Waking Sleeping Beauty
From 1984 to 1994 a perfect storm of people and circumstances changed the face of animation forever.
86 mins
By the mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could produce a happy ending. Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It's the true story of how Disney regained its magic with a staggering output of hits - "Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast ," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," and more - over a 10-year period.
Peter Schneider
Self
David Pruiksma
Self (voice)
Mark Kimball
Self (voice)
Dick Cook
Self (voice)
Lisa Keene
Self
Lillian Disney
Self (archive footage)
Randy Cartwright
Self (archive footage)
Ruben Procopio
Self (archive footage)
Jeanette Thomas
Self (archive footage)
Marie E. Johnston
Self (archive footage)
Ron Hendren
Self (archive footage)
Frank Wells
Self (archive footage)
Don Griffith
Self (archive footage)
Ted Berman
Self (archive footage)
Phil Nibbelink
Self (archive footage)
Joe Hale
Self (archive footage)
Kathleen Gavin
Self (archive footage)
Maureen Donley
Self (archive footage)
Pat Riley
Self (archive footage)
Dennis Cosmo Michael
Self (voice) (archive footage)
Richard Purdum
Self (archive footage)
David Friedman
Self (archive footage)
Getúlio Vargas
Self (archive footage)
Gary Franklin
Self (archive footage)
Karl Malden
Self (archive footage)
Jim Fowler
Self (archive footage)
Joseph the Lion
Self (archive footage)
Pancho the Lion
Self (archive footage)
Travis Blaise
Self (archive footage)
Richard Turner
Self (voice) (archive footage)
Laurin Sydney
Self (archive footage)
Donna Brown Guillaume
Self (archive footage)
Ward Kimball
Self (archive footage)
Joe Lanzisero
Self (archive footage)
Darrell Van Citters
Self (archive footage)
Brett Thompson
Self (archive footage)
Leslie Margolin
Self (archive footage)
Mike Cedeno
Self (archive footage)
Paul Nowak
Self (archive footage)
Nancy Beiman
Self (archive footage)
Bruce Morris
Self (archive footage)
Elmer Plummer
Self (archive footage)
Harry Sabin
Self (archive footage)
John Pomeroy
Self (archive footage)
Heidi Guedel
Self (archive footage)
Emily Jiuliano
Self (archive footage)
Skip Jones
Self (archive footage)
Dave Spafford
Self (archive footage)
Sally Voorheis
Self (archive footage)
Saul Steinberg
Self (archive footage)
Lem Davis
Self (archive footage)
Danny Troob
Self (archive footage)
Lisa Blair
Mary (archive footage)
Grant Bardsley
Taran (voice) (archive footage)
Eve Evans
Secret Bear (voice) (archive footage)
Burke Moses
Gaston (archive footage)
