Disney Renaissance

The **Disney Renaissance** is the period from 1989 to 1999 when Walt Disney Feature Animation returned to producing critically and commercially successful animated films that were mostly based on well-known stories, much as the studio did during Walt Disney's era the 1930s to 1960s. The resurgence allowed Disney's animated films to become powerhouse successes at the domestic and foreign box office, earning a much greater profit than most Disney films of previous eras.

The animated films released by Disney during this period include *The Little Mermaid* (1989), *The Rescuers Down Under* (1990), *Beauty and the Beast* (1991), *Aladdin* (1992), *The Lion King* (1994), *Pocahontas* (1995), *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1996), *Hercules* (1997), *Mulan* (1998), and *Tarzan* (1999).

## Background (pre-1989)

After Walt and Roy O. Disney died in 1966 and 1971, Donn Tatum, Card Walker, and Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller handled The Walt Disney Company. While critics and audiences alike awaited the birth of a new golden age for Disney animation after the 1977 film *The Rescuers*, the movies released over 18 years following this change of management did not perform as well commercially as their prior counterparts. Disney dealt a severe blow during *The Fox and the Hound*'s production, when long-time animator Don Bluth left Disney to start his rival studio, Don Bluth Productions, taking eleven Disney animators with him. With 17% of the animators now gone, Disney delayed production on *The Fox and the Hound*. Don Bluth Productions produced *The Secret of NIMH* in 1982 (whose story had been initially rejected by Disney for being too dark). The company eventually became Disney's main competitor in the animation industry during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Disney made significant organizational changes in the mid-1980s after narrowly escaping a hostile takeover attempt by Saul Steinberg. Michael Eisner, formerly of Paramount Pictures, became CEO in 1984 and was joined by his Paramount associate Jeffrey Katzenberg, while Frank Wells, formerly of Warner Bros., became president. In 1985, to make more room for live-action filmmaking, Disney moved the animation department from the main Disney lot in Burbank to a "temporary" location in various hangars, warehouses, and trailers about 2 miles (3.2 km) east in nearby Glendale, where it would remain for the next ten years. Thus, most of the Disney Renaissance (in terms of where Disney made the films) took place in a rather ordinary industrial park in Glendale, the Grand Central Business Centre.

After the box office failure of the 1985 PG-rated *Black Cauldron*, the animation department's future was in jeopardy. Going against a 30-year studio policy, the company founded a television animation division (now Disney Television Animation), which produced such shows as *DuckTales*. In the interest of saving what he believed to be the studio's core business, Roy E. Disney persuaded Eisner to let him supervise the animation department in the hopes of improving its fortunes.

### 1986–88: Disney vs. Don Bluth

    In 1986, Disney released *The Great Mouse Detective*, while Don Bluth released *An American Tail*. The latter outperformed *Mouse Detective* and became the higher-grossing film on its first release. Despite *An American Tail*'s more significant success level, *The Great Mouse Detective* was still successful enough (both critically and commercially) to instill executive confidence in Disney's animation department. In 1987, as Disney and Don Bluth studios competed with each other, the animated film *The Brave Little Toaster* would become a critical production because it attracted a substantial amount of talent, both new and old. Many of the cast and crew members went on to have successful careers in the animation industry. Co-writer Joe Ranft became a script supervisor at Pixar, while animators Glen Keane, Kirk Wise, and Kevin Lima animated and co-directed most of the future Disney films of 1989 and the 1990s. In 1988, *Oliver & Company* successfully outgrossed *The Land Before Time* (in the US market—globally, the roles were reversed), launching an era of increased theatrical turnout for the studio.

In 1988, Disney collaborated with Steven Spielberg—producer of *An American Tail* and *The Land Before Time* and a long-time animation fan—to produce *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*. This live-action/animation hybrid 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 for Technical Achievement and renewing interest in theatrical animated cartoons. Other than the film itself, Spielberg also helped Disney produce three *Roger Rabbit* shorts. Disney moved to first place in box office receipts by 1988, with *Roger Rabbit* being the summer's biggest hit.

Disney prompted their Renaissance by competition with Don Bluth's animated productions and the evolution of overseas animation, most notably the Studio Ghibli anime productions from Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. His *Lupin the Third* film adaptation, *The Castle of Cagliostro* (1979), influenced *The Great Mouse Detective's climax*, which in turn paved the way for the Disney Renaissance. The two-minute climax scene used computer-generated imagery (CGI), making it the first Disney film to extensively use computer animation, which Disney used to promote the movie during marketing. Glen Keane, a leading animator for Disney films such as *The Little Mermaid*, *Beauty and the Beast*, and *Aladdin*, has also credited Miyazaki's work as a "huge influence" on Disney's animated films ever since *The Rescuers Down Under*.

## Timeline (1989–99)

### 1989: *The Little Mermaid*

Disney had been developing *The Little Mermaid* since the 1930s. By 1988, after *Roger Rabbit*'s success, 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 on Broadway years earlier on productions such as *Little Shop of Horrors*, became involved in producing, writing and composing the songs and score for the film.

Released on November 14, 1989, *The Little Mermaid* was a critical and commercial success and garnered a higher weekend gross than Bluth's *All Dogs Go to Heaven*, which opened the same weekend, eventually breaking *The Land Before Time*'s record of highest-grossing animated film.

It won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song ("Under the Sea") and Best Original Score, earning an additional nomination for Best Original Song for "Kiss the Girl."

### 1990–91: *The Rescuers Down Under* and *Beauty and the Beast*

*The Rescuers Down Under* was released one year later and was the first sequel produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film garnered mainly positive reception but was not as financially successful as *The Little Mermaid*. However, it was notable for being the first fully digital feature film, Disney's first film to entirely use Disney's new Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). Disney created the rest of the traditionally-animated films during this period using CAPS.

*Beauty and the Beast* followed in 1991. The first animated film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and remained the only animated film nominated for Best Picture when that category had only five entries (1944–2008). *Beauty and the Beast* did win the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) 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 and 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 U.S.

### 1992–94: *Aladdin* and *The* *Lion King*

*Aladdin* and *The Lion King* followed in 1992 and 1994, 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. Still, it later became second after being surpassed by *The Lion King*, which became the highest-grossing animated film at the time and remained the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history.

Howard Ashman wrote several songs for *Aladdin* before his death, but Disney ultimately used only three in the film. Tim Rice eventually joined the project and completed the score and songs with Alan Menken. Rice later collaborated 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. *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.

    Disney diversified in animation methods between the two in-house productions and produced *The Nightmare Before Christmas* (1993) with former Disney animator Tim Burton. 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.

### 1995–97: *Pocahontas*, *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*, and *Hercules*

In 1995, Disney partnered with Pixar to create *Toy Story*, the first fully computer-animated film. The next Disney animated film, 1995's *Pocahontas*, opened to mixed reviews. However, it still earned $346 million worldwide and garnered two Academy Awards for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind." The following year, *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1996), Disney's first animated film produced at a budget over $100 million, opened to better reviews than *Pocahontas*, but a lower total box office of $325 million. Both films feature composer (now serving only as a lyricist to Menken's music), Stephen Schwartz.

When *Hercules*, released in 1997, earned $252 million—$73 million less than *Hunchback*—at the box office, news media began to openly suggest that Disney animation was on a downward trend of their animated film releases. Although it gained more positive criticism than *Pocahontas* and *The Hunchback of Notre Dame*, it was still vulnerable to competition from companies such as DreamWorks and Pixar. All three films featured songs by Alan Menken.

### 1998–99: *Mulan* and *Tarzan*

Disney's next film, *Mulan* (1998), with a score by Jerry Goldsmith and songs by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, earned $304 million at the worldwide box office, restoring the commercial and critical standing of Disney's output.

The release of *Tarzan* (1999) is retrospectively the end of the Renaissance era. With songs by Phil Collins, Tarzan won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "You'll Be in My Heart" and became Disney's most commercially successful film since *The Lion King*, earning $448 million box office and widespread positive reviews. *Tarzan* was also Disney's most expensive animated feature to that date at $130 million, much of which developed new processes such as the computer-assisted background painting technique known as "Deep Canvas." Since the start of the Renaissance, it's also the first film written, developed, and produced at the studio's new home in Burbank; all the other films had either been made entirely in Glendale or started development Glendale and moved with the studio to Burbank.

During the first decade of the 2000s, Disney was unable to produce films of similar impact and acclaim by both the public and critics until they released *The Princess and the Frog* in 2009. This film raised $267 million at the worldwide box office and won three Annie Awards. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 85% of 197 critics had given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4/10 and Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 0–100 from film critics, has a rating score of 73 based on 29 reviews.

## Success in television animation (1985–1998)

While achieving success in animation motion pictures, Disney created considerable strides in television during this time. After 30 years of resisting offers to produce television animation, Disney finally relented once Michael Eisner, who had a TV background, took over. The first TV cartoons to carry the Disney name, CBS' *The Wuzzles* and NBC's *Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears*, both premiered in the fall of 1985. The productions enjoyed substantially larger production budgets than average, allowing for higher-quality writing and animation, anticipating recouping profitably in rerun syndication and all this while breaking from standard practice in the medium. While *The Wuzzles* only lasted a season, *The Gummi Bears* sustained success with a six-season run.

In 1987, the TV animation division adapted Carl Barks' Scrooge McDuck comic books for the small screen with the syndicated hit *DuckTales*. Its success spawned a 1990 theatrical film entitled *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp* and increased investment in syndicated cartoons. The result of this investment was *The Disney Afternoon* in 1990, a two-hour syndicated television programming block of such animated shows as *The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh* (1988-1991), *Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers* (1989–1991), *TaleSpin* (1990–1991), *Darkwing Duck* (1991–1993, also airing on ABC), *Goof Troop* (1992–1994, also airing on ABC), *Bonkers* (1993–1994), and the critically acclaimed and still-popular *Gargoyles* (1994–1997). TV animation also brought some animated feature film characters to Saturday morning, including *The Little Mermaid*, *Aladdin*, *Timon & Pumbaa*, and *Hercules*, the first three on CBS.

## Reception

### Critical and public response

Most of the films Disney released in the Renaissance era were well-received. Rotten Tomatoes, four out of the first five—*The Little Mermaid**, Beauty and the Beast*, *Aladdin*, and *The Lion King*—have the best critical reception (with over 90% positive reviews) and are referred to among critics as the "big four." In comparison, *Pocahontas* has the lowest reception of Disney's Renaissance films (with 55% of positive reviews).

### Box office performance

**List indicator(s)**

* **(A)** indicates the adjusted totals based on current ticket prices (calculated by Box Office Mojo).

## Awards

Nine of the ten films in the Disney Renaissance were nominated for Academy Awards, most notably *Beauty and the Beast*, which became the first animated film ever to be nominated for Best Picture, six of which won at least one Academy Award. Nine of the films were nominated for Annie Awards, with eight of them winning at least one:

## Music

### Soundtracks

All soundtracks were initially released under Walt Disney Records in the format of CD and cassette.

## Impact on other studios

The success of the Disney Renaissance attracted the attention of many animation studios and film studios. Major film studios established new animation divisions such as Amblimation, Fox Animation Studios or Warner Bros. Feature Animation to replicate Disney's success by turning their animated films into Disney-styled musicals.

## See also

* *Waking Sleeping Beauty* – 2009 documentary film chronicling the beginning and success of the Disney Renaissance from 1984 to 1994.