Plot: As the 1980's rolled along, Disney was facing absolute turmoil. The movie studio was in turmoil, animation was becoming too expensive, the parks weren't doing well, teenagers and young adults wouldn't be caught dead near Disney films, and the company was facing hostile takeover attempts from outsiders. Naturally, things had to change. Ron Miller and the Old Guard began to get ousted, and were replaced by Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, Roy Disney, and Jeffery Katzenberg. These men set out to restore the Disney name in the world of movies, and bring the company back into the glory days. But the toughest problem was the animation department, which was being led by bitter old men who refused to give up their power and were forcing the young animators to act as they want. Art Stevens, Joe Hale, Rick Rich, and several others were dispatched, while younger fertile minds like John Musker, Ron Clements, Don Hahn, and Roger Allers were granted the chance to create their own animated films.
Of course, success doesn't come without failure and trials. The animators were moved off the Disney Lot and into a warehouse in Glendale. Then, the studio was passed over to animate on the experimental masterpiece, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. But, after building the foundation, Disney began pumping out marvelous films, such as The Little Mermaid and Roger Rabbit. But the success brought about a series of struggles, which dealt with losing a great musician, tightening budgets and release dates, constant drives for perfection, and the conquest for credit and jubilation from the media. In the end, after the tragic death of Frank Wells in the Spring of 1994, the steamboat of success began to fall apart. And despite the phenomenal success of The Lion King in the summer, Katzenberg left the company to form his own studio, Eisner was forced to have quadruple bypass surgery, and Roy Disney began to resent Eisner's success as the CEO.
What's Bad?: My only flaw with the film is a personal dislike for me. And that is the fact that Disney pretty much steps over the production of Aladdin and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the only two major films that didn't receive a legitimate amount of time in the film. While Aladdin does have it's own deleted scene, I think they could have kept it in the film.
What's Good?: Disney was known mostly for only telling the significantly bad events in studio history prior to this film. They never talked about the power struggle between Katzenberg and Roy Disney, or Don Bluth's departure and success. The fact that Disney is willing to tell the dark side of success for the film, is a serious and dramatic improvement from the earlier 10 to 12 years.
I love all of the things that the film covers over the 90 minute duration of the film. It covers not just the success the animated film had, but also covered the return to form for the live action department, the extreme success of home video, and the booming success in the theme parks.
I also love all of the stories and sessions that the animators talk about. One of my personal favorite scenes was a story about the making of Beauty and the Beast. During one of the story sessions, Howard Ashman had had the idea that maybe the film should begin the film with the Beast as a naughty little boy when he was born. When director Kirk Wise said it could be a "cheap shot", Howard went ballistic on him.
An interesting idea of the film's director Don Hahn, was not to have talking heads. The movie has the people who were alive at the time's audio interviews, or used audio and visual interviews for the most important people, like Ashman and Katzenberg.
The film also takes a lot of risks. It tells the flat out truth about these events, from the near war Katzenberg fought with several animators over the editing of The Black Cauldron, to the events that occurred after the tragic death of Frank Wells, and all the way to Katzenberg finally coming clean about the idea for the story of The Lion King.
For a die hard animation fan like myself, to hear about the special events that occurred during the creation of some of my all time favorite films. But also, Hahn chose to back some of the things that were happening with legitimate facts. The first example of this is a Jeopardy clip of a bonus category called "In Other Words". After the marketing department changed the name of "Basil of Baker Street" to The Great Mouse Detective, an animator sent out a fake memo that said they were changing the names of all of the original films to simpler titles, such as:
"Seven Little Men Help a Girl"
"The Girl with the See Through Shoes"
"Color and Music"
"The Little Deer Who Grew Up"
among others. The second is a literal scene during the premiere of The Lion King of Jeffery Katzenberg waving off reporters and photographers, as he knew he wasn't going to remain in his post as president of the studio for much longer.
Overall: The film is the perfect balance of success and failure, and light and darkness. It doesn't sugarcoat anything and much like Saving Mr. Banks, it is willing to show the dark side of success for all of the heads of the studio. The legacy of the Disney Renaissance is finally perfect. I only hope the success Disney is having now with the box office smash Frozen, that we can have another film as good as this. This is the perfect documentary for a Disney Fan. See it, you won't regret it.
Rating: A+ or 98
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