As a child, you can only dream of where Snow White, Peter Pan, and Cinderella came to life. At that time, few would have guessed that nestled on the Disney lot in Burbank, California, animators gathered in the Inking and Painting building to draw what would likely become another of the company’s iconic characters. In the documentary, “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” director Don Hahn allows you past the studio security gate and inside a renaissance time in Disney’s animation department.

The film looks back at the decade of Disney animation from 1984 to 1994. In the mid-1980s, the once celebrated animation studios faced on uncertain future as a string of box office disappointments made executives weary of new cartoon projects. Yet, Roy Disney, Walt’s nephew and a member of the board of directors, wouldn’t give up on the flagging animation department and brought in a new group of young executives including Michael Eisner (from Paramount), Jeffrey Katzenberg, and animation president Peter Schneider.

These three men slowly brought the animation department back to its glory days producing hits like “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” and “The Little Mermaid.” However, this was no Cinderella story for the animators. Plagued by fighting executives, tight budgets, and long hours, the animators wanted to create art but knew the bottom line was most important to the heads of Disney.

In “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” Hahn, a veteran animator, goes beyond the typical behind-the-scenes found on DVDs today and captures the moments of triumph and disappointment that resonated through the Disney animation hallways. Through the use of home video shot by a pre-Pixar John Lasseter, viewers meet the members of the animation team including a quirky, young Tim Burton, who helmed the Disney box office hit, “Alice in Wonderland.”

Getting the inside story behind the Disney headlines that were splashed across newspapers in the 1980s and 1900s, the film delves into the infighting between Eisner and Katzenberg, the helicopter crash that killed company executive Frank Wells, and the development of projects including “Pocahontas” and “The Lion King.” It also looks at how the musical became Disney staple with the help of off-Broadway musical team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. They were responsible for creating the soundtracks of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast,” before Ashman’s death from AIDS, which is also briefly chronicled in the film.

Rather than using a single narrator to tell the story, Hahn selected to have many voices share their experiences at Disney and the importance of animation to the studio. Hahn spoke to all the major players of the decade and was able to sew a complete and interesting story from their comments. Most poignantly, Eisner points out that “animation is Disney’s soul, heart and most of its body parts.”

In addition to the narrative style, Hahn sidestepped the traditional route of using too many still photographs or talking heads to tell his story. Instead, he paired narration with caricatures of executives, which was both fitting for the project and lead to some unexpectedly funny moments in the film. He specifically painted Katzenberg as a selfish corporate czar with little concern for his underlings.

“Waking Sleeping Beauty” is a story that could only be told by Disney, who is the studio behind the film. For a company that is known for being guarded and careful with its image, Hahn tries to get beyond the Disney façade and tell the story of what was happening on the lot – good and bad.
However, you can’t help but wonder what Hahn was forced to leave on the cutting room floor.

With a running time of only 86 minutes, this film could have told many more battle stories from behind the gates of Disney Studios. But, who would want that? It would only serve to take the magic away.