"Waking Sleeping Beauty" Opens Today

The new documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty is now in select cinemas in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. The film examines the "renaissance" of Disney feature animation in the 1980s and 1990s, and features numerous people who have affected the world of animation today, including a young Tim Burton.

Here is the trailer:



Cartoon Brew had these details for people in New York City and Los Angeles:

Don Hahn will make Q&A appearances in L.A. after the following showings this weekend:

Friday, March 26 — Q&A following the 7:45pm showing at AMC Century City

Saturday, Marcy 27 — Q&A following 1210p-150p show at the AMC Burbank 16, 125 East Palm Ave
Saturday, March 27 — Q&A following 7:55-9:35p show at the AMC Burbank 16, 125 East Palm Ave

[Producer] Peter Schneider will make Q&A appearances this weekend in NYC after the following showings at Landmark’s Sunshine Cinemas on Houston Street:

Friday, March 26 — Q&A following the 5pm and 7:15pm showings.
Saturday, Marcy 27 — Q&A following the 12 noon, 2:30pm, 5pm and 7:15pm showings.
Saturday, March 27 — Q&A following the 12 noon, 2:30pm and 5pm showings.


Here's an exclusive clip from Cartoon Brew's YouTube channel:

Filming of Stop-Motion "Frankenweenie" Soon?

Ain't It Cool News caught Don Hahn down at the SXSW festival during a Q&A for his new documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty (which looks at the Disney renaissance of the 1980s and early 1990s, and features Tim Burton as a young animator). Hahn will be an executive producer for Tim Burton's forthcoming Frankenweenie, and mentioned the animated film.

Harry Knowles paraphrases Don Hahn, who said that "the puppets are ready, the script is done and now that Tim Burton is clear of Alice in Wonderland... he's set to helm Frankenweenie in 3D."

Tim Burton has been wanting to adapt his live-action short film Frankenweenie for over 25 years. The stop-motion version will be released in either 2011 or 2012. Filming will take place in London.

"Waking Sleeping Beauty" Trailer

The trailer for the upcoming documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty has made its debut. The film chronicles the story of the renaissance of Disney feature animation in the 1980s and 1990s. Directed by Don Hahn (who is working on Tim Burton's upcoming animated Frankenweenie as an executive producer, and produced the 3D re-release of The Nightmare Before Christmas), the documentary includes such animation titans as John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Don Bluth, Michael Eisner, Roy Disney, Glen Keane, John Musker, Howard Ashman, and many more, including Tim Burton himself.

Waking Sleeping Beauty will be released in select theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco on March 26th, 2010.

See the trailer on YouTube or Apple Trailers:

Burton Appears in Upcoming Documentary

Don Hahn's upcoming documentary, Waking Sleeping Beauty, is about the story of the so-called Disney "animation renaissance" that took place between 1984 and 1994. Many stars of the modern world of animation are featured in the documentary: John Lasseter, Jeffrey Katzenberg, John Musker, Glen Keane, Don Bluth, Roy Disney, Michael Eisner, and Tim Burton -- who appears briefly as a young animator miserably working on The Fox and the Hound.

You can see 11 video clips of the upcoming documentary at this link at CinemaBlend.com. (Burton is in the second clip for a few seconds at a rather amusing event.) No release date is announced yet, but it was most likely be released in theaters in 2010. The film is rated PG and is 86 minutes long.

Don Hahn, a producer at Disney, directed this documentary, and helped bring The Nightmare Before Christmas back to theaters in a new 3D presentation. Currently, he is an executive producer on the upcoming animated version of Frankenweenie.