At the 64th Academy Awards, Beauty and the Beast became the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture. What if it claimed the Oscar?
 
You might see others get it as well. One of the Toy Story movies would get one (number 3 got nominated OTL but didn’t win.) My guess for the second winner: The Lion King.
 
Certainly a round of panicked articles from the weeklies along the lines of, “Is this the end of live acting?” Which they will all answer 35 paragraphs in with a pretty much unadorned, “no,” but it’s exactly the kind of thing Time and the like love to put out there.

There must be a Disney scholar out there ready to discuss the career of the now Academy Award-winning producer, Jeffrey Katzenberg. Would this be sufficient ammo to fight off his ouster? No Dreamworks?

Someone else could also enlighten us on Pixar. My understanding is Katzenberg was a fan and if anything Eisner pumped the breaks, but please tell me if this is wrong. If it’s not wrong, I can see two outcomes: either K covets the thing and tries to bring it into the Disney fold sooner, or he appreciates and respects their independence and takes a looser distribution deal than OTL. Butterflies from either scenario could fly in many directions: Pixar bolting, Pixar being absorbed earlier.

Back to Disney animation proper, there is a danger after this kind of prestige to turn your projects into the wrong kind of thing for your audience. You might push harder to up the seriousness, you might end up making some very overwrought muddles. Some would argue the nomination alone had this effect IOTL with Pocahontas and Hunchback. Could a win cause them to go even further down this questionable path?
 
Back to Disney animation proper, there is a danger after this kind of prestige to turn your projects into the wrong kind of thing for your audience. You might push harder to up the seriousness, you might end up making some very overwrought muddles. Some would argue the nomination alone had this effect IOTL with Pocahontas and Hunchback. Could a win cause them to go even further down this questionable path?
I loved those two movies, why people hated them?
 
I loved those two movies, why people hated them?

I have few strong opinions myself. There’s plenty of commentary online (Lindsay Ellis on YouTube is probably the most coherent voice on the subject). But they’re definitely attempts to meld Disney-cute with more serious, award-worthy themes, and I do think that particular aspect of them is...unsuccessful.

If that split personality only increases over OTL as a result of an Oscar, things could go very wrong. If, for whatever reason, they try to ditch or downplay the Disney-cute aspect in an effort to make a more truly emotionally mature film, that could be interesting and maybe even artistically successful. But I do think in that scenario, something is lost. I think it’s also harder to imagine that happening, at least under the Disney Animated Studios umbrella.

Perhaps another option would be explored: as they’re looking to partner with Pixar (and with Ghibli for distribution) maybe they look for a group of responsible filmmakers to rehabilitate the notion of “adult” animation in another partnership. Disney also owns Miramax at this time, it’s not out of the question.

You spin off whoever thought Roger Rabbit was a good idea (I certainly think it was) and build a team around them and see what they come up with and hopefully it’s not Cool World.
 
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Back to Disney animation proper, there is a danger after this kind of prestige to turn your projects into the wrong kind of thing for your audience. You might push harder to up the seriousness, you might end up making some very overwrought muddles. Some would argue the nomination alone had this effect IOTL with Pocahontas and Hunchback. Could a win cause them to go even further down this questionable path?

Or it might have the opposite effect. After all, Disney's just gotten proof they don't necessarily have to go in that direction to win acclaim.
 
Or it might have the opposite effect. After all, Disney's just gotten proof they don't necessarily have to go in that direction to win acclaim.
As you say, they got the formula right, will used it for now...how will affect aladdin onward?
 
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