The Rise and Fall (and rise and fall and rise again) of Disney
In order to understand how the Disney films have changed, first one must understand why they have changed and the best way to do that is to comprehend the history of the Disney Animated Canon. This summary is hardly sufficient to cover the long and complex history of the Disney Company, but there is only a finite number of hours in a day so it'll have to suffice. Let us begin.
Everyone's favorite uncle. No, he did not cryogenically preserve himself under Disneyland, but he was an actual anti-semite.
In the beginning...
The Walt Disney Animation Studios was founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios by Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney. Orginally, the studio produced animated short cartoons as most other animation companies were doing at the time, with the most well-known ones being the Silly Symphony series.
Not to be confused with Warner Bros' Loony Tunes and Merry Melodies, or MGM's Happy Harmonies, which were all released later (apparently there was some sort of trend they were following)
However, Walt Disney observed that the success of a cartoon usually depended less on gags and more on gripping stories with characters the audience will care about. So he started production plans on an animated adaptation of Snow White, which was be the first the first feature-length animated film in the English-speaking world and the first feature film made completely with hand-drawn animation. Called derisively as "Disney's Folly" by the film industry during its production, Snow White was released in 1937 to massive commercial and critical acclaim.
The classic story of a 13-year-old girl becoming a mother to 7 grown men and a wife to a guy she just met. No, really.
Snow White was released during the Great Depression, a time when the successes of First-Wave feminism and the liberated women of the Roaring Twenties were largely forgotten, primarily since people were too busy trying not to starve to death to care about women's rights. The competition for labor combined with Catholic moral reform movements fostered a national desire for women to return to the home. Snow White hence represents what the view of women's roles were at that time, the role of the housekeeper, keeping the family organized and fed while the men went to put food on the table.
Following the success of Snow White, the studio continued producing feature-length films in addition to the cartoon shorts. All of the films were critical hits but they were only modest box office successes.
1940
1940
1941
1942
OG Disney
However, after the release of Bambi, the production of feature length cartoons was halted as the studio's financiers at the Bank of America would only loan the studio working capital if it temporarily restricted itself to shorts production. This decision was partly due to the financial failure of the recent features and also due to Disney being cut off from the very lucrative overseas market because of some major event happening at the time.
Oh yeah. This guy happened.
During WWII
Since feature-length cartoon could not be produced during WWII, several ongoing projects such as Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland had to be put on hold. No feature-length cartoons were produced, however several shorts were released in cinematic form as "package films", which were low-budgeted films composed of animated short subjects with animated or live-action bridging material. They received mixed to positive reviews and managed to keep the feature film division alive.
1943
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
This is the cinematic equivalent of having no money to buy dinner so you toss everything in the fridge into a pot and hope for the best. (Although admittedly, it isn't that bad)
On a side note, during this time the Disney Studios also released war propaganda cartoons in order to increase profits as war propaganda was (obviously) very profitable at the time. One cartoon short is titled Der Fuehrer's Face and it involves Nazi Donald Duck going to work in a factory and then ending up in a pink elephants number a la Dumbo featuring living bombshells.
And no, I did not make a single word of that up.
Post-WWII
After the war ended, Disney resumed production of feature-length films in 1948. It is in this post-war period that Walt Disney produced most of his most well-known works, achieving both critical and commercial success and cemeting the Disney Studios as part of America's cultural identity.
Cinderella was released in 1950, Disney's first full-length single story feature since Bambi 8 years ago. Like Snow White, Cinderella epouses the virtues of the wife and mother figure, while vilifying the woman who holds power. This protrayal is a clear reflection of the expectations of women held by the patriarchal society at the time. During WWII, due to the massive number of deaths on the battlefield, there was a necessity for women at home to actually get jobs so that society could continue to function. After the war, there was a huge cultural desire for women to return to managing the household while leaving the income-earning to men. Cinderella thus reflects that societal view.
Cinderella: the voice of a generation
As mentioned previously, the films released in this period were the most commercially successful films produced by Walt Disney, only second to Snow White. The only real financial disappointments were Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty.
1950
1959
1951
1961
1953
1963
1955
1967
To anyone keeping track, at this point we have accumulated nearly a full day of movies. By the end, you will have spent more than 3 days without sleep watching Disney movies. You're welcome.
The Great Politics Mess-Up
While working on the production of The Jungle Book, Walt Disney succumbed to lung cancer on 15 Dec 1966.
As it turns out, Uncle Walt was a chain smoker in addition to being an anti-semite. Go figure.
1970
1973
Shortly after Disney's death, his brother and co-founder, Roy O. Disney also passed away and Walt Disney Productions was left in the hands of Donn Tatum and Card Walker, who alternated as chairman and CEO in overlapping terms for the rest of the decade. Under their leadership, there was troubled production over the films being produced. The next two films released were considered underwhelming at best when compared to the previous box office successes.
Does anyone even remember these films? Didn't think so
The next few films released were financial successes, but the films were becoming fewer and farther between. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Rescuers were both released in 1977, with the next film, The Fox and The Hound, being released 4 years later despite production also starting in 1977. In addition, The Fox and The Hound received mixed reviews while The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Rescuers received much more positive reviews.
1977
1977
1981
The nuggets of gold amidst a ton of crap
The troubled production of The Fox and The Hound was primarily due to the stagnating development of animation at Disney, leading to 17% of the animators leaving the studio. Walt Disney was always one to innovate and try new techniques in animation but most of his experimental films were commercial failures. Some examples would be Fantasia, a surreal blend of animation and classical music with no plot, Alice in Wonderland, which also essentially had no plot, and Sleeping Beauty, which had a heavily stylized art style. After Walt's death, his replacements had an aversion to straying from formula, leading to creative stagnation. This aversion to innovation would bite Disney in the ass soon enough.
After The Fox and The Hound came The Black Cauldron. This film was intended to showcase the talents of a new crop of animators and was under the direction of the new CEO of Walt Disney Productions, Ron Miller. Unfortunately, the aforementioned aversion to new techniques led to many promising young animators being fired, including the current Pixar president John Lasseter and Tim Burton. Throughout Ron Miller's leadership, Disney became the target of corporate raiders and takeover attempts, and many influential shareholders criticized Miller's leadership. In 1984, Roy E. Disney, son of Roy O. and nephew of Walt, resigned from the company's board of directors and launched a campaign called "SaveDisney", successfully convincing the board to fire Miller. Roy E. Disney brought in Michael Eisner as Disney's new CEO, and Frank Wells as president. Eisner in turn named Jeffrey Katzenberg chairman of the film division, The Walt Disney Studios.
The Black Cauldron was nearly complete when Eisner took over and it was a clear reflection of Miller's terrible leadership, as well as the corporate struggle going on at Disney. By all accounts, the film was a horrifically unentertaining mess and it represented the rock-bottom of the Disney Animated Canon.
1985
Does anyone remember this atrocity? No?
That's because Disney really doesn't want you to
The failure of The Black Cauldron and the company’s expansion into other ventures such as television and theme parks led to Eisner seriously considering closing the animation department. This was also partly due to the rise of Don Bluth Productions, headed by one of the animators that left during The Fox and The Hound, Don Bluth. That production studio was producing magnificent films that rivalled the Disney classics in quality and put the current Disney films to shame. However, Disney intervened, persuading Eisner to allow Disney to head the animation department and attempt to revitalize the company’s tradition of animated feature films.
"And that's the story of how Disney took Disney's former place at Disney Studios"
"But what about the films people actually care about?"
"Sorry hun, that's another five years later"
1986
The first film released after Disney became head was The Great Mouse Detective. Although the film had to compete with Bluth’s An American Tail and ultimately lost, it was still successful enough commercially and critically to restore executive confidence in the future of animated feature films, saving the animation department from bankruptcy.
Apparently, what Disney needed was a story about a foppish Sherlock expy and his evil ex-boyfriend.
(I mean they're not canonically an ex-couple, but seriously, watch the film and tell me there's no subtext at all)
Following The Great Mouse Detective was Oliver & Company. Similarly to The Fox and The Hound, the film did well commercially but received mixed reviews. The film is also often credited as the reason most of Disney films after were musicals, as the film itself had a modern pop soundtrack.
1988
This film and Alan Menken are to blame for every Disney song that has got stuck in your head
During production of Oliver & Company, Disney started a project in collaboration with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and master animator Richard Williams to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a film best known for its masterful blend of live-action and animation, it bringing together numerous animated characters such as Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, and boobs.
In that order
The end result was a tremendous success, and although it is not part of the Disney Animated Canon, it proved that the Walt Disney Animation Studios was still capable of producing quality films, renewing faith in the company from consumers and executives. The success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit hence ushered in the period film historians know as the Disney Renaissance.
The Disney Renaissance (i.e. the good part)
As mentioned before, the commercial success of Oliver & Company led to the studio deciding to make its next movie, The Little Mermaid (which incidentally had been in production since the 1930s), into a Broadway-style animated musical. The success of The Little Mermaid led to the solidying of "the Disney formula", which was a style of film that had certain elements common to the Disney Renaissance films, such as the coming-of-age story, the "I Want" song, the romance subplot and the villain song. This formula would serve Disney well during the Renaissance but it did lead to numerous inferior copycats that tried to replicate Disney's success, such as the Warner Bros' Quest for Camelot.
In any case, all the films released by Disney in this period were massive commercial and critical successes, renewing public and critical interest in Disney.
1989
Overrated, but has nice songs
1995
I honestly cannot comprehend how anyone liked this movie
1990
Severely underrated
1996
Had lots of potential but tainted by formula
1991
Best Disney movie ever and I will heard no word to the contary
1997
Most formulaic and least effort put in
1992
Most fun one and Robin Williams is the man
1998
Has my favorite protagonist; rest of film is ok
1994
Most epic-looking one and probably 2nd best
1999
Really cool looking and entertaining overall
You may have noticed that 5 of the films in this period feature Disney princesses (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas and Mulan), while there were no Disney princess films in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s (not counting Princess Eilonwy from The Black Cauldron as she isn’t part of the Disney princess roster and again, Disney would much rather everyone forgets about that film). You may have also noticed that the princesses of the Disney Renaissance are quite different in portrayal than the princesses of Walt Disney. These two things are neither random nor unrelated.
In the early 1960s, just a year after Sleeping Beauty, came second-wave feminism. This wave lasted from the 1960s to the early 1980s and amongst other things, fought for the right for women to have jobs. As such, the aimless, do-nothing wallflowers of the previous two decades were no longer acceptable role models and as such had to be kept under lock and key until they were socially acceptable again. Luckily for them, two decades after the rise of second-wave feminism came the backlash of second-wave feminism, where conservative roles for women became okay again, albeit slightly altered to fit the new cultural landscape.
We're free! Free to belt out our motivations to the audience to establish we're active protagonists while our perfect hair blows in the wind!
The new Disney princesses actually went out and played an active roles in their stories, seeking out what they wanted (which was usually expressed to the audience via aforementioned “I Want” song). At the same time, they shared traits with the Disney princesses of yore, such as kindness, nurturing and the desire for romance.
To be continued here
(because wix.com is a cheap jerk and won't let me make this page any longer)