Alright we saw it yesterday and we ended up really liking it. It was strange to hear the facts behind so many things at the Walt Disney Company during the 80's into the 90's. One major thing was that when they hit rock bottom and they wanted to go to just "live action" movies they kicked out the animators from the studio grounds and made them move to Glendale. All the animators thought they were going to get fired. The movie/documentary was funny, interesting and sad at certain moments. To me it made Jeffrey Katzenberger look like a real jerk most of the film. I thought Michael Eisner was portrayed as someone who really cared about the Disney legacy. I also thought it made Roy Disney the glue of the whole company who kept animation alive. I know he is sometimes referred as the idiot uncle. So untrue. If your a Disney fan then you will certainly enjoy it. Who doesn't love facts about Disney? It also provides clips of how they made the movies, how the songs came together, and the after parties and the hard work it took to make the classics we have grown up on. The most touching moment for me was when Michael Eisner have his eulogy about Frank Wells who was known as the peacemaker of the company. A real touching moment. I was also happy to see some
Disneyland moments of parades and park shots.
I've included a review of the documentary by our local critic from the KC Star. Hope you enjoy it. Can't wait to hear from others who get to see it.
BY ROBERT W BUTLER ---KC STAR NEWSPAPER
Waking Sleeping Beauty will matter only to those who grew up on Walt Disneys animated films.
In other words, all of us.
Don Hahns documentary focuses on a decade in which the all-but-moribund Disney animation department, re-energized by a handful of new movers and shakers, came out of its coma and blazed a path that would lead to The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, among other successes.
The film works on several levels. The judicious use of clips from those great films reminds us of why they became such an essential part of our shared film experiences. Also, this is a story of strange bedfellows and strained friendships that ultimately flew apart.
And it allows us to dwell, if only for a few moments, in the heart of Disney animation, where goofy guys and gals sit at drawing boards and decorate their walls with goofy cartoons and often star in their own goofy home movies.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is also about one of the most influential culture-creating institutions in the world.
By the mid-80s, Disney animation was in such trouble that there was talk of shutting it down and focusing exclusively on live-action films. After all, Splash was a huge hit for the company, while the animated bomb The Black Cauldron failed to earn back half its production costs and was trounced at the box office by The Care Bears Movie.
Board member Roy E. Disney, Walts nephew, agitated for change, persuading his colleagues to approve the appointment of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells to head the company. Eisner soon brought in Jeffrey Katzenberg to oversee film production.
They were the right men at the right time.
Not that it was easy.
From the point of view of the animators and Hahn clearly identifies with them it was a time of low morale and wondering if youd still have a job tomorrow. But Katzenberg, who initially had no interest in animation, quickly became a convert. His storytelling instincts were strong, and he gradually overcame the animators distrust. A few hits will do that.
Although it is financed and distributed by Disney, Waking Sleeping Beauty is far from company puffery. The animators, who felt like pawns in a big corporate game, ameliorated their helplessness by drawing savage caricatures of executives who crossed them. This film reveals these cartoons for the first time.
And the tenuous truce between Eisner, Katzenberg and Roy E. Disney came flying apart with the helicopter crash death in 1994 of Wells, the least egocentric of the four major players and the peacemaker who held it all together. Without him, tempers flared, Katzenberg left and Disney animation drifted into another rocky patch (anyone remember Treasure Planet?).
Hahns film is made up mostly of vintage behind-the-scenes movies and clips from the films and TV shows. The narration is provided by the players themselves, from CEO to lowly cartoon inker, and Hahn provides little dialogue bubbles on the screen to tell us whose voice were hearing. Its a simple but smart device that keeps this film moving at breakneck speed.
Of course, Disney animation is now riding high again as a result of its post-Katzenberg acquisition of Pixar. Maybe in a decade Hahn will make a sequel and bring us up to date.
