Lord of the Links

Disney is working hard at recovering from its turbulations, and reinventing itself in the time of computer animation, where Pixar, and Dreamworks (of Shrek fame) excel. Can Disney stage a turnaround to re-establish itself as the Big Daddy of animation movies?

A lot of it hinges on "Chicken Little" and 3 other movies soon to be released. The animators are now hungry for success and may well be the right time to reinstate Disney.

But Disney's biggest challenge may be to overcome the notion that, when it comes to animation, many moviegoers may no longer have much confidence in Disney. Indeed, the company's animators today have more in common with their predecessors than their competitors at Pixar and DreamWorks. When animators created "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," the studio's first theatrical offering in 1937, it was referred to as "Disney's Folly" before its release.

"How hungry were they?" Mr. Dindal said, referring to "Snow White's" animators. "It's fun to be at a place where everybody's hungry for something, as opposed to being well fed."