Walt Disney Animation Studios

Background

Walt Disney Animation Studios (formerly known as Walt Disney Animation until 1994 and Walt Disney Feature Animation until 2007) is an American animation studio formed in 1986 by the animation staff of Walt Disney Productions during the split of the company, and was renamed to The Walt Disney Company. As both Walt Disney Productions and Walt Disney Animation Studios combined, it is one of the oldest-running animation studios in the world, and was known for making feature-length movies, though it does make animated shorts and television shows as well. The company didn't have a on-screen logo until John Lasseter took in change of the studio in 2007. The current CEO of the studio is Frozen co-director and writer Jennifer Lee since 2017.

(March 30, 2007- )

1.77.1 (16:9)
2.33.1 (21:9 Widescreen)
50th Animated Motion Feature variant
60th Animated Motion Feature variant
Alternate version of the 60th Animated Motion Feature variant, seen on trailers of Encanto
Wreck-It Ralph variant

Logo: On a gold paper background, a red circle is drawn in. As the camera zooms out, more pieces of paper fold out on the screen like a flipbook (a la the 2002 Marvel logo), and quickly the red circle becomes a rough sketch of Mickey Mouse in his appearance from the 1928 Disney cartoon Steamboat Willie. Eventually, the pages stop flipping, and the sketch animates (showing Mickey happily whistling while turning the wheel on the steamboat he is driving) before slowly turning into the original scene it depicts from the short. The scene zooms out onto a yellow-gold spotlight background, and below the picture, the words "WALT DiSNEY" write themselves in a sketchier version of the signature corporate font, with "ANIMATION STUDIOS" fading in underneath.

Variants:

Since 2008 with the movie Bolt, the logo was given a high definition look, which used the same animation.
On Tangled and Encanto, a custom variant was used:
- On Tangled, the animation stays in place as it is slowly overtaken by a large orange circle outline, with the wheel being filled with black before transforming into the normal scene. It then zooms out to reveal it is part of a large "50", and as the company name with the text "ANIMATION STUDIOS" in the same color as "WALT DiSNEY" appears at the top, the stacked text "ANIMATED MOTION PICTURE" appears under the "50", and a small "TH" appears at the top right of the "0". The closing version of this variant has the finished product of the animation shown in close-up, then it animates as usual but at a fast-pace, and the company name is already there, with only "ANIMATED MOTION PICTURE" and "TH" fading in.
- This variant would be reused for Encanto, except the "50" has been replaced by a "60" and the logo is shortened to the "60" zooming out to its place. The closing variant just has the last seconds of the normal logo.
  - A trailer for the film has the Walt Disney Animation Studios logo replaced with "OUR".
On Wreck-It Ralph, the logo is done in a retro video-game style on a black background to fit with the movie's arcade theme.
On Frozen II, the ending of the logo fades into the opening scene of the movie.
On new animated shorts, as well as at the end of movies starting with Bolt and on television shows, the logo is cut down to its last few seconds.
On the Prep & Landing specials, Operation: Secret Santa and Olaf's Frozen Adventure, the logo is still.

FX/SFX: Mostly CGI. The logo was directed by Mike Gabriel and produced by Roy Conli, using Ub Iwerks' original animation drawings from Steamboat Willie as reference.

Music/Sounds: The sound of pages turning followed by Mickey whistling a cheerful tune, in which is archived audio from the cartoon.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On Wreck-It Ralph, an 8-bit version of the music plays over the logo.
The animated shorts variant has the last few seconds of Mickey whistling with the music.
On some movies (both Frozen movies, Moana, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Encanto), the film's opening theme or sound effects plays over the logo instead.
The closing variant is silent or (post-2016) has the ending theme of the movie, except for on The Princess and the Frog where it just has Mickey's whistling without any background music at all, Zootopia, where nature-like sounds play over the logo, and Ralph Breaks the Internet, wherein Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) talks over the logo and the shortened 2011 Disney logo before being cut off by the latter turning off with a TV effect, similar to the closing of the previous installment.
The still logo has the end theme play over it.
On some dubs of the movies, the logo is lower-pitched or higher-pitched.

Availability: Current and common.

It was first seen on Meet the Robinsons, and can be seen on every Disney animated feature henceforth, most recently Encanto, as well as short films like How to Hook Up Your Home Theater, The Ballad of Nessie, Tangled Ever After, Paperman, Get a Horse!, Feast, Inner Workings, all of the Short Circuit shorts, Us Again, and Far From the Tree as well as on television shows such as Baymax!.
The still version can be seen on the Prep & Landing TV specials, as well as the short Operation: Secret Santa.
This logo does not appear on video games, as they used the standard DIS logo instead.
It was also seen on reissues of Beauty of the Beast (1991) and the 3D version of The Lion King (1994).
This logo may or may not be retired in the future as a new print logo was introduced recently, though as of now, it is announced to still be used as an on-screen logo, and may get its debut on Strange World (scheduled for release on November 23, 2022), since parent company Walt Disney Pictures announced a new on-screen logo at the 2022 D23 Expo.
Don't expect this or the Walt Disney Pictures logo to appear on the Phineas and Ferb movies, Across the 2nd Dimension and Candace Against the Universe, as they were produced by Disney Television Animation.

Legacy: This is a throwback to one of the studio's most important films, since it introduced Mickey Mouse, the company's mascot.