Hahn's 'Waking Sleeping Beauty' to premiere at TIFF

[ALIASd]

• Waking Sleeping Beauty

Don Hahn


Don Hahn was born in Chicago. He has been working at Walt Disney Studios for over thirty years and has produced many celebrated animated features, including Beauty and the Beast (91), The Lion King (94) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (96). In addition to his 1999 bestseller Dancing Corndogs in the Night, he has written three books on the art of animation. Waking Sleeping Beauty (09) is his feature documentary debut.

• By the mid-eighties, Walt Disney's fabled animation studios had fallen on hard times. The staff was polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old-timers who wouldn't relinquish control. These conditions had produced a series of box office flops and led to pessimistic forecasts. Maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. If you expected the situation to improve, you probably believed in fairy tales.

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  Waking Sleeping Beauty isn't a fairy tale but rather the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits – Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and more – over a ten-year period.
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  Director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider bring an insider's knowledge to this comeback. They were among the young Turks at Disney who produced some of its biggest sensations. Hahn's documentary offers a fascinating perspective on what took place within the creative ranks as well as among the leadership team of Michael D. Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney (the nephew of Walt). The process wasn't always pretty. Hahn (who still works for Disney) brings a refreshing candour to describing ego battles, cost overruns and failed experiments that others might prefer to forget. During times of tension, the animators' favourite form of attack was to draw nasty caricatures of their bosses. Hahn puts several memorable ones on display and marshals a vast array of interviews, home movies, internal memos and unseen footage. Anyone with an appetite for Hollywood gossip will relish this dish.
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  Animation lovers, in turn, will savour the rich history that gives credit where it's due to the many writers, artists and composers who created the Disney phenomenon. The documentary even includes key figures who famously left the company, such as Don Bluth, John Lasseter and Tim Burton. At one time, children imagined that Walt Disney's signature meant a film was the creation of one man. This is a more grown-up portrayal that reveals the collaborative experience in all its complexity.
  Thom Powers
  
• Credits
• Production Company: Stone Circle Pictures/Red Shoes Productions
  Producer: Don Hahn, Peter Schneider
  Editor: Ellen Keneshea
  Music: Chris Bacon
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  With: Roy Disney, Michael D. Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Glen Keane, John Musker, Don Bluth, John Lasseter, Tim Burton
  
  Canadian Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Canada
  US Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
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  Tiff 2009 - Waking Sleeping Beauty
  
  
  
  

[twobluestripes]

oh, i want to see this! will it be in wide release?

[ALIASd]

Film Festival circuit (pushing for AFI Fest here in L.A.) and hopefully some special engagements before year's end.

[ALIASd]

Telluride Film Festival:
An inside look at Disney animation

The Circuit: Awards and Festivals News - The Envelope

[ALIASd]

Industry trade reviews:

Jeffrey Katzenberg gets drawn as the evil witch in "Waking Sleeping Beauty," a work of corporate self-congratulation masquerading as a look at Disney animation from 1984-94. Vaguely focusing on the business rather than the art of the Mouse House's kiddie fare, the docu has but one revelatory insight -- that "The Lion King", can be read as an allegory of the territorial peeing match between big cats Michael Eisner, Roy Disney and, least flatteringly, Katzenberg. Beyond that, there aren't even enough animated clips to sustain one's interest, although Disney plans a theatrical release in April.

Waking Sleeping Beauty Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Waking Sleeping Beauty

TELLURIDE, Colo. -- The turmoil at Walt Disney Studios during the past two decades is a great subject for a documentary, and though a movie made by outsiders might have been more scathing than "Waking Sleeping Beauty," this movie made by insiders Don Hahn and Peter Schneider is surprisingly hard-hitting and revealing. The topic is a bit specialized to draw a wide audience, but those who see the movie will definitely enjoy the intrigue depicted.

Waking Sleeping Beauty -- Film Review

[OogieBoogie]

Actually this got reported this last week. The premier was on the 15th. There's even a link to some clips from it.

Waking Sleeping Beauty