Waking Sleeping Beauty

One of my favorite parts of DVD releases is looking at the extra features, in particular the "Making Of" documentaries. Unfortunately, Blu-Ray has resulted in very few DVDs having any extra features at all, but that is beside the point.... I have been a huge fan of these types of documentaries, so Don Hahn's "Waking Sleeping Beauty," a film that showed the rebirth of Disney animation - my Disney animation - was worth the drive in traffic at 5:30 on a Tuesday to Century City, even with a friend who never said she got motion sick until we were in the middle of traffic.

I suppose I didn't entirely know what to expect. I knew that the late Roy Disney was significantly involved, and I knew that everyone had problems with Michael Eisner. Little did I know that everything actually stemmed from one Jeff Katzenberg (the CEO of DreamWorks Animation... hmmm), who was out to make himself the new Walt Disney.

This documentary also acknowledged something that occurs at virtually every company in every profession: No one trusts the new guys. The early 1980s included a slew of new animators from CalArts who would eventually replace Walt's Nine Old Men. Live-action film was "in" and animation... Well, it wasn't. So the young animators were essentially kicked out of the Animation Building (rude) and thrown into portables in Glendale, where they spent their free time (aka: all of their time) filming reenactments of "Apocalypse Now." Eventually they were working on films, but they were always second-fiddle to the new animation studios in Europe. Once Katzenberg finally trusted the new kids, we got classics like "The Little Mermaid," "Aladdin," and Golden Globe and Academy Award winning "Beauty and the Beast." So they may be green and hyperactive; but who says that they aren't good?

And the music of Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Sir Tim Rice? Can't believe I forgot how incredible that is. I have been so consumed by the classics of the Sherman Brothers (watching Richard Sherman perform at El Capitan was something I will never forget) that I forgot the classics of my childhood: "A Whole New World," "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," "Beauty and the Beast"? And to imagine that Howard Ashman died before he could even experience how amazing Beauty and the Beast was... But at least he knew.

It's a documentary like this that reminds me why I get up 3-5 days a week to do what I do. It reminds me why I always wanted to be Belle, above all of the other Disney princesses - except for that one Halloween in which I desperately needed a purple Jasmine costume. It reminds me why I had a Simba and Nala best friend necklace that I shared as a child with my best friend Lauren.

I loved "Waking Sleeping Beauty."

And for the record? "The Rescuers Down Under" is a darn good movie.