Animation Documentaries/Making Ofs

[BK]

Hi, all.

Can anyone tell me if there's a master list of animated documentaries or making ofs out there.

Disney or otherwise.

Just watched the Zootopia one by Fusion, which was brilliant, or so I thought.

Thanks!

[Escapay]

Hope this helps.

Theatrical:
Included in this list are both theatrical shorts and feature-length documentaries focusing on some aspect of Disney animation. This ranges from the very first behind-the-scenes piece done by the studio ("A Trip Through Walt Disney Studios") to the docutainment film The Reluctant Dragon, to the independently-made elegy for hand-drawn animation (Dream On Silly Dreamer). Also included are career profiles for key figures.

A Trip Through Walt Disney Studios (July 1937)
How Disney Cartoons Are Made (circa 1939)
The Reluctant Dragon (June 20, 1941)
South of the Border with Disney (November 23, 1942)
Frank and Ollie (October 20, 1995)
The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (October 8, 1999)
The Sweatbox (September 13, 2002) - a very brief portion used among The Emperor's New Groove DVD supplements
Dream On Silly Dreamer (February 10, 2005)
The Pixar Story (August 28, 2007)
Walt and El Grupo (September 9, 2009)
Waking Sleeping Beauty (March 26, 2010)
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story (November 30, 2010)


Theme Park:
These are documentaries, usually on the shorter side, made for use in the Disney theme parks.

The Walt Disney Story (1973, Disneyland)
Back to Neverland (May 1, 1989, Disney-MGM Studios) - Three years later, Genie's final outfit in Aladdin is a rendition of Robin Williams' outfit in the beginning of this short
Walt Disney: One Man's Dream (October 1, 2001, Disney-MGM Studios)
Walt Disney Theatre: The Making of The Lion King (circa 1994, Disney-MGM Studios)
Walt Disney Theatre: Pocahontas - The Legend Comes To Life (circa 1995, Disney-MGM Studios)
Walt Disney Theatre: Toy Story (circa 1995, Disney-MGM Studios)
Walt Disney Theatre: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996, Disney-MGM Studios)


Television:
These are a variety of television programs, including traditional making-of specials, episodes of the anthology series dedicated to animation, and occasionally a news report or studio celebration documentary that regurgitates the familiar story of Disney animation. Also included here are the televised biographies of Walt Disney, each one slanted in its own way (Secret Lives, The Man Behind the Myth, American Experience).

"The Fred Waring Show": Alice in Wonderland (March 18, 1951, CBS)
"The Ford Star Revue": Operation Wonderland (June 14, 1951, NBC)
The Peter Pan Story (circa 1952, Syndicated)
"Disneyland": A Story of Dogs (December 1, 1954, ABC) - first half devoted to Lady and the Tramp
"Disneyland": Cavalcade of Songs (February 16, 1955, ABC) - second half devoted to Lady and the Tramp
"Disneyland": The Story of the Animated Drawing (November 30, 1955, ABC)
"Disneyland": The Plausible Impossible (October 31, 1956, ABC)
"Disneyland": Tricks of Our Trade (February 13, 1957, ABC)
"Disneyland": An Adventure in Art (April 30, 1958, ABC)

"Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color": An Adventure in Color (September 24, 1961, NBC)

"The Wonderful World of Disney": Fifty Happy Years (January 21, 1973, NBC)
"Wide World of Entertainment": Walt Disney - A Golden Anniversary Salute (October 23, 1973, ABC)

Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (April 26, 1981, NBC)
"Walt Disney": Walt Disney... One Man's Dream (December 12, 1981, CBS)
The Making of Mickey's Christmas Carol (December 10, 1984, VHS/NBC)
"The Disney Sunday Movie": Old Yeller (June 8, 1986, ABC) - ends with behind the scenes look at making of The Great Mouse Detective
"The Disney Sunday Movie": Great Moments in Disney Animation (January 18, 1987, ABC)
I Drew Roger Rabbit (circa 1988, ITV)
Roger Rabbit & the Secrets of Toontown (circa 1988, CBS)
The Art of Disney Animation (circa 1988, Disney Channel)
"The South Bank Show": The Art of Walt Disney (September 25, 1988, ITV)
"The Magical World of Disney": Disney's Golden Anniversary of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (December 25, 1988, NBC)
It All Started with a Mouse: The Disney Story (circa 1989, Disney Channel)
The Making of The Little Mermaid (circa 1989, Disney Channel)

Fantasia: The Creation of a Disney Classic (September 30, 1990, NBC)
The Best of Disney: 50 Years of Magic (May 20, 1991, ABC)
"20/20": Beauty and the Beast (November 15, 1991, ABC)
Be Our Guest: The Making of Beauty and the Beast (November 16, 1991, Disney Channel)
"Omnibus": Disney - The Fairy Tale Years (September 22, 1992, BBC)
The Making of Aladdin: A Whole New World (November 25, 1992, Disney Channel)
The Making of The Muppet Christmas Carol & Beauty and the Beast (December 11, 1992, ABC) - BATB portion is heavily edited down version of 1991 documentary with childish narration
Circle of Life: The Making of The Lion King (June 24, 1994, Disney Channel)
The Wonderful World of Disney: 40 Years of Television Magic (December 10, 1994, ABC) - ends with a look at the making of The Lion King
"Secret Lives": Walt Disney (February 23, 1995, Channel 4) - uses the sensationalist trash "biography" Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince as a basis, so don't bother.
The Making of Pocahontas: The Legend Comes to Life (circa June 1995, Disney Channel) - home video releases remove the "Legend Comes to Life" subtitle
The Making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (circa June 1996, Disney Channel)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks: 25th Anniversary Special (circa September 1996, Disney Channel) - shortened on DVD & Blu-Ray releases
Movie Surfers: The Making of Hercules (circa June 1997, Disney Channel)
Movie Surfers: The Making of Mulan (circa June 1998, Disney Channel)
Movie Surfers: The Making of Tarzan (circa June 1999, Disney Channel)
Music Magic: The Sherman Brothers - The Sword in the Stone (circa 1999, Disney Channel)
Music Magic: The Sherman Brothers - The Aristocats (circa 1999, Disney Channel)

Walt: The Man Behind the Myth (September 16, 2001, ABC) - biography by Walt Disney Family Foundation, aired commercial-free five days after 9/11
Dreams Come True: A Celebration of Disney Animation (December 4, 2009, ABC)
The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic (September 2, 2014, ABC)
"American Experience": Walt Disney (September 14-15, 2015, PBS) - biography by PBS without any involvement by WDFF, so its "outsider" view is unique, but not always accurate
Behind the Magic: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (December 13, 2015, ABC)
Imagining Zootopia (April 4, 2016, Fusion)


Electronic Press Kits:
Although most films have electronic press kits, these three were released on DVD, so I made a section for it here. Portions of The Great Mouse Detective press kit were used for the behind-the-scenes feature attached to a television broadcast of Old Yeller, listed above.

The Making of The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
The Making of Oliver & Company (1988)
The Making of Hercules (1997)


Home Media:
These are documentaries created for LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-Ray. As such, some will run quite long (like the multi-chapter two-hour documentary for Atlantis: The Lost Empire), while others may be a single, short featurette with a traditional "making of" documentary title. When an entry says "Multiple Featurettes," it usually means a collection of short featurettes talk about the making of the film, but there's no singular documentary that's presented. Also of note are occasional documentaries that were released internationally first before appearing on a US release.

Pinocchio: The Making of a Masterpiece (April 7, 1993, LaserDisc) - Robby Benson mugs for the camera (whilst among the set pieces of the Disneyland attraction) more often than he talks about the making of the film
The Making of Walt Disney's Masterpiece Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (October 26, 1994, LaserDisc)
Walt Disney's Cinderella: The Making of a Masterpiece (Ocober 4, 1995, LaserDisc)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece (April 17, 1996, LaserDisc)
Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece (February 5, 1997, LaserDisc)
Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect in Every Way - The Magic Behind the Masterpiece (October 1, 1997, LaserDisc) - be on the lookout for a brief, but amusing, lip sync battle before lip sync battle was a thing
The Jungle Book: The Making of a Musical Masterpiece (October 29, 1997, LaserDisc)
Once Upon a Dream: The Making of Sleeping Beauty (November 5, 1997, LaserDisc)
You Can Fly!: The Making of Walt Disney's Masterpiece Peter Pan (March 18, 1998, LaserDisc)
The Story Behind Fun & Fancy Free (June 17, 1998, LaserDisc)
Under the Sea: The Making of Disney's Masterpiece The Little Mermaid (November 3, 1998, LaserDisc)

The Making of Tarzan (Multiple Featurettes) (April 18, 2000, DVD)
The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature (November 14, 2000, DVD)
The Fantasia Legacy: Fantasia Continued (November 14, 2000, DVD)
The Making of The Emperor's New Groove (May 1, 2001, DVD)
Still the Fairest of Them All: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (October 9, 2001, DVD)
Passing the Baton: The Making of The Fox and the Hound (released in UK October 15, 2001, in US October 10, 2006, DVD)
Celebrating Dumbo (October 23, 2001, DVD)
The Making of The Rescuers Down Under (released in UK January 28, 2002, in US August 21, 2012, DVD)
The Making of Atlantis: The Lost Empire (January 29, 2002, DVD)
Tale as Old as Time: The Making of Beauty and the Beast (October 8, 2002, DVD)
The Story Room: The Making of Lilo & Stitch (Planned for December 3, 2002, released internationally 2005, domestic March 24, 2009, DVD) - international versions branch out to footnotes, US version just includes footnotes separately thus losing any context as to when we're supposed to watch them
Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit (March 25, 2003, DVD)
The Making of Treasure Planet (Multiple Featurettes, Planned Documentary Canceled) (April 29, 2003, DVD) - thanks to the Blu-Ray "introductions," we can see that a complex DVD and documentary had been planned (akin to those for Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis, & Lilo & Stitch), but the film's tanking at the box office caused Disney to severely scale down the film's home media supplements
The Making of The Lion King (Multiple Featurettes) (October 7, 2003, DVD) - good luck not watching anything less than three times thanks to the clusterfuck navigation
Paths of Discovery: The Making of Brother Bear (March 30, 2004, DVD)
Trailblazers: The Making of Home on the Range (September 14, 2004, DVD)
Diamond in the Rough: The Making of Aladdin (October 5, 2004, DVD)
The Making of Mulan (Multiple Featurettes) (October 26, 2004, DVD)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins (December 14, 2004, DVD)
The Making of Bambi: A Prince is Born (March 1, 2005, DVD)
Bambi: Inside Walt's Story Meetings (March 1, 2005, DVD) - alternative viewing mode for the film
From Rags to Riches: The Making of Cinderella (October 4, 2005, DVD)
Lady's Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp (February 28, 2006, DVD)
Hatching Chicken Little: The Making of the Movie (March 21, 2006, DVD)
Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid (October 3, 2006, DVD)
Robin Hood: Video Gallery (November 28, 2006, DVD) - not a "documentary" per se, but given that it's a montage of images with a narrator, it counts as the only real "making of" that exists for the film
The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book (October 2, 2007, DVD)
Inventing the Robinsons (October 23, 2007, DVD/Blu-Ray)
Redefining the Line: The Making of One Hundred and One Dalmatians (March 4, 2008, DVD)
Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty (October 7, 2008, DVD/Blu-Ray)
No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio (March 10, 2009, DVD/Blu-Ray)
The Making of Bolt (Multiple Featurettes) (March 24, 2009, Blu-Ray)
Brazzle Dazzle Effects: Behind Disney's Movie Magic (August 18, 2009, DVD)
The One That Started It All / Disney's First Feature: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (short version released October 6, 2009, long version released February 2, 2016, DVD/Blu-Ray)

Taking Flight: The Making of Dumbo (released in Mexico February 12, 2010, in US September 20, 2011, DVD/Blu-Ray)
Magic in the Bayou: The Making of a Princess (March 16, 2010, Blu-Ray)
Reflections on Alice (March 30, 2010, DVD/Blu-Ray)
Beyond Beauty: The Untold Stories Behind the Making of Beauty and the Beast (October 5, 2010, DVD/Blu-Ray)
Through the Keyhole: A Companion's Guide to Alice in Wonderland (February 1, 2011, Blu-Ray)
Bambi: Inside Walt's Story Meetings - Enhanced Edition (March 1, 2011, Blu-Ray)
Untangled: The Making of a Fairy Tale (March 29, 2011, Blu-Ray)
Pride of The Lion King (October 4, 2011, Blu-Ray)
The Lion King: A Memoir - Don Hahn (October 4, 2011, Blu-Ray)
Lady and the Tramp: Inside Walt's Story Meetings (February 7, 2012, Blu-Ray) - Second Screen App only
Bit by Bit: Creating the Worlds of Wreck-It Ralph (March 5, 2013, Blu-Ray)
The Making of Frozen (March 18, 2014, Blu-Ray) - musical piece of shit
D'Frosted: Disney's Journey from Hans Christian Andersen to Frozen (March 18, 2014, Blu-Ray)
Breaking the Ice: The Real Making of Frozen (November 18, 2014, DVD) - planned for inclusion on initial home media release, saved for the DVD-only "Sing Along Edition," my assumption is the content on this short piece was part of a longer documentary Disney planned to include on the cancelled 3D Special Edition Blu-Ray release (a "Voices of Frozen" featurette on the Target bonus disc also supports this notion)
The Origin Story of Big Hero 6: Hiro's Journey (February 24, 2015, Blu-Ray)
The Origin of an Animal Tale (June 7, 2016, Blu-Ray) - described as feature-length, we'll see how long they define "feature" now...

Albert

[justcuttinhair]

Fantastic list!! I love watching many of the "making of featurettes" that tell about films. Many of these are on Youtube, so I would def. recommend checking them out. I wish there were similar presentations about the various live action films the studio has produced; especially the classic canon.

Btw*

would you consider "An Adventure in Art" tied with Sleeping Beauty? Also, various episodes of the classic Disneyland and Walt Disney Presents series' like "Story of the Silly Symphony", "From Aesop to Hans Christian Anderson" featured several film clips and subject documentaries such as "The Joel Chandler Harris Story" which highlighted the author of the Uncle Remus stories (which "Song of the South" is based); The 2nd airing of "Best Doggoned Dog" (101 Dalmatians promo) and the"Tchaikovsky Story" ( Sleeping Beauty promo); but these really did not go into the animation process, just where the stories came from.

[Escapay]

would you consider "An Adventure in Art" tied with Sleeping Beauty?

Yeah, that's why I included it. It also has that part with Eyvind Earle discussing how he layers a background shot.

Also, various episodes of the classic Disneyland and Walt Disney Presents series' like "Story of the Silly Symphony", "From Aesop to Hans Christian Anderson" featured several film clips and subject documentaries such as "The Joel Chandler Harris Story" which highlighted the author of the Uncle Remus stories (which "Song of the South" is based); The 2nd airing of "Best Doggoned Dog" (101 Dalmatians promo) and the"Tchaikovsky Story" ( Sleeping Beauty promo); but these really did not go into the animation process, just where the stories came from.

I actually considered adding those episodes, but like you said, they were more about the story origins (and the Dalmatians one is just one long preview of the film), so I didn't include them. "Where do the Stories Come From" was also another contender for the list.

Truth be told, creating the list made me upset that Disney doesn't release more of these vintage specials to home video. YouTube is nice and all, but I'd rather have sourced master copies than second generation broadcast dubs. Criterion always seeks out this kind of material for the films they licence, I sometimes wish Disney would take that page from their book and use it on their own releases, especially as it's material they made themselves.

Albert