What was the first princess to be produced without Walt Disney?

Walter Elias DisneyOr just walt disney, is one of the most revolutionary filmmakers in the world of animation. Beside his brother, roy disneyfounded what would become one of the world’s leading entertainment companies: The Walt Disney Company.

For years, waltz and his team produced only animated shorts, releasing productions such as “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” (1927) and “Steamboat Willie” (1928), which became extremely popular with the public. However, in 1934, disney would have the idea that would change the course of his career: to make his first animated feature film.

It was in this way that, in 1937, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” arrived in cinemas, the first animated feature film in history, and the first to be made entirely in color. There, it also marked the beginning of one of the biggest franchises ever launched by the company: the Disney Princesses.

Thanks to the huge success of Snow White, waltz had the opportunity to launch works such as “Pinocchio” (1940), “Fantasia” (1940), “Dumbo” (1941) and “Bambi” (1942). However, the studio would enter a major crisis generated after the start of World War II.

As many of its employees were serving in the war, and due to the situation in the country with the conflict, the public was not interested in going to the cinema to watch animations, causing serious problems for Disney’s coffers, since films released at that time became a huge box office failure.

The studio was saved thanks to the release of “Cinderella”, considered by many as the favorite princess of walt disney. The new film repeated the success of “Snow White”, and today it has accumulated more than 263.6 million dollars at the box office.

Nine years after the arrival of the film about Cinderella, Disney would release its last princess film with its founder: “Sleeping Beauty”, in 1959. Despite being considered a classic today, the feature did not have a good reception in its debut, grossing just $5 million at the box office, as reported by G1.

Due to this reason, walt disney decided to take a break from fairy tale adaptations. In addition, in the 1950s, Disney was expanding its business and had just opened Disneyland, in California, and still had plans to open a new park in Orlando — but, unfortunately, waltz failed to see his new venture.

In the year 1966, disney was diagnosed with lung cancer. According to the newspaper El País, he was operated on in November of the same year, however, it was not enough to stop the disease. Two weeks later, on December 15, Mickey Mouse’s father passed away at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, aged 65.

Crisis

With the death of the founder, the studio entered a phase known by fans as the Bronze Age, or Dark Era. During this period, Disney was experiencing major problems with the narrative structure of its films, in addition to presenting a new form of animation that was not well received by the public.

Again, the company was experiencing serious economic problems. To try to reverse the situation, the team decided to bet again on adapting fairy tales: that’s how it came about “The Little Mermaid”, the first princess released without the participation of walt disney.

The plot that follows the story of the mermaid Ariel arrives 30 years after the last release of the princess, with “Sleeping Beauty”, being a less dark adaptation of the tale of Hans Christian Andersen.

With the arrival of “The Little Mermaid”, the beginning of the period known as the Renaissance Era is marked, where the studio returned to producing successful animated films. Among the titles released at that time, we have ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991), ‘Aladdin’ (1992) and ‘The Lion King’ (1994).