Last month Disney’s latest animated feature based on a fairy tale, Tangled, was released on DVD. During its time in the theaters, the film made close to $500 million at the box office worldwide. By standards set by the film industry that makes it a “blockbuster” .
The popularity of Tangled is for Disney animation a return to credible status in Hollywood. That’s something that hasn’t been acclaimed to this part of Disney since, what’s often referred to as, the 2nd golden age of Disney animation. The time period between 1989 and 1995 when Disney released the animated hits: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Lion King.
Tonight I watched a documentary called “Waking Sleeping Beauty”. Produced by former Disney animators Peter Schneider and Don Hahn (who also directed) this film tells the story of the Disney animation studio between the years 1985 & 1995. It’s done with archival footage actually shot within that timeframe. There are no “talking head” shots in this film only narration by Hahn and voiceovers by people who worked for Disney throughout those years.
I highly recommend this documentary to anyone who is interested in learning the story behind some of the most recent classic Disney animation features. But this post is not intended as a review of “Waking Sleeping Beauty.”
What I want to write about is a conclusion I’ve developed based on a statement made in “Waking Sleeping Beauty” and fleshed out using facts I’ve collected along the way.
The blockbuster animated feature that launched Disney’s success in the late 80’s/early 90’s was “Little Mermaid”. It was released in 1989. The following year Disney released a sequel to the successful 1977 animated film, "The Rescuers". The film made $48 million at the box office in the USA alone. The 1990 sequel was set in Austrialia and entitled “Rescuers Down Under.” Not familiar with this movie? Not surprising.
This movie holds the record for the lowest opening weekend box office take in the history of Disney Animation. In its first weekend it only made $5 million dollars. After that poor performance Disney animation president, Jeffery Katzenberg, pulled all the company advertising for the film. It quickly faded away into Disney animation history. But failing miserably at the box office is not the “Rescuers” sequel's true legacy. This dark cloud in Disney film history has a very important silver lining.
According to “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” “Rescuers Down Under” was the first digitally animated film ever created. It was made using a specially built and very expensive computer developed by a then fledgling animation company known as Pixar.
As “Waking Sleeping Beauty” director, Hahn, states if it hadn’t been for the digital technology developed for “Rescuers Down Under” none of the other mega hits that followed would have been possible.
So a bit of a hindsight life lesson learned courtesy of Disney animation. Despite it being the greatest failure in the 74 years of Disney animated features most of Disney’s successful films during its 2nd Golden Age of animation were built on the shoulders of “The Rescuers Down Under".
I was a little disappointed to learn about the film's financial failure. I have fond memories of it from when it was playing in the movie theater where I was working at the time of its release. I've always liked the movie but its not on the list of favorites for many other Disney fans. But now that I've learned of its place and importance in Disney animation history. I feel like my enjoyment and adimration for it is validated.
The lesson here is: don’t be afraid of failure. Just as Walt Disney used to say keep moving forward and learn from your mistakes and use it to build success for the future. That’s something we all need to remember.
