Moment of Truth: Waking Sleeping Beauty Goes Behind Closed Doors at Disney

How did you go about establishing your philosophy of archival footage, stills and illustrations only?

DH: We had two full-time researchers for a year -- Tracy and Maggie -- and they got on the phone and called every animator we knew and sent e-mail blasts to every animator we knew: "Clean out your closets, clean out your attics. We're making this film, send us what you have." I think that was a lot of it. Then we knew we had large chunks of footage, like the Randy Cartwright [8-millimeter] archival footage you see at the beginning of the film. You see Randy touring the studio. We knew that existed. We knew some of the EPK [electronic press kit] documentation existed of the lion-drawing class. What we didn't know is the little gems we would find of Frank Wells's memorial service, or Jeffrey waving off press on the red carpet at the Lion King premiere. Those were nuggets that our editors would find while going through literally hundreds of hours of film under they found that little gem. That treasure hunt was most of the process of making this movie was about.

Wasn't the 8mm stuff early in the film technically prohibited on the Disney lot?

DH: Completely.

PS: Not "technically." Was.

DH: It was. Randy and John Lasseter both made that, and they were leaving the company that week. So they were like, "Who cares? What are they going to do, fire us?" So they went around just to try to document it. And they walked through every room and every door and just wanted to give it a slice of life. And thank goodness they did, because that was the basis for a lot of our movie.

Don, I heard your mother played an archival role as well.

DH: She did! She was a big fan, go figure. She would record off the TV a lot of times. What she would do is set the VCR when she knew a documentary or newscast was coming up, and she would record a lot of this stuff and save it on VHS tapes. In a couple instances, that was the only place we had some things. It was surprising.

PS: The lion eating Jeffrey was a tape sent in by Don's mother. It's not in the CNN archives.

Did you ever worry about showing too much? After all, much of the appeal of Disney is the magic -- or in this case, not knowing how the sausage is made.

PS: No, I think when we went into this we sort of knew we were going to have to do that. And I would say without "exposing" it. I frame it a bit differently, which is that really it's about the people behind Disney. It's demystifying that Disney is a corporation -- though it is, a very important one. But it's really about celebrating the individuals that make that place special: Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy Disney, Frank Wells, and the artists. It's a unique place, and these are human beings that have great aspirations -- and sometimes great flaws.

Was there anyone who wouldn't talk to you?

DH: I would say no. We talked to everyone, and surprisingly so. Michael Eisner. We talked to Jeffrey. We showed them the finished movie. Alan Menken, of course. We had a very open process with people, and for whatever reason they trusted us not to misrepresent them. But they were very open to us and to sharing their stories.

When I think of the animators and filmmakers who came out of that era, obviously you guys are very successful. Tim Burton has the number-one film in America. John Lasseter is in charge of Pixar. What do you make of where this core went after the period depicted here?

PS: Well, it was a great class.

DH: It's unbelievable.

PS: It was a great graduating class, and they are the leaders of the film and animation world today. They run studios and online businesses. It was a great class of kids that grew up there and graduated.

DH: You know, it's funny. I think the guy who has the last laugh in all of this is Walt Disney. He set up this school, Cal Arts. He knew that every kid in America who loved animation would come there. And the very first graduating class has Brad Bird, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, Glen Keane, and all these guys. So Walt had this prescient knowledge that maybe if you build it, they will come, and all these kids did come. And now they're the Walt Disneys of our generation.

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