By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits - "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast ," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and more - over a 10-year period.
Direction
Don Hahn was THERE — this is insider testimony, not journalism.
Editing
Brutal archival footage of execs roasting animators to their faces.
Production
Home video footage from animators captures the real creative hunger.
Director
Don Hahn
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Don Hahn directed this while producing 'The Lion King' — he literally lived both sides of the documentary.
The film's title references both Disney's corporate 'sleep' and the animated 'Sleeping Beauty' itself — a meta-nod that the studio had become its own damsel in distress.
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