Don Bluth's company had been driven to bankruptcy twice: once, as Don Bluth Productions, after the disappointing box office take of "The Secret of NIMH" coincided with an animator's strike; and again, as the Bluth Group, after the Video game crash of 1983—when Cinematronics, in an attempt to cut its losses, charged fees and royalties of over $3 million ($ adjusted for inflation) to Bluth's company while it was working on a sequel to the laserdisc-based animated arcade videogame "Dragon's Lair".