Waking Sleeping Beauty (2010)

"Waking Sleeping Beauty" chronicles the renaissance period that brought Disney out of the dark ages in 1984 to 1994, when "The Lion King" would become their most successful hand-drawn animated feature ever.

Back in 1984, the Walt Disney Company was not the gleaming beacon of entertainment it had once been: its animation staff numbered less than 200, their live-action feature division was stagnant, and corporate raiders like Saul Steinberg were threatening to simply buy up the company and splinter it to make a profit.

With the help of Roy E Disney (the son of Walt's brother, Roy O Disney), the Disney board arranged for new upper management to be brought in, in the form of Michael Eisner, Frank Wells, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

1984 was both a good and bad year for Disney, with the release of the Tom Hanks/Darryl Hannah comedy "Splash" proving to be a success (under the new Touchstone Pictures banner from Disney), but the year saw disappointment when the dark and overbudget animated feature "The Black Cauldron" failed to turn a profit (being beaten at the box-office by "The Care Bears Movie").

In the animation division, Roy Disney, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the new President of feature animation Peter Schneider worked to revitalize the division, despite the animation division having been shuffled out of the once-famed Animation building and into trailers and cubicles in Glendale warehouses. Their next effort "The Great Mouse Detective" had favorable reviews, but much like "Cauldron" didn't come close to the success of another film released around the same time: "An American Tail," produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by former Disney animator Don Bluth.

The company finally started to take off in 1988, when "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" became a breakout hit that summer, and the holiday season saw the animated feature "Oliver and Company" turn a small profit.

1989 proved an even bigger year when "The Little Mermaid" came out. Though not able to crack the $100 million mark, it proved popular and saw a return to form by netting its song writer Alan Menken and Lyricist Howard Ashman Academy Awards for Best Score and Original Song, the first time since "Mary Poppins" in 1964.

1990 saw the release of "The Rescuers Down Under," which utilized new ink-and-paint computer technology as a way to streamline the process and bring the animated film into the digital realm, cutting out the need for traditional cel painting. The film failed to turn a profit at the box-office (marketing was pulled almost immediately when its first weekend gross was around $5 million), but is historical for its first use of the CAPS (Computer assisted paint system) system to be utilized in a full-length animated feature.

1991 saw bigger success with "Beauty and the Beast," which received critical and box-office praise, but also a tinge of sadness when lyricist Howard Ashman passed away due to AIDS. Also at this time, the announcement was made that the Disney artists would finally be returning to the lot with plans for a new animation building to be constructed.

The next year saw the release of "Aladdin," an even bigger success as the studios' profits continued to escalate. As well, the company was also branching out into other areas: a new studio had been opened in Paris to work on "A Goofy Movie," Tim Burton and Henry Selick were working on "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and a small bay area company called PIXAR was given the go-ahead to make the first computer animated feature, "Toy Story."
Tensions finally hit their peak in 1994, when Frank Wells died in a helicopter accident. Jeffrey Katzenberg soon after made it clear that he wanted to succeed Frank and take the now vacant position, but was denied this by Michael Eisner. As The Lion King prepared to open nationwide, Katzenberg soon came to the decision that if he had hit the ceiling at Disney, there was nowhere else to go. 2 weeks after Lion King opened, he resigned.