Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)
By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits - "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast ," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and more - over a 10-year period.
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Simply Perfect
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Absolutely the worst movie.
The resurgence of hand-drawn animation in the 1990s, fueled by box-office success but burdened by egos. With animator Don Bluth vacating Disney in 1979, and somewhat unscrupulously taking a large group of artists along with him, the animation arm of the Disney Company was in turmoil in 1980. With disappointing returns from "The Black Cauldron" scalding the Ink and Paint Club denizens, Roy Disney, Walt's nephew and a major supporter of Disney's animated output, brought in Michael Eisner as CEO, who in turn brought in Jeffrey Katzenberg to head up the animation division. While Katzenberg immediately rubbed his artists the wrong way, he managed to get the company on the right track, leading to major successes "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King" in the 1990s. This fascinating documentary from Don Hahn eschews the usual talking-heads format, moving the piece along with home movie footage, news clips, and by individual interview voice-overs from all the principals. For Disney-fanatics, it's a treasure trove of facts and financially-driven fantasy. *** from ****
... from a workers point of view, at Disney as a business and the people running and leading this big-machine-of-a-corporation.From the workers it seems that they were tossed back and fourth. they love their job, but it was and properly still is a very stressful place to work.I didn't know all the facts of when it started, who they had been working with etc. and its really interesting to see that both Pixar and Dreamworks have been "insiders" at Disney from the beginning and themselves brown to so much. Disney have had some difficult years, but is now a very successful business again, it seems to be running smoothly. I can only say, I love all the animations movie, and the ones from Disney have something special, Pixar and Dreamworks have their separate own style today and I love them as well, but there still is something special about a Disney release.I must say, that their feature films of today are also very magical in a Disney kind of way, and that is also great to watch.So to all your that was in this film and to the workers of today and tomorrow, Disney will always have a special place in many of our hearts, and it's because of all you hard working people, those who kept it together and stuck it out in the rough times and those who are still fighting this day today, to make Disney as vivid, groundbreaking and refreshing as it has always been.
A surprisingly open, meticulous walk through the dark days of Disney's legendary animation house. Nearly two decades after Walt's death, the studio's culture was crumbling, with leadership deeply entrenched in the past and a full roster of young challengers nipping at their heels. Through a stunningly thorough collection of time-stamped home video footage and detailed interviews with every major player, (especially impressive considering how many have since passed on) we learn the private story of the studio's darkest hour and celebrate its romantic return to glory. The archival footage alone is astounding stuff, flowing beautifully as a testament to both the unique, energetic personality of the shop and dire circumstances faced by its denizens. That it captured such an important chapter in the company's - and the industry's - long, decorated history is almost too much to believe. Admirably honest, doggedly comprehensive and charmingly human, it's a real eye-opener for anyone with even a passing interest in the stories behind several of animation's watershed moments.
I'm an avid fan of Disney and Disney history. I was elated to hear about this documentary and bought the DVD. Absolutely fascinating subject if you care anything for the history of Disney's place in the entertainment world. It was great to see all the archived footage from the 80s and 90s.My only gripes with this doc is that there's SO much stuff to cover it can't possibly be done with the confines of a feature length. So to me it felt very rushed as they were pushing through subjects and materials really fast. You may think you'll get a lot of John Lasseter in this and Tim Burton but you don't. they only mention Nightmare Before Christmas and move on. A bit dissatisfying for me since I'm fascinated in the outside people who were working for Disney at the time.All in all a great Doc on a fascinating subject. But it felt rushed and leaves out quite a bit of stuff I felt should have been mentioned. Maybe one day Ken Burns will make a doc on the subject and I'll finally get my 10 DVD box set! Until then, it's great for the basics. Still a MUST SEE for Disney fans!!! Go see it!