So this is great and all, but is the film going to address the fact that Disney closed down their drawn animation department and fired people who had worked there for over 30 years when CGI took off?
Seems like the only real "vision" they have is the color green.
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Yeah, it explains a bit about Disney's fall with CGI killing 2D animation and John Lasseter comments how he was horrified that Pixar could be responsible for Disney's end.
shareI was extremely disappointed that it didn't go beyond The Lion King because the most interesting aspect of the Disney Renaissance was its fall.
Considering it was produced by Disney, I wasn't expecting them to talk about the disappointments of Pocahontas and beyond or their initial CG misfires, though I was surprised about the pretty candid about the Eisner-Disney-Katzenberg conflicts.
shareWSB was mainly to capture that time when Disney rose from the ashes of a company that was stumbling about ever since it's big cheese had died.
The studio after Walt died pretty much was doing nothing big. Epcot never materialized into Walt's 'Experimental prototype City of Tomorrow.' The animation staff was hacked to ribbons in the early 70's. Live-action fare was often mediocre. The company just 'stalled' for a long time until that period in the mid-80's.
To capture it from Black Cauldron through Lion King was a great thing for Don and Peter to do, because BC was going to change everything, and it just became a muddled, medieval mess of a film. 10 years later, Disney was in- teenagers were taking their dates to see the films, they were winning awards, and merchandising just skyrocketed (I still remember when Lion King toys were selling out at Burger King!).
One documentary that kind of chronicles the aftermath is 'Dream on, Silly Dreamer,' which features clips and talk from the animators who were there when payraises skyrocketed, and Katzenberg opened Dreamworks as competition...as well as the eventual kicking out of the different animators. Though the documentary was made before the eventual turnaround.
"Thanks, guys." "So long, partner."
- Toy Story 3 (9/10)
Another one is the unreleased "The Sweatbox," chronicling the fall during the making of "Emperor's New Groove."
shareOne of Disney's TOP Animator had a million dollar a year contract. I was in the Business and lots of people had jobs at the time and Artists were in demand. The Success of "Lion King" and what happened afterwards really killed it. Expectations became too high on their subsequence films. They did not do the spectacular business that "Lion King" did. Soooo......everyone (the Entertainment Media) began to think that Disney was losing its "luster". Eisner and others began to believe this. They went from doing one release a year to every three year. By then Pixar was becoming successful thanks to good writing. Disney was beginning to slide down hill fast. They decided to take a direction from the Musical format and more into plot driven based features that did not do well at the box office. Eisner fired animators in favor of Digital. Things got worst....
shareI would like another doc to happen, but I don't think it will happen for some time, when enough research and footage has been found, also might depend on Disney animation's current state at this time.
There's bound to be some interesting stories: the decision to take upon such a dark story like Hunchback, the self-parody imposed in Hercules, bringing in Phil Collins on Tarzan, Treasure Planet's bombing, Dinosaur the first full CGI feature by Disney, switching from cel to CGI, the miserable production of Kingdom Of The Sun into New Groove, John Lasseter taking over as the head of feature animation, his closing of Circle 7 & more, etc.
I really really want to see The Sweatbox as well, but there's no way in heck Disney execs will release a doc that portrays them rather negatively. No justice.
Yippee-ki-yay, pastel-colored resistance!
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