Disney Revival

The Disney Revival refers to an era beginning in 2009 with the release of The Princess and the Frog   and extending to the present during which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to making successful animated feature films.

The animated features released so far during this period include: The Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Winnie the Pooh (2011), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013), Big Hero 6 (2014), Zootopia (2016), and Moana (2016).

The current era was officially confirmed in 2017 during a special presentation on the Walt Disney Studios lot, celebrating eighty years of Disney animation, courtesy of the Disney Archives and D23.

Background (1989-2009)
The Disney Renaissance (1989-1999) is well-known as the era of successful films after arguably twenty-two years of modest successes and disappointments, with a few exceptions which came close to be considered as memorable as some of Walt Disney's work at the time (the studio famously declined in successes after Walt Disney's death, more specifically after the release of the monumentally popular The Jungle Book. However, the studio did have a few successes and brief revivals of popularity during their so-called "Dark Age"; most notably films like The Rescuers and The Great Mouse Detective which are commonly regarded to best films to come out of that time period. After the release of The Lion King, Disney began to decline in popularity and success again. While Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan all did modestly well at the box office (with lackluster home-video sales) and garnered relatively decent critical acclaim, the latter attribute wasn't overall equivalent to past Renaissance hits, such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King.

In the early 2000s, often regarded as "Disney's Second Dark Age", Disney released very few successful animated movies, though some did better than others, most notably Lilo & Stitch which became their most successful from the early to mid 2000s, for almost an entire decade, mainly because of weak box office results due to the rising popularity of computer-animated movies as well as poor critical and audience reactions. In 2005, the company decided to make their first CGI animated movie Chicken Little, which, despite being financially successful, was jeered by critics and audiences. The following release, Meet the Robinsons, made less money than Chicken Little, but received better critical reception. However, Bolt did financially well at the box office and received positive reviews. The success of Bolt was the sign that Walt Disney Animation Studios was on a road to recovery.

Revival Successes (2009-2014)
John Lasseter took over the animation division with Disney's purchase of Pixar in 2006, after which Disney announced that they would return to traditional animation with the 2009 release of The Princess and the Frog. Praised for being a "rebirth" and "return to form" for the studio, the film was largely well received by critics and audiences alike, grossing nearly $270 million. However, because the film didn't do as well as Disney had hoped (grossing less than Bolt, which grossed $310 million), Disney changed their marketing drastically for the movies that followed (Rapunzel was re-titled Tangled and The Snow Queen was re-titled Frozen effort to make it more gender-neutral). Tom Sito (a film professor at the University of Southern California) stated that the film's success was equivalent to the success of The Great Mouse Detective as a step up improvement from Disney's major downfall (in Mouse Detective 's case, The Black Cauldron). The modest success of The Princess and the Frog, Disney Animation reestablished the successful animated musical fairy tales, introduced a popular and ground-breaking Disney princess (being the first African-American Disney Princess), and reestablished the classic storytelling formula the studio is famous for, as well as setting the stage for films to follow. Additionally, several renowned film critic associations such as TIME, Forbes, and Screen Rant, mark Frog as the beginning of Disney's new age renaissance. The Princess and the Frog was also nominated for several awards and honors, including three Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature, and Best Original Song ("Down in New Orleans" and "Almost There"), three Critics Choice Awards, a Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media ("Down in New Orleans"), and won three Annie Awards.

After The Princess and the Frog, Disney released the 2010 film Tangled, Disney's 50th Animated Feature, marking 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 became a huge critical and commercial success, earning $591 million worldwide, and eventually becoming one of the most successful Disney animated features of all time, both critically and financially; proving the studio retained the ability to do so. Tangled also received various award nominations, including an Academy Award for Best Original Song ("I See the Light"), as well as a Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media ("I See the Light"). Tangled 's financial success established a new marketing and aesthetic formula that would effect the films to follow.

In 2012, after the releases of Tangled and the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh (which was a financial disappointment, mostly due to the fact that the film was in competition from the final entry in the Harry Potter film series, despite being the best-reviewed animated film of 2011), Disney released Wreck-It Ralph, which garnered huge critical and commercial success similar to that of Tangled. Most notably, for a non-musical, Ralph was their most acclaimed since 1961's One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Ralph also proved to be a successful contender during award season. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and the Golden Globes, but infamously lost to Disney/Pixar's Brave, leading to a well-known public shock and outrage over social media. Even so, Wreck-It Ralph won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Animated Motion Picture, as well as the Critics Choice Movie Awards for Best Animated Feature, and five Annie Awards, including that of Best Animated Feature.

With the release of Ralph also came the studio's groundbreaking animated short, Paperman, which won the Academy Award for Best Short, among other critical acclaim.

The Revival Era reached new heights in 2013 with the release of 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 second animated feature to do so (the other being Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3). The film also won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. It was the first Disney film to win the Best Animated Feature Award and the first film to win Best Original Song since Tarzan. Other awards and honors include two Critics Choice Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, among many others. Some have even praised it as the best Disney musical since The Lion King.

Before Frozen, the studio's third short film in the era was released as a hand-drawn/computer animated hybrid short entitled Get a Horse!; starring Mickey Mouse. The short received an Academy Award nomination for Best Short.

Later Successes (2014-2017)
The first Disney Animation film that was inspired by a Marvel comic series and characters of the same name, Big Hero 6, premiered in theaters on November 7, 2014. The film received very widespread critical acclaim from critics, receiving an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes, with 89% of the audience liking it, making it the highest audience-rated film of the era. The film debuted at #1 with $56.2 million, grossing more than Wreck-It Ralph, but less than Frozen. Big Hero 6 would eventually go on to become the highest-grossing animated film of 2014, and the fourth highest-grossing feature Walt Disney Animation Studios has released both domestically and internationally, behind only The Lion King, Zootopia, and Frozen. Big Hero 6 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Along with Big Hero 6 came the animated short Feast, which received critical acclaim similar to that of Paperman, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

In 2016, the studio released Zootopia to considerable international critical and commercial success not only for its artistic excellence but also for being a sophisticated beast fable about prejudice and stereotypes that proved exceptionally timely in the contemporary American political environment. It also scored the biggest worldwide opening for an animated film. Zootopia became the fourth animated film and second Disney animated film in history to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide. The film would go on to win the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

The same year, Moana, a CGI fantasy-adventure film, was released. The film was shown in theaters with the animated short Inner Workings. Moana was another commercial and critical success for the studio, grossing over $640 million worldwide and receiving two Academy Award nominations.

Success in TV Animation (2012-2017)
Disney Television Animation also saw a significant resurgence during this period. After several years of setting aside TV Animation for animated features as well as their preteen shows on Disney Channel, including Lizzie McGuire, That's So Raven, and Hannah Montana. In 2012, with the success of their revival films, as well as the success of animated shows from other channels such as Cartoon Network, Disney Channel agreed to pitch Alex Hirsch's show, Gravity Falls. The show was both a critical success and a cult phenomenon, containing elements of adventure, mystery, and drama.

Disney expanded their television animation department with shows such as Wander Over Yonder, The Lion Guard, and Paul Rudish's new Mickey Mouse shorts. Disney Channel's sister network Disney XD saw a major success in 2014 with Star vs. the Forces of Evil, created by Daron Nefcy. While Gravity Falls ended in 2016 after just two seasons, Disney rebooted their classic series Ducktales in a new series headed by Matt Youngberg and Francisco Angones.