Waking Sleeping Beauty

[Tiggerlives]

Has anyone ever heard of this Disney Doc? I just found this article on it, and I'm pretty interested in seeing it.

From the article:

Don Hahn’s extraordinary film (co-produced with former Disney cartoon chief Peter Schneider) tells the story of Disney’s animation division for its decade of unparalleled modern success: from 1984 to 1994, or, roughly, from “The Little Mermaid” through “The Lion King.

Apparently, the film is brutally honest about the infighting at the top among executives Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Frank Wells, and Roy Disney with footage shot by John Lasseter as animator Randy Cartwright.

[dlfreak]

When where how, I'm in! Sounds fascinating... I'm probably way overhyping it but this just makes me want to see it so bad, haha...

The word in Hollywood is that Steven Spielberg recently had a secret screening of a controversial new documentary about Disney animation. We saw “Waking Sleeping Beauty” yesterday at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and all I can say is, I know why Spielberg was curious. He’s in it. So are some of the people he invited over to watch it with him, including Jeffrey Katzenberg...

Lucikly, Hahn and Schneider discovered that, against Disney rules, animator Randy Cartwright had been making homemade films at Disney for years, chronicling everything. His cameraman? John Lasseter, who would eventually leave, start Pixar, and then to return to conquer Disney. The films are used as a through line for “Waking.”

Now here’s the weird part of “Waking Sleeping Beauty”: Disney has given its blessing to the film, and says it will be released next spring. They’ve let the filmmakers license Disney footage. The company’s chairman, Robert Iger, is said to be okay with it. This is incredibly insightful of Iger, who might also consider releasing a long suppressed doc called “Sweatbox,” by Trudie Styler (aka Mrs. Sting) about the making of “The Emperor’s New Groove.”

[dlfreak]

A review from September...

I was at a showing of this film at the Toronto International Film Festival last night followed by a short Q&A session with producers Don Hahn and Peter Schneider. Exclusively using archival footage, much of it home video quality, it tells the story of Disney animation between the years 1984 and 1994. This period started with the studios almost being closed down and ended with classic and successful animated films like 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Lion King'. As Don Hahn said last night "We are trained so well in the disciplines of animated films that we made another movie that is 82 minutes long and includes a laugh and a cry". The business side of the industry is examined, warts and all, while looking at the relationship between Roy Disney, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenburg, with Katzenburg probably coming off worst. Recent audio interview clips are used but the film has no 'talking heads' sequences. The film gives an insightful glimpse behind the scenes at Disney animation during this particular time period. We get to see a depressed looking Tim Burton working at a drawing board in the mid-eighties and at least two live action 'pies in the face', which must be a good thing. The bad news is that this will not be on general release until next April at the earliest. It will be shown at more film festivals this year and the producers did say last night that they will personally deliver and show the movie to appropriate interested groups in the early months of 2010 to try and create word of mouth publicity. Get your friends together and give them a call.

There's also a bunch of clips on IMDB...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1159961/

Still can't wait to catch this one!

[Nftysqrt]

I'll be seeing this soon and will post a review!

[AnonyMouse]

Trailer for this over at Apple Trailers:

Apple - Movie Trailers - Waking Sleeping Beauty

[dlfreak]

It's a good documentary, definitely something a normal Disniac would enjoy. I felt they painted both sides of the grand corporate drama of the 1990s with an even light (although Katzenberg does get a bit more heat). Definitely an interesting watch and totally worth it for a look at the unexpected cameo by Tim Burton back when he actually worked for the studio!

[Nftysqrt]

I can't wait to see this again! It will be interesting to see if they add anything else since Roy died, since he is such a big part of the film.

[dlfreak]

To those in the LA area... Century City and Burbank are your place to be on Friday March 26! They are doing limited screenings across the country including LA, Chicago, and NY...

Check out the official site for more details. There's a bunch of great teaser clips and videos, it really is a great documentary. A fascinating watch for even the casual Disney fan... lots of great "vintage" footage here from the 70s and 80s.

Waking Sleeping Beauty

[meekobiscuit]

We just went to see this in Burbank at the big AMC and had a pleasant surprise. Don Hahn was there to take questions after the movie had ended. I stayed through the credits because the movie seemed to continue on through the credits. I thought it was strange that no one else in the movie theater was leaving, but I attributed it to the fact that the screening was in Burbank and that there must have been a lot of Disney cast from the Studios there. Nope, it turns out that they knew that Don Hahn would be there to take questions about this movie. We were just lucky enough to have caught this screening.

The movie itself was excellent. I'm not going to reveal much because I think it's more interesting when you go into a movie not knowing too much about it (I didn't). The only thing I will say regarding its plot is that it detailed a lot about what happened "behind the magic" during Disney's animation renaissance in the late 80s and early 90s. It features voiceovers/narration from Hahn's recorded interviews with various Disney figures from this time period, like Jeffery Katzenberg and Peter Schneider, who were all interviewed specially for this documentary. It even features clips from Roy Disney. Hahn revealed to us that this was the last interview Roy had done before he passed away. It made me appreciate the historic value of this movie even more, upon hearing that. In the movie, Roy reveals an opinion he had about Howard Ashman that I found to be very interesting. Someone in the audience asked Hahn about this and Hahn said that he himself was surprised to hear Roy refer to Ashman in this particular way, but it makes complete sense upon retrospect. You'll just have to see the movie to see what I am talking about. Hahn also revealed that Michael Eisner opted not to be interviewed for this documentary, but instead did point him footage and documents from the time that involved Eisner himself. The movie also features archival footage that has never been made public before. I urge every Disney fan to go see this movie. It's remarkably candid, I was glued to the screen the entire time.

[dlfreak]

Thanks for the review, it's definitely a great watch for Disney fans! The reveal of Tim Burton was HILARIOUS! Did your theater crack up like ours did?