Dream on Silly Dreamer : 3 of 5

Since I often read various animation websites, I knew about this movie way back when it was first being screened, and I wish I could have seen it then. I ordered it soon after it came out on DVD, since it's an important piece of Disney history, but then I kept forgetting to watch it (in spite of my pal Jerry's great review). Well, I finally took the time to take it in, and it was really fascinating. This is a short 40-minute documentary that gives a brief history of how Disney treated their animation talent - moving them out of Walt's animation campus into warehouses, then treating them like heroes (with giant bonuses) after the wild successes of Beauty and the Beast and the Lion King (during the Disney Renaissance), and then finally making the crazy decision to switch to only computer animation, and firing around 1,300 talented animation professionals world-wide! It really was just about the stupidest thing Disney could have done, since most box office failures were due to over-management - definitely not solely the fault of the creative staff. The documentary itself is well done with animated interstitials, but I think the DVD actually has too much bonus material - it seemed like twice the footage of the film itself. It's nice seeing this movie now that things have changed at Disney with John Lasseter (including new 2D animation), so I can only hope that the sad story of this film will be totally reversed!