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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 (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).
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.
Following the deaths of Walt and Roy O. Disney (in 1966 and 1971, respectively), 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 (1977) 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 (1981), 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 (1982), 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 2 miles (3.2 km) 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 (1985), the future of the animation department 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, 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.
Disney released The Great Mouse Detective (1986) a few months before Don Bluth released An American Tail (1986). An American Tail outperformed The Great Mouse Detective and became the highest grossing animated film to that date. Despite An American Tail's greater level of success, The Great Mouse Detective was still successful enough (both critically and commercially) to instill executive confidence in Disney's animation department. Oliver and Company (1988) would later be released on the same day as The Land Before Time (1988). 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.
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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 (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).
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.
Following the deaths of Walt and Roy O. Disney (in 1966 and 1971, respectively), 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 (1977) 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 (1981), 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 (1982), 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 2 miles (3.2 km) 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 (1985), the future of the animation department 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, 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.
Disney released The Great Mouse Detective (1986) a few months before Don Bluth released An American Tail (1986). An American Tail outperformed The Great Mouse Detective and became the highest grossing animated film to that date. Despite An American Tail's greater level of success, The Great Mouse Detective was still successful enough (both critically and commercially) to instill executive confidence in Disney's animation department. Oliver and Company (1988) would later be released on the same day as The Land Before Time (1988). 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.