protect his loved ones is a gut-wrenching image.
Taking the next spot is Carface. We had almost considered placing him in our brawl section,
as he did get into a fight with Charlie. But ultimately what killed him
was King Gator. Once Carface fell into the water, he was an easy meal for one of the world's most
vicious predators. We don't actually see Carface being devoured, but the implication was clear.
Especially since the next film opens with both Carface and Charlie in Heaven together.
We felt it was worth mentioning the people and the mice in the beginning of American Tail.
In the first few minutes of this film, we see a distinct comparison between the people and the
mice of the region. As soon as Fival's father began talking about how there weren't any cats
running around in America, they arrived. As the mice are seen fleeing from the terrible felines,
people are shown shot dead. Homes are set ablaze and for several minutes all we hear is screaming
and growling. The cats are shown hunting down the rodents as if it was a sporting event,
sporting wicked grins on their faces as they cornered their prey.
Taking the following ranking is the Romanov family. While we don’t see every member of
the family hunted down, we do see the brute force behind the mob as they stormed the
palace. We see the people with ropes and guns charging through the halls and sending the
royal family running. Luckily Anastasia and her mother had been able to escape,
but we can only imagine the terror the others had faced. Even Demetri, who wasn't a target
of the mob, was beaten down with the butt of a gun for not giving away where the royals fled.
Finally we have the deaths of those that died through some form of Torture.
We already covered Carface's first death, but we have another to mention.
After he returned to Earth and began working for Red, Carface wound up sealing his fate.
As boring as he and Charlie claimed Heaven to be, a little excitement was not worth being drug
to Hell. When Red is defeated by Charlie using Gabriel's horn, Carface gets cocky. He makes
the mistake of getting too close to where Red was sucmed down into Hell and winds up being grabbed
by a minion. Though Carface tries to scramble away, he is pulled below and never seen again.
Our bronze medal of most gruesome death goes to the Drej Queen. who was destroyed and absorbed by
Titan. On the cusp of victory, we see the Queen caught in the crossfire as her energy is used
against her own people. Like with Rasputin, we see her torn apart until nothing is left.
Our silver medal of most gruesome goes to our last entry from Titan AE: Joseph Korso. Korso was
an interesting character to say the least and his death was bittersweet. After betraying his friends
earlier in the film, Korso becomes remorseful of his actions and decides to sacrifice himself.
Already wounded from an attack, Korso uses himself as a conductor, allowing the Drej to be defeated.
Finally taking the gold medal of most gruesome, we have the lab rats in The Secret of NIMH.
When The Great Owl reveals Johnathon’s past to Mrs Brisby, we see a grim portrayal of the
life of a lab rat. We see them injected with various substances and left to suffer through
whatever side-effects would occur. What made it all the more brutal was knowing the rats were
gaining intelligence and becoming more aware of their circumstances with each passing day.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking. And tell us
what we should cover next. Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Most
Gruesome playlist. Where we break down the most gruesome moments in your favorite cartoons,
shows and movies. But most importantly, stay wicked.