Women made up 28 percent of computer science graduates in the 1970s, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), “Degrees and Other Formal Awards Conferred” surveys, 1970–71 through 1985–86.
The number of women enrolled at CalArts in 1975 is reported in Deborah Vankin, “Animation: At CalArts and elsewhere, more women are entering the picture,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2015.
The impact of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is discussed in Frank Dobbin, Inventing Equal Opportunity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).
Biographical information on Michael Giaimo was obtained from author interviews.
Chapter 17: Part of Your World
Brad Bird is quoted as saying “These bunglers tended to play…” in Keith Phipps, “Every Brad Bird Movie, Ranked,” Vulture, June 14, 2018; the “incredibly exacting” quote is from Hugh Hart, “How Brad Bird Went from Disney Apprentice to Oscar-Winner and Architect of Tomorrowland,” Fast Company, May 29, 2015.
Biographical information for Edwin Catmull obtained from Edwin Catmull and Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (New York: Random House, 2014).
A history of special effects used in the Star Wars original trilogy can be found in Thomas Graham Smith, Industrial Light and Magic: The Art of Special Effects (New York: Ballantine Books, 1986), and J. W. Rinzler, The Making of Star Wars (New York: Ballantine Books, 2013).
Background on the formation of Pixar can be found in Catmull and Wallace, Creativity, Inc., and Karen Paik and Leslie Iwerks, To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007).
Information on corporate restructuring and the role of Roy E. Disney and Michael Eisner can be found in James B. Stewart, Disney War (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005).
A history of the Pixar Image Computer can be found in David A. Price, The Pixar Touch (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).
Biographical information for Ellen Woodbury obtained from author interviews.
Tina Price’s history at the studio is documented in Mindy Johnson, Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 2017).
The role of Menken and Ashman at the studio, footage from Ashman’s speech in the animation department, and the performer Divine’s influence on the creation of the character Ursula is documented in bonus materials to The Little Mermaid: Walt Disney Signature Collection released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on February 26, 2019. Further details on Divine’s legendary role in cinema can be found in “Divine, Transvestite Film Actor, Found Dead in Hollywood at 42,” New York Times, March 8, 1988, and Suzanne Loudermilk, “Divine, in Death as in Life,” Baltimore Sun, October 15, 2000.
Background on Ashman can be found in David J. Fox, “Looking at ‘Beauty’ as Tribute to Lyricist Who Gave ‘Beast His Soul,’” Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1991, and Joanna Robinson, “Inside the Tragedy and Triumph of Disney Genius Howard Ashman,” Vanity Fair, April 20, 2018.
Background on Brenda Chapman obtained from Nicole Sperling, “When the Glass Ceiling Crashed on Brenda Chapman,” Los Angeles Times, May 25, 2011; Adam Vary, “Brave Director Brenda Chapman Breaks Silence on Being Taken Off Film,” Entertainment Weekly, August 15, 2012; Seth Abramovitch, “Female Director of Pixar’s Brave on Being Replaced by a Man: ‘It Was Devastating,’” Hollywood Reporter, August 15, 2012; and author interviews.
Jeffrey Katzenberg is quoted as calling The Little Mermaid a “girl’s film,” in bonus materials to The Little Mermaid: Walt Disney Signature Collection.
Ursula was called a “visual feast” in the review “The Little Mermaid,” Variety, December 31, 1989.
Ebert called Ariel’s character “fully realized” in his review; see Roger Ebert, “The Little Mermaid,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 17, 1989.
Box-office performance for The Little Mermaid obtained from box officemojo.com and the-numbers.com.
Information on Linda Woolverton obtained from Eliza Berman, “How Beauty and the Beast’s Screenwriter Shaped Disney’s First Feminist Princess,” Time, May 23, 2016; Rebecca Keegan, “First Belle, Now Alice: How Screenwriter and Headbanger Linda Woolverton Is Remaking Disney Heroines for a Feminist Age,” Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2016; Seth Abramovitch, “Original Lion King Screenwriter Apprehensive of Remake: ‘I Wasn’t Thrilled with Beauty and the Beast,’” Hollywood Reporter, December 3, 2018; and author interviews.
Roy E. Disney is quoted as calling Howard Ashman “another Walt” in bonus materials to The Little Mermaid: Walt Disney Signature Collection.
Perspective on the role of AIDS in shaping lyrics in Beauty and the Beast can be found in Joanna Robinson, “The Touching Tribute Behind Disney’s First Openly Gay Character,” Vanity Fair, March 1, 2017.
The stigma that individuals living with HIV in the 1980s experienced is recalled in Natasha Geiling, “The Confusing and At-Times Counterproductive 1980s Response to the AIDS Epidemic,” Smithsonian, December 4, 2013.
Janet Maslin described Ashman as “an outstandingly nimble lyricist” in her review “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Updated in Form and Content,” New York Times, November 13, 1991.
The number of AIDS-related deaths in the United States in 1991 was 29,850, as reported by the CDC in “Mortality Attributable to HIV Infection/AIDS Among Persons Aged 25–44 Years—United States, 1990, 1991,” MMWR Weekly, July 2, 1993.
Controversy over lyrics in Aladdin was reported in David J. Fox, “Disney Will Alter Song in Aladdin,” Los Angeles Times, July 10, 1993.
Dialogue for female characters obtained from Karen Eisenhauer, “A Quantitative Analysis of Directives in Disney Princess Films” (master’s thesis, North Carolina University, 2017); Jeff Guo, “Researchers Have Found a Major Problem with The Little Mermaid and Other Disney Movies,” Washington Post, January 25, 2016; and Oliver Gettell, “Here’s a Gender Breakdown of Dialogue in 30 Disney Movies,” Entertainment Weekly, April 7, 2016.
Chapter 18: I’ll Make a Man Out of You
Biographical information for Rita Hsiao obtained from author interview.
Robert San Souci’s consulting role in Mulan is described in Jeff Kurtti, The Art of “Mulan” (Glendale, CA: Disney Editions, 1998).
Early script challenges during the development of Mulan are discussed in the bonus materials to Mulan: Special Edition, released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment on October 26, 2004.
A few examples of criticism of Jasmine in Aladdin can be found in Roger Ebert, “Aladdin,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 25, 1992, and Janet Maslin, “Disney Puts Its Magic Touch on Aladdin,” New York Times, November 11, 1992.
The development of Pocahontas at the studio is recalled in Patrick Rogers, “A True Legend,” People, July 10, 1995; Nicole Peradotto, “Indian Summer: How Pocahontas Creators Drew on Life and Legend,” Buffalo News, June 25, 1995; and Michael Mallory, “Pocahontas and the Mouse’s Gong Show,” Animation, February 23, 2012.
The main character of Pocahontas was criticized as “generic” in Owen Gleiberman, “Pocahontas,” Entertainment Weekly, June 16, 1995. The character was called “Poca-Barbie” in Peter Travers, “Pocahontas,” Rolling Stone, June 23, 1995.
A statement criticizing Pocahontas was released by the Powhatan Renape Nation on July 1, 1996, and can be viewed on the Manataka Indian Council website: https://www.manataka.org/page8.html.
Further history of Pocahontas can be found in Camilla Townsend, Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma: The American Portraits Series (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005).
The origin of DreamWorks Animation is described in Scott Mendelson, “15 Years of DreamWorks Animation and Its Complicated Legacy,” Forbes, October 2, 2013. Biographical information for Edwin Catmull obtained from Edwin Catmull and Amy Wallace, Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspirat
ion (New York: Random House, 2014).
CAPS at the studio and the making of Toy Story are discussed in Chris Pallant, Demystifying Disney: A History of Disney Feature Animation (London: A and C Black, 2011), and Karen Paik and Leslie Iwerks, To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007).
RenderMan’s utility is explained in Anthony A. Apodaca, Larry Gritz, and Ronen Barzel, Advanced RenderMan: Creating CGI for Motion Pictures (Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann, 2000).
Production of Toy Story is described in Burr Snider, “The Toy Story Story,” Wired, December 1, 1995.
It took Lasseter five days to animate twelve and a half seconds, according to David A. Price, The Pixar Touch (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).
John Lasseter’s difficulties in creating the Luxo Jr. short are described in Brent Schlender, “Pixar’s Magic Man,” Fortune, May 17, 2006.
The quote beginning “Its lure is the image of girls” is in Nadya Labi, “Girl Power,” Time, June 24, 2001.
Biographical information on Brenda Chapman obtained from author interviews. The quote beginning “At the start of my career” is from a panel organized by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media on October 12, 2006.
The quote beginning “Sometimes women express an idea” is from Brenda Chapman, “Stand Up for Yourself, and Mentor Others,” New York Times, August 14, 2012.
The “We finally get a black princess” quote is from Brooks Barnes, “Her Prince Has Come. Critics, Too,” New York Times, May 29, 2009.
Production budgets and profits obtained from boxofficemojo.com and the-numbers.com.
Brave was predicted to be a “pretty standard princess movie” in Ray Subers, “Forecast: Pixar Aims for 13th-Straight First Place Debut with Brave,” boxofficemojo.com, June 21, 2012.
Brenda Chapman thanked her daughter at the Academy Awards according to Dave McNary, “Oscars: Brave Wins Tight Animation Race,” Variety, February 24, 2013.
Chapter 19: For the First Time in Forever
Biographical information for Jennifer Lee obtained from John August and Craig Mazin, “Frozen with Jennifer Lee,” Scriptnotes, iTunes app, January 28, 2014; Jill Stewart, “Jennifer Lee: Disney’s New Animation Queen,” L.A. Weekly, May 15, 2013; Sean Flynn, “Is It Her Time to Shine?,” Newport Daily News, February 17, 2014; Michael Cousineau, “UNH Degree Played a Part in Oscar-Winning Movie,” New Hampshire Union Leader, March 29, 2014; Will Payne, “Revealed, the Real-Life Frozen Sisters and the Act of Selfless Love That Inspired Hit Film,” Daily Mail, April 7, 2014; Karen Schwartz, “The New Guard: Jennifer Lee,” Marie Claire, October 21, 2014; and James Hibberd, “Frozen Original Ending Revealed for First Time,” Entertainment Weekly, March 29, 2017, as well as author interviews.
Development of “The Snow Queen” is described in Charles Solomon, The Art of “Frozen” (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2015).
The sister summit for Frozen is described in Dorian Lynskey, “Frozen-Mania: How Elsa, Anna and Olaf Conquered the World,” Guardian, May 13, 2014, and Kirsten Acuna, “One Huge Change in the Frozen Storyline Helped Make It a Billion-Dollar Movie,” Business Insider, September 3, 2014.
Biographical information on Michael Giaimo was obtained from personal interviews conducted by the author.
The use of Material Point Method to create snow and ice is explained in Zhen Chen et al., “A Particle-Based Multiscale Simulation Procedure Within the MPM Framework,” Computational Particle Mechanics 1, no. 2 (2014).
Biographical information for Fawn Veerasunthorn obtained from Todd Ruiz, “From Chonburi to the Red Carpet, Academy Award Winner Chased Her Dream,” Coconuts.co, March 14, 2014; Bobby Chiu, “Developing Style,” ChiuStream, Podcast Republic, February 2, 2017, as well as author interviews.
“Generic nature of the main characters” is from Scott Foundas, “Frozen,” Variety, November 3, 2013.
A lack of “memorable tunes” is from Elizabeth Weitzman, “Frozen, Movie Review,” New York Daily News, November 26, 2013.
“Musically thin” is from Dan Kois, “Frozen,” Slate, November 26, 2013.
Frozen’s financial success is reported in Maane Khatchatourian, “Box Office: Frozen Crosses $1 Billion Worldwide,” Variety, March 3, 2014.
The “subtly weaves in racial profiling” quote is from Brian Truitt, “Zootopia Animal World Reflects Human Issues,” USA Today, March 3, 2016.
“Marks a return to the heights of the Disney Renaissance” is from Peter Debruge, “Film Review: Moana,” Variety, November 7, 2016.
A discussion of Moana’s history can be found in Doug Herman, “How the Story of Moana and Maui Holds Up Against Cultural Truths,” Smithsonian, December 2, 2016.
Background on the #MeToo movement can be found in Christen A. Johnson and K. T. Hawbaker, “#MeToo: A Timeline of Events,” Chicago Tribune, March 7, 2019.
Lasseter acknowledged that his actions were “unquestionably wrong” and apologized for his behavior as reported in Anthony D’Alassandro, “John Lasseter Expresses Deep Sorrow and Shame About Past Actions at Emotional Skydance Animation Town Hall,” Deadline, January 19, 2019.
Biographical information for Pete Docter obtained from author interviews.
Pete Docter and Jennifer Lee taking over Lasseter’s position, as reported in Brooks Barnes, “Frozen and Inside Out Directors to Succeed Lasseter at Disney and Pixar,” New York Times, June 19, 2018.
Percentage of women studying animation versus those working in the field was reported in Emilio Mayorga, “Annecy: Women in Animation Present Gender Disparity Data,” Variety, June 17, 2015.
Current statistics on female directors, writers, and on-screen portrayal obtained from Martha M. Lauzen, “It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: Portrayals of Female Characters in the 100 Top Films of 2017,” Report from Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, 2018; and Stacy L. Smith et al., “Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT and Disability from 2007 to 2017,” Report of the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, 2018.
Information about the Bechdel test obtained from Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007).
Only 53 percent of films pass the Bechdel test was reported in Walt Hickey, “The Dollars-and-Cents Case Against Hollywood’s Exclusion of Women,” FiveThirtyEight.com, April 1, 2014.
Epilogue: Happily Ever After
Mary Blair’s original murals at Disneyland can be viewed at https://www.yesterland.com/maryblair.html.
About the Author
Nathalia Holt, PhD, is the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars and Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Popular Science, and Time. She is a fellow at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard University. She lives with her husband and their two daughters in Pacific Grove, California.
ALSO BY NATHALIA HOLT
Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars
Cured: The People Who Defeated HIV
The Queens of Animation Page 36