42nd Academy Awards
The 42nd Academy Awards were presented April 7, 1970, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. For the second year in a row, there was no official host. Awards were presented by seventeen "Friends of Oscar": Bob Hope, John Wayne, Barbra Streisand, Fred Astaire, Jon Voight, Myrna Loy, Clint Eastwood, Raquel Welch, Candice Bergen, James Earl Jones, Katharine Ross, Cliff Robertson, Ali MacGraw, Barbara McNair, Elliott Gould, Claudia Cardinale, Elizabeth Taylor; this was the first Academy Awards ceremony to be broadcast via satellite to an international audience, but only outside North America. Mexico and Brazil were the sole countries to broadcast the event live; this is the highest rated of the televised Academy Awards ceremonies, according to Nielsen ratings. The record, as of 2019, remains unbroken thanks to the emergence of the Super Bowl as the biggest annual event of awards season. Midnight Cowboy became the first – and so far, the only – X-rated film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Its rating has since been downgraded to R. The previous year had seen the only G-rated film to win Best Picture, Carol Reed's Oliver!. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? set an Oscar record by receiving nine nominations without one for Best Picture. This was the last time until the 68th Academy Awards wherein none of the four acting winners had appeared in Best Picture nominees, as well as the first time where every acting nomination, as well as every major nominated film, was in color; this was the first Academy Award ceremony intended to be broadcast via satellite worldwide, but according to Klaus Lehmann, a foreign sales executive of the ABC television network, in addition to Canada and Mexico, only two South American countries and Brazil in the Oscars' time zone, were interested in the live coverage. The Chilean television rights to the Oscars were sold by ABC International to Televisión Nacional de Chile while the Brazilian rights were sold to TV Tupi; the latter country's rights to the TV broadcast of the Oscars were moved to a joint venture of TV Bandeirantes and TV Record.
Starting in 1974, the Brazilian TV rights to the Oscars were sold by NBC to Rede Globo. An early attempt to change the Academy Awards presentation's start time to 1 p.m. to fit European television audiences was rejected by AMPAS executives. Since at the time television standards conversion was difficult, about 50 other countries did not broadcast the event live. In Europe, most TV broadcasters signed off at midnight, thus the Oscars were not broadcast live and were recorded on film and shipped to broadcasters with a minimum 4-day delay from the awards' broadcast date. Winners are highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger. Fred Astaire Candice Bergen Claudia Cardinale Clint Eastwood Elliott Gould Bob Hope James Earl Jones Myrna Loy Ali MacGraw Barbara McNair Cliff Robertson Katharine Ross Frank Sinatra Barbra Streisand Elizabeth Taylor Jon Voight John Wayne Raquel Welch Glen Campbell Michel Legrand Lou Rawls B. J. Thomas Fred Astaire List of most watched television broadcasts 27th Golden Globe Awards 1969 in film 12th Grammy Awards 21st Primetime Emmy Awards 22nd Primetime Emmy Awards 23rd British Academy Film Awards 24th Tony Awards
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated musical romantic fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 30th Disney animated feature film and the third released during the Disney Renaissance period, it is based on the French fairy tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, uncredited in the English version but credited in the French version, ideas from the 1946 French film of the same name directed by Jean Cocteau. Beauty and the Beast focuses on the relationship between the Beast, a prince, magically transformed into a monster and his servants into household objects as punishment for his arrogance, Belle, a young woman whom he imprisons in his castle to become a prince again. To break the curse, Beast must learn to love Belle and earn her love in return before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose or else the Beast will remain a monster forever; the film features the voices of Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury.
Walt Disney first attempted unsuccessfully to adapt Beauty and the Beast into an animated film during the 1930s and 1950s. Following the success of The Little Mermaid, Walt Disney Pictures decided to adapt the fairy tale, which Richard Purdum conceived as a non-musical. Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg dismissed Purdum's idea and ordered that the film be a musical similar to The Little Mermaid instead; the film was directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, with a screenplay by Linda Woolverton story first credited to Roger Allers. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken wrote the film's songs. Ashman, who additionally served as the film's executive producer, died of AIDS-related complications six months before the film's release, the film is thus dedicated to his memory. Beauty and the Beast premiered as an unfinished film at the New York Film Festival on September 29, 1991, followed by its theatrical release as a completed film at the El Capitan Theatre on November 13; the film grossed $425 million at the box office worldwide on a $25 million budget.
Beauty and the Beast won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the first animated film to win that category. It became the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards, where it won the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for its title song and received additional nominations for Best Original Song and Best Sound. In April 1994, Beauty and the Beast became Disney's first animated film to be adapted into a Broadway musical; the success of the film spawned two direct-to-video follow-ups: Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World, both of which take place in the timeline of the original. This was followed by a spin-off television series. An IMAX version of the film was released in 2002, included "Human Again", a new five-minute musical sequence, included in the 1994 musical; that same year, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally or aesthetically significant".
After the success of the 3D re-release of The Lion King, the film was reissued in 3D in 2012. A live-action adaptation of the film directed by Bill Condon was released on March 17, 2017. An enchantress disguised as a beggar arrives at a French castle and offers a cruel and selfish prince a rose in return for shelter; when he refuses, she reveals her identity. To punish the prince for his lack of compassion, the enchantress transforms him into a beast and his servants into household objects, she casts a spell on the rose and warns the prince that the curse will only be broken if he learns to love another, earn their love in return, before the last petal falls on his 21st birthday. Ten years in a nearby village, a beautiful, book-loving woman named Belle dreams of adventure and brushes off advances from Gaston, a handsome and arrogant hunter. On his way to a fair and lost in the forest, Belle's father Maurice seeks refuge in the Beast's castle, but the Beast imprisons him; when Maurice's horse returns without him, Belle ventures out in search for him, finds him locked in the castle dungeon.
The Beast agrees to let her take Maurice's place. Belle befriends the castle's servants; when she wanders into the forbidden west wing and finds the rose, the Beast scares her into the woods. She is ambushed by a pack of wolves, but the Beast rescues her, is injured in the process; as Belle nurses his wounds, a friendship develops between them. Meanwhile, Maurice returns to the village and fails to convince the townsfolk of Belle's predicament. Gaston bribes Monsieur D'Arque, the warden of the town's insane asylum to have Maurice locked up if Belle refuses to marry Gaston. After sharing a romantic dance with the Beast, Belle discovers her father's predicament using a magic mirror; the Beast releases her to save Maurice. After taking Maurice to the village, Belle reveals the Beast in the mirror to the townsfolk, proving her father's sanity. Realizing that Belle loves the Beast, a jealous Gaston has her thrown into the basement with her father, he rallies the villagers to follow him to the castle to slay the Beast before he curses the whole village.
Maurice and Belle escape with Chip's assistance, Belle rushes back to the castle. During the battle, the beast's servants fend off the villagers. Gaston attacks the Beast in his tower, too heartbroken from Belle's departure to fight back, but regains his spirit
68th Academy Awards
The 68th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honored the best films of 1995 in the United States and took place on March 25, 1996, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories; the ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Quincy Jones and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the second time, having presided over the 66th ceremony in 1994. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on March 2, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Richard Dreyfuss. Braveheart won five awards, including Best Director for Best Picture. Other winners included Apollo 13, Pocahontas and The Usual Suspects with two awards, Anne Frank Remembered, Antonia's Line, Babe, A Close Shave, Dead Man Walking, Il Postino: The Postman, Leaving Las Vegas, Lieberman in Love, Mighty Aphrodite, One Survivor Remembers and Sense and Sensibility with one.
The telecast garnered 45 million viewers in the United States. The nominees for the 68th Academy Awardswere announced on February 13, 1996, at 5:38 a.m. PST at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater by president of the Academy, the music producer Quincy Jones. Braveheart led all nominees with ten nominations; the winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 25, 1996. Braveheart was the ninth film to win Best Picture with no acting nominations. With her Best Supporting Actress win for Mighty Aphrodite, Mira Sorvino became the second consecutive actress to win the aforementioned category for a performance in a film directed by Woody Allen. Best Adapted Screenplay winner Emma Thompson was the first person to win Oscars for both acting and screenwriting, she had won Best Actress for her performance in the 1992 film Howards End. This was the first year since the 42nd Academy Awards—and last to date—that none of the acting winners appeared in Best Picture nominees. Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, indicated with a double dagger.
Chuck Jones Kirk Douglas John Lasseter for Toy Story The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers. As a result of the negative reception of David Letterman's stint as host from the preceding year's ceremony, veteran film and television director Gil Cates declined to helm the upcoming festivities. In November 1995, AMPAS recruited music producer and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award recipient Quincy Jones as producer of the 1996 ceremony. Jones selected actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg to host the ceremony. In an interview with Los Angeles Times writer Susan King, Jones explained the decision to hire Goldberg saying, "She has all the qualifications to move on a dime, to carry the elegance and the dignity of the show and is funny, she understands the street. She has everything."One segment, staged during the ceremony was an elaborate fashion show showcasing the nominees for Best Costume Design. Produced by fashion photographer Matthew Rolston, the production featured models such as Cameron Alborzian, Tyson Beckford, Tyra Banks, Marcus Schenkenberg and Joel West sporting various costumes from the five films nominated in the category.
Actor Jack Nicholson was approached to introduce the segment along with models Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer. However, actor Pierce Brosnan accepted the role of presenter of the segment and award after Nicholson declined those respective duties. Several other people and elements were involved with the production of the ceremony. Jeff Margolis served as director for the program. Actress and talk show host Oprah Winfrey interviewed several nominees and other attendees during a seven-minute red carpet arrival segment shown at the beginning of the telecast. Musician and saxophonist Tom Scott served as musical director for the ceremony. Choreographer Jamie King supervised the performances of the Best Song nominees and two dance numbers. Babe, the pig from the eponymous film, Miss Piggy participated in a comedy sketch during the proceedings. Actor Christopher Reeve, paralyzed in a horse riding accident nearly a year earlier, made a surprise appearance on the telecast urging filmmakers to make movies that face the world's most important issues head-on.
Beginning with this ceremony, the AMPAS music branch divided the category of Best Original Score into two categories: Best Dramatic Score and Best Musical or Comedy Score. This was seen as a response to the dominance of Walt Disney Feature Animation films in the Original Score and Original Song categories in recent years. Four years the two scoring categories were merged back into one category. At the time of the nominations announcement on February 13, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees at the US box office was $333 million, with an average of $66.5 million per film. Apollo 13 was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $172 million in domestic box office receipts; the film was followed by Braveheart, Babe and Sensibility and Il Postino: The Postman. Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 47 nominations went to 14 films on the list. Only Toy Story, Apollo 13, Babe, 12 Monkeys, Casino and Mr. Holland's Opus were nominated for directing, screenwriting, or Best Picture.
The other box office hits that earned nominations were Batman Forever, Seven, Crimson Tide, Waterwo
One Hundred Men and a Girl
One Hundred Men and a Girl is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Henry Koster and starring Deanna Durbin. Written by Charles Kenyon, Bruce Manning, James Mulhauser from a story by Hanns Kräly, the film is about the daughter of a struggling musician who forms a symphony orchestra consisting of his unemployed friends. Through persistence, a few misunderstandings, they are able to get famed conductor Leopold Stokowski to lead them in a concert, which leads to a radio contract. One Hundred Men and a Girl was the first of two motion pictures featuring Leopold Stokowski, is one of the films for which Durbin is best remembered as an actress and a singer. John Cardwell, a trombone player, is only one of a large group of unemployed musicians, he tries unsuccessfully to gain an interview and audition with Leopold Stokowski, but not to disappoint his daughter, Patricia, he tells her that he has managed to get the job with Stokowski's orchestra. Patsy soon learns the truth and learns that her father, desperate for rent money, has used some of the cash in a lady's evening bag he has found to pay his debts.
The irrepressible and wilful Patsy seeks an interview with Mrs. Frost, whose bag it was, confesses her father's actions. Mrs. Frost, a society matron and wife of rich radio station owner John R. Frost, lightheartedly offers to sponsor an orchestra of unemployed musicians. Taking her at her word and her father recruit 100 musicians, rent a garage space and start to rehearse. Realizing that Patsy took her Mrs. Frost flees to Europe. Mr. Frost tells John and his friends that he will not sponsor them, as they had supposed, unless they can attract a well-recognized guest conductor to give them a'name' and launch them on their opening night. Patsy, sets out to recruit none other than Leopold Stokowski to be that conductor. Stokowski at first refuses—though when Patsy sings as the orchestra is rehearsing Mozart's "Alleluia" from Exsultate, jubilate, he suggests that she seek professional voice training and eventual representation. By mistake, Patsy conveys the story to a newspaper music critic that Stokowski will conduct an orchestra of unemployed musicians, that John R. Frost would broadcast the concert on the radio.
When the story breaks, Frost protests his embarrassment to his friends, but they suggest valuable publicity would result. Frost signs the one-hundred-man orchestra to a contract, though Patsy tries to tell them that Stokowski has not agreed. Stokowski is astonished and offended at the news, but Patsy enters Stokowski's palatial house surreptitiously, along with the entire orchestra, she insists that he listen to the players. The conductor is so moved by their performance of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 that he postpones a European tour and agrees to the engagement. The concert is a rousing success for everyone when Patsy, called upon to make a speech, instead agrees to sing the "Brindisi" from Verdi's opera La traviata. Deanna Durbin as Patricia "Patsy" Cardwell Adolphe Menjou as John Cardwell Leopold Stokowski portraying himself Eugene Pallette as Mr. John R. Frost, the eventual sponsor of the "One Hundred Men" Alice Brady as his wife Alma Kruger as Mrs. Tyler, John Cardwell's landlady Mischa Auer as Michael Borodoff, a flautist and one of John Cardwell's neighbors Billy Gilbert as the owner of the garage where the "One Hundred Men" rehearse Jed Prouty as Tommy Bitters, a man engaged in a good-natured war of pranks with John R. Frost.
Jack Smart as Marshall, Leopold Stokowski's doorkeeper Frank Jenks as a taxi driver who keeps a running tab for Patsy and calls it an "investment" in her singing voice Gerald Oliver Smith As Stevens, the butler Leopold Stokowski was, at the time of the film's release, co-conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy. Political and artistic differences with the orchestra's board had led Stokowski to allow Ormandy to assume a greater leadership role at the orchestra and would lead Stokowski to break with the orchestra entirely; this might explain why the city in which the film is set, by extension Stokowski's "regular" orchestra, is never positively identified in the film. The music was released in monaural sound. Jane Barlow, ballerina and a student of Nijinska, was a body double for Deanna Durbin in this film. "Symphony No. 5 in E minor: Fourth Movement" performed by a symphony orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski "It's Raining Sunbeams" performed by Deanna Durbin "Rakoczy March" performed by a symphony orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski "A Heart That's Free" performed by Deanna Durbin "Zampa, ou la fiancée de marbre: Overture" performed by the unemployed orchestra "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" performed by the unemployed orchestra "Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III" performed by a symphony orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski "Alleluja" from the motet "Exultate, jubilate" performed by Deanna Durbin The film opened to favorable critical reviews and is remembered as a hit.
Of all the elements of the film, Deanna Durbin's ability to both sing and act drew the highest praise. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. In addition, Charles Previn, in his role as head of the music department for Universal Pictures, won the Acade
71st Academy Awards
The 71st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, honored the best of 1998 in film and took place on March 21, 1999, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 24 categories; the ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actress Whoopi Goldberg hosted the show for the third time, she first hosted the 66th ceremony held in 1994 and had last hosted the 68th ceremony in 1996. Nearly a month earlier in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on February 27, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Anne Heche. Shakespeare in Love won seven awards including Best Picture. Other winners included Saving Private Ryan with five awards, Life Is Beautiful with three, Affliction, Election Night, Elizabeth and Monsters, The Last Days, The Personals, The Prince of Egypt and What Dreams May Come with one.
The telecast garnered nearly 46 million viewers in the United States. The nominees for the 71st Academy Awards were announced on February 9, 1999, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California, by Robert Rehme, president of the Academy, the actor Kevin Spacey. Shakespeare in Love earned the most nominations with thirteen; the winners were announced during the awards ceremony on March 21, 1999. Life Is Beautiful was the second film nominated for Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film in the same year. Moreover, its seven nominations were the most for a foreign language film, to date. Best Actor winner Roberto Benigni was the second person to direct himself to an acting Oscar win. Laurence Olivier first achieved this feat for his performance in 1948's Hamlet, he became the fourth individual to earn acting, screenwriting nominations for the same film. In addition, Benigni was the third performer to win an Oscar for a non-English speaking role. By virtue of their nominations for portraying Queen Elizabeth I of England, Best Actress nominee Cate Blanchett and Best Supporting Actress winner Judi Dench became the first pair of actresses to earn acting nominations in the same year for portraying the same character in different films.
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, indicated with a double dagger. Elia Kazan Norman Jewison The following individuals performed musical numbers. Riding on the success of the previous year's ceremony which garnered record-high viewership figures and several Emmys, AMPAS sought changes to the festivities that would help build upon this recent success. In June 1998, Academy president Robert Rehme announced that the show would be held on a Sunday for the first time in history. AMPAS and network ABC hoped to capitalize on the high television ratings and viewership that benefit programs airing on that particular day of the week; the Academy stated that the move to Sunday would ease concerns about traffic gridlock and transportation that are lower on weekends. The following January, Gil Cates was selected as a producer of the telecast, he selected Oscar-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg as host of the 1999 ceremony. Cates explained his decision to bring back Goldberg as host saying, "The audience adores Whoopi and that affection, plus Whoopi's extraordinary talent makes her a terrific host for the show."
In a statement, Goldberg expressed that she was honored and excited to be selected to emcee the telecast commenting, "I am thrilled to escort Oscar into the new millennium. Who would have thought that I would be hosting the last Oscar telecast of the century? It's a huge deal."Several other people participated in the production of the ceremony and its related events. Bill Conti served as musical director for the festivities. In addition to supervising the Best Song nominee performances, choreographer Debbie Allen produced a dance number featuring five dancers from around the world showcasing the nominees for Best Original Dramatic Score. For the first time, the Academy produced its own pre-show. Produced by Dennis Doty, the half-hour program was hosted by actress Geena Davis and CNN reporter Jim Moret. Similar to coverage of red carpet arrivals on networks such as E!, the pre-show featured interviews with nominees and other guests, recaps of nominations and segments highlighting behind-the-scenes preparations for the telecast.
At the time of the nominations announcement on February 9, the combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees was $302 million with an average of $60.4 million per film. Saving Private Ryan was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $194.2 million in domestic box office receipts. The film was followed by Shakespeare in Love, The Thin Red Line and Life is Beautiful. Of the top 50 grossing movies of the year, 36 nominations went to 13 films on the list. Only Saving Private Ryan, The Truman Show, A Civil Action and Primary Colors were nominated for Best Picture, acting or screenwriting; the other top 50 box office hits that earned nominations were Armageddon, A Bug's Life, Patch Adams, The Mask of Zorro, The Prince of Egypt, The Horse Whisperer, What Dreams May Come and Pleasantville. The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Columnist Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly quipped that "Whoopi bombed last night, she knew it—and yet, she took it as a sign of her own
40th Academy Awards
The 40th Academy Awards honored film achievements of 1967. Scheduled for April 8, 1968, the awards were postponed to two days April 10, 1968, because of the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. Bob Hope was once again the host of the ceremony. Due to the increasing rarity of black and white feature films, the awards for cinematography, art direction and costume design were combined into single categories rather than a distinction between color and monochrome; the Best Picture nominees were an eclectic group of films reflecting the chaos of their era. The event was the first one since the 1948 awards show to feature film clips from the Best Picture nominated films; this year's nominations marked the first time that three different films were nominated for the "Top Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Actor and Screenplay. The three films were The Graduate and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. However, the winner of Best Picture was producer Walter Mirisch and director Norman Jewison's thriller/mystery film, In the Heat of the Night.
The Graduate is, as of the 91st Academy Awards, the last film to win Best nothing else. Due to an all-out push by Academy President Gregory Peck, 18 of the 20 acting nominees were present at the ceremony. Only Katharine Hepburn and the late Spencer Tracy, nominated posthumously, were missing. Nominations announced on February 19, 1968. Winners are highlighted in boldface and indicated with a double dagger. Gregory Peck Alfred Hitchcock Arthur Freed was presented for distinguished service to the Academy and the production of six top-rated Awards telecasts; this was the last Oscars broadcast by network radio in the US. The ABC radio network carried the ceremony over the ABC Entertainment network. Of the 20 performers nominated in the acting categories only two didn't attend: Katharine Hepburn, whose award for Best Actress was accepted by George Cukor, was in France filming The Lion in Winter, Spencer Tracy, whose nomination was posthumous. There was no Governor's Ball. Prior to the two-day postponement, four African-American stars who were scheduled to take part in the ceremony: Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr. Louis Armstrong and Diahann Carroll, announced they were withdrawing in mourning for Dr. King.
Prior to the postponement, Jack Lemmon was announced as a replacement for Poitier, Shirley Jones for Davis, but once the event was delayed, the original quartet returned. Alfred Hitchcock's acceptance speech is on record as one of the shortest in Academy Awards history: "Thank you much indeed"; this is one word longer than William Holden´s acceptance speech for Stalag 17 at the 26th Academy Awards, ¨Thank you...thank you.¨ This was the only year in which two films received nominations in all four acting categories. Legendary film composer John Williams received his first nomination for scoring Valley of the Dolls, he would go on to receive 50 more nominations, winning 5. The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers. 25th Golden Globe Awards 1967 in film 10th Grammy Awards 19th Primetime Emmy Awards 20th Primetime Emmy Awards 21st British Academy Film Awards 22nd Tony Awards Rose Weiss, costume designer for the 1968 awards 40th Academy Awards on IMDb A Place to Stand, 1967, Archives of Ontario YouTube Channel
Disney Renaissance
The Disney Renaissance refers to the decade from 1989 to 1999 during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to producing critically and commercially successful animated films that were based on well-known stories, much like the studio did during the era of Walt Disney during the 1930s,'40s, and'50s. The resurgence allowed Disney's animated films to become powerhouse successes at the domestic and foreign box office; the animated films released by Disney during this period include The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under and the Beast, The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Tarzan. After the deaths of Walt and Roy O. Disney, The Walt Disney Studios were left in the hands of Donn Tatum, Card Walker, Ron Miller; the films released over an eighteen-year period following this change of management did not perform as well commercially as their prior counterparts. An hard blow was dealt during production of The Fox and the Hound when long-time animator Don Bluth left Disney to start his own rival studio, Don Bluth Productions, taking eleven Disney animators with him.
With 17% of the animators now gone, production on The Fox and the Hound was delayed. Don Bluth Productions produced The Secret of NIMH in 1982, the company became Disney's main competitor in the animation industry during the 1980s and early 1990s. Disney made major organizational changes in the 1980s after narrowly escaping a hostile takeover attempt from Saul Steinberg. Michael Eisner of Paramount Pictures, became CEO in 1984, he was joined by his Paramount associate Jeffrey Katzenberg, while Frank Wells of Warner Bros. became president. In 1985, to make more room for live-action filmmaking, the animation department was moved from the main Disney lot in Burbank to a "temporary" location in various hangars and trailers about two miles east in nearby Glendale, where it would remain for the next ten years. Thus, most of the Disney Renaissance took place in a rather ordinary industrial park in Glendale, the Grand Central Business Centre. After the box office failure of the 1985 PG-rated feature The Black Cauldron, the future of the animation department was in jeopardy.
Going against a thirty-year studio policy, the company founded a television animation division which produced shows such as DuckTales. In the interest of saving what he believed to be the studio's core business, Roy E. Disney persuaded Eisner to let him supervise the animation department in the hopes of improving its fortunes. In 1986, Disney released The Great Mouse Detective. An American Tail outperformed Mouse Detective, became the higher-grossing film on its first release. Despite An American Tail's greater level of success, The Great Mouse Detective was still successful enough to instill executive confidence in Disney's animation department. Two years Oliver and Company outgrossed The Land Before Time, launching an era of increased theatrical turnout for the studio. In 1988, Disney collaborated with Steven Spielberg, a long-time animation fan and producer of An American Tail and The Land Before Time, to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a live action/animation hybrid which featured animated characters from the 1930s and 1940s from many different studios together.
The film was a critical and commercial success, winning three Academy Awards for technical achievements and renewing interest in theatrical animated cartoons. Other than the film itself, Spielberg helped Disney produce three Roger Rabbit shorts. Disney moved to first place in box office receipts by 1988, with Roger Rabbit being the summer's biggest hit. Disney had been developing The Little Mermaid since the 1930s, by 1988, after the success of Roger Rabbit, the studio had decided to make it into an animated musical, much like many of its previous animated movies, but with a more Broadway feel to it. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, who worked on Broadway years earlier on productions such as Little Shop of Horrors, became involved in the production and composing the songs and score for the film. Released on November 14, 1989, The Little Mermaid was a critical and commercial success and garnered a higher weekend gross than Bluth's All Dogs Go to Heaven, which opened the same weekend breaking The Land Before Time's record of highest-grossing animated film.
It won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song and for Best Original Score, earning an additional nomination for Best Original Song for "Kiss the Girl." The Rescuers Down Under was released one year and was the first canon sequel produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film garnered positive reception, but was not as financially successful as The Little Mermaid. Beauty and the Beast considered to be one of the greatest of all Disney animated features, followed in 1991, it was the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, losing to The Silence of the Lambs, remains the only animated film nominated for Best Picture when that category had only five entries. Beauty and the Beast did win the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture and two Academy Awards, for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Beauty and the Beast received an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound, as well as two additional nominations for Best Original
