The Walt Disney Company

Background

The Walt Disney Company traces its beginnings to the Disney Brothers Studio (later Walt Disney Studio), an animation studio founded in 1923 by Walter Elias "Walt" Disney and Roy O. Disney after the bankruptcy of their Laugh-O-Gram Studio. In 1937, the company produced its first full-length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was the first American animated feature film. Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, the film was a hit and was followed up by more films including Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), and the experimental symphony film Fantasia (1940). During World War II, however, Disney's main focus shifted to production of military films, and as such, production of animated features all but stopped. During this time, Disney put out "package films" consisting of a number of shorts put together, such as Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944). Around the same time, Disney began producing live-action films, with its first such foray being the highly controversial animation hybrid Song of the South (1946). The studio's first fully live-action film, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, would follow in 1950.

In 1950, Disney returned to the animated films that made them successful with the release of Cinderella, followed in quick succession by Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). The latter would be the last Disney film distributed by RKO, as that year Disney established its own distribution arm Buena Vista Distribution (later Buena Vista Pictures Distribution), named after the road on which the studio was situated.

After Walt died on December 16, 1966, his brother Roy took over Walt Disney Productions and oversaw the release of films such as The Jungle Book, The Happiest Millionaire (both 1967), and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). Roy died of a stroke in 1971, shortly after the opening of Walt Disney World. Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller began running the studio with the help of Walt and Roy's associates Card Walker and Donn Tatum. This era of leadership at Disney is widely associated with a series of ambitious live-action flops, such as The Black Hole (1979) and Tron (1982), most of which have since gained a cult following. Despite Disney's live-action struggles, the animation unit continued to have success with films such as Robin Hood (1973). During his tenure, Miller established Touchstone Pictures and spun off Disney's live-action film division as Walt Disney Pictures on April 1, 1983, while Buena Vista was renamed Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. In 1984, a corporate takeover led by Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney led to Michael Eisner and Frank Wells (the latter of whom died in a helicopter crash in 1994) taking over the company. In 1986, after the commercial failure of The Black Cauldron (1985), the animation unit was split off to become Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Walt Disney Productions was renamed The Walt Disney Company. They were the final animation studio from the golden age of Hollywood to be in operation. Walt Disney Animation Studios, now headed by Roy E. Disney, would go on to produce The Little Mermaid (1989); its success led to the "Disney Renaissance" of the 1990s, which saw several equally successful films such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994).

(1989-1996)

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the ending theme.

Availability: Extinct. It was only used on television, replacing the in-credit Walt Disney Productions text seen at the end of shows. Seen on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club and the making-of featurette for A Goofy Movie. It would later be replaced by Disney Enterprises.

◄	Walt Disney Productions

The Walt Disney Company