Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)

WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY is not quite the expose of the behind-the-scenes dealings at the Walt Disney Studios that some might hope for, but it does dish just enough dirt to suggest that creativity comes from conflict, and the documentary is certainly a must-see for anyone who calls him or herself a Disney fan. Focusing on the animation division of the Disney company from the late 70s to the mid 90s, the film uses snippets of the creation process of films from “The Rescuers” through “The Lion King” in an attempt to demonstrate how Disney almost gave up on its animation work and then got its mojo back.

The bulk of the conflict suggested in WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY focuses on the backstage grudges between the animation employees at Disney who felt disrespected and the leadership more concerned about making money. After the defection of animator Don Bluth and an attempted hostile takeover of the company by Saul Steinberg, Walt Disney’s nephew Roy brought in three men to stabilize the company. Frank Wells and Michael Eisner headed the company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg was placed in charge of the animation division.
Each man, but especially Eisner and Katzenberg, is shown as being out of touch to the personal needs of the underlings who slaved away at making Disney’s films. Katzenberg’s rough edges in particular are revealed here, most entertainingly in a segment regarding “The Little Mermaid” during which he is shown butting heads with lyricist Howard Ashman over the number “Part of Your World,” which Katzenberg insisted by cut. Clearly, Katzenberg was wrong on that one, and the incident acts in this film as a microcosm for a series of decisions on Katzenberg’s part that were questioned by those beneath him. Inevitably, he is painted as someone who didn’t know exactly what he was doing but got all of the credit.

To this end, WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY is little more than a bitter brunch with the princesses. The hard work and joys of being a Disney animation employee are given equal screen time to the conflicts, and the conflicts fall more into the category of hurt feelings than anything else. One must assume that the tensions truly ran deeper than this, and Hahn assembles an impressive collection of archived interviews, but the footage hits and the disruptions more often than it proves them, which is why the moments of true tension (such as another Ashman incident involving the “Beauty and the Beast” team’s dismissal of his idea for the film’s opening sequence) are the best parts of this film.

As I said before, if you love Disney animated movies, you’ll really want to see this, and you’ll definitely learn a thing or two by doing so. WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY feels like a “20/20” special, an hour-long look that lasts 30 minutes more than that but only goes that deep.

2.5 out of 4