The pinnacle of the Disney ages are the two Golden Ages. In my assessment, the First Golden Age of Disney began in 1937 with the historic release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. That is a fairly universally recognized starting point, but when it ends is up for debate, I suppose. I mark the end of this age as 1966 with the death of Walt Disney. Throughout this nearly thirty year period, Disney gave the world such endearing classics as Pinocchio (1940), Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), Sleeping Beauty (1959), Mary Poppins (1964), and many more including Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), and Lady and the Tramp (1955). These are genre-defining films, and they all came in the First Golden Age of Disney.
The Second Golden Age of Disney began in 1989 and concluded in 1999. This decade of prosperity for Disney was highlighted by some of the best films in cinema history beyond the animation genre. This age was kicked off by The Little Mermaid in 1989 and would go on to feature classic film after classic film as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Mulan (1998), and many others like Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Hercules (1997). The final film in this age was Tarzan in 1999, which also coincided with the rise of Pixar with releases such as Toy Story 2 (1999) and Monsters Inc. (2001) plus the change in focus for Disney as aforementioned.
These two ages have not only defined Disney, but they have defined cinema. It is rather difficult for one studio to so dominate an entire genre as Disney did in these respected time frames by producing classic after classic. However, as Pixar continued to ascend in the early 2000s, Disney seemingly continued to descend. As I grew up, on the Disney side of things, we had films like Home on the Range, Chicken Little, and Bolt. Of course, you had your occasional ray of sunshine like the aforementioned The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo & Stitch, but it seemed as if Disney was suffice to let Pixar run the animation business and ride their coattails to commercial success. Knowing your Disney history, it was a low point for Disney fans worldwide.
That was until 2009, when the sleeping giant awakened.
Disney had a crazy idea in the midst of the technological advancements in computer animation: they wanted to make a movie as if it were being produced in the heart of the Second Golden Age. They wanted to hand-draw a film, but not just any film, but a film about a princess. Now, you must understand the stakes of such a move. Disney hadn't released a princess movie since in 1998 with Mulan, so over a decade later, returning to this strategy was an extremely bold one to say the least. Luckily for Disney's legion of fans, the world was treated to the superb masterpiece The Princess and the Frog. A return to form for the company after an exhaustive stretch of mediocrity, Tiana and company were a breath of fresh air.
What we didn't know at the time was that this was the start of something magical that continues to this day.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently in the midst of the Third Golden Age of Disney.
Beginning with The Princess and the Frog, Disney has once again began releasing classic after classic. Think about the latest releases from the studio. After we traveled down the bayou, in 2010, we experienced the majesty of Tangled, one of the greatest films ever created by the Mouse House. Following Tangled, we got Wreck-It Ralph in 2012, an incredibly fun ode to all video games and childhood in general. In 2013, the behemoth arrived: Frozen. While a vast number of Disney fanatics cannot stand the utter mentioning of the tale of the Snow Queen, at the time, a majority considered Frozen to be yet another Disney classic. In 2014, Big Hero 6 arrived to praise after praise and an eventual Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Then, we come to 2016 with the recent release of Zootopia, the studio's most well-reviewed film in years from a consensus standpoint. In my opinion, Zootopia instantly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the best in the studio's history. Beyond the infectious music and hilarious, well-developed characters, the numerous important messages declared during the film are why Zootopia is going to be viewed and studied for generations to come. On the horizon for the studio, we currently await the release of Moana, another Disney princess movie due up in late 2016. Next up, they'll have Gigantic hitting theaters in 2018 about "Jack and the Beanstalk," with Frozen 2 just around the riverbend as well.
So how has Disney returned to form and entered a Third Golden Age? Primarily, they're telling excellent stories again. The stories of the films mentioned in the previous two paragraphs are so well developed and even thought provoking. The characters within these stories are lovable, relatable, and dynamic. Characters like Pascal, Vanellope Von Schweetz, Olaf, Baymax, and Flash will go down in history as some of the most beloved figures of all-time.
Secondly, they have varied the genres. Instead of sticking to one type of movie, Disney is wisely giving its fan a medley of options. We have had three princess movies, yes, but all three of those films take the genre and flip it upside down, redefining the genre Disney created way back in 1937. Beyond that, we have a movie about video games, one based on a Marvel comic, and most recently, a film set entirely a fictitious animal metropolis. I think Gazelle from Zootopia would be proud of Disney for trying everything!
Finally, Disney is enlisting some legitimate star talent who actually have talent. It's easy for a movie to attract star talent, but it's a whole different matter entirely to choose the right actor to lend their voice to this animated character. Think about the choices Disney has made with these recent films. Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi, on paper, are an unlikely pair to bring Rapunzel and Flynn to life, but they do it flawlessly. Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell in Frozen are absolutely sublime and with Zootopia, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman turn in perhaps career best performances!
Now eventually, this age will end because all good things must end, but I implore you to take a second to step back and realize how fortunate we are to be living in such a time as this for Disney. I never thought an age could rival the 90s in terms of classic timelessness, but today, we just might be living in the age that could do just that. Only time will tell if history will in fact brand today as the Third Golden Age, but for now, the third time's a charm, and it's more charming than Cinderella's prince.
-Cody Fleenor
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