Waking Sleeping Beauty

Today during PPP we had the chance to watch a documentary about Walt Disney Feature Animation, its downfall and what some may call the the Disney Renaissance that followed afterwards. Personally I haven't come across this documentary before, so it came as a bit a surprise for me.  Apart from the informative coverage of one of the most difficult times in history of Disney, the documentary offers a great deal of insight to an animators profession and its place in the industry. Actually, it was mentioned in the movie that Disney animators can't even have a family life because of the ridiculous amount of time they spend working in the studio. But in all fairness the studio work atmosphere that was captured in the movie seemed really appealing- great creative and artistic minds working next to each other and feed off each others creativity, spontaneity and energy. That was the part that really caught my attention (for obvious reasons). It made me certain of the professional path I am taking and as I was watching the movie in my mind I kept repeating to myself "yup, this is what I wanna do". As for the historical side of the documentary, it showed one of the best comeback stories in business. In the 80's animation was considered to be a dead art form with the target audience of only children, as a result, Disney hit a creative wall. The Black Cauldron (1985) was beat out of the box office by the Care Bear movie, that was a serious blow to the animators in the studio and it created a great financial dent. Something needed to happen quick. In 1988 Disney released Who Framed Rodger Rabbit that received great critical acclaim. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis (who, may I point out, is of a Lithuanian heritage), the executive producer was Steven Spielberg and the animation director was the author of Animators Survival kit- Richard Williams. The movie was a great success that broke the creative wall for Disney and started the Renaissance for Disney animation and general revival of the animation industry.
In general, this documentary provided some really great insight in the animation industry and helped me realize that even though its nature is artistic it is after all a business. Anyway, just watch it- it's really good.