Banjo the Woodpile Cat

Banjo the Woodpile Cat
DVD Film poster
Genre	Animation Short Family
Written by	Don Bluth (uncredited) Toby Bluth (uncredited)
Directed by	Don Bluth
Starring	Sparky Marcus Scatman Crothers Beah Richards Jerry Harper
Music by	Robert F. Brunner
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Don Bluth Gary Goldman John Pomeroy
Editor(s)	Sam Horta
Running time	27 min.
Production company(s)	Don Bluth Productions
Distributor	ABC
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	November 16, 1979

Banjo the Woodpile Cat is a 1979 animated short film directed by Don Bluth. It follows the story of Banjo, an overly curious and rebellious kitten who, after getting into trouble for falling from a house to see if he could land on his feet, runs away from his woodpile home in his owners' farm in Payson, Utah by catching a truck to Salt Lake City. Produced in a shoestring budget, and created in Bluth's garage, the film took four years to make and it was the first production of Don Bluth Productions, later Sullivan Bluth Studios. It had a short theatrical run in December 1979 (being shown in a few theaters in the Los Angeles area as an opening short before a Christmas season re-release of The Muppet Movie.), but did not appear on network television until 1982.

In a woodpile in Payson, Utah during the 1940s, a kitten named Banjo decides to chase chickens around until father eventually stops him and makes him promise not to do it again, though Banjo continues to be mischievous in many ways. After getting in trouble for jumping off the roof of a chicken coop, Banjo decides to run away from home and hitches a ride on a feed truck to Salt Lake City.

In the city, Banjo finds plenty of excitement, followed by a series of danger. When it begins to rain, he finds shelter in a small can in an alley while thinking about his family and how much he misses them. Later, a cat named Crazy Legs discovers Banjo in the can. They strike up a friendship when Crazy Legs tells Banjo that he can go back the same way he got here. During their search, Crazy Legs and Banjo come to a night club and enlist the help of a singing cat trio, as well as other cats to look for the truck. Later that night, while searching for the truck, Banjo and Crazy Legs run into a group of dogs who end up chasing them. After a lengthy chase, the pair escape and drive the dogs away by climbing up a series of boxes. The pair arrive at the singing cats' home and get some rest.

The next morning, Banjo wakes up and hears the driver of the truck out in the street. After some rejoice and many goodbyes, Banjo gets on board and eventually reunites with his family back in Payson.

This film was started as a side project, while Don Bluth was still working at Disney. Bluth had previously considered producing a short film of The Pied Piper but felt it was too large a production. He invited several other young animators to his house on nights and weekends to discover secrets of classical animation that he felt had been lost at Disney. The team worked in Bluth's garage. Bluth, and animators such as Gary Goldman, felt that Disney were only attempting to reduce the cost of films without paying attention to any artistic values. Eventually he resigned from Disney, along with 17 other animators, to finish this film and begin The Secret of NIMH. That bold walk-out caused a delay in the release of Disney's The Fox and the Hound that was in mid-production at the time. The story is partially based on one of Don Bluth's real-life experiences: While living on a farm, his family's cat, who lived in a woodpile nearby, disappeared, only to return to the farm several weeks later.

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