Portal:Disney

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Introduction

The Walt Disney Studios corporate headquarters in Burbank, California, 2016

The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing to its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.^{[citation needed]}

After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

The company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations.^{[citation needed]} Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Selected article

Kingdom Hearts (キングダムハーツ, Kingudamu Hātsu) is a Japanese/American video game series developed and published by Square Enix. It is a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios, and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix character designer. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. The series features an all-star voice cast, which includes many of the Disney characters' official voice actors and well-known celebrities such as Haley Joel Osment, David Gallagher, Jesse McCartney, Hayden Panettiere, Christopher Lee, Willa Holland, Jason Dohring, Mark Hamill, and Leonard Nimoy. Characters from Square Enix's Final Fantasy series make appearances and interact with the player and the Disney characters. The series centers around the main character Sora's search for his friends and his encounters with Disney and Final Fantasy characters on their worlds, though the most recent games have centered around other characters central to the series' storyline. The series currently consists of seven games including remakes across different video game platforms, and future titles are planned. Most of the games in the series have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, though each title has seen varying levels of success. As of August 2010, the Kingdom Hearts series has shipped over 14 million copies worldwide, with 2 million copies in PAL regions, 3.0 million copies in Japan, and 5.6 million copies in North America. A wide variety of related merchandise has been released along with the games, including soundtracks, figurines, companion books, and an ongoing manga series made into different volumes.

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Credit: Coolcaesar

A headquarters of Disney Channel in Burbank, California.

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These are images of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney in their respective articles.

Image 1Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 2Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 3Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland in 2008. (from Disneyland)
Image 4An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 5Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 6Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 7Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 8View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 9Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 10One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 11Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 12Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 13The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 14Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 15The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 16Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 17Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 18Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 19Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 20Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 21Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 22The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 23Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 24An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 25Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 26Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 27Adventureland entrance
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 28Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney World)
Image 29Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 30The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 31Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 32A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 33The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 34Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 35The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 36Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 37Critter Country
(Splash Mountain; 1989–2023) (from Disneyland)
Image 38Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 39Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 40Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 41Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 42Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 43Mickey's Toontown
(pictured in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 44Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 45New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion in the background and Fantasmic! viewing area in the foreground in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 46Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 47Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist in 2005. (from Disneyland)
Image 48Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 49Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 50Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 51Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 52The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 53Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 54One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney lost the rights to until 2006. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 55Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 56Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 57Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 58Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 59A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guests to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)

Selected biography

Walter Elias Disney (/ˈdɪzni/; December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned and nominations by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Disney was the first person to be nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories, a record he shares with Alfonso Cuaron and George Clooney (although Kenneth Branagh later surpassed all three with nominations in seven categories).

Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks, he developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, he became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the latter of which received five Academy Awards.

In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in July 1955 he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. To fund the project he diversified into television programs, such as Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club. He was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1965, he began development of another theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that, for the Space 220 Restaurant, Disney reached out to NASA engineers to understand what a space elevator might look like?
... that in response to Disney's stance on Florida's House Bill 1557, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, Pixar employees stated that Disney removes LGBT references from the studio's films?
... that Disney once created a political advertisement for Dwight D. Eisenhower (featured)?
... that vaccine coverage at schools around the Disneyland Resort was too low for herd immunity when measles broke out in 2014?
... that Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company alleging that the release strategy for Black Widow breached her contract?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?

Selected quote

Gummis, as you know, The Great Book of Gummi will never be finished. It contains history of Gummi bears the world over, and now we have made a contribution. Zummi writes on blank page. Today, we helped a young boy save his kingdom.

— Zummi, "A New Beginning" - Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears

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More Did you know...

...that Dan Povenmire was at a Wild Thyme restaurant in South Pasadena, California, when he first drew the character Phineas Flynn?

...that Michael Eisner credited research economist Harrison Price with being "as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Co. as anybody except Walt Disney himself"?

...that Walt Disney's grandson Walter Elias Disney Miller produced a film about his grandfather called Walt - The Man Behind the Myth?
...that Donald và bạn hữu (Vietnamese for "Donald and friends") is a bilingual weekly Disney comics magazine in Vietnamese and English published by Tre Publishing House in co-operation with The Saigon Times under license from the Walt Disney Company.
...that Walt Disney was an ambulance driver during World War One?

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