One of the first films that I can remember seeing at the Enzian was the documentary ‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’. One of the coolest things at the start of the movie was the cameraman walking down the halls of the Disney Animation Studio offices in the early 80’s, listing off animators as he walked by, names that would go on to be well known in the following decades. At the end of the tour someone asks the guy behind the camera who he is, and he introduces himself as another of the green animators, John Lasseter.

Mr. Lasseter has become one of the most successful filmmakers of all time, and an inspiration to all who want to follow the advice of following their passion. In a SCAD Commencement Address delivered last year, he reiterated one of those aphorisms that has become a mantra around lifestyle developers: “Choose something that you love to do and you will never work a day in your life.”

The man who hired John Lasseter, Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull, has a book of his own: Creativity, Inc. I’ll echo the sentiments shared with me before I took it in: this is one of the best business books that isn’t actually a business book ever written. Couched in a memoir of a man who had a passion for 3D graphics before most computers had 2D graphics is a set of maxims for leadership principles. The anecdotes shared, such as the circuitous path of employment made by John Lasseter, make it highly entertaining as well.

The past few years have brought some of their most creatively and financially successful films, not even counting the sister studio over at Pixar. From the powerhouse ‘Frozen’ which catapulted to the fifth highest grossing film ever at the time of it’s release to one of my personal favorites, ‘Big Hero 6’, and so far the best movie I’ve seen this year, ‘Zootopia’, Disney still has the magic, and doesn’t look to be losing it anytime soon.

---

What I’m saying in this long preamble is that the constellation of Disney animation has been on my mind a lot lately. The first Disney movie that I remember seeing in the theater was ‘The Lion King’, though I believe we went to ‘The Little Mermaid’ as well. Both, along with ‘Beauty and the Beast’ are considered a return to form for the company that defined the animated feature film, and brought it back from the brink of destruction. What I never realized was how close that destruction was for a time, and ‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’ paints a stark picture in contrast of creative output versus internal strife.

A recurring theme that ended up becoming an issue was the fact that the old guard of original animators was retiring at the same time as a new crop was getting started. There was very much an atmosphere of “What Would Walt Have Done”, in which new directions were taken haltingly or avoided altogether out of fear of breaking the model that was already beginning to fall apart. It took longer than probably necessary to learn the lesson not to cling to what used to work as the world changed around them.

Despite that, there was a level of perfection and craft that all animators aimed to maintain. One scene has an animator showing off a stack of accepted panel sketches, followed by a much larger stack of panels that were headed straight for the trashcan. Similarly, the first twenty minutes of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ were completely trashed after completion, as testing with audiences, producers, and the rest of the story revealed that it simply did not work. It’s a testament to the focus that was put on turning the studio around that they felt comfortable enough to have spent so much time and money that could be essentially wasted.

The film covers 1984-1994, the decade that encompassed some of Disney Animation Studio’s biggest failures at the start, and highest successes at the end. Nobody had faith in ‘Lion King’ while the team was working on it, with more focus being put into ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and other projects. Even as the film was prepping for release, there as fighting just to get the proper promotional budget for what ended up being one of the highest grossing movies of all time and one of the films that saved the animation studio from completely going under.

If you are concerned with the art of commerce and the commerce of art, check out both this documentary and Ed Catmull’s superb book. The Disney company has been an innovator in both fields for nearing a century. They do plenty that I don’t agree with and would not find very innovative or progressive (copyright extensions anyone?), but the creators at the company are passionate about their work. If more of us were that dedicated to, I’d wager that we’d be in a much better place.

Republish