Return of the King: A Look Back at Disney’s Animation Renaissance of the 1990s.

Return of the King: A Look Back at Disney’s Animation Renaissance of the 1990s.

 

By Michael Lyons

 

“I remember saying, at one point, ‘If wrestling can become popular again, then so can animation!,’” said Ron Clements, with a laugh, in a 1997 interview. Clements, along with John Musker, co-directed Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), and ‘97’s Hercules.

 

Those three movies marked an unprecedented era at Disney, known as the Animation Renaissance, when animation made a surprising comeback with lasting impact.

 

Clements's wrestling analogy refers to the 1970s and ’80s, when animation at Disney and other studios struggled to maintain industry relevance.

 

"In the old days, when we'd walk into a restaurant for lunch, we'd mention what movies we were working on and no one had heard of them," laughed Clements collaborator, John Musker, in a 1997 interview. "We'd ask the waitress, 'Didn't you see the ads?' and she’d say, 'Wasn't that movie done thirty years ago?' and we'd say, 'No, no, we just did that last year!”

 

"I was twenty years old when I started, and animation was kind of in this 'cartoon ghetto,’” remembered Don Hahn in a 1996 interview. Hahn, producer of such landmark films as 1991’s Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King (1994), added, “It was something that maybe you dropped your kids off to see, but it certainly wasn't for adults; they certainly weren't the success that these films have become.”

 

So, how did these animated films at Disney become such a success? How did animation at the Studio go from a “B player,” to a major player in Hollywood that continues to enchant audiences?

 

To answer that, one needs to go back to a time after Walt Disney’s death in 1966, when animation at the Studio suffered what could best be called a “slump.” Full-length features during this time, such as Robin Hood (1973), The Rescuers (1977), and The Fox and the Hound (1981), did admirably but didn’t come close to the Golden Age glory of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940).

 

In 1984, Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney’s nephew, resigned from Disney’s Board of Directors, opposing the company’s direction. He played a key role in replacing Ron Miller (Walt’s son-in-law) with Frank Wells as President and Michael Eisner as CEO.

 

This new team saw possibilities at Disney, particularly in animation, as noted by Jeffrey Katzenberg, then Chairman at The Walt Disney Studios, who told author Bob Thomas, in his book, Disney’s Art of Animation: “’These [animated] films are not made for kids; they’re made for the kids that exist in all of us.”

 

Roy E. Disney returned to the Studio as Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Animation Department. Walt’s nephew, guiding animation, was the “white knight” many had been waiting for, to save the day.

 

The Great Mouse Detective (1986) showed potential, while 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit proved animation could succeed at the blockbuster level.

 

While Who Framed Roger Rabbit was in production, Disney’s new leadership set a schedule to release one new animated feature a year, an achievement even Walt hadn’t managed.

 

In late 1988, the Studio released the first of these films in its one-a-year schedule, Oliver & Company. In 1989, The Little Mermaid followed, serving as the “flashpoint” for the Studio’s Renaissance era. The film brought the Disney fairy tale back, becoming a hit with audiences and critics (many of whom included it on their 1989 top 10 lists). Additionally, thanks to songs from Broadway veterans Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the animated musical returned, and their Oscar-winning work has become some of the Studio’s most iconic music.

 

The following year brought the adventure sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, and, while it lost the box office to Home Alone in November of 1990, redemption came the following year with Beauty and the Beast, the first animated feature to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. This led to a stream of hits: Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Mulan (1998), and Tarzan (1999).

 

Some of the Studio’s other films that underperformed at the box office, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and A Goofy Movie (1995) achieved great success in later years.

 

Disney also changed animation’s trajectory with its Pixar partnership, starting with 1995’s Toy Story, which launched the computer animation age.

 

As the decade ended, The Disney Studio fulfilled a dream with Fantasia 2000, a sequel to a groundbreaking project that Walt had envisioned as far back as 1940.

 

During the Renaissance era of the 1990s, Disney artists also fulfilled Walt's vision for animation.

During production on 1940’s Fantasia, a story artist asked Walt if he felt that they were “taking full advantage of the cartoon medium.”

 

Walt’s response: “’ This is not the cartoon medium. It should not be limited to cartoons. We have worlds to conquer here….’”

 

By the end of the 1990s, those "worlds" were most definitely conquered. Animation not only returned, but it surged into blockbuster territory at Disney and other studios. On television, animation also became a major part of network programming, with shows like The Simpsons leading the way.

 

Just as Ron Clements had humorously predicted with his wrestling comparison, animation came back, and bigger than anyone could have predicted.

 

For those who worked through those years, the payoff was immense. Seeing animation exceed expectations was exhilarating.

 

“I've always felt that animation is an art form,” said legendary Disney animator Glen Keane, in a 1995 interview, “And just like the subtle smile on the Mona Lisa, it's not just reserved for that painting; let's do that in animation too.”

 

Don Hahn echoed this in 1996, saying, “As we grow with each picture, we've been able to try out different parts of our talents and stretch ourselves artistically. It's been a pretty neat journey; seeing it go from this 'also ran' corner of the film industry to something that's really in the spotlight right now.”

 

In the past two and a half decades since the Renaissance at Disney and Pixar, the studio has produced a string of immense hits. Many, such as Finding Nemo (2003) and Frozen (2013), would hold the title of highest-grossing animated film of all time. The art form is growing, even beyond what was considered in the 1990s, and animation continues to entertain audiences.

 

Roy E. Disney, who we sadly lost in 2009, said in a 1999 interview that he felt that audiences were waiting for Disney’s animated comeback: “Maybe the public wanted it to happen, in a way. I think, maybe, they missed it.”

 

 

This article includes segments of Michael Lyons’ book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, published by Theme Park Press. It’s available at BearManorMedia.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble’s online store, and at Michael’s website, wordsfromlyons.com.