“The real heartbeat of this company was, is, and will always be, the film business.” – Roy E. Disney
A few months ago I caught wind of a Disney project that’s excited me more than I can remember in years, more so even than hearing that Disney was to return to its hand-drawn fairy tales with “Princess and the Frog.”
Any of my anticipation for upcoming Disney projects is always tempered by wariness; I know that due to nostalgia it’s unlikely that I will ever feel the same way about new Disney films as the ones with which I grew up. Perhaps because of that, or because the studio hasn’t quite returned to form yet, a small part of me always feels uncertain about Disney’s new releases.
Except for this one. Back when I first heard about “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” I knew I couldn’t wait to see it. Now that the first official trailer’s been released, I’m counting down the days until the film’s release on March 26.
The only thing that comes close to my affection for the films of Disney’s renaissance (the near decade between “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lion King”) is hearing the stories behind the making of those movies. That’s exactly what “Waking Sleeping Beauty” is about.
The documentary by Don Hahn, producer of “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “The Lion King,” and more, chronicles the animation giant’s struggles to climb back to the top of its field after its downslide in the 80s.
I’ve set the scene before: in the mid-80s, frustrated by a series of flops, the atmosphere at Disney’s Animation Studio was grim. Enter Roy E. Disney, who brought with him a new regime and new era to his uncle’s company.
But his isn’t the only name vital to this period, and “Waking Sleeping Beauty” employs modern-day interviews and archive footage to tell the story of the people who made Disney great again. Newly-minted CEO Michael Eisner, his then right-hand man and studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hahn himself, John Lasseter, director Henry Selick, and more, most importantly the men and women of the Disney Animation Studio, all get a focus in the film.
What I’m really excited for is the behind-the-scenes glimpses of Disney animation during its creative resurgence. The trailer teases with a few clips: an October 1984 pitch meeting for “The Little Mermaid,” as the opening beats to “Under the Sea” are described for perhaps the very first time; animators curled in sleep between cubicles in the studio, exhausted from the long hours of refurbishing the Disney name; a very young Tim Burton and John Lasseter fooling around with a home video camera.
Over President’s Day weekend I rewatched “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “Mulan” with my sister-in-law. We found so much to love in those films, singing along with songs we’ve had memorized since our childhood, and discussing new points and moments we’d never noticed until we were adults.
I take back what I said earlier: what I’m most excited for in “Waking Sleeping Beauty” isn’t the behind-the-scenes footage, but the chance it will give everyone involved in that period of the Disney Animation Studio’s history some of the recognition they truly deserve.
Twenty years since “The Little Mermaid” and others were first released, and I’m still spending cozy weekends with my family loving these films, and I’m glad all Disney fans will now get the chance to see more of the people they have to thank for such moments.
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