Waking Sleeping Beauty – the new documentary from writer/producer Don Hahn (The Alchemy of Animation) – is far braver about depicting the rise and fall of Disney's "animation renaissance" than expected from a documentary distributed by the Mouse House. Nevertheless, it doesn't go far enough in showing how Disney's early 1990's dream became a nightmare.
Don Hahn Directs Disney Documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, Starring Roy E. Disney, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg
This film initially seems like your typical Climb From Despair to Victory: the failure of The Black Cauldron leading to the triumph of The Lion King. But the filmmakers can't avoid what happened next: the long-simmering feuds between Roy E. Disney, CEO Michael Eisner and senior executive Jeffrey Katzenberg exploding to life following the 1994 death of Disney president Frank Wells while Disney Animation collapsed under cookie-cutter scripts and horrible direct-to-DVD sequels.
To his credit, director Hahn doesn't try. Using a combination of archival footage, plus voice interviews with the major players of the period, he shows the blood, sweat and carnage behind the renaissance, and how the rot started.
Whether it's the bouts of insanity the animators used to relieve the tension of their jobs (whether it was caricaturing animation president Peter Schneider or margaritas parties) or a hearfelt tribute to the late lyricist Howard Ashman, Hahn expertly balances comedy with drama, a laugh with a tear, making this a highly entertaining doc.
However, he cuts off the story right where things start going to hell. Waking Sleeping Beauty claims Wells' death was the catalyst that started the decline. Certainly Wells acted as peacemaker between Disney, Eisner and Katzenberg but, according to James B. Stewart's 2005 book Disney War, the increasingly power-hungry Eisner was already looking to get rid of Wells at the time of his death.
It's inaccurate to claim the aggressive and grandstanding Katzenberg was the villain of this piece. Certainly Katzenberg was far too aggressive in demanding Eisner give him the job of Disney president before Wells was even buried, but Hahn points to the clash of outsized egos, rather than pinning the blame on one person.
Animation fans know what happened next. Despite his faults, Disney Animation didn't recover from losing Katzenberg. Its slow slide into ignominy was capped by the infamous 'Tom Meeting' of 2002, where the majority of animators were pink-slipped. Not only did Eisner demand that all future films top The Lion King's stunning box office (an impossible feat), but greenlit countless dreck-to-video sequels of classic animated films, further diluting the Disney brand.
After his resignation, Katzenberg founded DreamWorks Animation with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, successfully sued Disney for $280 million in unpaid wages, and became Disney's biggest rival with films like Shrek and Kung Fu Panda.
In Waking Sleeping Beauty, Eisner claims Katzenberg might have become Disney president if "he'd been more patient." However, Eisner's later actions don't bear this out. He offered the job to several Hollywood players, such as high-powered negotiator Michael Ovitz, only to knife them in the back at the first available opportunity. Eisner's career at Disney finally foundered when he tried to eliminate the man who had given him the job at Disney: Roy E. Disney himself.
The Final Analysis
With Waking Sleeping Beauty, Don Hahn deserves credit for showing many of the skeletons inside Disney's closet. While the film does resist the hearts-and-flowers routine that many in-house documentaries are prone to, it doesn't go far enough in showing how outsized executive egos and hubris destroyed Disney's animation renaissance. For a complete picture, one would be well-advised to watch Waking Sleeping Beauty along with Dan Lund's documentary Dream on, Silly Dreamer and James B. Stewart's excellent book Disney War.
Nevertheless, Waking Sleeping Beauty is brave, funny and insightful and it gets an 8/10.
- This review was written during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
(Look for an exclusive interview with Waking Sleeping Beauty director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider, coming soon to Suite 101)
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