Waking Sleeping Beauty is a 2009 American documentary film directed by Disney film producer Don Hahn and produced by Hahn and former Disney executive Peter Schneider. The film documents the history of Walt Disney Feature Animation from 1984 to 1994, covering the rise of a period referred to as the Disney Renaissance.
The film uses no new on-camera interviews, instead relying primarily on archival interviews, press kit footage, in-progress and completed footage from the films being covered, and personal film/videos shot (often against company policy) by the employees of the animation studio.
The documentary is narrated by animator and film producer Don Hahn, with numerous audio interviews from company animators and executives.
The documentary begins in the early 1980s, when The Walt Disney Company was led by Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron W. Miller. Many new animators had joined the company after graduating from CalArts, but were hired in a time where animation was considered a dying art. Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew and son of Disney co-founder Roy O. Disney, resigned from the company during a corporate takeover attempt by Saul Steinberg, which led to Miller's ousting. Roy returned to the company as vice-chairman of the board of directors, and chairman of the animation department. Roy installed Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, respectively, as the company's new CEO and President.
Eisner hired Jeffrey Katzenberg as head of the film division, but he proved to be a controversial figure, moving the animation department to an off-site location in Glendale, California. Roy hired Peter Schneider to be President of Walt Disney Feature Animation, who helped modernize the animation process. Losing at the box office to animated films released by Don Bluth, a former studio animator who left in 1979 to found his own company, Disney began producing new animated films to be released at a pace of one per year, and also began to release its classic films in the new home videovideocassette formats. A gong show in the company led to the green-lighting of numerous film projects. The production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, though expensive for Disney, proved to be a huge financial success, along with Oliver & Company.
At the production crew's wrap party screening of Beauty and the Beast, Eisner announced that a new animation building would be built on the studio lot as a reward for their hard work, but Katzenberg was unaware of this. In 1994, The Lion King was released and became another box office success for Disney. Katzenberg expected to become the new company president following the death of Frank Wells, but was denied the position by Eisner, eventually leading to his resignation; he later would go on to co-found future animation, film, TV, gaming, and music rival DreamWorks Pictures.
The film is dedicated to the memory of Howard Ashman, former Disney President and chief operating officer Frank Wells, animator Joe Ranft, and Roy E. Disney.
Reception
Waking Sleeping Beauty has received generally positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 71% based on 51 critics. The site's general consensus is, "[The film] doesn't probe as deep – or tell as many hard truths – as it could have, but Don Hahn's look at Disney's rebirth offers a fascinating and surprisingly candorous glimpse into the studio's past."[4]Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 70 based on 18 critics.[5]
It earned a Special Achievement Award at the 2010 Annie Awards and was given an ASIFA Honorary Fellowship Of Merit.[citation needed]
