Rebirth+of+Disney+Animation

(Time Frame: 1980's- 1990's)

News story: **__ Disney’s magical comeback __** From as far back as 1928 when Walt Disney debuted Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willy, Disney had been the animation company that everyone had looked up to. //Snow White, Cinderella, Peter Pan,// and //Pinocchio// all became box office hits and are still popular even today. But by the time the 1980’s came around Disney had seemingly lost its magic. The 1970s were filled with box office flops. For most of the 1980s things only got worse. Disney began losing mass amounts of money and the movies saw little attendance. In 1985 Disney hit rock bottom when //The Black Caldron// was beaten out by //The Care Bears movie.// By 1989 Disney’s animation department was on life support. The studio was going nearly bankrupt. But then three animators took over Disney that same year and by the time the century was over, Disney was back on top. In 1984 Michael Eisner took over the Disney animation studios. His goal was to get Disney back to the glory days before the death of Walt Disney in 1966. His first order of business was to hire some top animators on his animation team. He hired Frank G. Wells and Jeffrey Katzenberg for the job. Their first production together was The Little Mermaid in 1989. The movie was a huge box office hit and millions packed the theaters to see it. For the first time in nearly thirty years Disney had produced a movie that made it and stayed at the top of the box office for many weeks. The Little Mermaid would eventually make over 100 million dollars. It was clear for both critics and fans of movies alike that Disney got its magic back. But //The Little Mermaid// was just the beginning of Disney’s rebirth. Two years after //The Little Mermaid// in 1991 Disney once again produced another masterpiece. Beauty and the Beast just like The Little Mermaid before it jumped to the top of the box office. Based on Nivelle de la Chaussée’s play in 1742, //Beauty and the Beast// had an excellent storyline and it also stuck with the original play manuscript pretty well for an animated movie. Well enough, in fact that the movie received a nomination at the Oscars for best picture. Up until that time an animated movie had ever been nominated for such an award. The movie didn’t win the Oscar that year, but it was still nominated for six and wound up taking home two Oscar awards for best original score and best original song. The composers Allen Menken and Howard Ashman actually saw all four of their songs in all four renaissance movies receive the award for best original song. The movie also helped Disney launch themselves out of their financial trouble by bringing in 377,350,553 dollars’ worth of revenue. Only a year after the triumph of //Beauty and the Beast//, Disney had struck gold again when Aladdin was released to theaters. Like //Beauty and the Beast//, Aladdin was based on a story from the past. An old Arab folktale was the idea behind //Aladdin//. Much like the two movie before it, Aladdin used an excellent animation to make the movie great. //Aladdin// was even more successful than the two that came before it earning over 500 million dollars worldwide. The final movie of the Disney renaissance came out in 1994. The Lion King was the last and the most successful movie of the rebirth of Disney. //The Lion King// had no humans in it, and relied on great animation more so than the three that came before it. The storyline was once again perfect from Disney. A crisp blend of comedy, music and drama all accompanied this movie. The Lion King was also an original idea thought up by Disney. The risks that came with this movie were met with great rewards as the //Lion King// on a 45 million dollar budget made over 700 million dollars worldwide. Critics raved about it as well as audiences Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly says “The Lion King, more than any of the recent wave of Disney animated features, has the resonance to stand not just as a terrific cartoon but as an emotionally pungent movie”. From 1989 through 1994 and arguably into the 21st century, Disney had caught lightning in a bottle. Without the success of these four movies, Disney might not exist today. These movies not only gave audiences excellent films to always remember, they also saved an historical company from inevitable financial failure.

Editorial: **__Disney’s’ “other” renaissance__** After researching the Disney renaissance that occurred from 1989 through 1994 it is very clear that if it had not been for those four movies, Disney may have been completely wiped out. After //The Little Mermaid’s// release in 1989 right through //The Lion King// in 1994 Disney had a rebirth unlike any other seen in the film industry. But perhaps Disney’s greater legacy still felt today was created one year later in 1995 when Disney merged with Pixar. Now, 16 years later Pixar and Disney are still together producing mass box office hits such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo. While the traditional Disney renaissance may have jolted the company back to its full potential, I believe that the Disney Pixar era is a longer and more important age in Disney as well as animation history. Much like Disney, Pixar too was struggling financially in the 1980s. Pixar in fact wasn’t at first t be used as an animation studio. At first Pixar’s main industry was selling computer software to government agencies. Steve Jobs had owned the company but because the company was losing so much money by 1990 Jobs, was seriously thinking of breaking up the company and selling it to various buyers. In 1994 Jobs nearly sold Pixar to Microsoft but when Disney merged with them and promised the release of Toy Story during the 1995 holiday season, Jobs held off and would only keep ownership of the company if Toy Story was successful. In 1995 Disney Pixar came out with its first animated film. //Toy Story// was met with great box office success earning over 300 million dollars. //Toy Story// that two more sequels would come out in 1999 and 2010 each of which was met with theatrical praise and box office success. Roger Ebert claimed as he was watching it, "Watching the film, I felt I was in at the dawn of a new era of movie animation, which draws on the best of cartoons and reality, creating a world somewhere in between”. In 1998 Pixar came out with //A Bugs Life,// its second movie since their merger with Disney. The movie was met with more success and Pixar began to make a name for itself as a household name for animation. But //A Bugs life// was all but a tremor to Disney/Pixar’s animation next movie. In 1999 //Toy Story 2// came out. At first Disney and Pixar had argued with Disney saying the movie was only to be released to home video. But Pixar got its way and it was released to theaters. Disney wouldn’t regret the decision as //Toy Story 2// made $245,823,397. Unlike most sequels, Toy Story 2 did better in the box office and critics than Toy Story 1.  As the 2000s began, Pixar continued to have great success as it released box office smashes like Monster Inc., Lilo and Stitch and the 800 million dollar profit movie Finding Nemo. Now Pixar is arguably the most successful animation studios of the 21st century. Whenever a Pixar movie comes out, usually only once a year, people line up to see and are seldom disappointed. Now, Pixar seems to be focused on sequels such as //Toy Story 3// in 2010 and //Cars 2// set to come out later in 2011. Audiences adore the characters and merchandise flies off the shelves. Pixar went from a virtually unknown company to an animation giant. In 2011 Pixar is celebrating 25 years of animation. If Pixar keeps up this excellent work it’ll surely be around for another 25 years.

Links:rss url="http://thedisneyblog.com/2011/06/14/behind-the-mural-at-the-little-mermaid-ariels-undersea-adventure/" link="true" number="10" The Little Mermaid ride at Disneyland California

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By Steve Sica