Movie Review - Waking Sleeping Beauty

Waking Sleeping Beauty (2010)

Directed by Don Hahn

Not that a full disclosure is needed for most of my readers, but I am an unabashed Disney nut.  With the exception of the teenage takeover of the Disney Channel, I pretty much love it all -- the movies, the theme parks...you name it, I'm a fan.

Also known to most, Beauty and the Beast is one of my absolute favorite films of all time.  Released in 1991, the film came about at that pivotal point in my childhood when I was beginning to understand the importance of "film" in general and first started to grasp the incredibly detailed work that went into creating an animated (or any type of celluloid) masterpiece.  Seeing as how the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty details the Disney animation renaissance from the mid-1980s through the 1994 release of The Lion King -- or, in other words, a detailed look at my movie-going life from age 6 to 14 -- this flick hits home for me in a way it certainly may not for you.  That being said, the documentary is well made and is an absolute must-see for any animation fan.

Walt Disney created the animated feature film with his release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and he certainly kept this genre going throughout his life.  However, after his death in 1966 and the release of The Jungle Book, animated films started to become second string to Disney's live action division. Films like The Aristocats, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound aren't necessarily bad films, but they aren't fondly remembered in the illustrious Disney canon.  By the time 1985's The Black Cauldron rolled around, Disney's animation department was at odds with itself -- the old-time artists who worked with Walt were clashing a bit with the newer group of budding just-out-of-college animators.  

Not helping matters, the Disney company brass was in the midst of a bit of a shake-up.  Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew longed to get the animation department back to its glory days and believed that it could be saved.  Newly appointed CEO Michael Eisner and COO Frank Wells sided with Roy in that regard, but head of the film division Jeffrey Katzenberger didn't have a huge amount of faith in the animators and found himself focusing more on the possible promotional aspects of films rather than the actual films themselves.  These four corporate honchos found themselves at odds with one another, creating a tug-of-war within the Disney company.  

Surprisingly for a film about Disney, but also released by Disney, the film doesn't exactly paint a perfect picture of the company.  The mid-1980s were a difficult time for all aspects of the Disney corporation.  While there's a "pat on the back" mentality on display in the film that the company got themselves out of the funk, the film also provides an incredibly interesting look at the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that go on at a major motion picture studio (even a motion picture studio as outwardly "pristine" as Disney).

In addition to providing insight into the behind-the-scenes corporate intrigue, Waking Sleeping Beauty is also a love story to the animators, directors, and composers who contributed to Disney's animation renaissance of the late 80's/early 90s.  The amount of work that goes into an animated film (be it Disney or any other) is astounding and this flick gives us just a tiny glimpse at the whole affair.  Placing a large focus on the brilliant lyricist Howard Ashman (whom Roy E. Disney calls a new generation "Walt" in the film), it becomes obvious that "song" and "animation" are two peas in a pod.  While the animators certainly played an enormous role in the success of Disney's animation renewal, Ashman played an integral part of revolutionizing the animation landscape.  One can only wonder what he would have brought to the table had he not passed away much too soon in 1991 prior to the release of Beauty and the Beast.

I could go on and on about little details of the film, but I'm going to spare everyone.  Needless to say, I feel like this film (made up completely of all archival footage and new voiceover interviews) was made for me.  And with that feeling comes the problem that I want to see so much more.  There's an extra feature on the dvd of a 12-minute portion of a lengthy Howard Ashman lecture on music and film -- I wanted to see the entire day-long speech in its entirety, not just 12 minutes.  That's how much the films of this era -- The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King -- mean to me in terms of shaping my love of Disney -- the company -- as a whole.  Waking Sleeping Beauty is probably not as good of a film as I think it is (it's probably much too one-sided for a documentary), but it's a film that hits close to home for me and for that very reason, it's a film that I'll find myself watching over and over again.

The RyMickey Rating: A-