Don Hahn’s Waking Sleeping Beauty To Premiere At TIFF
By Peter Sciretta/Aug. 19, 2009 3:12 pm EST
Here is the official plot synopsis:
Hahn has called the film “an incredible almost Shakespearian story of an era that started with CalArts in the 1970s and ended with Lion King, the biggest box office success in history to that time. The talent of today’s industry: Lasseter, Musker, Bird, Clements, Keane, Selick, Burton, Rees, Kroyer, Bluth, all of them came from that era.”
This isn’t a fairy tale, but rather the true story of how the Disney animation team went from stagnation in the mid-1980s to a startling rebirth 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. Director Don Hahn, who was a key contributor on many of these works, brings an insider’s perspective to the film.
From what I understand, its the first time that Disney has allowed an honest documentary chronicling the Disney creative process since the infamous 2002 documentary The Sweatbox, which aside from a couple film festival screenings, has never been seen by the public. The Sweatbox was an uncensored account of the troubles of making The Emperor’s New Groove. You can read more about the infamous doc on Jim Hill’s site.
