The Perfect Storm That Changed the Face of Animation Forever
Waking Sleeping Beauty
On DVD November 30
Special Replica Illustration Included with Every DVD

Burbank, Calif., October 26, 2010 – Waking Sleeping Beauty is no fairy tale. It’s a true story
about the renaissance that took place between 1984 and 1994 at the fabled Walt Disney
Animation Studios and how Disney animation regained its magic with a staggering output of hits
including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and more.
Available on DVD November 30 from Buena Vista Home Entertainment, the 86-minute
documentary features the people who were actually there — Michael Eisner, Jeffrey
Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney, John Lasseter and others. Directed by Don Hahn, who produced
some of the period’s biggest hits, and produced by Peter Schneider, who led the animation
group during this amazing period and later became studio chairman, Waking Sleeping Beauty
gives viewers an unprecedented look at the conflict, drama and tension that ushered in a
decade of unparalleled Disney creativity.

After Walt’s death, without his hands-on supervision, by the mid-1980’s the Disney animation
division 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 that led everyone to wonder if the best days of
animation were over. Hahn and Schneider provide a fascinating and candid perspective of what
happened in the creative ranks as Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and the late Roy E. Disney
(Walt’s nephew) worked to breathe new life into the company. Hahn and Schneider bring insider
knowledge, and offer refreshing candor and humorous anecdotes in describing ego battles, cost overruns and failed experiments, set against dynamic tensions with top leadership.

Each DVD is packaged with a special replica caricature of a particularly tough Beauty and the
Beast story meeting drawn by Kirk Wise.

Director Don Hahn puts several memorable samples on display and marshals a vast array of
interviews, home movies, internal memos and unseen footage. Waking Sleeping Beauty
celebrates the rich history of Disney animation and honors the many writers, artists and
composers who created the Disney magic.

Announcing the world premiere of Waking Sleeping Beauty at the 2009 Toronto International
Film Festival, the festival’s documentary programmer Thom Powers said, “The treatment of
Waking Sleeping Beauty is so thorough that it (even) includes key figures who famously left
Disney such as Don Bluth, John Lasseter and Tim Burton. At one time, children imagined that
Walt Disney’s signature meant a film was the creation of one man. This is a more grown-up
portrayal that reveals the collaborative, often contentious, experience in all its complexity.”
Bonus Features:

• Why Wake Sleeping Beauty? Overview featurette
• Deleted Scenes
  • Black Friday
  • Howard’s Lecture
  • Losing Howard
  • Recording ‘Part of Your World’
  • Research Tips
  • To Sir With Love
• The Sailor, the Mountain Climber, the Artist and the Poet - Celebrating Roy Disney,
  Frank Wells, Joe Ranft and Howard Ashman
• Studio Tours – Personal video footage from animator Randy Cartwright documenting the
  Animation Studio in 1980, 1983 and 1990
• A Reunion - Rob Minkoff and Kirk Wise
• Walt - What would Walt do? A comparison of Walt’s era and the current era
• Audio Commentary - View the film with commentary by director Don Hahn and producer
  Peter Schneider