Which Disney animation took the longest to complete?

Since its founding, Disney has been responsible for developing animations that have impacted the lives of thousands of people around the world. His productions are so loved by the public that the plots are passed from generation to generation, and remain a success even decades after their original release.

In order for the animated features to be perfect, the studio has always sought the best possible techniques, sometimes creating from scratch technologies that did not yet exist on the market, revolutionizing international cinema — as is the case with “Fantasia”, from 1940, which presented a reproduction system called the Fantasound System, responsible for bringing stereo sound to movie theaters for the first time, increasing audio quality.

For this reason, many animations took years to be completed. But, have you ever wondered which drawing took the longest to complete?

The longest production

The Disney animation that took the longest to complete was “Sleeping Beauty”, released on January 29, 1959, exactly 65 years ago. The film, which was the last Disney princess film produced by the renowned filmmaker Walt Disneyhe took seven years to be readyaccording to information released by the G1 portal.

The fairy tale follows the story of Princess Aurora, who, shortly after her birth, received a curse from the sorceress Malélova where, on her 16th birthday, she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep, which it could only be broken with true love’s kiss.

In addition to taking a long time to complete, “Sleeping Beauty” also involved a high investment. According to G1, Walt invested around 6 million dollars, an extremely high amount at the time, making the plot the most expensive animation produced up to that time.

Despite being extremely acclaimed by specialized critics, and receiving nominations for a Grammy in 1959 and an Oscar in 1960, Aurora’s story was not an immediate success at the box office. This is because, initially, the film only grossed $5 million, leaving the studio with a loss of $1 million. The production only received its deserved recognition years later, thanks to its re-releases.

The initial failure of “Sleeping Beauty” in theaters was the main reason why Walt Disney decided that Disney needed to take a break from adapting children’s stories, making Aurora the renowned filmmaker’s last princess.

A new fairy tale was only released by the studio 30 years later, in 1989, with the premiere of “The Little Mermaid”. Disney, unfortunately, passed away 23 years before Ariel’s arrival, in 1966, due to lung cancer. He was only 65 years old.