Disney rediscovers its mojo
Storied animation studio on fire with commercial, critical successes
It’s a story that could have been scripted by Walt Disney himself. An iconic American animation studio lurches from an illustrious past to a decade of famine. Changes are made and the next 10 years bring a decade of plenty.
For Walt Disney Animation Studios, such fiction has become reality.
After success with 1994’ s The Lion King, the animated arm of the Walt Disney empire appeared to have lost its way. It was also losing money to such an extent that there was talk of it being closed down.
However, the studio rediscovered the hit- making formula after the acquisition of Pixar nine years ago, making blockbusters including Frozen.
Andrew Millstein, president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, guided the studio as executive vicepresident and general manager when it released Frozen. Speaking to The Telegraph, he said the film’s success would not have been possible without the changes introduced following the barren years.
“We had lots of great talent at the studio before Disney acquired Pixar,” he said.
“It was a challenge for us to learn what their DNA was and how we could extract that and apply it in the unique culture, history and institutional longevity of Disney Animation.
“We were not firing on all cylinders at a creative level ... we were not getting the most out of everybody who was there, and I think our films suffered because of it.”
Disney Animation, which has 850 staff, is part of The Walt Disney Studio alongside Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm — the company behind Star Wars — and Disney Live- Action.
It completes one film a year, and at any point in time it has about four movies in production.
Last month, Millstein told the Advertising Week Europe conference in London that Disney’s legacy can be a burden as much as a springboard, with the company’s history showing how it is possible to lose the spark of creative risktaking that made it successful in the first place.
He said: “The key difference that helped motivate the change at Disney Animation is the idea that our studio and films are filmmaker- led. Our directors, producers, writer and heads of story are now responsible for driving forward the creative process, in contrast to what happens at an executive- led studio where key executives are strongly suggesting or, in some cases, dictating the direction a film should go in.”
Millstein, who joined Disney in 1997 as a production executive in its modern pictures group, also oversaw other successful Disney films including Tangled, Wreck It Ralph and Big Hero 6, the studio’s most recent release.
He said that a second shift came when Disney began empowering its creative leaders to take collective ownership of each other’s films, making suggestions born from their own experience about potential improvements.
“In this way, the creative leadership of any one film come to rely on the feedback and wisdom that other key creatives in the organization are expected to give,” he said.
“We call that the story trust, the group of writers, directors, heads of story who are responsible for helping to deconstruct and rebuild each other’s films. They have to give notes to their colleagues.
“It’s a deeply collaborative environment. Our creative leads throughout the studio will pivot to support each other, dropping what they’re doing to help carry water on another film, and the results are evident.
“You’ve got to see the films’ progression creatively, from Tangled to Wreck It Ralph, Frozen and Big Hero 6.
“In the past, the expectation that this should happen was never established. Often, films were produced simultaneously and there may have been more of a competitive ethos than one of collective ownership. Today, they are not competing with each other.”
An example came late in the filming of Big Hero 6 when Disney brought in a different team to help the film’s “creative leadership” move it forward.
“We realized that there was a scene that was not resonating at the emotional depth that we needed,” said Millstein. “That change set up the emotional relationship between the characters that was needed.
“I don’t know who made the suggestion. It doesn’t matter now. We all work together.”