Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009) on Netflix
PG20091h 26mDocumentary
By the mid-1980s Disney's animation department is struggling, its animators split between newcomers and veterans. Roy E. Disney returns to lead it, installing Michael Eisner as chief executive.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.5/103,485 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes71%
Trailer
Plot summary
Walt Disney Feature Animation enters the 1980s in decline, its young CalArts graduates working alongside established animators. Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew, resigns during a corporate takeover attempt, then returns as vice-chairman of the board and chairman of the animation department. He installs Michael Eisner as chief executive and Frank Wells as president. Eisner hires Jeffrey Katzenberg to head the film division, who moves the animators to a separate building in Glendale, California. Peter Schneider becomes president of the animation department and helps modernize its process. Losing at the domestic box office to releases from former animator Don Bluth, the studio commits to one animated feature a year.
Cast
- Peter Schneideras Himself (voice) (archive footage)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The documentary contains no newly filmed on-camera interviews; instead it is built from archival interviews, press-kit footage, and home movies that Disney animation employees often shot against company policy.
- Don Bluth, a Disney animator who quit the studio on his 42nd birthday in 1979 to start his own company, became a rival whose films beat Disney at the domestic box office, pushing Disney to start releasing one new animated feature a year.
