mid-1980s, the fabled animation studios of Walt Disney had fallen on hard
times. The artists were polarized between newcomers hungry to innovate and old
timers not yet ready to relinquish control. These conditions produced a series
of box-office flops and pessimistic forecasts: maybe the best days of animation
were over. Maybe the public didn't care. Only a miracle or a magic spell could
produce a happy ending. A miracle man named Howard Ashman regained Disney’s
magic with a staggering output of musical hits - "Little Mermaid,"
"Beauty and the Beast," and "Aladdin." This is a short
tribute to the man that changed the face of Disney animation as we know it
today. Listen to all the wonderful raw audio of original ideas and songs
pitched during the animation process. Howard’s time at the Disney studios has
been called by animators as “Waking Sleeping Beauty.”