Walt Disney Characters

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is proof that good guys finish first. With an optimistic outlook on life and a boyishly enthusiastic nature, these are the traits that make Mickey a real winner. He's a friendly kid-at-heart whose wholesome values and can-do spirit endear Mickey to everyone he meets. Unassuming and modest, he's an all-around "regular" guy who remains humble despite all his fame and success. With positive values and integrity, Mickey's the friend we'd all like to have and the person we'd like to be.

Minnie Mouse

Minnie Mouse is the quintessential girl-next-door. She personifies the very spirit of femininity with her kind and caring style. She gracefully moves, speaks, and acts with a wholesome girlish charm. Guileless and innocent, Minnie always retains the simple, down-to-earth spirit of a sweet country girl. She is always polite and proper, and despite her shy nature, maintains an air of independence and self-worth.

Fun-loving Minnie enjoys life to the fullest. As a performer with great ability, Minnie loves music, frequently singing or humming to herself. Sweet and demure but not entirely na?ve, she is intelligent, with a mind of her own. Secure and strong enough to allow her partner to shine, Minnie graciously shares the spotlight with Mickey.

Donald Duck

Donald Duck eagerly begins each day with the best of intentions -- expecting everything to go his way. It's just that the rest of the world won't cooperate. Normally, Donald is a friendly and cheerful guy, but when things don't go as planned, he often loses his temper. He has boundless determination and a pervasive persistence that borders on stubbornness. Donald cares about his family and friends and can be counted on to do the right thing. Donald's weaknesses are our own. He's the lovable little guy on the bottom who faces defeat but keeps right on trying.

Daisy Duck

Daisy Duck has the sassy, yet sophisticated qualities of a modern woman with worldly interests. Her formidable will and powerful personality are those of a self-assured, independent gal. A woman of refined upbringing, Daisy has impeccable manners and a passion for the finer things in life. Groomed and perfumed, she knows she is pretty and loves to be surrounded by pretty things. Daisy is like a strong-willed southern belle, knowing what she wants and exactly how to get it.

Goofy

Goofy is a good-natured, happy friend with a heart of gold. Ever cheerful and easygoing, the lovable Goof endears himself to everyone with his homespun charm. Though he may not always do things right, his mistakes are balanced by optimistic enthusiasm, a positive attitude, and his charmed good luck. Goofy is unfailingly loyal to his friends, a true gentleman, and a champion of good sportsmanship. His high spirits and good humor are inspirational, and no matter what Goofy gets himself into, he always manages to come up smiling.

Pluto

Pluto is 100% canine -- a natural dog. He is friendly and loyal, with a simple nature and healthy curiosity. Fun-loving and playful, the full-grown Pluto has the spirit of a puppy. He is first and foremost a loyal companion, always there for Mickey, and eager to please. Pluto likes to be rewarded for a job well done. Though he craves approval and affection, Pluto is quite affectionate himself. Kindhearted Pluto is a good boy a faithful and true friend with real heart.

Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh, the lovable bear who's stuffed with fluff, is also called Pooh, or Pooh Bear, but never, ever, just Winnie. Pooh himself would tell you he is a "bear of little brain," but he also has an uncommon, clear-eyed wisdom. His friends; their happiness and feelings are Pooh's chief concern, and there is no better friend than Winnie the Pooh. Pooh endlessly craves honey or a smackerel of whatever little something is at hand to soothe that insatiable "rumbly in his tumbly."

Piglet

Piglet is a soft-spoken and skittish little fellow whose generosity and humility far outweigh his meager size. Still, he considers himself just "a very small animal." His fastidious movements, anxious wringing of hands, and occasionally stuttering voice ("Oh d-d-d-dear"), convey his nervousness and fear of the unknown. But inside Piglet's small frame is a big heart.

Tigger

Tigger is an exuberant, one-of-a-kind creature with the famously springy tail. He acts on every impulse, and his boisterous manner often leads him to leap before he looks. Tigger's bouncing is a pure expression of his utter zest for life -- a joy he's always eager to share with his friends, even when sometimes (especially with Rabbit), they don't want him to share it! His unique personality extends to his original use of language, which often results in his trademark twists of phrase and malapropisms.

Eeyore

Eeyore is everyone's favorite delightfully dismal donkey. But Eeyore doesn't see himself as gloomy -- he just has low expectations. He expects nothing from anybody, so whenever his friends do come to his aid his expectations of the worst are overthrown, and he is sincerely grateful. Eeyore's tiny bright pink bow on his tail, the one hint of color against his gray, is a perfect symbol of the kernel of joy that occasionally surfaces in Eeyore. Though he may pretend he's helping because there's nothing better to do -- make no mistake, Eeyore is always there for his friends.

Rabbit

Rabbit is perhaps the smartest of the Hundred Acre Wood friends (at least he thinks so), and often the self-appointed leader of the group. Rabbit can be stubborn about his viewpoints. Although Rabbit often quickly overreacts, his friends know that underneath his sometimes bristly exterior is a good heart, and his know-it-all attitude is tempered by his ability to admit when he's wrong.

This list can be endless, so we should stop and move on to next topic

Sources

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Walter Elias Disney

Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Disney is notable as one of the most influential and innovative figures in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Walt became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $30 billion.

Walt Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He received twenty-two Academy Awards and forty-eight nominations during his lifetime, holding the record for the individual with the most awards and the most nominations. Disney has also won seven Emmy Awards. Disney and his staff created a number of the world's most famous fictional characters, including the one many consider Disney's alter ego, Mickey Mouse. He is also well-known as the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, France, Japan and China.

Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, a few years prior to the opening of his Walt Disney World dream project in Orlando, Florida.

Childhood

Walt Disney's ancestors emigrated from Gowran, County Kilkenny in Ireland to British North America in the nineteenth century. Arundel Elias Disney, great-grandfather of Walt Disney, was born in Kilkenny, Ireland in 1801, and is said to be a descendant of Hugues (Hugh) and his son Robert d'Isigny (France) who arrived in England with William the Conqueror in 1066.

Walt's father Elias Disney moved to the United States from Canada after his parents failed at farming there. His mother, Florence Call, was of German descent.

In his childhood, Elias moved with his family all around the United States, as his father chased various business ventures. He also worked as a mailman in Kissimmee (Orlando), Florida, future home of Walt Disney World. Elias moved to Chicago in the 1890s soon after his marriage to Flora Call. Walt was born in Chicago.

In April, 1906 Elias grew disenchanted with the violence in Chicago and moved his family to Marceline, Missouri, where his brother owned property. There he bought a house and 45 acres of farmland. While in Marceline, Disney developed his love for drawing. One of their neighbours, a retired doctor named "Doc" Sherwood, paid him to draw pictures of Sherwood's horse, Rupert. He also developed his love for trains in Marceline, which owed its existence to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway which ran through town. Walt would put his ear to the tracks in anticipation of the coming train. Then he would look for his uncle, engineer Michael Martin, running the train.

The Disneys remained in Marceline for four years , moving to Kansas City in 1910. There, Walt and his sister Ruth attended the Benton Grammar School where he met Walter Pfeiffer. The Pfeiffers were theatre aficionados, and introduced Walt to the world of vaudeville and motion pictures. Soon Walt was spending more time at the Pfeiffers' than at home.

Chicago

In 1917, Elias purchased an interest in the O-Zell jelly factory in Chicago and moved his family back there. In the fall, Disney began his freshman year at McKinley High School there and began taking night courses at the Chicago Art Institute. Disney was the cartoonist for the school newspaper. His cartoons were very patriotic, focusing on World War I. Disney dropped out of high school at 16 so he could join the Army, but the army didn't take him because he was too young.

Instead, Walt and one of his friends decided to join the Red Cross. They were supposed to be 17 years old to join but, against his father's will, his mother forged Walt's birth certificate saying he was born in 1900 instead of 1901. The Red Cross sent him to France for a year. During that year, he drove an ambulance, on which he also drew Disney characters.

He moved to Kansas City to begin his artistic career. His brother Roy worked at a bank in the area and got a job for him through a friend at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio. At Pesmen-Rubin, Disney made ads for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters. It was also there that he met a shy cartoonist named Ubbe Iwerks. The two respected each other's work so much, they became fast friends and decided to start their own art business.

Disney and Iwerks (who now shortened his name to Ub Iwerks) formed a company called "Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists" in January 1920. Unfortunately, few clients were willing to hire the inexperienced duo. Iwerks left temporarily to earn money at Kansas City Film Ad Company. Disney followed suit after the business venture was taken over by his New York financial backers Winkler and Mintz.

Hollywood

When Disney arrived in Los Angeles, he had $40 in his pocket and an unfinished cartoon in his suitcase. Interestingly, he first wanted to break away from animation, thinking he could not compete with the studios in New York City. Disney said that his first ambition was to be a film director. He went to every studio in town looking for directing work; they all promptly turned him down.

Because of the lack of success in live-action film, Disney turned back to animation. His first Hollywood cartoon studio was a garage in his uncle Robert's house. Disney sent an unfinished print to New York distributor Margaret Winkler, who promptly wrote back to him. She wanted a distribution deal with Disney for more live-action/animated shorts based upon Alice's Wonderland.

Disney looked up to his brother Roy, who was recovering from tuberculosis in a Los Angeles veteran's hospital. Disney pleaded to his brother to help him with his fledgling studio, saying that he could not keep his finances straight without him. Roy agreed and left the hospital with his brother. He never went back and never had a recurrence of tuberculosis. Virginia Davis (the live-action star of Alice's Wonderland) and her family were relocated at Disney's request from Kansas City to Hollywood, as were Iwerks and his family. This was the beginning of the Disney Brothers' Studio. It was located on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district, where the studio would remain until 1939.

In 1925, Disney hired a young woman named Lillian Bounds to ink and paint celluloid. He was immediately taken with her. After a brief period of dating the two married in this same year.

Alice Comedies

The new series, "Alice Comedies," was reasonably successful, and featured both Dawn O'Day and Margie Gay as Alice after Virginia Davis' parents pulled her out of the series because of a pay cut. Lois Hardwick also briefly assumed the role. By the time the series ended in 1927, the focus was more on the animated characters, in particular a cat named Julius who resembled Felix the Cat, rather than the live-action Alice.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

By 1927, Charles B. Mintz had married Margaret Winkler and assumed control of her business, and ordered a new all-animated series to be put into production for distribution through Universal Pictures. The new series, "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", was an almost instant success, and the Oswald character, first drawn and created by Iwerks, became a popular property. The Disney studio expanded, and Walt hired back Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng from Kansas City.

In February of 1928, Disney went to New York to negotiate a higher fee per short from Mintz. Disney was shocked when Mintz announced that not only he wanted to reduce the fee he paid Disney per short but also that he had most of his main animators, including Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng (notably excepting Iwerks) under contract and would start his own studio if Disney did not accept the reduced production budgets. Universal, not Disney, owned the Oswald trademark, and could make the films without Disney.

Disney declined Mintz's offer and lost most of his animation staff. The defectors became the nucleus of the Winkler Studio, run by Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler. When that studio went under after Universal assigned production of the Oswald shorts to an in-house division run by Walter Lantz, Mintz focused his attentions on the studio making the "Krazy Kat" shorts, which later became Screen Gems, and Harman, Ising, Maxwell, and Freleng marketed an Oswald-like character named Bosko to Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros., and began work on the first entries in the Looney Tunes series.

It took Disney's company 78 years to get back the rights to the Oswald character. In a move that sent sports broadcaster Al Michaels to NBC Sports for their Sunday night NFL coverage, the Walt Disney Company reacquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal in 2006.

Mickey Mouse

After having lost the rights to Oswald, Disney had to develop a new "star". Most Disney biographies state that Disney came up with a mouse character on his trip back from New York. It is debated whether it was he, or Iwerks who actually designed the mouse (which basically looked like Oswald, but with round instead of long ears). Another explanation is that this was simply the drawing style of animated characters back then, and that Iwerks adopted it. Besides Oswald and Mickey, this can be seen in the Alice Comedies which featured a mouse named Ike the Mouse, and in the first Flip the Frog cartoon called Fiddlesticks, showing a Mickey Mouse looking mouse playing fiddle. The first films were animated by Iwerks, his name was prominently featured on the title cards. The mouse was originally named "Mortimer", but later christened "Mickey Mouse" by Lillian Disney who thought that the name Mortimer did not fit.

Mickey's first animated short produced was Plane Crazy, which was, like all of Disney's previous works, a silent film. After failing to find distributor interest in Plane Crazy or its follow-up, The Gallopin' Gaucho, Disney created a Mickey cartoon with sound called Steamboat Willie. A businessman named Pat Powers provided Disney with both distribution and Cinephone, a sound-synchronization process. Steamboat Willie became a success, and Plane Crazy, The Galloping Gaucho, and all future Mickey cartoons were released with soundtracks. Disney himself provided the vocal effects for the earliest cartoons and performed as the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1946. After Steamboat Willie was released, Mickey became a very close competitor to Felix the Cat, and Walt Disney would continue to successfully use sound in all of his future cartoons as well. Upon the failure of Felix the Cat's transition to sound in 1930, Mickey Mouse became the world's new favorite animation character.

Silly Symphonies

Joining the Mickey Mouse series in 1929 were a series of musical shorts called Silly Symphonies. The first of these was entitled The Skeleton Dance and was entirely drawn and animated by Iwerks, who was also responsible for drawing the majority of cartoons released by Disney in 1928 and 1929. Although both series were successful, the Disney studio was not seeing its rightful share of profits from Pat Powers, and in 1930 Disney signed a new distribution deal with Columbia Pictures.

Iwerks was growing tired of the temperamental Disney, especially as he was doing the majority of the work, and so was lured by Powers into opening his own studio with an exclusive contract. Disney desperately searched for someone who could replace Iwerks, as he was not able to draw as well or as quickly; Iwerks was reported to have drawn up to 700 drawings a day for the first Mickey shorts.

Meanwhile, Iwerks launched his successful Flip the Frog series with the first sound cartoon in color, "Fiddlesticks," filmed in two-strip Technicolor. Iwerks also created two other series of cartoons, the Willie Whopper and the Comicolor cartoon series. Iwerks closed his studio in 1936 to work on various projects dealing with animation technology. Iwerks would return to Disney in 1940 and, in the studio's research and development department, would go on to pioneer a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies.

Eventually, Disney was able to find a number of people to replace Iwerks. By 1932, Mickey Mouse had become quite a popular cartoon character, but Silly Symphonies was not nearly as successful. 1932 also saw competition for Disney grow worse than Ub Iwerks cartoons, as Max Fleischer's flapper cartoon character Betty Boop would gain more and more popularity among theater audiences; Fleischer was considered to be Disney's main rival in the 1930's, and was also the father of the same man whom Disney would later hire to direct his 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Richard Fleischer. Columbia Pictures had also dropped distribution of Disney cartoons as well, and United Artists became the distributor for Disney cartoons. In late 1932, Herbert Kalmus approached Walt and convinced him to redo Flowers and Trees, which was originally done in black and white, with three-strip Technicolor. Flowers and Trees would go on to be a phenomenal success and would go on to win the first Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons for 1932. After Flowers and Trees was released, all future Silly Symphony cartoons were done in color as well, and Disney also was able to negotiate a three-year deal with Technicolor, so no other animation studio could use three-strip Technicolor as well . Through Silly Symphonies, Disney would also create his most successful cartoon short of all time, The Three Little Pigs, in 1933 as well.

19371941: The Golden Age of Animation

"Disney's Folly": Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Although his studio produced the two most successful cartoon series in the industry, the returns were still dissatisfying to Disney, and he began plans for a full-length feature in 1934. In 1935, polls also showed that Popeye the Sailor, another cartoon series produced by Max Fleischer, was more popular than Mickey Mouse, and Mickey was colorized shortly afterwards. When the rest of the film industry learned of Disney's plans to produce an animated feature-length version of Snow White, they dubbed the project "Disney's Folly" and were certain that the project would destroy the Disney studio. Both Lillian and Roy tried to talk Disney out of the project, but he continued plans for the feature. He employed Chouinard Art Institute professor Don Graham to start a training operation for the studio staff, and used the Silly Symphonies as a platform for experiments in realistic human animation, distinctive character animation, special effects, and the use of specialized processes and apparatus such as the multiplane camera; Disney would first use this new technique in the 1937 Silly Symphonies short The Old Mill.

All of this development and training was used to elevate the quality of the studio so that it would be able to give the feature the quality Disney desired. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as the feature was named, was in full production from 1934 until mid-1937, when the studio ran out of money. To acquire the funding to complete Snow White, Disney had to show a rough cut of the motion picture to loan officers at the Bank of America, who gave the studio the money to finish the picture. The finished film premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater on December 21, 1937; at the conclusion of the film the audience gave Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs a standing ovation. Snow White, the first animated feature in English and Technicolor, was released in February 1938 under a new distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures; RKO had previously become the distributor for Disney cartoons in 1936, after it closed down the Van Beuren Studios in exchange for distribution. The film became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and earned over $8 million (today $98 million) in its original theatrical release, all the more amazing because children were charged only a dime to see it. The success of Snow White (for which Disney received one full-size, and seven miniature Oscar statuettes) allowed Disney to build a new campus for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, which opened for business on December 24, 1939; Snow White was also not only the peak of Disney's success, it also began what was know as the Golden Age of Animation for Disney as well. The feature animation staff, having just completed Pinocchio, continued work on Fantasia and Bambi, while the shorts staff continued work on the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto cartoon series, ending the Silly Symphonies at this time; Animator Fred Moore had also redesigned Mickey Mouse in the late 1930's, as production for the Fantasia segment The Sorcerer's Apprentice began as well, as Donald Duck began to gain more popularity among theater audiences than Mickey Mouse.

Wartime Woes

Pinocchio and Fantasia followed Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs into movie theaters in 1940, but both were financial disappointments. The inexpensive Dumbo was planned as an income generator, but during production of the new film, most of the animation staff went on strike, permanently straining the relationship between Disney and his artists.

Shortly after Dumbo was released in October 1941 and became a successful moneymaker, the United States entered World War II. The U.S. Army contracted for most of the Disney studio's facilities and had the staff create training and instructional films for the military, as well as home-front morale-boosting shorts such as Der Fuehrer's Face and the feature film Victory Through Air Power in 1943. The military films did not generate income, however, and the feature film Bambi underperformed when it was released in April 1942. Disney successfully re-issued Snow White in 1944, establishing a 7-year re-release tradition for Disney features. (The pattern was not always strictly followed - Disney's version of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was first re-released in 1963, nine years after its first run in movie theaters, and Disney's financially disappointing and critically drubbed version of Babes in Toyland, went straight to television after its theatrical run, and never re-appeared in movie theaters.)

The Disney studios also created inexpensive package films, containing collections of cartoon shorts, and issued them to theaters during this period. The most notable and successful of these were Saludos Amigos (1942), its sequel The Three Caballeros (1945), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The latter had only two sections: the first based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, and the second based on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. During this period Disney also ventured into full-length dramatic films that mixed live action and animated scenes, including Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart.

By the late 1940s, the studio had recovered enough to continue production on the full-length features Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, which had been shelved during the war years, and began work on Cinderella, which became Disney's most successful film since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The studio also began a series of live-action nature films, entitled True-Life Adventures, in 1948 with On Seal Island. Despite rebounding success through feature films, Disney's animation shorts were no longer as popular as they used to be, and people began to instead draw attention to Warner Bros and their animation star Bugs Bunny; by 1942, Warner Bros' Termite Terrace officially became the most popular animation studio. However, while Bugs Bunny's popularity rose in the 1940's, so would Donald Duck's; Donald would also replace Mickey Mouse as Disney's star character in 1949.

Testimony before Congress

After the 1941 strike of Disney Studio employees, Walt Disney deeply distrusted organized labor. In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he branded Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William Pomerance, former animators and labor union organizers, as Communist agitators. (All three men denied the allegations.) Disney implicated the Screen Actors Guild as a Communist front, and charged that the 1941 strike was part of an organized Communist effort to gain influence in Hollywood. However, no evidence has been discovered to support this.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that from 1941 until his death, he spied for the FBI on union activity in Hollywood, and illegally intimidated union activists. Since Jews were prominent in the labor movement, some employees felt that Disney's actions were motivated by anti-semitism. However, there is no evidence of this.

19551966: Theme Parks and beyond

Carolwood Pacific Railroad

During 1949, Disney and his family moved to a new home on a large piece of property in the Holmby Hills district of Los Angeles, California. With the help of his friends Ward and Betty Kimball, owners of their own backyard railroad, Disney developed the blueprints and immediately set to work creating a miniature live steam railroad for his backyard. The name of the railroad, Carolwood Pacific Railroad, originated from the address of his home that was located on Carolwood Drive. The railroad's half-mile long layout included a 46-foot-long trestle, loops, overpasses, gradients, an elevated dirt berm, and a 90-foot tunnel underneath Mrs. Disney's flowerbed. He named the miniature working steam locomotive built by Roger E. Broggie of the Disney Studios Lilly Belle in his wife's honor. He had his attorney draw up right-of-way papers giving the railroad a permanent, legal easement through the garden areas, which his wife dutifully signed; however, there is no evidence the documents were ever recorded as a restriction on the property's title.

Planning Disneyland

On a business trip to Chicago in the late-1940s, Disney drew sketches of his ideas for an amusement park where he envisioned his employees spending time with their children. He got his idea for a children's theme park after visiting Children's Fairyland in Oakland, California. This plan was originally for a lot south of the Studio, just across the street. However, the city of Burbank declined building permission. The original ideas developed into a concept for a larger enterprise that was to become Disneyland. Disney spent five years of his life developing Disneyland and created a new subsidiary of his company, called WED Enterprises, to carry out the planning and production of the park. A small group of Disney studio employees joined the Disneyland development project as engineers and planners, and were dubbed Imagineers.

When describing one of his earliest plans to Herb Ryman (who created the first aerial drawing of Disneyland to present to the Bank of America for funds), Disney said, "Herbie, I just want it to look like nothing else in the world. And it should be surrounded by a train." Entertaining his daughters and their friends in his backyard and taking them for rides on his Carolwood Pacific Railroad had inspired Disney to include a railroad in the plans for Disneyland.

Among his closest friends in his last decade of life were Bob Hannah; the trainmaster; and Lorne Cline; lead brakeman; who later regaled park guests with stories about Walt into the late 1970s Walt did not ever want to lose control of the railroad to the financial backers of Disneyland and so placed the steam train and monorail attractions into a free-standing company called "RETLAW" (which is "Walter" spelled backwards) of which he and his wife were sole owners. Prior to its dissolution into the Disney Corp in the 1980s, he (and heirs) would receive $0.60 for each person through the turnstile at the train stations and supervisors could be seen currying favor with the owner by spinning the turnstiles to increase the count (and revenues) before park opening and after closing.

Expanding into new areas

As Walt Disney Productions began work on Disneyland, it also began expanding its other entertainment operations. Treasure Island (1950) became the studio's first all-live-action feature, and was soon followed by such successes as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (in CinemaScope, 1954), The Shaggy Dog (1959), and The Parent Trap (1961). The Walt Disney Studio was one of the first to take full advantage of the then-new medium of television, producing its first TV special, One Hour in Wonderland, in 1950. Disney began hosting a weekly anthology series on ABC named Disneyland after the park, where he showed clips of past Disney productions, gave tours of his studio, and familiarized the public with Disneyland as it was being constructed in Anaheim, California. In 1955, he debuted the studio's first daily television show, the popular Mickey Mouse Club, which would continue in many various incarnations into the 1990s.

As the studio expanded and diversified into other media, Disney devoted less of his attention to the animation department, entrusting most of its operations to his key animators, whom he dubbed the Nine Old Men. During Disney's lifetime, the animation department created the successful Lady and the Tramp (in CinemaScope, 1955), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), the financially disappointing Sleeping Beauty (in Super Technirama 70mm, 1959) and The Sword in the Stone (1963).

Production on the short cartoons had kept pace until 1956, when Disney shut down the shorts division. Special shorts projects would continue to be made for the rest of the studio's duration on an irregular basis. Disney's mind was set toward expansion, and he wanted to make longer films.

These productions were all distributed by Disney's new subsidiary, Buena Vista Distribution, which had assumed all distribution duties for Disney films from RKO by 1955. Disneyland, one of the world's first theme parks, finally opened on July 17, 1955, and was immediately successful. Visitors from around the world came to visit Disneyland, which contained attractions based upon a number of successful Disney properties and films. After 1955, the Disneyland TV show became known as Walt Disney Presents. The show went from black-and-white to color in 1961 changing its name to Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and moving from ABC to NBC - and eventually evolved into what is today known as The Wonderful World of Disney, which continued to air on NBC until 1981, when CBS picked it up; the show moved back to ABC in 1986, until NBC picked it back up in 1988 and was cancelled in 1990, until it was revived by ABC-now owned by Disney Pictures- in 1997, and continued to air on ABC until 2005, when it ceased as a regular series, due in part to premium pay-cable rights currently held by the Starz! movie network. Since 2005, Disney features have been split between ABC, the Hallmark Channel, and Cartoon Network via separate broadcast rights deals. It currently airs periodically, with features such as the December 2005 revival of Once Upon a Mattress.

During the mid-1950s, Disney produced a number of educational films on the space program in collaboration with NASA rocket designer Wernher von Braun: Man in Space and Man and the Moon in 1955, and Mars and Beyond in 1957. The films attracted the attention of not only the general public but also the Soviet space program.

The TV series and book Our Friend the Atom (1956, together with Heinz Haber) were produced as part of an effort by the Eisenhower administration to enhance the image of nuclear energy.

Early 1960s successes

By the early 1960s, the Disney empire was a major success, and Walt Disney Productions had established itself as the world's leading producer of family entertainment. Walt Disney was the Head of Pageantry for the 1960 Winter Olympics. After decades of trying, Disney finally procured the rights to P.L. Travers' books about a magical nanny. Mary Poppins, released in 1964, was the most successful Disney film of the 1960s and featured a memorable song score written by Disney favorites, the Sherman Brothers. Many hailed the live-action/animation combination feature as Disney's greatest achievement. The same year, Disney debuted a number of exhibits at the 1964 New York World's Fair, including Audio-Animatronic figures, all of which were later integrated into attractions at Disneyland and a new theme park project to be established on the East Coast, which Disney had been planning ever since Disneyland opened.

Ski resorts

Walt Disney first showed interest in ski resorts with his investment in Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in the 1930s. However, his interest was brought to a new level in the 1960s when he commissioned plans for Disney's Mineral King Ski Resort. Official plans for the resort were announced just months before his death. The project was eventually canceled due to heavy protest from many environmental organizations, most notably the Sierra Club.

"Florida Project"

In 1964, Walt Disney Productions began quietly purchasing land in central Florida southwest of Orlando in a large swamp land for Disney's "Florida Project." Disney did so under the mask of many fake companies, in order to keep the price of land as low as he could. As soon as the word got out that Disney was purchasing the land, however, the prices immediately rose. The company acquired over 27,000 acres (109 km?) of land, and arranged favorable state legislation which would provide unprecedented quasi-governmental control over the area to be developed in 1966, founding the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Disney and his brother Roy then announced plans for what they called "Disney World."

Plans for Disney World and EPCOT

Disney World was to include a larger, more elaborate version of Disneyland to be called the Magic Kingdom, and would also feature a number of golf courses and resort hotels. The heart of Disney World, however, was to be the Experimental Prototype City (or Community) of Tomorrow, or EPCOT for short. EPCOT was designed to be an operational city where residents would live, work, and interact using advanced and experimental technology, while scientists would develop and test new technologies to improve human life and health.

Death of Walt Disney

Songwriter Robert B. Sherman said about the last time he saw Walt Disney: He was up in the third floor of the animation building after a run-through of The Happiest Millionaire. He usually held court in the hallway afterward for the people involved with the picture. And he started talking to them, telling them what he liked and what they should change, and then, when they were through, he turned to us and with a big smile, he said, 'Keep up the good work, boys.' And he walked to his office. It was the last we ever saw of him.

Disney's involvement in Disney World ended in late 1966; after many years of chain smoking cigarettes, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was admitted to St. Joseph's Hospital across the street from the Disney Studio lot and his health began to deteriorate, causing him to suffer cardiac arrest.

He died on December 15, 1966 at 9:30am, ten days after his 65th birthday. He was cremated December 17, 1966 and his ashes reside at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Roy O. Disney continued to carry out the Florida project, insisting that the name be changed to Walt Disney World in honor of his brother.

A long-standing urban legend maintains that Disney was cryonically frozen, and his frozen corpse is stored underneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. However this is not the case, as Disney was cremated, and the first known instance of Cryonic Freezing a corpse occurred a month later in January.

1967present: Legacy

Continuing the vision

After Walt Disney's death, Roy Disney returned from retirement to take full control of Walt Disney Productions and WED Enterprises. He still refused to talk about his brother, and his grief, though rarely shown to other people, lasted until his death in 1971. In October of that year, their families met in front of Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom to officially open the Walt Disney World Resort. After an orchestra made up of over 66 countries performed a medley of Disney music, Roy stepped up to the podium.

After giving his dedication for Walt Disney World, he then asked Lillian Disney to join him. As the orchestra played "When You Wish Upon a Star", she stepped up to the podium accompanied by Mickey Mouse. He then said, "Lilly, you knew all of Walt's ideas and hopes as well as anybody; what would Walt think of it [Walt Disney World]?". "I think Walt would have approved," she replied. Roy died from a cerebral hemorrhage in December, the day he was due to open the Disneyland Christmas parade.

When the second phase of the Walt Disney World theme park was built, EPCOT was translated by Walt Disney's successors into EPCOT Center, which opened in 1982. As it currently exists, EPCOT is essentially a living world's fair, a far cry from the actual functional city that Disney had envisioned. In 1992 Walt Disney Imagineering took the step closer to Walt's vision and dedicated Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company adjacent to Walt Disney World, that hearkens back to the spirit of EPCOT. EPCOT was also originally intended to be devoid of Disney characters which initially limited the appeal of the park to young children. The company later changed this policy. The sale of alcoholic beverages is also permitted at EPCOT, something never allowed in the Magic Kingdom.

The Disney entertainment empire

Today, Walt Disney's animation/motion picture studios and theme parks have developed into a multi-billion dollar television, motion picture, vacation destination and media corporation that carries his name. The Walt Disney Company today owns, among other assets, five vacation resorts, eleven theme parks, two water parks, thirty-nine hotels, eight motion picture studios, six record labels, eleven cable television networks, and one terrestrial television network.

Disney Animation today

Traditional hand-drawn animation, with which Walt Disney built the success of his company, no longer continues at the Walt Disney Feature Animation studio. After a stream of financially unsuccessful traditionally-animated features in the late-1990s and early 2000s, the two satellite studios in Paris and Orlando were closed, and the main studio in Burbank was converted to a computer animation production facility. In 2004, Disney released their final traditionally animated feature film, Home on the Range. The DisneyToons studio in Australia, which produced lower-budget traditionally animated films, at first appeared to survive the purge, but its closing was announced in July 2005.

Only recently, with Roy E. Disney's return, Bob Iger now being the CEO, and the Disney purchase of Pixar Animation Studios, reviving the traditional style of animation for which Disney has been famous for is again a reality. New creative head of Disney animation, John Lasseter, commissioned veteran Disney animator James Baxter to produce an animated test sequence for Disney CEO Robert Iger in February of 2006. If approved, the film based on this test sequence, called The Princess and the Frog, will be released in 2009.

CalArts

Disney devoted substantial time in his later years funding The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), which was formed in 1961 through a merger of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute, which had helped in the training of the animation staff during the 1930s. When he died, one fourth of his estate went towards CalArts, which greatly helped the building of its campus. He also donated 38 acres (154,000 m?) of the Golden Oaks ranch in Valencia for the school to be built on. CalArts moved onto the Valencia campus in 1971.

Lillian Disney devoted much of her time after her husband died to pursuing CalArts and organized hundreds of fund raising events for the university in her late husband's honor (as well as funding the Walt Disney Symphony Hall). After Lillian's passing, the legacy continued with daughter Diane and husband Ron continuing the tradition. CalArts is one of the largest independent universities in California today, mostly because of the contributions of the Disneys.

Walt Disney Company

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is the second largest media and entertainment corporation in the world according to Forbes. Founded on October 16, 1923 by brothers, Walt and Roy Disney as a small animation studio, it has become one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and owner of eleven theme parks and several television networks, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Disney's corporate headquarters and primary production facilities are located in California at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank). The company is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It had revenues of $34.3 billion in 2006.

Until 1955, Disney's only business was motion picture production. Disney Studio Entertainment, also known as the Walt Disney Studios, includes Disney's movie and animation studios, record labels, and Broadway style stage shows.

Media Networks

Its Media Networks unit is centered around the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television network, which it acquired through a merger with Capital Cities/ABC in 1996. Properties include:

Walt Disney Television
ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television)
ABC Entertainment
Disney-ABC Domestic Television (formerly Buena Vista Television)
ESPN
Walt Disney Internet Group

Disney also owns a group of cable networks including: Disney Channel, ABC Family, Toon Disney, the ESPN group, and SOAPnet. Disney also holds substantial interest in Lifetime (50%), A&E (37.5%), E! (40%, recently sold to Comcast), and Jetix Europe N.V. (74%). Disney also owns 25% of the GMTV company that operates the Breakfast Programmes on ITV, in the UK and 50% of Super RTL in Germany.

Through ABC, Disney also owns 10 local television stations, 2 local radio stations, and ESPN Radio, and Radio Disney. Although the ABC Radio Network was sold with other properties to Citadel Broadcasting, (which carries such radio personalities as Sean Hannity and Paul Harvey and distributes news bulletins by ABC News), Disney shareholders now own 57% of Citadel. Disney-ABC Domestic Television, which also is a part of the Media Networks unit, produces such syndicated television programs as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Live with Regis and Kelly, and At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper.

Disney also operates its own publishing company, Hyperion, and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG) through Media Networks. Hyperion has recently published books by comedian-author Steve Martin and bestselling author Mitch Albom. WDIG includes the Go.com web portal, Infoseek search engine which it purchased in 1998, and leading websites such as Disney.com, ESPN.com, ABCNews.com and Movies.com. In March 2007, it was reported that Disney is launching a new Web site, Disney Family.

Founding and early success (19221966)
1923: Walt signed a contract with M.J. Winkler to produce a series of Alice Comedies - October 16 - the date used as the start of the Disney company. Originally know as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with brothers Walt and Roy Disney, as equal partners.
1924: First Alice Comedy "Alice's Day at Sea" released.
1926: At Roy's suggestion, the company changed its name to the Walt Disney Studio shortly after moving into the new studio on Hyperion Avenue in the Silver Lake district.
1927: The Alice series ends; first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon.
1928: Walt loses the Oswald series contract; first Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie released at the Colony Theatre in New York, the first cartoon with sound on November 18.
1929: First Silly Symphony: The Skeleton Dance. On December 16, the original partnership formed in 1923 is replaced by Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. Three other companies, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company, are also formed.
1930: First appearance of Pluto.
1932: First three-strip Technicolor short released: Flowers and Trees; first appearance of Goofy.
1934: First appearance of Donald Duck.
1937: Studio produces its first full-length feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film is also the first American animated feature film in history, and is the highest-grossing film of all time until 1939's Gone with the Wind.
1938: On September 29, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, and Liled Realty and Investment Company are merged into Walt Disney Productions.
1940: Studio moves to the Burbank, California buildings where it is located to this day. Release of animated features Pinocchio, the first animated film to win both Best Original Score and Best Song Academy Awards, and Fantasia, the world's first film to be recorded in stereophonic sound ("Fantasound").
1941: A bitter animators' strike occurs; as the USA enters World War II, the studio begins making morale-boosting propaganda films for the government. Dumbo is released.
1942: Saludos Amigos marks the beginning of a series of low-budget "package" animated films that would continue until 1950. Bambi is also released, after a six-year production period.
1944: The company is short on cash; a theatrical re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs generates much-needed revenue and begins a reissue pattern for the animated feature films.
1945: For the first time, the studio hires live actors for a feature film (Song of the South).
1947: Sign First Independent Studio, The byrnest studio in Orlando which went Bankrupt 3 years later.
1949: The studio begins production on its first all-live action feature, Treasure Island; the popular True-Life Adventures series begins.
1950: Cinderella is released, ending the series of "package" animated films and reviving Disney feature animation.
1952: Walt Disney forms WED Enterprises on December 16 to design his theme park.
1953: Walt Disney forms Retlaw Enterprises on April 6 to control the rights to his name. It will later own and operate several attractions inside Disneyland, including the Monorail and the Disneyland Railroad. Peter Pan is released.
1954: The studio founds Buena Vista Distribution to distribute its feature films; beginning of the Disneyland TV program, which runs for decades under several different titles. Disney becomes one of the first American theatrical TV producers to show his recent films on television, although most of them are first shown in truncated versions to fit a one-hour time slot. Others are divided into two or more one-hour segments over several weeks, so that they can be shown on Disney's TV show.
1955: Disneyland Resort opens in Anaheim, California. Lady and the Tramp, the first animated film in history to be shot in widescreen, is released
1957: Walt Disney Productions went public on November 12.
1961: One Hundred and One Dalmatians is released, the first feature length animated film to use Xerography.
1966: Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.

After Walt's death
1967: Construction begins on Walt Disney World Resort; the underlying governmental structure (see Reedy Creek Improvement District) is signed into law. The Jungle Book, the last animated film involved with Walt Disney himself, is released.
1971: The Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida; Roy Oliver Disney dies; Donn Tatum becomes chairman and Card Walker becomes president.
1976: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954 film) becomes the first movie made by the studio to be shown on TV complete in one evening, as opposed to the way the Disney films were divided into weekly segments on his television show.
1977: Roy Edward Disney, son of Roy and nephew of Walt, resigns from the company citing a decline in overall product quality and issues with management.
1978: The studio licenses several minor titles to MCA Discovision for laserdisc release; only TV compilations of cartoons ever see the light of day through this deal.
1979: Don Bluth and a number of his allies leave the animation division; the studio releases its first PG-rated films, Take Down and The Black Hole.
1980: Tom Wilhite becomes head of the film division with the intent of modernizing studio product; a home video division is created.
1981: Plans for a cable network are announced. Dumbo hits the shelves for video retail, making it the first animated Disney feature available on video.
1982: EPCOT Center opens at Walt Disney World Resort; Walt Disney's son-in-law Ron W. Miller succeeds Card Walker as CEO.
1983: As the anthology series is canceled, Disney Channel begins operation on US cable systems. Tom Wilhite resigns his post as head of the film division. Tokyo Disneyland opens in Japan.

Eisner era (19842005)
1984: Touchstone Films is created after the studio narrowly escapes a buyout attempt by Saul Steinberg, and releases their first film Splash. Roy Edward Disney and his business partner, Stanley Gold, remove Ron W. Miller as CEO and president, replacing him with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. The Walt Disney Classics and Masterpiece video collection starts up.
1985: The studio begins making cartoons for television beginning with Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles. The Black Cauldron, the studio's first PG-rated animated film, is released, but is a box office failure. The home video release of Pinocchio becomes a best-seller.
1986: The company's name is changed on February 6 from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company. Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, is released under the Touchstone banner.
1987: The company and the French government sign an agreement for the creation of the first Disney Resort in Europe: the Euro Disney project starts. The company opens up a Hall of Fame with Fred MacMurray as the first induction.
1988: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A co-producion of Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment is released on June 22. The film leads to a planned Roger sequel, Roger-based rides for the parks and more.
1989: Disney offers a deal to buy Jim Henson's Muppets and have the famed puppeteer work with Disney resources; the Disney-MGM Studios open at Walt Disney World; The Little Mermaid sparks a Disney animation renaissance.
1990: Jim Henson's death sours the deal to buy his holdings; the anthology series is canceled for the second time.
1991: Beauty and the Beast is released, becoming the first and only animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
1992: The controversial Euro Disney Resort opens outside Paris, France. Aladdin is released for the first time ever and becomes the animated movie with the most Golden Globe nominations, as well as the only traditionally animated movie to be nominated for the MTV Movie Award for best picture.
1992: The Disney Company is granted permission for a National Hockey League expansion franchise. The team is named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to coincide with the release of The Mighty Ducks.
1993: Disney acquires independent film distributor Miramax Films; Winnie the Pooh merchandise outsells Mickey Mouse merchandise for the first time; the policy of periodic theatrical re-issues ends with this year's re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but is augmented for video.
1994: Frank Wells is killed in a helicopter crash. Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns to co-found his own studio, DreamWorks SKG. Plans for Disney's America, a historical theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, are abruptly dropped. No explanation is given, and Disney announces a search for an alternate location. Euro Disneyland is renamed Disneyland Paris. The Lion King, the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history (unadjusted for inflation), is released.
1995: In October, the company hires Hollywood super agent, Michael Ovitz, to be president. The world's first computer animated feature film Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, is released by Disney, and becomes the year's top-grossing film.
1996: The company takes on the Disney Enterprises name and acquires the Capital Cities/ABC group, renaming it ABC, Inc. To celebrate the pairing, ABC's first Super Soap Weekend is held at Walt Disney World. Disney makes deal with Tokuma Shoten for dubbing and releasing of Studio Ghibli films in the U.S. In December, Michael Ovitz, president of the company, leaves "by mutual consent."
1997: The anthology series is revived again; the home video division releases its first DVDs. The Southern Baptist Convention votes to boycott The Walt Disney Company over opposition to the latter offering equal health and other benefits to gays and lesbians, as well as Disney allowing outside organizers to have "Gay and Lesbian Days" at Walt Disney World. Disney ignored the boycott, which failed and was withdrawn by the SBC on June 22, 2005.
1998: Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World. Kiki's Delivery Service, the first Studio Ghibli film under the Disney/Ghibli deal, is released on video. Disney Cruise Line sets sail with it's first ship, the Disney Magic.
2000: Fantasia 2000 is released to IMAX Theaters.
2000: Disney-owned TV channels are pulled from Time Warner Cable briefly during a dispute over carriage fees; Robert Iger becomes president. Disney begins their Gold Classic Collection and Platinum Edition DVD line, replacing their Classic and Masterpiece Collection series.
2001: Disney's California Adventure and Tokyo DisneySea open to the public; Disney begins releasing Walt Disney Treasures DVD box sets for the collector's market. Disney buys Fox Family for $3 billion in July, giving Disney programming and cable network reaching 81 million homes.
2001: Fort Worth billionaire Sid Bass is forced to sell his Disney holdings due to a margin call caused partially by the stockmarket fall that followed the 9/11 attacks. The fact that Bass didn't own his shares outright but had bought them on margin was unknown, and it was a shock when it was revealed Losing Bass was a blow to Eisner; Bass was one of his major backers and had been the one to recruit Eisner to Disney.
2002: Walt Disney Studios open near Disneyland Paris (renamed Disneyland Park). The entire area is now called Disneyland Resort Paris. Disney finishes negotiations to acquire Saban Entertainment, owner of children's entertainment juggernaut Power Rangers. Subsidiary Miramax acquires the USA rights to the Pok?mon movies starting with the fourth movie.
2002: Disney teams up with famous video game company Squaresoft (later known as Square-Enix) to release their first ever role-playing game with various Disney characters, Kingdom Hearts. Disney begins joint venture business with Sanrio for Sanrio's greeting cards.
2002: Disney's movie Treasure Planet is released in theaters.
2003: Roy E. Disney resigns as the chairman of Feature Animation and from the board of directors, citing similar reasons to those that drove him off 26 years earlier; fellow director Stanley Gold resigns with him; they establish "SaveDisney" to apply public pressure to oust Michael Eisner. Pixar computer animated film Finding Nemo is released by Disney, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in history until 2004's DreamWorks film Shrek 2. Live-action film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is released, becoming the first film released under the Disney label with a PG-13 rating.
2004: Comcast makes an unsuccessful hostile bid for the company. CEO Michael Eisner is replaced by George J. Mitchell as chairman of the board after a 43% vote of no confidence. Disney turns down distributing controversial documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, which ends up making $100 million. On February 17, Disney buys the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters).
2005: On July 8 Roy E. Disney rejoins the company as a consultant with the title of Director Emeritus.
2005: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is released in the US breaking many box office records.
2005: Disneyland celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 17. Hong Kong Disneyland officially opens on September 12.
2005: Kingdom Hearts II, the sequel to the game created when Disney teamed up with Square-Enix in 2002, is released.

Iger era (2005Present)
2005: Bob Iger replaces Michael Eisner as CEO on October 1. Also on October 1, Miramax co-founders Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein left the company to form their own studio.
2006: The Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical airs on January 20. It becomes the most successful movie at its time with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the U.S. Soundtrack was released on January 10, 2006 and was the best selling album of 2006, selling 6,469 copies in its first week and climbed to #1 on the Billboard album chart in early March and again in late March of 2006.
2006: On January 23, Disney announces a deal to purchase Pixar Animation Studios in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion. The deal is finalized on May 5. In the process, former Pixar CEO, and current Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, becomes the single largest individual Disney shareholder, holding 7% of outstanding shares. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is released, breaking multiple box office records, including highest-grossing opening day and opening weekend. The film also becomes the third film in motion picture history to gross over US$1 billion, when unadjusted for inflation.
2006: Disney sets record for number of people to visit its parks. A record 112 million people visited Disney parks in 2006.
2006: Disney reacquires the rights to the Walt Disney-era Oswald the Lucky Rabbit films from NBC Universal.
2006: Disney releases the Cars computer animated movie by Pixar on June 9.
2007: Disney released their first non-movie or TV show related media Spectrobes, a video game for the Nintendo DS.
2007: The revival of the Roger Rabbit franchise which may lead to the Roger Rabbit sequel, new appearances at the parks and more.
2007: The Walt Disney Company Buys Supermarket Sweep.
2007: The Walt Disney Company Partners With Club Penguin
2007: Disney announces plans to make The Princess and the Frog, which would be a new Disney Princess movie made in traditional 2-D animation.
2007: The Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical 2 airs on August 17. The film set a new basic cable record upon its premiere, with a total of 17.24 million viewers tuning in, almost 10 million more than the debut of High School Musical. This made it the highest-rated basic cable broadcast of all time.
2007: Disney will release its first animated musical since Who Framed Roger Rabbit called Enchanted in November.

Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company:

Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was established as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since the death of Walt Disney were released under the name of the parent company, then named Walt Disney Productions. Another label, Touchstone Pictures, was created in 1984 to enable Disney to release films with a more mature content than what was asscociated with the Disney name.

Walt Disney Pictures historically distributes films rated G or PG. This has however changed when Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was rated PG-13. Previous films with a rating above PG would have been released under the Touchstone Pictures or Hollywood Pictures banners. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End are the only other Walt Disney Pictures releases with a PG-13 rating.

Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney Studios, acquires and produces output that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures banners. Their most commercially successful production partners in later years has been Jerry Bruckheimer, Spyglass Entertainment and Walden Media.

Animated feature films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios (formerly Walt Disney Feature Animation) Pixar Animation Studios, and DisneyToon Studios are usually released by Walt Disney Pictures. Exceptions include Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Nightmare Before Christmas which were originally released by Touchstone Pictures.

Disney TV Anthology

The first incarnation of the Disney anthology television series, commonly called The Wonderful World of Disney, premiered on ABC on October 27, 1954 under the name Disneyland. The same basic show has since appeared on several networks under a variety of titles. The show, under its various names, reputedly holds the record as the longest showing prime-time program on American television (though technically Hallmark Hall of Fame holds that distinction; see List of longest running U.S. primetime television series).

Overview

Originally hosted by Walt Disney himself, the series presented animated cartoons and other material (some original, some pre-existing) from the studio library. The show even featured one-hour edits of such then-recent Disney films as Alice in Wonderland. This is significant because the series was the first one from a major movie studio. Other studios feared television would be the death of them.

1950s

The show spawned the Davy Crockett craze of 1955 with the miniseries about the historical American frontiersman, starring Fess Parker in the title role. Millions of dollars of merchandise were sold relating to the title character, and the theme song, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," was a hit record that year. Three historically-based hour-long shows aired in late 1954/early 1955, and were followed up by two dramatized installments the following year. The TV episodes were edited into two theatrical films later on.

On July 17, 1955, the opening of Disneyland was covered on a live television special, Dateline: Disneyland, which may be seen as an extension of the anthology series but is not technically considered to be part of it. It was hosted by Walt along with Bob Cummings, Art Linkletter, Ronald Reagan, and featured various other guests.

1960s and 1970s

The series moved to NBC in 1961 to take advantage of that network's ability to broadcast in color. In a display of foresight, Disney had filmed many of the earlier shows in color, so they were able to be repeated on NBC. To emphasize the new color feature, the series was re-dubbed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and retained that moniker until 1969. The first NBC episode even dealt with the principles of color, as explained by a comical character named Ludwig Von Drake, a bumbling professor and uncle of Donald Duck. The character's voice was supplied by Paul Frees (After his death, Corey Burton took over to replace him as the role of Ludwig Von Drake).

When Walt Disney died in 1966, no one replaced him as host, as everyone agreed that his presence, characterized by a warm, folksy persona, was irreplaceable. The series, retitled titled The Wonderful World of Disneyin 1969, continued to get solid ratings, often in the Top 20, until the mid-1970s. At this time, Walt Disney Productions was facing a decline in fortunes, with declining box-office revenues. It also did not help that CBS had placed 60 Minutes directly opposite it. The show continued to slip in the ratings until NBC cancelled it in 1981; an attempt to modernize the show in the fall of 1979 was purely cosmetic with the shortened name Disney's Wonderful World. Much of the decline is often attributed to the declining amount of new material. The show became increasingly dependent on airings of theatrical features and cartoons and reruns of older episodes.

1980s

CBS picked up the program in the fall of 1981 under the umbrella title Walt Disney and moved it to Saturday night; the format remained unchanged, and ratings were marginally improved. It lasted two years there, its end coinciding with the birth of The Disney Channel on cable TV. While ratings were a factor, the final decision to end the show came from then-company CEO E. Cardon Walker, who felt that having both the show and the new channel active would cannibalize each other.

After the studio underwent a change in management, the series was revived on ABC in 1986, under the title The Disney Sunday Movie, with new CEO Michael Eisner hosting. His presence arguably couldn't compare with Walt's (Eisner himself is said to have required 68 takes in his first introduction), and the show moved to NBC in 1988 before ending in 1990.

1990s and 2000s

The series was revived again on ABC in 1997 after Disney purchased ABC, where it ran on Sundays until 2003, when it moved to Saturday night; it continued in that time slot until 2005. It then ceased as a regular series, due in part to premium pay-cable rights currently held by the Starz! movie network. Since 2005, Disney features have been split between ABC, the Hallmark Channel, ABC Family Channel,Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network via separate broadcast rights deals. It currently airs periodically as an anthology series similar to Hallmark Hall Of Fame, with features such as the December 2005 revival of Once Upon a Mattress.

Telemundo still airs the series monthly in Spanish as El Maravilloso Mundo de Disney.

Reruns

Reruns of the shows were a staple of the Disney Channel for several years under the title Walt Disney Presents (which used the same title sequence as the 1980s CBS incarnation), when it was an outlet for vintage Disney cartoons, TV shows and movies, basically serving the same function that the anthology series served in the days before cable. When the channel purged all vintage material as of September 9, 2002, this show went with it. However, a few select episodes can be found on VHS or DVD, with the possibility of more being issued in the future.

All of the episodes from are listed in the book The Wonderful World of Disney Television, by Bill Cotter, published in 1997.

Format

The original format consisted of a balance of theatrical cartoons, live-action features, and informational material. Much of the original informational material was to create awareness for Disneyland. In spite of being essentially ads for the park, entertainment value was emphasized as well to make the shows palatable. Some informational shows were made to promote upcoming studio feature films such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Some programs focused on the art and technology of animation itself.

Later original programs consisted of dramatizations of other historical figures and legends along the lines of the Davy Crockett mini-series. These included Texas John Slaughter, Elfego Baca, and Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox."

Also included were nature and animal programs similar to the True-Life Adventures released in theatres, as well as various dramatic installments which were either one part or two, but sometimes more.

This format remained basically unchanged through the 1980s, though new material, as discussed earlier, was scarce in later years.

When the show was revived in 1986, the format was similar to a movie-of-the-week, with family-oriented TV movies from the studio making up much of the material. Theatrical films were also shown, but with the advent of cable television and home video, they were not as popular. The 1997 revival followed this format as well, with rare exceptions. A miniseries entitled Little House on the Prairie ran for several weeks under the TWWOD banner. Incidentally, one offering in this ABC revival, the 1965 theatrical film version of The Sound of Music (aired generally during Christmas time), was actually released by 20th Century Fox, not Walt Disney Pictures, although it was allowed to air under the "Wonderful World of Disney" banner. Films from the Harry Potter series also occasionally aired under the banner even though they were released by Warner Bros.

Walt Disney Railroad

The Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) is a 1.5-mile long 3 ft 0 in (914 mm) gauge narrow gauge railroad circling the Magic Kingdom Park. Operated by Main Street Operations, the 1.5-mile (2.4 km) railroad circles the entire park with stations at Main Street, U.S.A., Frontierland, and Mickey's Toontown Fair, and is one of the busiest steam-powered railroads in the country, transporting over 1.5 million passengers each year.

History

Walt Disney was an avid railroad enthusiast, who had built a miniature steam railroad, called the Carolwood Pacific Railroad in his backyard. A full-size, narrow gauge railroad known as the Disneyland Railroad had been included in the design of Disneyland, and would be included in later parks in Paris and Tokyo.

Disney scouts, lead by Roger Broggie, purchased five locomotives from Ferrocarrilles Unidos de Yucatan (United Railways of Yucatan) on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula in 1968. One of the five was deemed to be in too poor a condition to be restored and was later sold; the other four were brought to Tampa Shipyards in Tampa, Florida and restored by a crew headed by Disney imagineer and accomplished live steam builder Bob Harpur. New diesel boilers were constructed for the trains by Dixon Boiler Works of Los Angeles, California and the trains themselves were cosmetically backdated to appear older, including the use of bright colors and polished brass. The trains went into use with the opening of Walt Disney World on October 1, 1971.

During 1989 - 1990, the train played different versions of a song called "Mickey's Birthdayland Express" and "Rollin' on the Walt Disney World Express". After arriving at Frontierland, it went to Duckberg Station in what was then named Mickey's Birthdayland. During November 1990 - 1991, when Splash Mountain was under construction, the train only had one destination: it went backwards to Mickey's Starland, and then back to the Main Street U.S.A. station.

In recent years it has become necessary for the locomotives and some of the passenger cars to be overhauled. Key modifications to the passenger coaches in the past have involved removing the PA system/conductor's panel from a position on the rear of the third car, leaving the panel on a deck at the rear of the train for safer operation. Side panels were also recently added to the outside-facing sides of the coaches to keep passengers' legs (and other body parts) from reaching out the sides of the cars.

The Trains

The railroad has four different locomotives and four sets of passenger cars. The four locomotives are rebuilt narrow-gauge locomotives, originally built more than seventy years ago by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia.

The railroad rosters four complete trainsets. A regular train consists of a steam locomotive, tender, and five passenger cars with a capacity of approximately 360 passengers and 2 wheelchairs. The tender has a capacity for 1,837 U.S. gallons (6,953 l) of water and 664 U.S. gallons (2,513 l) of fuel oil. The tender needs to be topped off with water every two or three trips (or circuits) around the park. The water tower is located at the Mickey's Toontown Fair station.

Walt Disney Theme Parks

Pirates of the Caribbean

Dead men may tell no tales, but Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean have entertained millions with their salty tales. A landmark achievement in theme park storytelling when it debuted in 1967, Pirates remains one of Disney's--and all of parkdom's--most beloved attractions. First-timers and those returning with nostalgia-tinged memories alike adore its timeless tales and pitch-perfect presentation. Thrill Scale (0=Wimpy!, 10=Yikes!): 2 Small splashdowns, mildly frightening images. Type: Boat-conveyed dark ride

Pirates of the Caribbean may be the quintessential theme park attraction. It is a masterful blend of fanciful storytelling and high-tech wizardry--but the latter never overshadows the former. The robotics, special effects, conveyance system, music, and other elements meld seamlessly to sweep guests away into a mythical, three-dimensional pirate world.

The experience varies slightly depending on the park. The original Disneyland version, personally overseen by Walt, has an extended "grotto" sequence at the beginning of the attraction. This is where the coveted treasure lies. Also unique to California, Pirates resides in the New Orleans Square area, and its boats drift past diners in the enchanting Blue Bayou restaurant. (Epcot's Mexico pavilion uses a similar concept with its restaurant and boat-conveyed attraction.) In Paris, the boats go up a ramp to begin the attraction and deliver the splashdown as a finale.

The three other Pirates start by sending their boatloads of passengers down a short, but attention-grabbing, drop. (California and Paris feature two small waterfalls.) It is as if Disney transports guests to a mysterious subterranean netherworld where skeletons come to life and break into rousing choruses of the Pirates theme song.

The first major scene places passengers squarely in the middle of a raging buccaneer battle. Pirates, apparently attempting to ransack a town under the cover of night, are firing their cannons. The townspeople are firing back however, and the water around the guests' boats reverberates from the blasts.

Moving into the town, the pirates have rounded up the mayor and are trying to get him to reveal the location of the booty by dunking him in a well. The extraordinary detail of the attraction comes to life here. Disney literally and figuratively set the stage for future theme park attractions with Pirates by incorporating lighting, music, dialogue, costumes, set design, and other techniques to tell the story. Some are borrowed from film and theater; other techniques are unique to attraction development.

The next scene, featuring the "wench" auction, may be the most elaborate. The potential "brides" pose for the leering pirates, while an auctioneer presides over the event with authority and startling clarity. According to Disney's Marty Sklar, Imagineers updated the auction figures through the years to give them more fluid and sophisticated articulation.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

The Florida version gets 5 stars. The California version gets 4.75 stars. Do you want to know why? See Two Different Zones-- Comparing the California and Florida Towers Thrill Scale (0=Wimpy!, 10=Yikes!): 7 Multiple freefall drops and launches, sensations of weightlessness, psychological thrills Ride type: Freefall tower with dark ride elements Height restriction: 40 inches Uses Fastpass

For those old enough to remember the original "The Twilight Zone" show (or those young'uns savvy enough to seek it out more recently), merely the sound of Rod Serling's voice intoning, "You've just entered...the Twilight Zone," is enough to give you a bad case of the shivers. A master storyteller, Serling created black and white mini dramas that, through subtle plot twists and deft presentation, was more spine-tingling and engaging than the Technicolor splatfests that pass for horror films these days.

The Tower of Terror reproduces the Zone zeitgeist and invokes the same sense of off-kilter foreboding as the show. Instead of passively watching a television program however, guests become active participants in a "lost episode."

The fun begins in the queue. The walkways are in disrepair and the gardens are overgrown. The massive Hollywood Tower Hotel is at once elegant, evocative of its Art Deco origins, and menacing. Its crumbling, charred fa?ade sets the story in motion; something terrible obviously befell the stately building. And the screams emanating every minute or so from the upper floors indicate something terrible is going on within the building.

Inside the lobby, dusty luggage sits ignored, a wine glass remains half finished, and other clues reveal that the hotel's guests and employees beat a hasty retreat many years ago. At the front of the line, riders can see the mangled doors of the elevators. Non-emoting bellhops send small groups past the elevators and into an ominous library.

The lights dim, a vintage TV flickers on, and Rod Serling sets the stage. Seamlessly weaving actual Twilight Zone footage with scenes created for the attraction (hey, how'd they do that? Serling has been dead for years), the host explains that in 1939 a massive bolt of lightning struck the hotel during a storm. Among the many small touches that make the ride a classic, a thunderbolt crackles outside the "window" of the library in sync with the lightning on the television screen. Serling explains that at the moment of impact, hotel guests and a bellhop aboard the elevators inexplicably vanished. So, of course we're sent off to the elevators...and into The Twilight Zone.

A door in the rear of the library opens, and riders shuffle off to the service elevators in the hotel's basement. Another line forms as guests wind past old electrical panels, creaky elevator motors, and other weird, wonderful set pieces. Cast members help riders board the elevator and secure their seat belts before bidding them adieu. Going down--and up and down and...

Some wild effects take place before the big drops. It's a shame that, for the sake of a few nerve-rattling moments, some thrill-averse guests (otherwise known as "wimps") might never get to experience attractions like the Tower of Terror or Splash Mountain. If you're on the line, I'd encourage you to work up the courage at least once so that you can enjoy everything that precedes the freefalls. It's truly astonishing.

Among the highlights, the ghosts of the vanished hotel guests and bellhop appear at the end of a hallway beckoning riders to join them. They disappear following a flash of lightning. Then the hallway vanishes and changes into an inky black star field.

The ride experience varies in California and Florida. (See the next page, Two Different Zones-- Comparing the California and Florida Towers.) The main difference is that at Disney-MGM Studios, the elevator cars move horizontally through what Disney calls the "Fifth Dimension" into a second elevator shaft where they plummet and soar a number of gut-wrenching times. It's mind boggling to hang on as the elevator moves in a forward direction towards impending doom.

The freefall experience itself is essentially the same as any number of tower rides found at many theme parks and amusement parks. In fact, Disney's California Adventure also has a standard issue S&S Power ride it calls the Maliboomer. The difference is that the Imagineers' judicious use of sounds, pitch darkness, visual effects like star fields, and other tricks adds a cogent storyline and psychological veneer to the attraction that significantly ratchets up the thrills, screams, and sheer enjoyment.

Both the Florida and California versions plummet and shoot the cabins back up the tower a number of times. The motor-assisted drops actually force the elevators down faster than freefall. Amid the groaning cables and creaking cars, windows at the top of the tower spring open a few times to give riders a bird's eye 13th-story view before dropping. The screams emanating from the windows echo throughout the two parks.

Haunted Mansion

Coming on the heels of the wildly successful and innovative Pirates of the Caribbean and Disney's New York World's Fair attractions, the Haunted Mansion was part of an incredible burst of creative energy from the company and one of its high watermark moments. An overnight sensation (that was actually many years in the making), the classic ride has remained enormously popular; casual and ardent fans alike typically pair it with Pirates as the archetypal Disney attractions. Filmmaking Techniques Thrill Scale (0=Wimpy!, 10=Yikes!): 3.5 More silly than scary, the ride is dark, loud...and haunted! Very young children may find it disconcerting. Type: Dark ride

Note: The four Haunted Mansions (the Paris version is called, "Phantom Manor") are essentially similar. Tokyo and Florida are virtually identical; California's exterior is markedly different, but the ride experience is largely the same; Paris has a different storyline and other unique elements, but the overall feel takes its cue from the original. This review is based on the Florida attraction.

Disney Imagineer Kevin Rafferty says that theme park attraction designers use the principles of filmmaking to draw guests into the story. For example, the "establishing shot" sets the tone and piques interest. Set in the Colonial-era Liberty Square, the stately, yet faintly ominous mansion beckons. As guests get closer, the "medium shot" of the mansion shows that things are not quite what they seem: a carriage hearse sits in the driveway, a large planter is overturned, and expressionless attendants mill about. Later in the attraction, as the "close-up shots" bring details into view, all hell--literally!--breaks loose.

The Stretching Room

The experience begins in the Foyer as cast members instruct guests to "fill in all of the dead space." Next to the Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion may have the Magic Kingdom's best pun-laden spiels. The booming recorded voice of the Ghost Host bids a fond, "Welcome, foolish mortals," and a panel opens to lead guests into the Portrait Chamber, also known as the stretching room. This is where things start getting wacky.

As the room "stretches," (Is the ceiling rising or the floor sinking? See Giving Up the Ghosts: Haunted Mansion ride secrets revealed!) the dignified portraits reveal more and get sillier and sillier until the stretching stops. The Ghost Host intones that there are no windows or doors in the room, and that he holds our fate--which may have something to do with the corpse hanging from the dome at the top of the room. The Doom Buggies

Mercifully, a door opens that leads to the ride's load area. Chandeliers, positively bursting with cobwebs, barely light the way. The vehicles, known as Doom Buggies, use Disney's Omnimover system. Originally designed for Disneyland's Adventure Through Inner Space attraction, the endless, ever-moving stream of vehicles offers huge ride capacity (and requires the familiar warning that "the walkway is moving at the same speed as the vehicles.") Imagineers tweaked the Omnimover concept by giving the Doom Buggies the ability to independently turn and tilt. Using Rafferty's filmmaking comparison, the guests are like cameras, and the vehicles pan and focus their attention at precise moments during the ride. Scared Silly While there isn't a linear story in the more traditional sense of an attraction like Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion offers a three-act play, according to Imagineer Tony Baxter (as recounted in the wonderful book, "The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies" by Jason Surrell). The basic premise is that the mansion is a retirement home for ghosts. 999 of them have taken up residence...but there's room for one more.

In the first act, the tension builds as weird things happen in the Library, Music Room, Conservatory, Corridor of Doors, and Endless Hallway. Objects randomly float, a hand pushes against a coffin lid, a grandfather clock tolls 13, and mournful wails beckon behind strange doors. These unseen creatures are perhaps the scariest part of the ride and reflect the influence of Imagineering legend Claude Coats, who wanted the Haunted Mansion to be a mostly frightening experience.

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The Seance Room serves as a curtain between the acts, according to Baxter. Here, Madame Leota issues incantations inside her crystal ball to rouse the spirits. In Act 2, the ghosts emerge to cavort in the Grand Hall and scare you silly in the Attic. The Hall scene, with its huge banquet table and waltzing ghosts is among the Haunted Mansion's highlights. In the Attic, we meet the bride, a remnant from one of the attraction's early storylines. With her glowing, loudly beating heart, she provides quite a scare.

In Act 3, the Doom Buggies "fall" out the Attic window and into the Graveyard. This is where the spirits go bonkers and things turn silly. Ghosts pop up everywhere, the music kicks in full force, and those wonderful singing busts harmonize for a rousing rendition of "Grim Grinning Ghosts." Marc Davis, Imagineer extraordinaire and one of Disney's "Nine Old Men" of animation, pushed for a tamer Haunted Mansion, and his lighter touch prevails throughout the ride and particularly in the Graveyard scene.

The Finale

The finale takes place in the Crypt where one of the hitchhiking ghosts hops into the Doom Buggy with the guests, and the tiny ghoul implores everyone to "Hurry Back." And foolish mortals that we are, we follow her advice.