Last night HE reader Aaron Lindquist saw Don Hahn and Peter Schneider's Waking Sleeping Beauty, a doc about the re-emergence of Disney animation from the time of '84's The Black Cauldron to '94's The Lion King, at the Art Center College of Design.
Despite an '09 Toronto Film Festival pan by Variety's Rob Nelson, Lindquist calls it "amazing film" that "seems to bring closure to much of the animosity between Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney.
"Their interviews were incredibly candid and filled with dimension, and about such an important period of their lives." he writes. "It seemed a very honest account of Disney Animation from 1984 to 1994 and the work that went into those films and the struggles that went on behind-the-scenes.
"Hahn and Schneider were there for a q & a afterward and mentioned it would be playing at MOMA soon. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.
"The title alludes to Disney animation going from its nadir (like Sleeping Beauty falling under the spell) with the release of The Black Cauldron to its pinnacle with The Lion King. The doc covers the transition of Disney from the failing Ron Miller days to the Eisner-Wells-Katzenberg era and the challenges and triumphs of the animation department throughout that time.
"They literally went from almost being excised from Disney to being the reason the brand endures. All of the footage was shot by Disney employees (John Lasseter among them) over the years, in defiance of strict corporate policy. Not always high quality images, but incredibly candid stuff.
"From what they said at the q & a it seems like Disney is giving it a small release (five theaters) and will then quietly release it on video, which I think is a shame because it's a really good film. I think there are a lot of people who would be interested to see Eisner, Katzenberg, and Disney in a human light because all they've seen is the media spectacle. Here's the film's Facebook page."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 2, 2009 at 12:16 PM
comment #1
Lehigh
says ...
The Rescuers (1977) starts the serious decline, based mainly on the tone of the film. Both it and The Fox and the Hound are respectable films, but a huge tonal change from previous and following Disney films. The great leap forward is from 1988's Oliver & Company (starring Joey Lawrence!) to 1989's The Little Mermaid. The Rescuers Down Under (1990) was a step down from Mermaid, but its animation was less muddy than the 70's version and had a brighter overall tone. Then comes Beauty and the Beast in 1991 and Disney is off and running.
Posted by Lehigh
at December 2, 2009 1:51 PM
comment #2
Mr. F.
says ...
Lehigh is correct -- I know Lion King is the "peak" from a box office point of view... but by the time Disney got there, they'd already been flying high for years after the critical and financial successes of Little Mermaid -> Beauty & the Beast -> Aladdin. Hope those aren't glossed over in the doc.
Posted by Mr. F.
at December 2, 2009 1:55 PM
comment #3
Carl LaFong
says ...
I forgot that OLIVER & COMPANY came after THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE, which I always considered the turning point flick in contemporary Disney animation.OLIVER was very much a throwback to cutesy FOX AND THE HOUND territory, while Basil of Baker Street was a step in the right direction with strong character, direction and that awesome CG clockwork climax (which predates the more famous CG ballroom scene in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST).
Posted by Carl LaFong
at December 2, 2009 2:26 PM
comment #4
le corbeau
says ...
Gotta disagree there Lehigh, I remember how The Rescuers was considered an improvement in wit and animation over the very routine Robin Hood.
Many of the Ron Miller-era films hold up decently. I'd sit through Fox and the Hound over Pocahontas any day, but the main thing is just that they were kind of low energy.
Posted by le corbeau
at December 2, 2009 3:24 PM
comment #5
Lehigh
says ...
Artistically, I can respect Rescuers and Bob Newhart -- but it was very dark and muddy. Low energy is right. Hey, let's make a movie about a girl being kidnapped who has nobody to care for her and we'll have scenes that more depressing than the Diary of Anne Frank! Fox and the Hound is somewhat the same -- good story, but on the whole, depressing. Just like the late 70's.
Is it too Eloi of me to say I want Disney movies that are uplifting and escapist, not down and dreary? Of course, the latest Pixar movies are venturing into that 'real' territory, and I have liked them. I wonder what we'll think of them 30 years from now.
Posted by Lehigh
at December 2, 2009 4:05 PM
comment #6
DeeZee
says ...
Personally, I thought the company's decline began with the Aristocats, because that felt like a cat version of 101 Dalmations and Lady and the Tramp. But really, Disney just couldn't compete with Henson, the Krofts, Bakshi and E.T. It had the same problem as most studios still stuck in the 50s during the 70s, which is that it wasn't very hip to the times. So their comeback had more to do with being incognito long enough for there to be a renewed demand for their output, given that the best we could do without them was that hack Don Bluth. Now, it's Pixar that's suffering that perception.
Lehigh: Oliver+Company was crap. Roger Rabbit was what boosted interest in the Disney brand again.
Carl: The Great Mouse Detective=Castle of Cagliostro with mice.
Posted by DeeZee
at December 2, 2009 5:03 PM
comment #7
thatmovieguy
says ...
"Waking Sleeping Beauty" basically starts with "Black Cauldron" and what a fiasco it was, gives a respectable amount of time to "Great Mouse Detective" (including explaining the reason behind the changing of the title from "Basil of Baker Street") and then moves forward, stopping at "Lion King" and the preparations for "Pocahontas." I thought it was fairly insightful and offered a reasonably frank picture of the tensions within the studio. But I have to say the thing that most shocked me about it was the realization that "Lion King" is now 15 years old and "Little Mermaid" is 20! I think an equally interesting companion piece would be about the post-"Lion King" animated Disneys, which have definitely been a mixed bag. I saw part of "Hercules" on TV the other day; I'd forgotten what a misbegotten mess that film was.
Posted by thatmovieguy
at December 2, 2009 10:13 PM
comment #8
le corbeau
says ...
"Personally, I thought the company's decline began with the Aristocats"
Or Jungle Book; that's where "Create fully realized animated characters" was replaced by "Hire Phil Harris and Pat Buttram to do voices for the big fat ones."
Posted by le corbeau
at December 3, 2009 4:30 AM
comment #9
Movie fan09
says ...
Wasn't the Lion King basically Kimba, the white lion?
http://www.latentimagemagazine.org/8_p7.html
Posted by Movie fan09
at December 3, 2009 8:44 AM
comment #10
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at June 7, 2010 8:47 AM