Much like every movie in the 80s, Waking Sleeping Beauty is about falling from grace and building yourself back up to greatness, and ultimately winning in the end.
The story in this documentary follows the life of Disney’s animation studio and how the late 70s and 80s were extremely unkind financially and creatively to the staff and studio. It was so bad that Disney nearly axed the entire animation department because the cost of producing a film and the return on it were severely off track. After years of losing money, the rich folk calling the shots decide to bring in three CEOs to bring it all back on track. Eventually the studio succeeds, but not without a few road bumps and one big tragedy.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is fascinating for a few reasons. First, it’s unusual for a company like Walt Disney to allow for this type of look on its history. Generally, when you think of Walt Disney you think of happy people and sunny days. Seeing the commotion that went on internally and the constant battle between management and artists is a unique perspective. It’s a bold move on Disney’s part and it gets them closer to being ‘human’ than ever before. Also, it’s fascinating to see how darn close the studio was to shutting its doors and giving up on the one thing that made Disney great, which were the cartoons. Again, in the wonderful world of ‘happy all the time’ it certainly is a unique, refreshing perspective to see how devastating things could have been for the immortal mouse. Believe me folks, the documentary doesn’t pull punches and it doesn’t make excuses about what went on with everything. For example, the animosity between Katzenberg and Michael Eisner is a bit epic, and very believable. One man takes power, while the other man hates it from a far. Petty bureaucracy? Yes. Making for an interesting documentary? Definitely, yes.
With all this said, Waking Sleeping Beauty does have some flaws to it. The first is that the documentary really isn’t very organized. There is so many details left out that what you do get in the end is entertaining, but slightly shallow. You never get to truly hear about the artists’ situation, you only get a taste. You get very spotty, selective accounts from Peter Schneider, who was painted as more of a villain than a reliable source of factual information. For example, when he talks about artists’ happiness you never truly get a good take on it. it’s all kind of messy and it doesn’t come together well, but it’s still entertaining.
Another flaw in the documentary is the creation of Jeffrey Katzenberg as the villain. The film seems to create this monster view of Katzenberg out of nowhere and it doesn’t really give good examples of how this man became what the documentary infers. I’m not really accusing the documentary of taking sides or anything of that nature, but it’s such a strange turn from three guys, who might have driven each other nuts, that built up a broken company to one man’s plight to look better than the other two. It’s a quick transition to that last statement and it seems just a bit too villainous for its own good. Is Katzenberg truly as bad as the documentary ends with? I’m not sure, but the man has to be doing something right if he constantly gets jobs (and partners with others) and is successful. If you’re that much of an a-hole in Hollywood to bigwigs you probably wouldn’t survive, and yet he does.
Is the story that Waking Sleeping Beauty interesting? Yes, as I said you get a unique perspective on a company that always seemed flawless on the outside. I commend Disney for extending a different view of its life. Regretfully, that view just seems to disjointed, as it never gains a solid identity or purpose on what it wants to say. It can’t decide if it wants to be about the animators or if it wants to talk about the management. It jumps back and forth without proper bridges or excuses of why. Ultimately that jumping just makes it more confusing, as it full steams ahead towards the ending.
On the brighter side of things, it does have some solid features attached to it. Here’s what you get on this DVD:
• Why Wake Sleeping Beauty? Overview featurette
• Deleted Scenes
Black Friday
Howard’s Lecture
Losing Howard
Recording ‘Part of Your World’
Research Tips
To Sir With Love
• The Sailor, the Mountain Climber, the Artist and the Poet – Celebrating Roy Disney, Frank Wells, Joe Ranft and Howard Ashman
• Studio Tours – Randy’s tours, Roger Rabbit studio, Oliver studio and the tour of the Animation Research Library
• A Reunion – Rob Minkoff and Kirk Wise
• Walt – What would Walt do? A comparison of Walt’s era and the current era
• Audio Commentary – View the film with commentary by director Don Hahn and producer Peter Schneider
The features are very solid with some interesting things like the ‘Studio tours’ featurette. I’m not sure if I’m completely sold on the audio commentary, especially after Peter Schneider was involved. I feel like if you get an artist or a piece of management that’s in the movie to talk about it seems a bit tainted. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it just feels a bit skewed. Anyway, it’s still a good set of features and you’ll find something that you’ll like no matter what you’re looking for.