The Sweatbox

An important and often enlightening record of a moment when, perhaps, the Disney Dream Machine(c) collapsed in on itself in a time of maximum hubris. Its a document of wreckage - a film unfinished about an unfinished film - so yeah, it's unwieldily but if you want to be a creative in a team of creatives, here is a testimony. It pivots hard: it can go from Eartha Kitt's wonderfully provocative musical number to Roger Allers telling Sting he doesn't know how to write music. It speaks volumes.

Much like the resulting film, The Emperor's New Groove, I found this ok but kind of dull and unsympathetic. It's an interesting look behind the scenes at a troubled Disney production, particularly the mismanagement and producer meddling. It's incredible how much wasted effort there is. On the other hand I find a lot of the people involved irritating enough that I don't really give a damn that they're flailing.

Hard to rate what is basically a glorified DVD featurette. I was intrigued after hearing about it in a podcast as something Disney suppressed. Unfortunately most of the runtime was just professionals doing their jobs and adapting to changing management, which makes for a mundane but accurate documentary. I prefer more manufactured/edited drama to really show off the stakes. Fav scene: it gets more interesting near the end when they fire the composer and are at odds with Sting.

An interesting look behind the scenes of a ridiculously mismanaged and creatively wasteful production. I felt that half of the time the interviewees were doing their best to avoid really speaking their minds, frustrated and disappointed with the hierarchy within Disney. It's crazy that just two guys have the power to put a project in a chokehold, forcing it to become even more, well, Disneyfied and fit for the creativity-by-committee mold.

What seems to be meant as a DVD special features suddenly gets interesting as the project goes off the rails. It's a bit rough - makes sense, I don't think it's actually finished - but it's a pretty fascinating look at the less sunshine and happiness side of Disney.

While the documentary feels a bit aimless until you realize that the creation of The Emperor's New Groove's creation was aimless as well for a very large portion of its development. As an aside I found The Emperor's New Groove to be one of the best Disney films I've seen so I was surprised to see how terrible the direction of the films's development of. It focuses a bit too much on Sting for my liking but it's by his wife, so she did have unlimited access to him.

I heard that the documentary depicts one of the worst productions, which is why Disney didn't watch the film to get released, but it really wasn't that bad. Sure they should have decided on a story, characters, script, etc. before they started animating, and coming up with music, but in the end they did get a movie out of it, one that was pretty well received. As for the documentary itself, it's not great. It documents what went on, but does nothing more, which makes it kind of uninteresting.

A fascinating case study of Stockholm syndrome where victims repeatedly go into complete trances saying "the system works" in cult like unison. What's more interesting is that the filmmakers become entranced themselves as they say, "See, the system works. It gave us The Emperor's New Groove. What further proof do you need?" None what so ever.

A rare look into the real, unfiltered process of the making of an animated film. Makes you hate Disney more for the amount of censorship that goes on today. Watched: 21-Dec-2020

It's difficult to take the side of the "artist" (R. Allers) whose approach to creating an animation film is basically to mix all the usual Disney ingredients in generous doses and shake it well. He should have been more ready to have to make serious adjustments. I was totally on the side of the producers while watching this documentary. The documentary itself is seriously overpraised on internet. (Not that I know any real good documentary about animation.)