Disney Movie Eras: Disney Movie Toons and Direct to Video Pt 1
This month continues a new series of blogs for fans of popular culture. Whereas in the past explorations of Walt Disney films we highlighted individual works, we will now be talking about the larger groupings of movies, and the various artistic and commercial visions sought for and achieved from said movies.
A quick run though of the eras:
The Golden Age: 1937-1941
Wartime: 1942-1949
The Silver Age: 1950-1967
The Bronze Age: 1968-1988
The Renaissance: 1989-1999
Post-Renaissance: 2000-2009
Revival: 2010-Present
As you can see, the various eras are inspired by historical art movements over the year, as well as comic books. You can draw the parallel, for instance, between the Italian Renaissance, or between the iterated variations of popular superheroes like Batman and Superman.
We will also be covering Disney live action films. The list of films owned by the Walt Disney Corporation is quite expansive because it includes multiple studios and production companies, such as Touchstone Pictures, Pixar, and more. And for good measure, we will also cover animated films that released without the official Walt Disney Pictures branding, as well as films that only released via television or Disney +.
So buckle up everyone as we retread the Disney films of years passed:
In our April blog, we previously discussed some of the administrative and financial setbacks endured by the Walt Disney Corporation. The loss of the Disney brothers seriously effected leadership at the company, and the rift in the animation studio between Don Bluth and his coworkers left a serious gap in the company. Despite fending off a hostile takeover, the company was in dire straits. If not for the success of The Great Mouse Detective, the studio may well have closed for good.
History of course shows that is not the case, but the path to success was not entirely straightforward. In the wake of the rise of Michael Eisner as head of the company, Roy E. Disney, nephew to Walt and son of Roy O., took a strategic move in taking charge of the Disney animation department. Here, Roy Jr. spent a lot of his time nurturing and gathering future talent, as well as building partnerships with other animation teams.
The biggest partnership came from Hollywood's top director, Steven Spielburg. While Spielburg was involved with Dob Bluth in helping produce both An American Tail and The Land Before Time, his expertise and star power helped make another film possible, perhaps the most ambitious animated film ever. In partnership with Spielburg's Amblin Entertainment and director Robert Zemeckis, Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a lauded film that combined not only live action and animation, but notably the works of various companies. Apart from Disney, Warner Brothers also participated and offered its catalog of characters, along with Hannah-Barbera. It remains a remarkable film and worth a watch by any fan of animation.
With this release, and the success of Oliver & Company, the animation studio was in the beginning of a monumental rise to glory. Success came from another of Roy Jr.'s successes, from Disney's revitalized cartoon department. One of the biggest success stories of the late 1980s was DuckTales, an animated series set in the traditional Disney universe, and starring Scrooge McDuck and his great nephews and niece. One of the most successful cartoons of the era, in attracted enough attention at the studio who needed a tentpole film for 1990. While it would be a few years in the making, the animation studio in Paris worked hard to turn a five-episode saga of the series into a feature length film, DuckTales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, opens a new window. Because it was not animated in-house alongside the rest of the films, DuckTales is often not considered part of the Renaissance, despite releasing in 1990.
The success of these two films opened up a new line of inquiry. While Disney was working on further big releases (and would release quite a few in theaters over the next decade), the question arose whether Disney could find success with even more films, made by satellite studios, with less quality and budget. Not every film needed to be a massive blockbuster that changed cinema forever; they just needed to be enjoyable to their target audience and make a profit.
In a previous blog, we mentioned the growth of the Walt Disney Company. By the late 80s, Disney had become utterly massive and was one of the leading media juggernauts of the world. To help me their various production deadlines, the company opened additional studios across the globe, where they could train and benefit from local talent (while funneling their best employees off to the main studios in the US). Disney opened campuses in Australia, Japan, France, and Canada, in addition to occasionally subcontracting work to other studios entirely.
It would be a few years before the next film released, in 1994.
The production of Return of Jafar, opens a new window actually predates the release of Aladdin. By 1991, Disney had successfully released the first three of their Renaissance films (The Little Mermaid, Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast). The studio was well on its way to new highs, but was also seeing particular success with their television enterprise. The Disney Channel was becoming a dominant destination in television programming, offering numerous successful shows and cartoons, such as Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, Goof Troop, and The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid, in particular was important, being the first animated series based on one of their new movies. In a similar vein to DuckTales, Disney wanted to debut an Aladdin television series. CEOs Katzenberg and Eisner had reservations about lowering the quality of their new media, but their plan saw immediate success. The Australia and Japan studios working together plotted out a new film to serve as the pilot for the television series, and the first five episodes became The Return of Jafar, the first direct-to-video film.
The decision was largely a financial one. Disney was able to produce The Return of Jafar on a paltry budget of $5 million. The production costs of VHS had also fallen dramatically and marketing was negligible, since by 1994 Aladdin was already a hit film. While the animation wasn't quite the best in the business, it was more than sufficient to live up to the legacy of the first film. The biggest hiccups would come from the casting department, where Disney failed to negotiate with Robin Williams. As mentioned in our Renaissance blog, Disney and Williams were feuding over some questionable use of his voice in promotional material. Though they would reconcile in a few months, it wasn't in time for this film, forcing them to replace Williams with Dan Castellaneta.
And yet the film was a monster hit. Despite being made for VHS, the film would have over $300 million in sales over its lifetime, making it one of the most profitable films ever. That's a Return on Investment of over 50x once you account for both production and marketing. Disney had struck gold, and it was time to start mining.
One of Disney's other hit shows of the early 90s was Goof Troop, a cartoon sitcom about classic character Goofy and his son, Max. Goofy raised Max as a single father, with classic villain Pete the Cat as a boisterous (and much toned down) neighbor. The show was a hit on The Disney Channel, and one of the first properties to be considered for a film.
Man, I love this film. A Goofy Movie serves as the (first) finale to the Goof Troop series. Max, now a high schooler, is struggling to bond with his father. The estranged duo go on a camping/fishing trip that takes them across the country, but Max has other plans, and is secretly trying to attend a concert to impress a girl he met at school. There'd be another film eventually set a few years later, but we'll talk about that in due time.
Produced by Disney Television Animation, the film began as a mere television special, but Disney was hoping to breathe a bit more development into Goofy, and the film quickly became an appreciation not just of the character, but the world they lived in. Before being fired, Katzenberg greenlit the film and gave it a major $15 million budget, as well as a slot in cinemas. The firing of Katzenberg however soured the relationship between the company and the film, so the film did not get advertised nearly as much as it should have. By the time the film hit theaters in 1995, Disney had moved on to other projects: Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, as well as being knee deep in production of both Hercules and Mulan. It simply could not be bothered to follow through and stick the landing.
Aladdin and the King of Thieves, opens a new window
Behold the finale to the Aladdin series. Following three seasons of television, Disney decided to wrap up a few loose ends in the story. Aladdin gets to learn that his father is still alive, and they have to help him, while in the midst of finally getting married. Yeah, uh, I guess they didn't get married at the end of Aladdin? As the cover art proudly demonstrates, Robin Williams returns, along with John Rhys-Davies as Cassim, Aladdin's father. The film performed well in the VHS market, but never quite made nearly as much as the first sequel. Though being reviewed much more favorably, the film barely cleared $150 million in total sales, and that was after $70 million in marketing, more than double the cost of Aladdin itself.
In the early 90s Disney had another hit television show on their hands: The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh, that lovable bear, was quickly growing to become a media juggernaut all on his own. With a hit new television show (and a rockin theme song, opens a new window!), interest in Pooh was ever growing, and that included whole new movies! Disney would release quite a few of them over the years.
Trivia! You see that movie art up there? Never happens in the film! Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas serves as both a sequel and midquel to the 1991 film. The film opens with the characters celebrating Christmas after the events of the first film. Belle's wearing the dress here, but she's happily engaged/married to the Prince. They recount their first Christmas together, a whole new story that takes place during the first film, presumably about halfway through, when the characters are still feuding. That red dress? Never seen during The Enchanted Christmas story proper! The most notable thing about the film was where half the budget went: Tim Curry! Curry was Disney's latest celebrity hire, this time brought on to play the villain, maestro Forte. Forte was the castle's music organizer and had been turned into an organ.
So far, Disney had struck success with their formula of direct-to-video films. It would not last. Belle's Magical World , opens a new windowbegan life as the pilot for a television show, this time based on Beauty and the Beast. Unlike with The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, the company lacked confidence in production, as most of the animation had been handed off to two untested studios in Thailand and Taiwan. The three completed episodes got strung together into a film of very middling quality. Though it sold decently enough, the company decided to quietly push the film aside and move on. No television series came out of it.
By 1998, Disney was hitting their stride with the direct-to-video films, but a trend was beginning to emerge: Story continuation, lower budgets, lower quality, questionable results. Oh, the movies are fine enough on their own, and generally well regarded (at least on first viewing) by their intended audiences, but noone was coming away saying "I prefer this over the original." Maybe that was never the intention, at least for the majority of viewers, but it's still concerning for the longterm plan. Journey to the New World released as a rather predictable sequel, based on the historical first film, and following up with a reasonably historical sequel, barring the animal sidekicks. The one exception is the film has a happy ending, which cannot be said for the historical namesake.
Behold the peak of the direct-to-video films. Considering we have a few more entries here and two entire blogs to go, that's not exactly encouraging!
While Disney Australia would do the animating, as it did with several of the direct-to-video films, Simba's Pride has a distinction of it's own: the film was fully backed by Disney, and got preproduction and storyboarding at the main studio in Hollywood, same as the original The Lion King. The company spared no expense here, developing a full coherent story based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The film was a hit on release, earning over $450 million over several years, nearly matching the theatrical run of the first film. Very impressive! Critically speaking, it's also one of the most well received films, averaging about a 7/10. Also, almost all of the cast returned, including James Earl Jones, but notably not Jeremy Irons.
Once Upon a Christmas, opens a new window is an odd one in that it did not get advertised or produced alongside the other films, but instead was through Disney Television Animation. The film is an anthology of original Christmas-themed shorts -one for Donald and his nephews, one for Mickey and Minnie, and the other for Goofy and Max- . Nothing super amazing here, but it sold a lot and became a Christmas stocking stuffer in late 1999.
That will conclude this blog, and we'll save the new millennium releases for Part Two. There's still a lot of films to go, but we'll take a short break and explore the pioneers of CGI films, Pixar, when we next return.
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