Just as director Don Bluth's cartoon feature, Rock-a-Doodle, jumped to the top of the kidvid charts, several trade papers reported that his company was going belly up. While reps for Don Bluth Entertainment, which helped spark an animation revival with releases like An American Tail (1986), say that accounts of its death have been greatly exaggerated, the company has laid off about 30 L.A. staffers, and 350 employees in Dublin, who are finishing the musical feature Thumbelina, continue to work without pay. (Barry Manilow, who was in Ireland two weeks ago recording his score for the movie, was paid out of Bluth's own pocket, says an insider.) Charting but broke? It seems that in June a DBE financing source demanded that a $50 million investment made last December be guaranteed against the studio's upcoming projects. The Bluth camp counters that the money is a long- term investment, not a short-term loan. Meanwhile, even though an Irish High Court has granted DBE bankruptcy protection, the company has been left with little cash flow. And while Thumbelina's U.S. distributor, MGM/UA, says it's ''thrilled'' with the rough cut, the studio has so far resisted requests to lend Bluth's company the last $4 to $6 million needed to complete the $25 million film.
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