Disney Revival

The Disney Revival refers to a predicted era beginning in 2010 with the release of Tangled and extending to the present during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated films.

The animated films released so far during this period include: Meet the Robinsons (2007), Bolt (2008), The Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Winnie the Pooh (2011), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), and Frozen (2013).

History
After John Lasseter took over the animation division with the purchase of Pixar, Disney announced they would return to traditional animation with the 2009 release of The Princess and the Frog, which was released to rave reviews and modest box-office success, grossing $267 million worldwide on a $105 million budget. However, the film didn't make enough money to convince Disney that hand-drawn animation could be largely profitable. They completely changed their marketing and methods. The feature titled 'Rapunzel' was changed to 'Tangled' in an effort to make the film more gender neutral. The planned hand-drawn 'Snow Queen' project was scrapped and changed to computer animation. As of 2014, there are no plans for any hand drawn animated films. However, Tiana was a very palitable character for the Disney Princess lineup, and became very lucritave and palitable in the merchandizing (unlike Pocahontas and Mulan). Nonetheless, while not a failure, many film experts, critics, and animators, from a strict buisness standpoint fail to see any value in the film other than a movie that is easy to market.

After The Princess and the Frog, Disney released the 2010 film  Tangled, Disney's 50th Animated Feature, marked a new direction for the studio, blending 3D CGI animation with traditional techniques. Following the tradition of the 1990s animated films, Tangled was a musical fairy tale loosely based on the story of Rapunzel. The film was a highly critical and commercial success, earning more than $500 million worldwide and reigniting interest in Walt Disney Animation Studios. The success of the film set a standered for Disney Animation, for example changing the name of the Snow Queen project from 'The Snow Queen' to 'Frozen'. In 2012, after Tangled, and the 2011 film, Winnie the Pooh (which was a financial dissapointment), Disney had released the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph, which garnered similar critical and commercial success. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and The Golden Globes. The Revival Era reached new heights with 2013's Frozen, which won Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, Annies, and Critics' Choice Movie Awards, as well as Best Song for "Let it Go". The film also became the first in the Canon series to earn $1 billion, and only the 2nd cartoon film to do so (the other being Disney's own Toy Story 3 with Pixar). The film also won 2 Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. While some people point to Frozen as the start of this era, the critical, audience, and commercial success wasn't different from that of the previous films.