Disney Revival

The Disney Revival refers to a predicted era (arguably) 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) and Big Hero 6 (2014).

History
The Disney Renaissance (1989-1999) is well-known as the era of success after arguably 22 years of modest successes and disappointments (the studio famously declined in successes after Walt Disney's death, more specifically after the release of the monumentally popular The Jungle Book). 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 lack luster home-video sales) and garnering relatively decent critical acclaim, the latter attribute wasn't overall equivocal to past Renaissance hits, such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King.

In the early 2000's, Disney didn't release any hugely successful animated movies (though some did better than others, such as Lilo & Stitch) 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 alike. The following release, Meet the Robinsons, received similar (if not as bad) reception. However, Bolt was received well and was the sign of things to come with generally positive reviews and marginal box office draw, more than Meet the Robinsons.

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 over $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 in an 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 equivocal 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). Overall, while it is the start of the renaissance, it did not establish a formula and a major trend in success like The Little Mermaid did. Despite the modest success of The Princess and the Frog, Disney Animation reestablished the successful animated musical fairytales, 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 renessaince. 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 fairytale loosely based on the story of Rapunzel. The film became a huge critical and commercial success, earning more than $500 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 established a new marketing and aesthitic formula that would effect the rest of the movies, similarly to how The Little Mermaid in the Disney Renaissance.

In 2012, after the releases of Tangled and the 2011 film Winnie the Pooh (which was a financial disappointment, 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 arguably 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. Even so, Wreck-It Ralph won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Animated Motion Picture, as well as the Critcs Choice Movie Awards for Best Animated Feature, and five Annie Awards, including that of Best Animated Feature. Ralph is currently one of the few films in the era rumored to have a full-length sequel, which is now possibly in development.

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 (winding up with $1.274 billion ($248 million in Japan alone (where it was #1 for 16 consecutive weekends)) 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.

The first canon film using Marvel characters, 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 93% 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 third highest-grossing feature Walt Disney Animation Studio has released both domestically and internationally, behind only The Lion King and Frozen. Big Hero 6 won an 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.