Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance was a period from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Feature Animation returned to producing commercially and/or critically successful animated films. The ten feature films associated with this period are The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan.
The films were mostly musical adaptations of well-known stories, similar to the films produced by Walt Disney from the 1930s to 1960s. The resurgence allowed Disney's animated films to become a powerhouse of successes at the domestic and foreign box office, earning much greater profits.
Films
Background (pre-1989)
Following the deaths of Walt and Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney Productions was left in the hands of Donn Tatum, Card Walker, and Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller. Under their supervision, creative leadership over feature animated films largely fell to Wolfgang Reitherman.While certain films such as The Rescuers were commercially and critically successful, on the whole the films released over the 18-year period following the death of the Disney brothers did not perform as well as the studio's previous work. One issue was that Reitherman was determined to produce only family-friendly material certain to turn a profit, and consequently he softened Disney villains so that they were more comical or pitiful than scary. An especially hard blow was dealt during production of The Fox and the Hound, when long-time animator Don Bluth left Disney's animation department to start his own rival studio, Don Bluth Productions, taking 11 of Disney's 65 animators with him. With 17% of the animators now gone, production on The Fox and the Hound was delayed by six months. Don Bluth Productions produced The Secret of NIMH, whose story had originally been rejected by Disney for being too dark, and the company became Disney's main competitor in the animation industry during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Disney made major organizational changes in the mid-1980s after narrowly escaping a hostile takeover attempt by businessman and financier Saul Steinberg. Michael Eisner, formerly of Paramount Pictures, became CEO in 1984, and was joined by his Paramount associate Jeffrey Katzenberg as studio chairman, while Frank Wells, formerly of Warner Bros. Pictures, became president. In 1985, Peter Schneider was hired as president of Disney's feature animation department, which was soon to be rebranded as Walt Disney Feature Animation.
On February 1, 1985, to make more room for live action filmmaking, the animation department was moved from the main Disney lot in Burbank to a supposedly temporary location in various hangars, warehouses, and trailers about east in nearby Glendale, where it would remain for the next ten years. Most of the Disney Renaissance films were produced there, in the former Grand Central Airport, then known as the Grand Central Business Centre.
Following the box office failure of the PG-rated The Black Cauldron, the future of the animation department was in jeopardy. Going against a 30-year studio policy, the company founded a television animation division, which produced such shows as DuckTales. In the interest of saving what he believed to be the studio's core business, Roy E. Disney, who resigned from the company in 1984, persuaded Eisner to let him return and supervise the animation department in the hopes of improving its fortunes.
1986–1988: ''The Great Mouse Detective'', Disney vs. Don Bluth, Hayao Miyazaki's influence, and ''Oliver and Company''
Disney released The Great Mouse Detective a few months before Don Bluth released An American Tail. An American Tail outperformed The Great Mouse Detective and became the highest grossing animated film to that date. Despite An American Tails greater level of success, The Great Mouse Detective was still successful enough to instill executive confidence in Disney's animation department. Oliver and Company would later be released on the same day as The Land Before Time. Despite The Land Before Time becoming globally the highest grossing animated film to that date, breaking the previous record of An American Tail, Oliver and Company outgrossed it in the United States, launching an era of increased theatrical turnout for Disney.In the 1980s, Disney collaborated with filmmaker Steven Spielberg—producer of An American Tail and The Land Before Time and a long-time animation fan—to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a live-action/animation hybrid that featured animated characters of the 1930s and 1940s from many different studios together. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning three Academy Awards as well as a Special Achievement Academy Award, and renewing interest in theatrical animated cartoons. In addition to the film itself, Spielberg also helped Disney produce three Roger Rabbit shorts. Disney moved to first place in box office receipts by 1988, with Who Framed Roger Rabbit being the summer's biggest hit.
The Disney Renaissance was prompted by competition with Don Bluth's animated productions, along with the evolution of overseas animation, most notably the Studio Ghibli anime productions from Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. His Lupin the Third film adaptation of the animated TV series based on the Monkey Punch comics, Castle of Cagliostro, influenced the climax of The Great Mouse Detective, which in turn paved the way for the Disney Renaissance. The two-minute climax scene used computer-generated imagery, making it the first Disney film to extensively use computer animation, a fact that Disney used to promote the film during marketing. Glen Keane, a leading animator for Disney films, has also credited Miyazaki's work as a "huge influence" on Disney's animated films.
Timeline (1989–1999)
1989: ''The Little Mermaid''
Disney had been developing The Little Mermaid since the 1930s, and by 1988, after the success of Touchstone Pictures' Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the studio had decided to make it into an animated musical, much like many of its previous animated movies, but with a more Broadway feel to it. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, who worked Off-Broadway years earlier on Little Shop of Horrors alongside now-Walt Disney Feature Animation president Peter Schneider, became involved in the production, writing and composing the songs and score for the film. Ashman worked to have the songs stitched into the movie and bringing the musical theater tradition into Disney.Upon release, The Little Mermaid was a critical and commercial success and garnered a higher weekend gross than Don Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven, which was released on the same day, eventually breaking The Land Before Times record of highest-grossing animated film.
It won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song and for Best Original Score, earning an additional nomination for Best Original Song for "Kiss the Girl". It also marked a significant turn by the studio back towards the darker and scarier villains typical of the films it had produced before Walt Disney's death.
1990–1991: ''The Rescuers Down Under'' and ''Beauty and the Beast''
The Rescuers Down Under was released as the first sequel produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. The film garnered mainly positive reception, but was not as financially successful as The Little Mermaid. However, it was notable for being the first film to be completely produced using Disney's new Computer Animation Production System. The rest of the traditionally-animated films during this period would be produced using CAPS.Beauty and the Beast was Disney's next film and proved to be an immense critical and commercial success. It was the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, remaining the only animated film nominated for Best Picture when that category had only five entries, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture and two Academy Awards, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Beauty and the Beast also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound, as well as two additional nominations for Best Original Song. In addition to being Disney's highest grossing animated movie at the time, it was the first animated film to reach $100 million at the box office in the US. The box office success also gave way to a profitable merchandising campaign. In 1994, it was the first Disney Renaissance film to receive a Broadway adaptation.
1992–1994: ''Aladdin'' and ''The'' ''Lion King''
Aladdin and The Lion King followed, respectively, with both films having the highest worldwide grosses of their respective release years. Aladdin was the highest-grossing animated film at the time of its release, but later became second after being surpassed by The Lion King, which became the highest-grossing animated film at the time and remains the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history.Howard Ashman wrote several songs for Aladdin before his death, but only three were ultimately used in the film. Tim Rice ultimately joined the project and completed the score and songs with Alan Menken. Rice later went on to collaborate with Elton John and Hans Zimmer for The Lion King after ABBA had turned down the offer to write songs for the film. Both films won Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, and also like Beauty and the Beast won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. Aladdin also earned an additional Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and nominations for Best Sound and Best Sound Effects Editing, for a total of five nominations. The Lion King earned two additional Academy Award nominations for Best Original Song, giving it a total of four Academy Award nominations.
Between the two in-house productions, Disney diversified in animation methods and produced the stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas with former Disney animator Tim Burton, which was directed by also former Disney animator Henry Selick. That film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects becoming the first animated film to do so, losing to Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park. Thanks to the success of the early films of the Renaissance era, Disney management was able to allocate sufficient money to bring Feature Animation back from its ten-year exile to Glendale. A 240,000-square-foot building designed by Robert A. M. Stern opened across the street from the main Disney lot in Burbank on December 16, 1994.