What movie(s) truly saved the company?

[Walt Disney1955]

Obviously Snow White. Without that success nothing happens that we know now today. No other movies, no money for Disneyland.

We all know things started with Mickey and that springboard went to Snow White. But what other movies saved them?

Cinderella comes to mind with me. There was a bit of a lull until 1950 when it came out. Prior movies didn't do as well as they should have. Didn't Pinocchio and Fantasia not do as well as expected? Alice in Wonderland wasn't a box office smash either but Cinderella has already started the process for Disneyland by then did it not?

 

[TwilightZone]

I think disney was saved two times. I don't count snow white as saving disney since they were still doing pretty well as far as I know.
The first time was with the little mermaid and the lion king, disney was having it rough post walt's death and these two movies brought it back up.
The second being frozen, once again disney was in a rough time, but the blockbuster success of frozen brought the company back way up.

 

[crxbrett]

The Little Mermaid without a doubt. The '70s and '80s were not too kind to Disney's animated movies. I love those movies, but only a few were regarded as hits and a lot of them were not well-received for the most part.

That all changed with the Little Mermaid. Suddenly Disney animated films were grand again and creating huge revenue at the box office and in stores.

You could say it was a domino effect though, because we got The Little Mermaid, Beauty & the Beast, Aladdin, the Lion King and Pocahontas in a 6-year span. Those 5 blockbusters turned Disney's animated movie department around for sure. 4 of those 5 are now highly regarded and considered iconic, all-time Disney classics. Something none of, let alone 4, the films from the 1970s and 1980s can claim.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

This may seem a bit odd but, if you think about it if Star Wars and Marvel films didn't get bought out by Disney and be a big success for the company. These live-action versions of their animated films wouldn't even nearly be a successful in this generation of filmgoers. After the success of Frozen it's been nothing but the ugly CG live action animated films from Disney and their standard animated films from Disney animation and the Pixar Films they have never gone back to any comedic films......Except for one time in 2014...

And it's been well over four years now since a comedic realted based film came out under Disney..I'm surprised they don't still go come back to this now and again more often..

 

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

The Little Mermaid definitely kindled the renaissance but the popularity of The Disney Afternoon shouldn't be overlooked as well. There was great quality Disney animation on tv on a daily basis thanks to that. Also Mickey's Christmas Carol was a great early 80's gem that launched the careers of guys like Tim Burton and John Lasseter and Lasseter, along with Don Han, has helped to make Disney zillions of dollars with Han sorta leading the early 90's charge and Lasseter leading the Pixar charge and also bringing the great Miyazaki films stateside.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

The Little Mermaid

 

[LeighM]

I would have to agree that Snow White saved the company the first time. But the Little Mermaid definitely saved it in modern day and began the Disney Renaissance.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

I would have to agree with The Little Mermaid, but The Lion King and Frozen (even Saving Nemo) kept the gravy train rolling. Each even have a presence in the parks (well, minus Circle of Life, RIP). If there's any doubt, consider this top ten highest grossing animated films:

 

[Walt Disney1955]

I totally agree with the Little Mermaid, and the movies that followed in a short span after. That era we can thank Roy Disney Jr. for. So those are obvious. But is there no love for Cinderella? Is it a myth it saved the company? Sarah Michelle Gellar's epic Princess "rap battle" video mentions it and it makes sense to me. The early part of the 1940s were kind to Disney, lots of good movies then. Then the war happened, then the whole thing when Walt testified against un-American activities in 1947. There were a couple notable movies released around then, Ichabod and Mr. Toad and the Three Calleberros (although that was during the war). Not the highest time for Disney animation, and no Disneyland at the time to bring in more revenue.

Then Cinderella is a success and after that there was lots of success in films and in the building of Disneyland.

 

[mousehockey37]

I'll agree with Little Mermaid and Frozen, but Pirates has to be worth a mention. Pirates caught on and it gave something for the boys in the parks especially with WDW not having the Marvel characters.

 

[PB Watermelon]

Guys...you know what saved Disney animation? It wasn't a Disney film. It was An American Tail. In DisneyWar, the author documents how the animation wing was on the way out. Roy Disney was alarmed by these discussions, saying if they scuttled animation, they'd basically be running a museum. Then Uni's An American Tail hit and thanks to home video and sell through prices, it demonstrated what the Disney company had lost...solid films pushing money through various merchandising avenues and the rise of VHS sell-through opened up an exciting revenue stream.

Next thing you know, Katzenberg gets Spielberg and Zemeckis on board with Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and it becomes a smash while Oliver and Co. does well. No American Tail, no Roger Rabbit, Mouse Detective would have been the last animated feature. The Little Mermaid gets all the credit, but it's more complicated than that. An American Tail woke a sleeping giant.

 

[epcotWSC]

Little Mermaid. More recently you can throw in Tangled as well. Outside of Pixar, Disney was releasing duds for years until Tangled came along and got things rolling again. I still think that Tangled is the best modern Disney animated movie even though it gets shoved into the background in favor of Frozen (and to a lesser extent Moana and Wreck-it Ralph)

 

[winstongator]

Little Mermaid. More recently you can throw in Tangled as well. Outside of Pixar, Disney was releasing duds for years until Tangled came along and got things rolling again. I still think that Tangled is the best modern Disney animated movie even though it gets shoved into the background in favor of Frozen (and to a lesser extent Moana and Wreck-it Ralph)

Tangled is my daughters' favorite. They were hot on Frozen initially, but have since gone cold and ... Trattoria al Forno character breakfast is awesome.

 

[PB Watermelon]

Little Mermaid. More recently you can throw in Tangled as well. Outside of Pixar, Disney was releasing duds for years until Tangled came along and got things rolling again. I still think that Tangled is the best modern Disney animated movie even though it gets shoved into the background in favor of Frozen (and to a lesser extent Moana and Wreck-it Ralph)

The critical and audience success of Pixar threw the compromised and talent-hostile practices of Disney under Eisner into stark relief, leading to the ouster of Eisner himself. It was the 80's all over again. An American Tail at Universal led to Disney upping their game and re-investment, the success of Pixar led to the demise of mis-management of talent under Eisner. In both periods, it was the achievements of outside studios that motivated Disney to re-evaluate and re-invest. From where I sit, the cheapquels and Brother Bear and Home on the Range and the excrement writing of Dinosaur are the low point of Disney animation, and the rebuilding started with Lasseter's overhaul of Meet the Robinsons, Bolt, and scrapping the Shrek-inspired "Rapunzel Unbraided" into Tangled. Amazing what story sincerity coupled with production values can do.

 

[Disnee4Me]

I'll agree with Little Mermaid and Frozen, but Pirates has to be worth a mention. Pirates caught on and it gave something for the boys in the parks especially with WDW not having the Marvel characters.

I'd also say Toy Story and the other Pixar films have been a great success.

 

[Princess Leia]

Little Mermaid and Tangled

 

[Magenta Panther]

During Walt's time, the saving movie was probably Cinderella. Reportedly, after WWII, which crippled the Disney company, Roy Disney wanted to sell the company's assets and retire. Walt wanted to try one more time with a new movie - Cinderella. Happily, it was a big hit, and from that success, Disneyland came into being, along with live-action movies, TV shows and the rest. It was just the shot in the arm the company needed.

As for the Eisner-Wells-Katzenberg era, probably The Little Mermaid. The film actually stumbled at first (or so I understand), but word of mouth saved it. It began the Silver/Second Golden Age of Disney. And then Pixar came along...

 

[BrianLo]

I'll go one further. It wasn't really Little Mermaid in and of itself that changed the game. It was Disney's adoption of VHS, the first movie to be released to home media from Disney "shortly" after its theatrical run. 6 months being very short for them when their previous practice was to keep things re-released in the theatres.

Mermaid didn't actually make a killing theatrically, it made a killing on VHS. The success of Mermaid in the home videosphere is then what partially drove the brand awareness. Beauty and the Beast doubled Mermaid's theatrical run, mostly because our generation was for the very first time watching and rewatching a Disney movie at home all through 1990.

 

[Phroobar]

Sad thing is Disney didn't need saving if they just picked up Star Wars when Lucas offered it to them. They could have had E.T. when Speilberg was looking for a production home.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

The Little Mermaid gets all the credit, but it's more complicated than that.

Of course it does, that's what happens when the fans get all their Disney history FROM Disney. It's all skewed marketing PR and often only half the story. Disney doesn't want you to remember that Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and D*ck Tracy were bigger hits at the American box office than Little Mermaid. It doesn't fit the narrative.

The real mermaid movie that saved Disney in the 80s was Splash. After a few years of pushing the Disney brand with movies like Watcher in the Woods, Tex and Never Cry Wolf, it was the first Touchstone release, and justified that Disney could branch out and make other successful movies outside of their key brand. It's why all the animators were thrown out of their own building in Burbank. It was movies with stars like Bette Middler who were paying the bills and Eisner was doing everything to make them happy. Until An American Tail came out, he thought there were already enough animated movies made to keep the re-issue train running for a long time.

Cinderella justified doing animated features again, and it was slickly calculated to be as popular as possible and generate lots of revenue from ancillary business like record and sheet music sales. But Alice in Wonderland the year after sucked away all the profits and demonstrated why Walt couldn't only rely on animated movies to keep the studio afloat. The success of Treasure Island, One Hour in Wonderland and other live-action content made for television and theatres are what did it in the 50s.

Really, the viablity of the studio has always been based on the success (or lack thereof) of their live-action movies. You can't operate a studio only putting out one movie a year (at most), you need several and Walt learned a long time ago the value of them, and Ron Miller found out too late how the studio limited itself in the 70s trying to make the same movie over, and over again.

It's also why Iger keeps pushing Marvel, Star Wars, Pirates etc. Something like Wreck-It-Wralph 2 is not going to keep the lights on by itself.