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207-481: The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, The Wonderful World of Disney , was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 onward. The program moved among the Big Three television networks in its first four decades, but has aired on ABC since 1997. The original version of the series premiered on ABC in 1954. The show

414-530: A Golden Globe for Best Picture , and it received 6 Academy Award nominations, becoming the first animation nominated for Best Picture; it won Best Score, Best Sound , and Best Song. The film was critically acclaimed, with some critics considering it to be the best Disney film. To coincide with the 1992 release of The Mighty Ducks , Disney founded the National Hockey League team The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim . Disney's next animated feature Aladdin

621-510: A "Fantasy Land" episode), explaining the techniques of cartoon animation. The multiplane camera used to create the three-dimensional effects of Bambi was also a topic for a "Fantasy Land"-set telecast. In the episode An Adventure in Art, four different artists were given the task of drawing the same tree, with each artist using his own preferred ways of drawing and imagining a tree; this led to cartoon examples of differently animated trees, as in some of

828-627: A 12-week goodwill visit to South America, funded by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs . During the trip, the animators began plotting films, taking inspiration from the local environments and music. As a result of the strike, federal mediators compelled the studio to recognize the Screen Cartoonist's Guild and several animators left, leaving it with 694 employees. To recover from their financial losses, Disney rushed into production

1035-441: A 26% growth in revenue. Los Angeles Times called Disney's recovery "a real rarity in the corporate world". On May 1, 1989, Disney opened Disney-MGM Studios, its third amusement park at Walt Disney World, and later became Hollywood Studios . The new park demonstrated to visitors the movie-making process, until 2008, when it was changed to make guests feel they are in movies. Following the opening of Disney-MGM Studios, Disney opened

1242-442: A Kansas City advertising firm, to run Disney's merchandising; Kamen agreed and transformed Disney's merchandising. Within a year, Kamen had 40 licenses for Mickey Mouse and within two years, had made $ 35 million worth of sales. In 1934, Disney said he made more money from the merchandising of Mickey Mouse than from the character's films. The Waterbury Clock Company created a Mickey Mouse watch, which became so popular it saved

1449-722: A cartoon series in the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film category. While Walt Disney and Carl Stalling , a theatre organist from Kansas City, were in New York to add sound to the Mickey Mouse shorts The Gallopin' Gaucho , The Barn Dance and Plane Crazy , Stalling suggested the idea of making a series of musical animated shorts that combined the latest sound technology with storytelling. At first Walt did not seem interested, but when they returned to New York in February to record

1656-668: A choir from the US Army marched down Main Street. The icon of the park was the Cinderella Castle . On Thanksgiving Day, cars traveling to the Magic Kingdom caused traffic jams along interstate roads. On December 21, 1971, Roy died of cerebral hemorrhage at St. Joseph Hospital. Donn Tatum , a senior executive and former president of Disney, became the first non-Disney-family-member to become CEO and chairman. Card Walker , who had been with

1863-402: A contract dispute, with Disney asking for a larger fee, while Mintz sought to reduce the price. Disney discovered Universal Pictures owned the intellectual property rights to Oswald, and Mintz threatened to produce the shorts without him if he did not accept the reduction in payment. Disney declined and Mintz signed 4 of Walt Disney Studio's primary animators to start his own studio; Iwerks was

2070-453: A contract with Winkler for $ 1,500, to create six series of Alice Comedies , with an option for two more six-episode series. Walt and Roy Disney founded Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio on October 16, 1923, to produce the films. In January 1926, the Disneys moved into a new studio on Hyperion Street and the studio's name was changed to Walt Disney Studio . After producing Alice films over

2277-530: A day later. Enchanted aired on November 17, 2022, to promote Disenchanted , which premiered on Disney+ a day later. During the airing of Hocus Pocus , a new title card premiered bookending with the new Disney100 logo to celebrate the Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary. Avatar aired on December 11, 2022, to promote Avatar: The Way of Water , which premiered in theaters 5 days later. Home Alone aired on December 24, 2022. To kick off 2023,

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2484-676: A deal in which all parties would obtain 27% equity in streaming service Hulu , and Disney added ABC Family and Disney Channel to the streaming service. On December 16, Roy E. Disney died of stomach cancer ; he was the last member of the Disney family to work for Disney. In March 2010, Haim Saban reacquired from Disney the Power Rangers franchise, including its 700-episode library, for around $ 100 million. Shortly after, Disney sold Miramax Films to an investment group headed by Ronald Tutor for $ 660 million. During that time, Disney released

2691-559: A dual role as the twins in The Parent Trap (1961). Another child actor, Kevin Corcoran , was prominent in many Disney live-action films, first appearing in a serial for The Mickey Mouse Club, where he would play a boy named Moochie. He worked alongside Mills in Pollyanna , and starred in features such as Old Yeller (1957), Toby Tyler (1960), and Swiss Family Robinson . In 1964,

2898-458: A focus on Disney theatrical films than the English broadcasts at the time. In September 2003, The Wonderful World of Disney moved to Saturdays at 8:00 pm Eastern, with the previous Sunday time slot being ceded to AFV (which moved back to Sundays that season) and drama series in the 8:00 pm hour. Rare exceptions to the program's format occurred during this time; for example, a Little House on

3105-416: A golf course, and 6 hotels. In 1988, Disney's 27th animated film Oliver & Company was released the same day as that of former Disney animator Don Bluth's The Land Before Time . Oliver & Company out-competed The Land Before Time , becoming the first animated film to gross over $ 100 million in its initial release, and the highest-grossing animated film in its initial run. Disney became

3312-510: A half-hour. It also allowed CBS to schedule 60 Minutes at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time starting on December 7; prior to this, 60 Minutes had aired at 6:00 p.m. Eastern and did not begin its seasons until after the National Football League season ended. Disney fell out of the top 30, while 60 Minutes had its ratings rise significantly. In September 1979, the studio agreed to then-NBC president Fred Silverman 's request for changes to

3519-589: A joint venture with Infoseek in January 1999, Disney acquired the rest of Infoseek later that year. After unsuccessful negotiations with cruise lines Carnival and Royal Caribbean International , in 1994, Disney announced it would start its own cruise-line operation in 1998. The first two ships of the Disney Cruise Line were named Disney Magic and Disney Wonder , and built by Fincantieri in Italy. To accompany

3726-458: A key part of the show's appeal to viewers that the host segment was dropped. The final episode featuring Walt's host segment was the episode "A Salute to Alaska". The series was retitled The Wonderful World of Disney in September 1969, by which time the color distinction was no longer needed as all big three networks were broadcasting in color. It continued to gain solid ratings, often ranking in

3933-471: A merchandising division named Walt Disney Enterprises , and subsidiaries called Disney Film Recording Company, Limited and Liled Realty and Investment Company; the latter of which managed real estate holdings. Walt Disney and his wife held 60% (6,000 shares) of the company, and Roy Disney owned 40%. The comic strip Mickey Mouse debuted on January 13, 1930, in New York Daily Mirror and by 1931,

4140-497: A park called Disney World , which included Magic Kingdom —‌a larger version of Disneyland‍—‌and the City of Tomorrow, at the park's center. By 1967, the company had made expansions to Disneyland, and more rides were added in 1966 and 1967, at a cost of $ 20 million. The new rides included Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room , which was the first attraction to use Audio-Animatronics ; Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress , which debuted at

4347-496: A reboot of Davy Crockett , and the musical Polly , which was based on the book Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter and the Walt Disney's 1960 film adaptation of it . New television animation came in the form of Super DuckTales —a compilation of an arc from Disney's syndicated animated series DuckTales —as an Easter special on March 26, 1989; another DuckTales special, A DuckTales Valentine , aired on February 11, 1990. In

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4554-631: A regular program in 2008. At this point, the series began to shift focus toward Disney theatrical films, relying less on original television films; however, the series aired three Disney Channel Original Movies (2002's Cadet Kelly , 2008's Camp Rock and 2011's Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension , currently the only Disney Channel television films to have aired on a non-Disney Channel-branded network domestically) during its ABC run. The second ABC revival also included some family-oriented films produced by studios other than Disney under

4761-401: A regular viewing habit, gave ABC additional films from its library, including Old Yeller , The Apple Dumpling Gang and Candleshoe for the normal rerun mid-year period. The Last Electric Knight movie produced a spin-off series called Sidekicks (originally to be called Karate Kid ) for ABC's 1987 season. Despite improving ABC's numbers, the program's ratings were never strong as

4968-407: 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 Pixar , Marvel Entertainment , Lucasfilm , and 21st Century Fox . In 2020, Bob Chapek became

5175-449: A series of theatrical movies from the Disney+ library, which featured an updated title card, which includes Moana , Thor: The Dark World , Up , and Big Hero 6 , for four weeks beginning May 20, 2020. A fifth week was later added, featuring the 2010 Disney/Pixar film, Toy Story 3 , marking ten years since its theatrical release. The program returned on September 23, 2020, featuring

5382-402: A showing of Inside Out and that the program would air weekly on Sunday nights as part of ABC's 2024-25 schedule. The Magical World of Toons was the daily prime time programming block featuring character's key series episodes coinciding with the launch of Disney's new channel, Toon Disney , on April 18, 1998. It continued at least until 2003. In 2012, Disney Junior launched a variant of

5589-732: A talking duck that would be the studio's new gag character. Donald Duck made his first appearance in 1934 in The Wise Little Hen . Though he did not become popular as quickly as Mickey had, Donald Duck had a featured role in Donald and Pluto (1936), and was given his own series. After a disagreement with Columbia Pictures about the Silly Symphony cartoons, Disney signed a distribution contract with United Artists from 1932 to 1937 to distribute them. In 1932, Disney signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor to produce cartoons in color until

5796-495: A television program to finance the development of the Disneyland amusement park. After being turned down by both CBS and NBC , Disney eventually signed a deal with ABC (which had merged with United Paramount Theatres in 1953) on March 29, 1954. The show contained teasers for Walt's park, as well as episodes representing life in one of the park's main sections: Adventureland , Tomorrowland , Fantasyland , and Frontierland , with

6003-486: A ten-year contract to make five films, with Disney as distributor. They would share the cost, profits, and logo credits, calling the films Disney-Pixar productions. During the Disney Renaissance, film division Touchstone also saw success with film such as Pretty Woman (1990), which has the highest number of ticket sales in the U.S. for a romantic comedy and grossed $ 432 million; Sister Act (1992), which

6210-838: A theme song for the television series Zorro . The company hired them as exclusive staff songwriters, an arrangement that lasted 10 years. They wrote many songs for Disney's films and theme parks, and several were commercial hits. In the late 1950s, Disney ventured into comedy with the live-action films The Shaggy Dog (1959), which became the highest-grossing film in the US and Canada for Disney at over $ 9 million, and The Absent Minded Professor (1961), both starring Fred MacMurray . Disney also made live-action films based on children's books including Pollyanna (1960) and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Child actor Hayley Mills starred in Pollyanna , for which she won an Academy Juvenile Award . Mills starred in 5 other Disney films, including

6417-460: A tremendous success, with WALL-E winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. After acquiring most of Jetix Europe through the acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, Disney bought the remainder of the company in 2008 for $ 318 million. Iger introduced D23 in 2009 as Disney's official fan club. In February, Disney announced a deal with DreamWorks Pictures to distribute 30 of their films over

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6624-556: A two-hour format in 1975). Walt Disney Productions also began running some of its multiepisode television programs, such as 1962's Sammy The Way-Out Seal , as televised feature films on the anthology series. A slightly edited version of the 1954 Disney film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea made its television debut as a two-hour special on NBC in October 1976. Several other Disney films, some of them not especially successful (such as Superdad , which

6831-703: A two-year tour of ice shows featuring Disney charters, made its premiere at the Brendan Byrne Meadowlands Arena after Disney licensed its characters to Feld Entertainment . The same month, Disney's animated film The Fox and the Hound was released and became the highest-grossing animated film to that point at $ 40 million. It was the first film that did not involve Walt and the last major work done by Disney's Nine Old Men, who were replaced with younger animators. As profits started to decline, on October 1, 1982, Epcot, then known as EPCOT Center, opened as

7038-540: A venture with The Nature Conservancy , Disney purchased 8,500 acres (3,439 ha) of Everglades headwaters in Florida to protect native animals and plant species, establishing the Disney Wilderness Preserve . On April 3, 1994, Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash; he, Eisner, and Katzenberg helped the company's market value go from $ 2 billion to $ 22 billion since taking office in 1984. On June 15

7245-453: A venue to try out techniques and technologies, such as Technicolor, special effects animation , and dramatic storytelling in animation, that would be crucial to Disney's plans to eventually begin making feature-length animated films. Shortly after the switch to United Artists, the series became even more popular. Walt Disney had seen some of Dr. Herbert Kalmus' tests for a new three-strip , full-color Technicolor process, which would replace

7452-535: A visit to Griffith Park with his daughters. He said he watched them ride a carousel and thought there "should be ... some kind of amusement enterprise built where the parents and the children could have fun together". Initially planning the construction of an eight-acre (3.2 ha) Mickey Mouse Park near the Burbank studio, Walt changed the planned amusement park's name to Disneylandia, then to Disneyland . A new company, WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering ),

7659-456: A year, the now-in-Technicolor Silly Symphonies series had popularity and success that matched (and later surpassed) that of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. The contract Disney had with Technicolor would also later be extended another five years as well. The success of Silly Symphonies would be tremendously boosted after Three Little Pigs was released in 1933 and became a box office sensation;

7866-554: Is one of the biggest and best-known companies in the world and was ranked number 48 on the 2023 Fortune 500 list of biggest companies in the United States by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 87. Since its founding, the company has won 135 Academy Awards , 26 of which were awarded to Walt . The company has been said to have produced some of the greatest films of all time , as well as revolutionizing

8073-543: The True-Life Adventures ). The show's continued ratings success in the post-Walt era came to an end during the 1975–76 season. At this time, Walt Disney Productions was facing a decline in fortunes due to falling box-office revenues, while NBC as a whole was also slipping in the ratings. The anthology series became even more dependent on airings of live-action theatrical features, its True-Life Adventures , reruns of older episodes, and cartoon compilations. Nothing from

8280-505: The 1964 New York World's Fair before moving to Disneyland in 1967; and Dumbo the Flying Elephant . On November 20, 1964, Walt sold most of WED Enterprise to Walt Disney Productions for $ 3.8 million after being persuaded by Roy, who thought Walt having his own company would cause legal problems. Walt formed a new company called Retlaw to handle his personal business, primarily Disneyland Railroad and Disneyland Monorail . When

8487-450: 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. Disney

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8694-476: The Disney Channel . While ratings were a factor, the final decision to end the show came from Walt Disney Productions' then-CEO Card Walker , who felt that having both the show and the new channel active would result in cannibalization of viewership. The new channel would provide a home for the show in reruns for the next two decades, but for the time being, Disney's presence on U.S. network TV would be limited to

8901-562: The Disney animated features canon aired, with the exceptions of Alice in Wonderland and Dumbo , as part of a long-standing policy placed on the program by Disney. Additionally, in 1975, when CBS regained the broadcast rights to the 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film The Wizard of Oz , it was scheduled opposite Disney , as it had been between 1960 and 1968. At that time, telecasts of that film were highly rated annual events, which largely attracted

9108-614: The Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park . That year, the company earned a gross total of $ 24.5 million compared to the $ 11 million the previous year. Disney continued to delegate much of the animation work to the studio's top animators, known as the Nine Old Men . The company produced an average of five films per year throughout the 1950s and 60s. Animated features of this period included Sleeping Beauty (1959), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), and The Sword in

9315-612: The Muppets franchise from the Jim Henson Company for $ 75 million, founding Muppets Holding Company, LLC . Following the success of Disney-Pixar films Finding Nemo (2003), which became the second highest-grossing animated film of all time at $ 936 million, and The Incredibles (2004), Pixar looked for a new distributor once its deal with Disney ended in 2004. Disney sold the loss-making Disney Stores chain of 313 stores to Children's Place on October 20. Disney also sold

9522-532: The Silly Symphonies ended, Disney occasionally produced a handful of one-shot cartoons, playing the same style as the Silly Symphony series. Unlike the Silly Symphonies canon, most of these "Specials" have a narration, usually by Disney legend Sterling Holloway . In the 1934 MGM film Hollywood Party , Mickey Mouse appears with Jimmy Durante , where they introduce The Hot Choc-late Soldiers . The 1999–2000 television series Mickey Mouse Works used

9729-708: The Silly Symphonies title for some of its new cartoons, but unlike the original cartoons, these did feature continuing characters. As of 2021, three of the Silly Symphony shorts ( Three Little Pigs , The Old Mill , and Flowers and Trees ), have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". A Sunday Silly Symphony comic strip ran in newspapers from January 10, 1932, to July 12, 1942. The strip featured adaptations of some of

9936-621: The Silly Symphony cartoons, including Birds of a Feather , The Robber Kitten , Elmer Elephant , Farmyard Symphony and Little Hiawatha . This strip began with a two-year sequence about Bucky Bug , a character based on the bugs in Bugs in Love . There was also an occasional Silly Symphonies comic book, with nine issues published by Dell Comics from September 1952 to February 1959. The first issue of this anthology comic featured adaptations of some Silly Symphony cartoons, including The Grasshopper and

10143-529: The Talkartoon series was renamed as Betty Boop cartoons. In 1932, after falling out with Columbia Pictures, Disney began distributing his products through United Artists . UA refused to distribute the Silly Symphonies unless Disney associated Mickey Mouse with them somehow, resulting in the "Mickey Mouse presents a Silly Symphony " title cards and posters that introduced and promoted the series during its five-year run for UA. United Artists also agreed to double

10350-588: The Tree of Life at its center. Receiving positive reviews, Disney's next animated films Mulan and Disney-Pixar film A Bug's Life were released on June 5 and November 20, 1998. Mulan became the year's sixth-highest-grossing film at $ 304 million, and A Bug's Life was the year's fifth-highest at $ 363 million. In a $ 770-million transaction, on June 18, Disney bought a 43% stake of Internet search engine Infoseek for $ 70 million, also giving it Infoseek-acquired Starwave . Starting web portal Go.com in

10557-510: The United States' burgeoning efforts to explore outer space and others, such as "Moochie of the Little League", were set in the then-present day. Some episodes even mixed live-action and animation, showing Mickey Mouse , Donald Duck , Goofy , Chip 'n' Dale , Professor Owl and Jiminy Cricket talking with Walt himself, while one 1959 episode (titled The Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale) turned

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10764-582: The Walt Disney Studios 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 it 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

10971-460: The Wonderful World banner, such as The Sound of Music from 20th Century Fox ( which is presently owned by Disney, now known as 20th Century Studios ). On December 12, 2015, ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney officially returned to its anthology format with a showing of Mary Poppins for the first time on ABC since 2002, hosted by Dick Van Dyke. Van Dyke took viewers on a tour through

11178-558: The 1930s, and became one of the best-known Disney songs. Other Silly Symphonies films won the Best Cartoon award from 1931 to 1939, except for 1938, when another Disney film, Ferdinand the Bull , won it. In 1934, Walt Disney announced a feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . It would be the first cel animated feature and the first animated feature produced in

11385-442: The 1950s, Disney returned to producing full-length animated feature films, beginning with Cinderella (1950), its first feature in eight years. A critical and commercial success, Cinderella saved Disney after the financial pitfalls of the wartime era; it was its most financially successful film since Snow White , making $ 8 million in its first year. Walt began to reduce his involvement with animation, focusing his attention on

11592-497: The 1960s", starred in 10 Disney films, including That Darn Cat! (1965), The Ugly Dachshund (1966), and The Love Bug (1968). Disney's last child actor of the 1960s was Kurt Russell , who had signed a ten-year contract. He featured in films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968) alongside Dean Jones, The Barefoot Executive (1971), and The Strongest Man in

11799-485: The 1980s, though new material was scarce in later years. Other episodes were segments from Disney films such as Seal Island and Alice in Wonderland , or cartoons of Donald Duck and other Disney standbys. The program spawned the Davy Crockett craze of 1955 with the airing of a three-episode series (not shown over the course of consecutive weeks) about the historical American frontiersman, starring Fess Parker in

12006-450: The 1989–1990 season, during which the company was negotiating with Jim Henson to buy The Muppets , they aired two Muppet specials; one of them was The Muppets at Walt Disney World , which turned out to be Henson's last Muppet special. He died May 16, 1990, 10 days after the special aired, and the company only acquired The Muppets more than a decade later. After two seasons experiencing the same lackluster ratings as it had accrued during

12213-575: The 2014 Marvel film, Guardians of the Galaxy , filling a gap in ABC's fall 2020 schedule. On October 9, 2020, ABC announced the program would return on October 14, with the broadcast television premiere of the 2017 Disney/Pixar film, Coco . Captain America: The Winter Soldier aired on January 12, 2021. The 2015 live action film Cinderella aired on January 19, 2021. On April 28, 2021, it

12420-558: The Beast was canceled but was instead replaced with the 2019 film The Lion King . In May 2023, it was announced the program would air on Sunday nights for 3 weeks in June (when the NBA Finals were not being played) in a 2-hour block, it would also air on Sunday nights in the fall of that year with a three-hour block. In May 2024, it was announced that the program would return the following month with

12627-464: The Disney Archives, as they explored props and costumes from the production of Mary Poppins and discussed the film's history and context within the Disney legacy. It was then shown on February 21, 2016, with the special Disneyland 60 , which honored Disneyland's 60th anniversary; on November 24, 2016, for their Magical Holiday Celebration, filmed at Walt Disney World; and on December 11, 2016, for

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12834-488: The Disney Movie Club), with the possibility of additional future releases. From 2014 to 2019, live-action Disney films from the 1950s to the 1980s including special episodes from Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color aired on Turner Classic Movies , without commercial interruption, and presented uncut and with letterboxing on the network's standard-definition feed. All of the episodes and existing material used on

13041-477: The Hare and the remake of The Ugly Duckling . On December 4, 2001, Disney released " Silly Symphonies " as part of its DVD series " Walt Disney Treasures ". On December 19, 2006, " More Silly Symphonies " was released, completing the collection and allowing the cartoons to be completely available to the public. Some Disney Blu-ray discs include Silly Symphonies as high definition special features. Snow White and

13248-478: The Lucky Rabbit and 26 cartoons featuring the character. On February 6, the company announced it would be merging its ABC Radio networks and 22 stations with Citadel Broadcasting in a $ 2.7 billion deal, though which Disney acquired 52% of television broadcasting company Citadel Communications . The Disney Channel movie High School Musical aired and its soundtrack was certified triple platinum , becoming

13455-410: The Mickey Mouse series, which was made using synchronized sound , becoming the first post-produced sound cartoon. The sound was created using Powers' Cinephone system, which used Lee de Forest 's Phonofilm system. Pat Powers ' company distributed Steamboat Willie , which was an immediate hit. In 1929, the company successfully re-released the two earlier films with synchronized sound. After

13662-449: The NHL team Mighty Ducks in 2005. Roy E. Disney decided to rejoin the company and was given the role of consultant with the title "Director Emeritus". In March 2005, Bob Iger, president of the company, became CEO after Eisner's retirement in September; Iger was officially named head of the company on October 1. Disney's eleventh theme park Hong Kong Disneyland opened on September 12, costing

13869-541: The Prairie miniseries ran for several weeks in 2004 under the Wonderful World of Disney banner. For most of its second run on ABC, the program aired throughout the television season, with the exception of the 2005–06 season (when it aired during the midseason only), and in 2007 and 2008 (when it was relegated to the summer months), with a broader array of films occupying the network's Saturday primetime slot at other times, when sports programming did not air. The series ended as

14076-404: The Sea might be the focus of an evening spent in "Adventure Land", although a documentary on the film could also be possibly presented as a topic for such episodes, including clips from the actual film. Topics for "Fantasy Land" would include either actual cartoons, and animated films, or documentaries on "The Making of ..." (such as behind-the-scenes presentation of Peggy Lee singing the duet of

14283-489: The Seven Dwarfs includes six, Beauty and the Beast and Dumbo both contain two and Pixar 's A Bug's Life contains one. The Silly Symphony shorts originally aired on Turner Classic Movies ' period program block "Treasures from the Disney Vault". Some Silly Symphony shorts are viewable on Disney+ . The Silly Symphonies are listed here in production order: Disney's experiments were widely praised within

14490-525: The South (1946) which would become one of Disney's most controversial films. As a result of its financial problems, Disney began re-releasing its feature films in 1944. In 1948, it began premiering the nature documentary series, True-Life Adventures , which ran until 1960, winning 8 Academy Awards. In 1949, the Walt Disney Music Company was founded to help with profits for merchandising. In

14697-572: The Stone (1963). Sleeping Beauty was a financial loss for the company, and at $ 6 million, had the highest production costs up to that point. One Hundred and One Dalmatians introduced an animation technique using the xerography process to electromagnetically transfer the drawings to animation cels , resulting in a transformed art style for the studio's animated films. In 1956, the Sherman Brothers , Robert and Richard , were asked to produce

14904-554: The US, Tokyo Disneyland , opened in Urayasu . Costing around $ 1.4 billion, construction started in 1979 when Disney and The Oriental Land Company agreed to build a park together. Within its first ten years, the park had over 140 million visitors. After an investment of $ 100 million, on April 18, Disney started a pay-to-watch cable television channel called Disney Channel , a 16-hours-a-day service showing Disney films, twelve programs, and two magazines shows for adults. Although it

15111-526: The US. Its novelty made it a risky venture; Roy tried to persuade Walt not to produce it, arguing it would bankrupt the studio, and while widely anticipated by the public, it was referred to by some critics as "Disney's Folly". Walt directed the animators to take a realistic approach, creating scenes as though they were live action. While making the film, the company created the multiplane camera , consisting of pieces of glass upon which drawings were placed at different distances to create an illusion of depth in

15318-508: The Walt Disney Company, stating the old name only referred to the film industry. With Disney's animation industry declining, the animation department needed its next movie The Great Mouse Detective to be a success. It grossed $ 25 million at the box office, becoming a much-needed financial success. To generate more revenue from merchandising, the company opened its first retail store Disney Store in Glendale in 1987. Because of its success,

15525-596: The Wind ". Pixar's and Disney's first co-release was the first-ever fully computer-generated film Toy Story , which was released on November 19, 1995, to critical acclaim and an end-run gross total of $ 361 million. The film won the Special Achievement Academy Award and was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay . In 1995, Disney announced the $ 19 billion acquisition of television network Capital Cities/ABC Inc., which

15732-516: The World (1975). In late 1959, Walt had an idea to build another park in Palm Beach, Florida , called the City of Tomorrow, a city that would be full of technological improvements. In 1964, the company chose land southwest of Orlando, Florida to build the park and acquired 27,000 acres (10,927 ha). On November 15, 1965, Walt, along with Roy and Florida's governor Haydon Burns , announced plans for

15939-436: The animated film The Jungle Book , which was Disney's most successful film for the next two decades, and the live-action musical The Happiest Millionaire . After Walt's death, the company largely abandoned animation, but made several live-action films. Its animation staff declined from 500 to 125 employees, with the company only hiring 21 people from 1970 to 1977. Disney's first post-Walt animated film The Aristocats

16146-399: The anthology series premiered. While the broadcast that aired three days after his death featured a memorial tribute from Huntley-Brinkley Report anchor Chet Huntley with film and television star Dick Van Dyke , the introductions that Walt already filmed prior to his death continued to air for the remainder of the season. After that, the studio decided that Walt's persona as host was such

16353-650: The assumption of $ 2.3 billion in debt. The deal included a 76% stake in Fox Kids Europe , Latin American channel Fox Kids , more than 6,500 episodes from Saban Entertainment 's programming library, and Fox Family Channel . In 2001, Disney's operations had a net loss of $ 158 million after a decline in viewership of the ABC television network, as well as decreased tourism due to the September 11 attacks . Disney earnings in fiscal 2001 were $ 120 million compared with

16560-407: The audience enjoyed their show. Although the basic format remained the same, the series moved to NBC on September 24, 1961, to take advantage of that network's ability to broadcast programming in color . In addition, Walt Disney's relationship with ABC had soured as the network resisted selling its stake in the theme park before doing so in 1960. In a display of foresight, Disney had filmed many of

16767-418: The backgrounds. After United Artists attempted to attain future television rights to the Disney shorts, Walt signed a distribution contract with RKO Radio Pictures on March 2, 1936. Walt Disney Productions exceeded its original budget of $ 150,000 for Snow White by ten times; its production eventually cost the company $ 1.5 million. Snow White took 3 years to make, premiering on December 12, 1937. It

16974-429: The beginning of 1983, it went on hiatus on February 15 while the aforementioned Gun Shy took up the second half of its time slot. When it came back for summer reruns on May 3, it was still on Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.; its final network broadcast was on September 24, bringing an uninterrupted 29-year run on all three networks to a close. The end of the show coincided with the launch of the studio's cable television network,

17181-716: The box office. Later, as products of the South American trip, Disney released the features Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944). This was a new strategy of releasing package films , collections of short cartoons grouped to make feature films. Both performed poorly. Disney released more package films through the rest of the decade, including Make Mine Music (1946) , Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time (1948), and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), to try to recover from its financial losses. Disney began producing less-expensive live-action films mixed with animation, beginning with Song of

17388-404: The box office; it won two Academy Awards; Best Original Score and Best Original Song for " Under the Sea ". During the Disney Renaissance, composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman wrote several Disney songs until Ashman died in 1991. Together they wrote 6 songs nominated for Academy Awards; with two winning songs—"Under the Sea" and " Beauty and the Beast ". To produce music geared for

17595-416: The box-office-leading Hollywood studio for the first time, with films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Three Men and a Baby (1987) , and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). The company's gross revenue went from $ 165 million in 1983 to $ 876 million in 1987, and operating income went from −$ 33 million in 1983 to +130 million in 1987. The studio's net income rose by 66%, along with

17802-413: The broadcast. Walt apparently wanted people to see Sleeping Beauty in 70 mm, so, in the introduction, he explained the difference between 35 mm and 70 mm and held up a card with both sizes on it. In addition to episodes devoted to the latest additions at Disneyland, many episodes during this period were Westerns such as " Texas John Slaughter " and " Elfego Baca ", while others talked about

18009-487: The budget for each cartoon from $ 7,500 to $ 15,000. In 1937, Disney signed a distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures to distribute the Silly Symphony cartoons, along with the Mickey Mouse series. RKO would continue to distribute until the end of the series in 1939. Several Symphonies have been released in home media, most of the time as bonus shorts that relate to something within various Disney films. For instance,

18216-540: The company $ 3.5 billion to construct. On January 24, 2006, Disney began talks to acquire Pixar from Steve Jobs for $ 7.4 billion, and Iger appointed Pixar chief creative officer (CCO) John Lasseter and president Edwin Catmull the heads of the Walt Disney Animation Studios . A week later, Disney traded ABC Sports commentator Al Michaels to NBCUniversal , in exchange for the rights to Oswald

18423-407: The company after Eisner refused to promote him to president. After leaving, he co-founded film studio DreamWorks SKG . Wells was later replaced with one of Eisner's friends Michael Ovitz on August 13, 1995. In 1994, Disney wanted to buy one of the major U.S. television networks ABC, NBC, or CBS, which would give the company guaranteed distribution for its programming. Eisner planned to buy NBC but

18630-533: The company announced ImageMovers Digital , which it started in partnership with ImageMovers in 2007, would be closing by 2011. Silly Symphonies The series also spawned a Silly Symphony newspaper comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate , as well as a Dell comic book series and several children's books. The Silly Symphonies returned to theaters with its re-issues and re-releases, and eventually tied with Joseph Barbera and William Hanna 's Tom and Jerry ' s record for most Oscar wins for

18837-520: The company from bankruptcy during the Great Depression . During a promotional event at Macy's, 11,000 Mickey Mouse watches sold in one day; and within two years, two-and-a-half million watches were sold. As Mickey Mouse become a heroic character rather than a mischievous one, Disney needed another character that could produce gags . Disney invited radio presenter Clarence Nash to the animation studio; Disney wanted to use Nash to play Donald Duck ,

19044-519: The company had been doing. To help with the film division, the company started making Saturday-morning cartoons to create new Disney characters for merchandising, and produced films through Touchstone. Under Eisner, Disney became more involved with television, creating Touchstone Television and producing the television sitcom The Golden Girls , which was a hit. The company spent $ 15 million promoting its theme parks, raising visitor numbers by 10%. In 1984, Disney produced The Black Cauldron , then

19251-402: The company is still headquartered. In April 1940, Disney Productions had its initial public offering , with the common stock remaining with Disney and his family. Disney did not want to go public but the company needed the money. Shortly before Snow White's release, work began on the company's next features, Pinocchio and Bambi . Pinocchio was released in February 1940 while Bambi

19458-604: The company opened two more in California, and by 1990, it had 215 throughout the US In 1989, the company garnered $ 411 million in revenue and made a profit of $ 187 million. In 1987, the company signed an agreement with the Government of France to build a resort named Euro Disneyland in Paris; it would consist of two theme parks named Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park ,

19665-762: The company since 1938, became its president. By June 30, 1973, Disney had over 23,000 employees and a gross revenue of $ 257,751,000 over a nine-month period, compared to the year before when it made $ 220,026,000. In November, Disney released the animated film Robin Hood (1973), which became Disney's biggest international-grossing movie at $ 18 million. Throughout the 1970s, Disney released live-action films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes ' sequel Now You See Him, Now You Don't ; The Love Bug sequels Herbie Rides Again (1974) and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977); Escape to Witch Mountain (1975); and Freaky Friday (1976). In 1976, Card Walker became CEO of

19872-405: The company started looking for a sponsor for the project, Walt renamed the City of Tomorrow, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow ( Epcot ). Walt, who had been a heavy smoker since World War I, fell very sick and he died on December 15, 1966, aged 65, of lung cancer , at St. Joseph Hospital across the street from the studio. In 1967, the last two films Walt had worked on were released;

20079-406: The company was being run, calling on Eisner to retire; the same week, board member Stanley Gold retired for the same reasons. Gold and Disney formed the "Save Disney" campaign. In 2004, at the company's annual meeting, the shareholders in a 43% vote voted Eisner out as chairman. On March 4, George J. Mitchell , who was a member of the board, was named as replacement. In April, Disney purchased

20286-480: The company's attention. Disney, which since 1996 had owned a 25% stake in the Major League Baseball team California Angels , bought out the team in 1998 for $ 110 million, renamed it Anaheim Angels and renovated the stadium for $ 100 million. Hercules (1997) was released on June 13, and underperformed compared to earlier films, grossing $ 252 million. On February 24, Disney and Pixar signed

20493-466: The company's next animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released, grossing $ 325 million at the box office. Because Ovitz's management style was different from Eisner's, Ovitz was fired as the company's president in 1996. Disney lost a $ 10.4 million lawsuit in September 1997 to Marsu B.V. over Disney's failure to produce as contracted 13 half-hour Marsupilami cartoon shows. Instead, Disney felt other internal "hot properties" deserved

20700-454: The company's profits were from its theme parks; in 1982, there were 12 million visitors to Walt Disney World, a figure that declined by 5% the following June. On July 9, 1982, Disney released Tron , one of the first films to extensively use computer-generated imagery (CGI). It was a big influence on other CGI movies, though it received mixed reviews. In 1982, the company lost $ 27 million. On April 15, 1983, Disney's first park outside

20907-403: The company, with Tatum remaining chairman until 1980, when Walker replaced him. In 1977, Roy E. Disney , Roy O. Disney's son and the only Disney working for the company, resigned as an executive because of disagreements with company decisions. In 1977, Disney released the successful animated film The Rescuers , which grossed $ 48 million. The live-acton/animated musical Pete's Dragon

21114-608: The cruises, Disney bought Gorda Cay as the line's private island, and spent $ 25 million remodeling it and renaming it Castaway Cay. On July 30, 1998, Disney Magic set sail as the line's first voyage. Marking the end of the Disney Renaissance, Tarzan (1999) was released on June 12, garnering $ 448 million at the box office and critical acclaim; it claimed the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Phil Collins ' " You'll Be in My Heart ". Disney-Pixar film Toy Story 2

21321-519: The deal was canceled because General Electric wanted to keep a majority stake. In 1994, Disney's annual revenue reached $ 10 billion, 48% coming from film, 34% from theme parks, and 18% from merchandising. Disney's total net income was up 25% from the previous year at $ 1.1 billion. Grossing over $ 346 million, Pocahontas was released on June 16, garnering the Academy Awards for Best Musical or Comedy Score and Best Song for " Colors of

21528-483: The deal was completed, resulting in the companies terminating merger negotiations. On November 17, 1989, Disney released The Little Mermaid , which was the start of the Disney Renaissance , a period in which the company released hugely successful and critically acclaimed animated films. The Little Mermaid became the animated film with the highest gross from its initial run and garnered $ 233 million at

21735-409: The earlier shows in color, allowing them to easily be repeated on NBC; since all but three of Disney's feature-length films were also made in color (the three black-and-white exceptions were The Shaggy Dog , The Absent-Minded Professor , and Son of Flubber , all family comedies starring Fred MacMurray ), they could now also be telecast in that format. To emphasize the new feature, the series

21942-527: The early Silly Symphonies shorts, and later full-length animated films. "Tomorrow Land" was an opportunity for the Disney studio staff to present cutting-edge science and technology, and to predict possible futures, such as futuristic automobiles and highways, and featured Wernher von Braun as an on-air technical consultant in Man and the Moon , which aired December 28, 1955. This format remained basically unchanged through

22149-558: The end of 1935, beginning with the Silly Symphony short Flowers and Trees (1932). The film was the first full-color cartoon and won the Academy Award for Best Cartoon. In 1933, The Three Little Pigs , another popular Silly Symphony short, was released and also won the Academy Award for Best Cartoon. The song from the film " Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? ", which was composed by Frank Churchill —who wrote other Silly Symphonies songs—became popular and remained so throughout

22356-483: The end of its initial NBC run and its subsequent runs on CBS and ABC, Disney elected to end the broadcast television run of The Magical World of Disney and began airing the anthology on the Disney Channel – in the same time slot it had been airing for the past decade – starting in September 1990, expanding back to a two-hour format. Since the Disney Channel operated as a premium channel at the time, films presented on

22563-400: The established 60 Minutes and scripted mystery series Murder, She Wrote on CBS , both of which Disney was competing with for viewers, remained the leading primetime programs on Sunday nights. In 1987, ABC reduced The Disney Sunday Movie from two hours to one. The move did not help drive ratings, and the network decided not to renew its contract with Disney or pick up a fourth season of

22770-500: The film and the Tony Award-nominated Broadway stage version and was performed in front of a live audience with giant projection surface. The title was used again on November 28, 2019, for a two-hour music special, The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration , hosted by Emma Bunton and Matthew Morrison . On May 7, 2020, it was announced that The Wonderful World of Disney would bring back its banner for

22977-436: The film industry, and the Silly Symphonies won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film seven times, maintaining a six-year-hold on the category after it was first introduced. This record was matched only by MGM 's Tom and Jerry series during the 1940s and 1950s. The Symphonies changed the course of Disney Studio history when Walt's plans to direct his first feature cartoon became problematic after his warm-up to

23184-625: The film was featured in movie theaters for several months and also featured the hit song that became the anthem of the Great Depression, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf". Several Silly Symphonies entries, including Three Little Pigs (1933), The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), The Country Cousin (1936), The Old Mill (1937), Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (1938), and The Ugly Duckling (1939, with an earlier black-and-white version from 1931), are among

23391-491: The first Disney Channel film to do so. Disney's 2006 live-action film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was Disney's biggest hit to that date and the third-highest-grossing film ever, making $ 1 billion at the box office. On June 28, the company announced it was replacing George Mitchell as chairman with a board members and former CEO of P&G John E. Pepper Jr. . The sequel High School Musical 2

23598-437: The first commercial film to be shown in stereo . However, Fantasia similarly performed poorly at the box office. In 1941, the company experienced a major setback when 300 of its 800 animators, led by one of the top animators Art Babbitt , went on strike for 5 weeks for unionization and higher pay. Walt Disney publicly accused the strikers of being party to a communist conspiracy, and fired many of them, including some of

23805-467: The first one being Toy Story . Dow Jones & Company , wanting to replace 3 companies in its industrial average , chose to add Disney in May 1991, stating Disney "reflects the importance of entertainment and leisure activities in the economy". Disney's next animated film Beauty and the Beast was released on November 13, 1991, and grossed nearly $ 430 million. It was the first animated film to win

24012-458: The first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse , who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon. 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

24219-583: The first season, over ten million children and five million adults watched it daily; and two million Mickey Mouse ears, which the cast wore, were sold. In December 1954, the five-part miniseries Davy Crockett , premiered as part of Disneyland , starring Fess Parker . According to writer Neal Gabler , "[It] became an overnight national sensation", selling 10 million Crockett coonskin caps. The show's theme song " The Ballad of Davy Crockett " became part of American pop culture, selling 10 million records. Los Angeles Times called it "the greatest merchandising fad

24426-611: 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, the 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. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates

24633-416: The historical title The Wonderful World of Disney for the first few years, while other networks broadcast the show with another title, A Disney Special ). During this time, one of the telefilms shown under the banner was spun off into its own series -- The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage , a collaboration with Stephen J. Cannell Productions. In 1997, with Disney acquiring ABC the previous year, ABC gave

24840-404: The hosting job. Eisner hired Michael Kay, a director of political commercials for then- U.S. Senator Bill Bradley , to help him improve his on-camera performance. The Disney Sunday Movie initially aired as ABC's lead-off program on Sundays, running from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. By this point, the format was similar to a movie-of-the-week. Gary Barton, a Disney senior vice president,

25047-553: The live action/animation musical film Mary Poppins was released to major commercial success and rapturous critical acclaim, becoming the year's highest-grossing film and winning five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews as Poppins and Best Song for the Sherman Brothers, who also won Best Score for the film's " Chim Chim Cher-ee ". Throughout the 1960s, Dean Jones , whom The Guardian called "the figure who most represented Walt Disney Productions in

25254-480: The live-action Alice in Wonderland and the Disney-Pixar film Toy Story 3 , both of which grossed a little over $ 1 billion, making them the sixth-and-seventh films to do so; and Toy Story 3 became the first animated film to make over $ 1 billion and the highest-grossing animated film. That year, Disney became the first studio to release two $ 1-billion-dollar-earning films in one calendar year. In 2010,

25461-576: The mainstream, including music for movie soundtracks, Disney founded the recording label Hollywood Records on January 1, 1990. In September 1990, Disney arranged for financing of up to $ 200 million by a unit of Nomura Securities for Interscope films made for Disney. On October 23, Disney formed Touchwood Pacific Partners , which replaced the Silver Screen Partnership series as the company's movie studios' primary source of funding. Disney's first animated sequel The Rescuers Down Under

25668-518: The most notable films produced by Walt Disney. Due to problems related to Disney's scheduled productions of cartoons, a deal was made with Harman and Ising to produce three Silly Symphonies: Merbabies , Pipe Dreams , and The Little Bantamweight . Only one of these cartoons, Merbabies , ended up being bought by Disney, the remaining two Harman-Ising Silly Symphonies were then sold to MGM who released them as Happy Harmonies cartoons. Disney ceased production of Silly Symphonies in 1939. The series

25875-457: The most-expensive animated movie at $ 40 million, their first animated film to feature computer-generated imagery, and their first PG-rated animation because of its adult themes. The film was a box-office failure, leading the company to move the animation department from the studio in Burbank to a warehouse in Glendale, California . The film-financing partnership Silver Screen Partners II, which

26082-594: The most-watched live broadcast to that date. While the park's opening day was disastrous (restaurants ran out of food, the Mark Twain Riverboat began to sink, other rides malfunctioned, and the drinking fountains were not working in the 100 °F. (38 °C) heat), the park became a success with 161,657 visitors in its first week and 20,000 visitors a day in its first month. After its first year, 3.6 million people had visited, and after its second year, four million more guests came, making it more popular than

26289-484: The movie night anthology as The Magical World of Disney Junior on its new 24/7 channel. The channel also premiered its first Disney Junior Original Movie, Lucky Duck during Magical World on June 20, 2014. Prior to the launch of the Disney Channel, several of the films and specials made for the anthology series were licensed to pay-TV networks such as HBO ; in HBO's case, the kaleidoscopic-pattern titles that preceded them in

26496-423: The network television premiere of Frozen . On August 5, 2019, it was announced that The Wonderful World of Disney would present The Little Mermaid Live! on November 5 of that year with Auliʻi Cravalho , Queen Latifah and Shaggy starring as Ariel, Ursula and Sebastian, respectively. The cast also included John Stamos as Chef Louis and Graham Phillips as Prince Eric. The special featured music from both

26703-503: The network television premiere of Toy Story . On October 5, 1997, Disney Telefilms' first production, Toothless , debuted on the series. In addition to the planned 16 original Disney telemovies, ABC and Disney added a few direct-to-video movies and films from other sources. In 2001, a Spanish-language version of the program premiered on Telemundo (which, incidentally, was acquired by the English version's former home, NBC, that same year) as El Maravilloso Mundo de Disney , with more of

26910-445: The next 4 years, Winkler handed the role of distributing the studio's shorts to her husband, Charles Mintz . In 1927, Mintz asked for a new series, and Disney created his first series of fully animated shorts, starring a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit . The series was produced by Winkler Pictures and distributed by Universal Pictures . The Walt Disney Studios completed 26 Oswald shorts. In 1928, Disney and Mintz entered into

27117-606: The next five years through Touchstone Pictures, with Disney getting 10% of the gross. The 2009 film Up garnered Disney $ 735 million at the box office, and the film won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Later that year, Disney launched a television channel named Disney XD , aimed at older children. The company bought Marvel Entertainment and its assets for $ 4 billion in August, adding Marvel's comic-book characters to its merchandising line-up. In September, Disney partnered with News Corporation and NBCUniversal in

27324-513: The occasional holiday special, theme park anniversary, or cartoon compilation. The CBS version of the shows' intro would also be featured on Disney Channel. After the studio – which was rechristened as the Walt Disney Company in 1986 – underwent a change in management, Disney sought to bring back some sort of programming to broadcast television. Their efforts led to the premiere of The Disney Sunday Movie , which debuted on February 2, 1986, on ABC . Many names were considered to serve as presenter for

27531-434: The only top animator to remain with the Disney brothers. Disney and Iwerks replaced Oswald with a mouse character originally named Mortimer Mouse , before Disney's wife urged him to change the name to Mickey Mouse . In May 1928, Mickey Mouse debuted in test screenings of the shorts Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho . Later that year, the studio produced Steamboat Willie , its first sound film and third short in

27738-404: The opening of Disneyland was covered on a live television special, Dateline: Disneyland , which is not technically considered to be part of the series. It was hosted by Art Linkletter , with whom Walt Disney had worked out a deal prior to the opening to allow Linkletter to lease a shop on Main Street in return for the broadcast. Art Linkletter was assisted by Bob Cummings and Ronald Reagan , and

27945-461: The opening titles used from its inception until the show's move to NBC in 1961, showing the entrance to Disneyland itself, as well as the four aforementioned lands, one of which was then identified as the main feature of that evening's program. Consequently, Davy Crockett and other pioneers of the Old West , and American history in general, appeared in "Frontier Land". Similarly, 20,000 Leagues Under

28152-446: The original Dumbo VHS included Father Noah's Ark , The Practical Pig and Three Orphan Kittens as bonus shorts to make up for the film's short length. In the UK, several Silly Symphonies were released in compilations under Disney Videos' "Storybook Favourites" brand. The three "Storybook Favourites Shorts" volumes released included among others, The Three Little Pigs , The Tortoise and

28359-425: The original run were retained. Around the same time that the 1980s incarnations aired on ABC and NBC, reruns of older episodes of the Disney anthology series, airing under the Wonderful World of Disney banner, were syndicated to broadcast television stations throughout the United States as well as in various international markets. In Australia, the program aired on Network Seven on Saturdays at 6:30 pm, before it

28566-404: The park, whose construction costs totaled $ 17 million. In October, with the success of Disneyland, ABC allowed Disney to produce The Mickey Mouse Club , a variety show for children; the show included a daily Disney cartoon, a children's newsreel, and a talent show. It was presented by a host, and talented children and adults called "Mousketeers" and "Mooseketeers", respectively. After

28773-653: The park. Construction began in July 1954. To finance the construction of Disneyland, Disney sold his home at Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs and the company promoted it with a television series of the same name aired on ABC . The Disneyland television series, which would be the first in a long-running series of successful anthology television programs for the company, was a success and garnered over 50% of viewers in its time slot, along with praise from critics. In August, Walt formed another company Disneyland, Inc. to finance

28980-447: The perfect opportunity to acquire Silly Symphonies after Disney broke with Celebrity Productions head Pat Powers after Powers signed Disney's colleague Ub Iwerks to a studio contract. Columbia Pictures (1930–1932) agreed to pick up the direct distribution of the Mickey Mouse series on the condition that they would have exclusive rights to distribute the Silly Symphonies series; at first, Silly Symphonies could not even come close to

29187-512: The popularity Mickey Mouse had. The original title cards to the shorts released by Celebrity Productions and Columbia Pictures were all redrawn after Walt Disney stopped distributing his cartoons through them. Meanwhile, more competition spread for Disney after Max Fleischer 's flapper cartoon character Betty Boop began to gain more and more popularity after starring in the cartoon Minnie the Moocher . By August 1932, Betty Boop became so popular that

29394-412: The previous two-tone Technicolor process. Disney signed a contract with Technicolor which gave the Disney studio exclusive rights to the new three-strip process through the end of 1935, and had a 60% complete Symphony , Flowers and Trees , scrapped and redone in full color. Flowers and Trees was the first animated film to use the three-strip Technicolor process, and was a phenomenal success. Within

29601-524: The previous year's $ 920 million. To help reduce costs, Disney announced it would lay off 4,000 employees and close 300–400 Disney stores. After winning the World Series in 2002 , Disney sold the Anaheim Angels for $ 180 million in 2003. In 2003, Disney became the first studio to garner $ 3 billion in a year at the box office. The same year, Roy Disney announced his retirement because of how

29808-409: The program did not present any film made by Disney's Touchstone subsidiary , as such films were not considered appropriate for children. However, Splash, Too , a sequel to the 1984 film , aired on the series over two weeks in May 1988. The series had increased Disney park attendance and ABC's Sunday night ratings for the evening by an average 27% for the rest of the season. Disney, wanting to make it

30015-446: The program featured various other guests, including various appearances of Walt himself as he dedicated the various lands of Disneyland. In 1958, the series was retitled Walt Disney Presents and moved to a Friday-night timeslot; by 1960, ABC had switched it to Sunday nights, where it remained for 21 years. During this iteration, The Peter Tchaikovsky Story , an episode made to promote Walt's latest animated feature, Sleeping Beauty ,

30222-411: The program had done during its last season as The Disney Sunday Movie , The Magical World of Disney ran for one hour, airing at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time; Michael Eisner also returned as its host. During this period, the show attempted to reintroduce the rotating format the show started out with in 1954. It also introduced new versions of Walt-era movies and TV shows such as The Absent-Minded Professor ,

30429-479: The program returned for five weeks with a series of theatrical movies from the Disney+ library, which includes the 2019 CGI film The Lion King and Finding Nemo , as well as the broadcast television premiere of Iron Man and The Avengers . Due to the death of Barbara Walters on December 30, 2022, the schedule would be moved by a week and the broadcast television premiere of the 2017 live action film Beauty and

30636-494: The program. The show shortened its title to Disney's Wonderful World , and updated the opening sequence with a computer-generated logo and disco -styled theme song, but largely kept the same format. The problems for the show continued. As a result of the ratings strength of 60 Minutes , compounded by low ratings, increasingly less original material, and frequent pre-emptions (primarily due to sporting events such as NFL game telecasts ), NBC cancelled Disney in 1981. One factor that

30843-660: The release of Steamboat Willie at the Colony Theater in New York, Mickey Mouse became an immensely popular character. Disney Brothers Studio made several cartoons featuring Mickey and other characters. In August 1929, the company began making the Silly Symphony series with Columbia Pictures as the distributor, because the Disney brothers felt they were not receiving their share of profits from Powers. Powers ended his contract with Iwerks, who later started his own studio. Carl W. Stalling played an important role in starting

31050-473: The revived show, including Julie Andrews , Dick Van Dyke , Cary Grant , Tom Hanks , Walter Cronkite , Roy E. Disney (who closely resembled his uncle), and even Mickey Mouse . The studio finally decided to have Michael Eisner , the company's recently hired CEO, host the series. Although he was not a performer, after filming a test video with his wife Jane and a member of his executive team (which required multiple takes), studio management believed he could do

31257-562: The same family audience as the Disney series. From 1968 to 1975, when NBC held the television rights to Oz (which it had acquired from CBS in 1967), it usually pre-empted Disney to show it. However, the show's stiffest weekly competition came from CBS's newsmagazine 60 Minutes . In 1975, an amendment to the Prime Time Access Rule gave the Sunday 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time slot back to the networks, allowing NBC to move Disney back by

31464-405: The same function that the anthology series served in the days before cable. The original opening titles were restored to the episodes in 1997. Reruns of the anthology series were discontinued when the channel exclude all vintage material with the removal of its Vault Disney late-night block on September 8, 2002. However, a few select episodes are available on VHS or DVD (some of which are exclusive to

31671-466: The same year, The Lion King was released and was a massive success, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of all time behind Jurassic Park and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross total of $ 969 million. It was critically praised and garnered two Academy Awards—Best Score and Best Song for " Can You Feel the Love Tonight ". Soon after its release, Katzenberg left

31878-414: The second iteration of the anthology series. The Disney Sunday Movie was also being run on the Disney Channel , also hosted by Eisner. In early 1988, NBC decided to renew its association with the company after it cut ties to the anthology series seven years earlier; the network brought the series, now named The Magical World of Disney , to serve as the lead-in of its Sunday lineup in September 1988. As

32085-543: The second theme park in Walt Disney World, with around 10,000 people in attendance during the opening. The park cost over $ 900 million to construct, and consisted of the Future World pavilion and World Showcase representing Mexico, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, France, the UK, and Canada; Morocco and Norway were added in 1984 and 1988, respectively. The animation industry continued to decline and 69% of

32292-445: The series a regular slot in the schedule. Disney CEO Eisner formed Disney Telefilms by 1995 to supply original films to the series and program together with ABC. It led ABC's Sunday night lineup at the 7:00 p.m. Eastern time slot, resulting in the displacement of Sunday mainstay America's Funniest Home Videos , which had occupied the slot since 1992. On September 28, 1997, the all-new The Wonderful World of Disney premiered with

32499-447: The series as an occasional special presentation from 2008 onward, the most recent being a holiday music special in 2019. In 2020, the series returned with movies from the Disney+ library. The show has had only two hosts, Disney co-founder Walt Disney and former Disney chairman and CEO Michael Eisner . The show is the second longest-running prime-time program on U.S. television, behind Hallmark Hall of Fame . The anthology series

32706-483: The series up to 1996 are listed in the Bill Cotter book The Wonderful World of Disney Television , which was released in 1997 by Hyperion Books (which was owned by the Walt Disney Company at the time of the book's publication). The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company , commonly referred to as simply Disney , is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at

32913-805: The series were presented without commercial interruption. The Magical World of Disney originally aired on the cable channel as a weekly Sunday-only program for its first 5½ years; but in December 1996, as part of the first phase of a programming revamp that culminated in its formal conversion into a commercial-free basic cable channel in April 1997, the Disney Channel expanded the Magical World brand to encompass its Monday through Saturday primetime film block, maintaining its 7:00 p.m. Eastern time slot. The Wonderful World of Disney returned in 1991 as an umbrella title for Disney specials airing on major networks (CBS airings used

33120-420: The series' format remained unchanged. During the 1981–1982 season, the series had a full season's worth of material again, but little of it was new. Among the little that actually was new were a handful of pilots based on Pollyanna , Escape to Witch Mountain , and The Apple Dumpling Gang , but only the last of the three pilots was sold and became the half-hour sitcom Gun Shy the following season, one of

33327-460: The series, and composed the music for early films but left the company after Iwerks' departure. In September, theater manager Harry Woodin requested permission to start a Mickey Mouse Club at his theater the Fox Dome to boost attendance. Disney agreed, but David E. Dow started the first-such club at Elsinore Theatre before Woodin could start his. On December 21, the first meeting at Elsinore Theatre

33534-432: The shares, forced out CEO Miller and replaced him with Michael Eisner , a former president of Paramount Pictures , and appointed Frank Wells as president. Eisner's first act was to make it a major film studio, which at the time it was not considered. Eisner appointed Jeffrey Katzenberg as chairman and Roy E. Disney as head of animation. Eisner wanted to produce an animated film every 18 months rather than four years, as

33741-435: The sound for a fifth Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Opry House , they also recorded the soundtrack for The Skeleton Dance , the type of short that Stalling had suggested and the first Silly Symphony cartoon. Within the animation industry, the series is known for its use by Walt Disney as a platform for experimenting with processes, techniques, characters, and stories in order to further the art of animation. It also provided

33948-405: The spotlight on Chip 'n' Dale, combining their theatrical cartoons with mixed media wrap-around footage including the chipmunks' own theme song. The episode's genre is a live action/animated musical comedy, and as the title suggests, it stars the titular chipmunks. At the end of the episode, Chip 'n' Dale say (singing) their goodbyes to the audience and return to their nut home on the counter hoping

34155-500: The stocks. He offered to buy 49% for $ 1.3 billion or the entire company for $ 2.75 billion. Disney, which had less than $ 10 million, rejected Steinberg's offer and offered to buy all of his stock for $ 326 million. Steinberg agreed, and Disney paid it all with part of a $ 1.3 billion bank loan, putting the company $ 866 million in debt. In 1984, shareholders Roy E. Disney, Sid Bass , Lillian and Diane Disney , and Irwin L. Jacobs —who together owned about 36% of

34362-405: The strip was published in 60 newspapers in the US, and in 20 other countries. After realizing releasing merchandise based on the characters would generate more revenue, a man in New York offered Disney $ 300 for license to put Mickey Mouse on writing tablets he was manufacturing. Disney accepted and Mickey Mouse became the first licensed character. In 1933, Disney asked Kay Kamen , the owner of

34569-579: The studio's 4th animated feature Dumbo (1941) on a cheaper budget, which performed well at the box office, infusing the studio with much needed cash. After US entry into World War II, many of the company's animators were drafted into the army. 500 United States Army soldiers occupied the studio for 8 months to protect a nearby Lockheed aircraft plant. While they were there, the soldiers fixed equipment in large soundstages and converted storage sheds into ammunition depots. The United States Navy asked Disney to produce propaganda films to gain support for

34776-432: The studio's best. Roy unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the company's main distributors to invest in the studio, which could no longer afford to offset production costs with employee layoffs. The anthology film The Reluctant Dragon (1941), ran $ 100,000 short of its production cost, contributing to the studio's financial woes. While negotiations to end the strike were underway, Walt and studio animators embarked on

34983-490: The studio's first entries in that genre but only lasted six episodes. The 1982–1983 season had enough material to fill the time slot, but almost all of it was pre-existing material, the lone exception being the celebrity-laden opening ceremony of Epcot on October 23. It also did not help matters that NBC slotted the family-friendly sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons at 8:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. up against it to draw children away from CBS. After moving to Tuesday at

35190-402: The studio's increasingly diverse portfolio of projects, including live-action films (of which Treasure Island was the studio's first), television and amusement parks . In 1950 the company made its first foray into television when NBC aired " One Hour in Wonderland ", a promotional program for Disney's next animated film, Alice in Wonderland (1951), and sponsored by Coca-Cola . Alice

35397-561: The studio. The final one, in 1923, was entitled Alice's Wonderland and depicted child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters. While Laugh-O-Gram's shorts were popular in Kansas City, the studio went bankrupt in 1923 and Disney moved to Los Angeles, to join his brother Roy O. Disney , who was recovering from tuberculosis . Shortly after Walt's move, New York film distributor Margaret J. Winkler purchased Alice's Wonderland , which began to gain popularity. Disney signed

35604-517: The task The Golden Touch was widely seen (even by Disney himself) as stiff and slowly paced. This motivated him to embrace his role as being the producer and providing creative oversight (especially of the story) for Snow White while tasking David Hand to handle the actual directing. Silly Symphonies brought along many imitators, including Warner Bros. cartoon series Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies , MGM's Happy Harmonies , and later, Universal's Swing Symphony . Years later after

35811-735: The theme park industry. The company, which has been public since 1940, trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with ticker symbol DIS and has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1991. In August 2020, about two-thirds of the stock was owned by large financial institutions. The company celebrated their 100th anniversary on October 16, 2023. In 1921, American animators Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks founded Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri . Iwerks and Disney went on to create short films at

36018-409: The title role. Millions of dollars of merchandise relating to the title character were sold, and the theme song, " The Ballad of Davy Crockett ", became a hit record that year. Three historically based hour-long programs aired during late 1954/early 1955, and were followed up by two dramatized installments the following year. The TV episodes were later edited into two theatrical films. On July 17, 1955,

36225-400: The top 20, until the mid-1970s. In 1976, Disney showed its hit 1961 film The Parent Trap on television for the first time, as a 2½-hour special. This marked a major step in broadcasting for the studio, which had never shown one of its more popular films on television in a time slot longer than an hour (although it had shown Now You See Him, Now You Don't and Napoleon and Samantha in

36432-428: The war, and with the studio badly in need of profits, Disney agreed, signing a contract for 20 war-related shorts for $ 90,000. Most of the company's employees worked on the project, which spawned films such as Victory Through Air Power , and others which included some of the company's characters. In August 1942, Disney released its fifth feature film, Bambi, after five years in development, and performed poorly at

36639-508: The water park Typhoon Lagoon in June 1989; in 2022 it had 1.9 million visitors and was the most popular water park in the world. Also in 1989, Disney signed an agreement-in-principle to acquire The Jim Henson Company from its founder. The deal included Henson's programming library and Muppet characters —excluding the Muppets created for Sesame Street —as well as Henson's personal creative services. Henson, however, died in May 1990 before

36846-507: The wicked Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp , or the barbershop quartet of lost dogs in the municipal Dog Pound); excerpts from a True-Life Adventure documentary might also be included (for example, one on the life and works of beavers and their dam-building) or those using stroboscopic stop-action photography (such as investigating what really happened when a rain-drop fell in a puddle, as part of

37053-402: The world had ever seen". In June 1955, Disney's 15th animated film Lady and the Tramp was released and performed better at the box office than any other Disney films since Snow White . Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955; it was a major media event, broadcast live on ABC with actors Art Linkletter , Bob Cummings , and Ronald Reagan hosting. It garnered over 90 million viewers, becoming

37260-412: Was Walt's dream. EPCOT became less the City of Tomorrow, and more another amusement park. After 18 months of construction at a cost of around $ 400 million, Walt Disney World's first park the Magic Kingdom, along with Disney's Contemporary Resort and Disney's Polynesian Resort , opened on October 1, 1971, with 10,400 visitors. A parade with over 1,000 band members, 4,000 Disney entertainers, and

37467-491: Was a response to other Science fiction films of the era. In September, 12 animators, which was over 15% of the department, resigned. Led by Don Bluth , they left because of a conflict with the training program and the atmosphere, and started their own company Don Bluth Productions . In 1981, Disney released Dumbo to VHS and Alice in Wonderland the following year, leading Disney to eventually release all its films on home media. On July 24, Walt Disney's World on Ice ,

37674-436: Was an immediate critical and commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing film up to that point, grossing $ 8 million (equivalent to $ 169,555,556 in 2023 dollars); after re-releases, it grossed a total of $ 998,440,000 in the US adjusted for inflation. Using the profits from Snow White , Disney financed the construction of a new 51-acre studio complex in Burbank , which the company fully moved into in 1940 and where

37881-480: Was an outgrowth of Walt Disney looking for funding for Disneyland with his brother Roy Disney approaching all the big-three networks with American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres taking the deal for programming for ABC. Although Walt Disney was the first major film producer to venture into television, two established independent film producers successfully ventured into television production before Disney, Hal Roach and Jerry Fairbanks . Disney wanted to produce

38088-539: Was an outright flop in its initial theatrical release) were also aired on the program in the form of two-hour broadcasts that year. However, the multiepisode format for feature films had not been discontinued; as late as 1981, films such as Pollyanna were still being shown on the Disney program in several installments running a week apart. During the early 1970s, the show began to increasingly concentrate less on animated cartoons and dramatic or comedy films, and began to place an emphasis on nature-oriented programs (such as

38295-574: Was announced that the program would return on May 3, 2021, for five weeks with a series of theatrical movies from the Disney+ library, which includes the broadcast television premieres of Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory , Monsters, Inc. , Tangled and The Princess and the Frog . On October 28, 2021, the program returned with the broadcast television premiere of the 2019 Disney/Pixar film Toy Story 4 . Hocus Pocus aired on September 29, 2022, to promote Hocus Pocus 2 , which premiered on Disney+

38502-535: Was attended by around 1,200 children. On July 24, 1930, Joseph Conley, president of King Features Syndicate , wrote to the Disney studio and asked the company to produce a Mickey Mouse comic strip; production started in November and samples were sent to King Features. On December 16, 1930, the Walt Disney Studios partnership was reorganized as a corporation with the name Walt Disney Productions, Limited, which had

38709-514: Was beyond the control of either Disney or NBC was a 94-day strike by the Screen Actors' Guild that cut the number of shows for the 1980–1981 season, but the damage was done nonetheless. Following NBC's announcement that it would drop the anthology series, CBS picked up the program and began airing it on Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, in September 1981. Despite a more elaborate credit sequence and another title change, to simply Walt Disney ,

38916-407: Was broadcast weekly on one of the Big Three television networks until 1983. After a two-year hiatus it resumed, running regularly until 1991. From 1991 until 1997, the series aired infrequently. The program resumed a regular schedule in 1997 on the ABC fall schedule, coinciding with Disney's purchase of ABC in 1996. From 1997 to 2008, the program aired regularly on ABC. Since then, ABC has continued

39123-478: Was dropped in 1994 due to Optus Vision (later Foxtel )'s launch of a domestic version of the Disney Channel , with Saturday Disney replacing it as the channel's main block of Disney films. 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, television series, and films, basically serving

39330-470: Was expected to do well, the company lost $ 48 million after its first year, with around 916,000 subscribers. In 1983, Walt's son-in-law Ron W. Miller , who had been president since 1978, became its CEO, and Raymond Watson became chairman. Miller wanted the studio to produce more content for mature audiences, and Disney founded film distribution label Touchstone Pictures to produce movies geared toward adults and teenagers in 1984. Splash (1984)

39537-411: Was financially unsuccessful, falling $ 1 million short of the production budget. In February 1953, Disney's next animated film Peter Pan was released to financial success; it was the last Disney film distributed by RKO after Disney ended its contract and created its own distribution company Buena Vista Distribution . According to Walt, he first had the idea of building an amusement park during

39744-417: Was first distributed by Pat Powers from 1929 to 1930 and released by Celebrity Productions (1929–1930) indirectly through Columbia Pictures . The original basis of the cartoons was musical novelty, and the musical scores of the first cartoons were composed by Carl Stalling . After viewing "The Skeleton Dance", the manager at Columbia Pictures quickly became interested in distributing the series, and gained

39951-593: Was formed in 1952 to design and construct the park. Drawing inspiration from amusement parks in the US and Europe, Walt approached the design of Disneyland with an emphasis on thematic storytelling and cleanliness, innovative approaches for amusement parks of the time. The plan to build the park in Burbank was abandoned when Walt realized 8 acres would not be enough to accomplish his vision. Disney acquired 160 acres (65 ha) of orange groves in Anaheim , southeast of LA in neighboring Orange County , at $ 6,200 per acre to build

40158-640: Was in charge of the program. Help Wanted: Kids was the first episode's film. Other first revival year films were, Young Again , The Richest Cat in the World , I-Man (starring Scott Bakula), and My Town . Sometimes the slot would feature a special instead of dramatic material, such as "Disney Goes to the Oscars" featuring the studio's Academy Award winners, and "The Greatest Moments in Disney Animation". A handful of Disney Channel original films made their network television debuts during these iteration as well, but

40365-459: Was one of the financially successful comedies of the early 1990s, grossing $ 231 million; action film Con Air (1997), which grossed $ 224 million; and the highest-grossing film of 1998 at $ 553 million Armageddon . At Disney World, the company opened Disney's Animal Kingdom , the largest theme park in the world covering 580 acres (230 ha) on Earth Day , April 22, 1998. It had six animal-themed lands, over 2,000 animals, and

40572-468: Was one of the first stereo simulcasts on TV; in this case it was 3 channel stereo. FM radio stations across the country carried the left channel at the same time as ABC broadcast the TV show in mono, which served as a center channel, and AM radio stations broadcast the right channel. In the second half of the show, a lengthy clip of Sleeping Beauty was shown, with its 6 channels (70mm version) mixed down into 3 for

40779-402: Was organized in 1985, financed films for Disney with $ 193 million. In January 1987, Silver Screen Partners III began financing movies for Disney with $ 300 million raised by E.F. Hutton , the largest amount raised for a film-financing limited partnership. Silver Screen IV was also set up to finance Disney's studios. In 1986, the company changed its name from Walt Disney Productions to

40986-460: Was postponed. Despite Pinocchio 's critical acclaim (it won the Academy Awards for Best Song and Best Score and was lauded for groundbreaking achievements in animation), the film performed poorly at the box office, due to World War II affecting the international box office. The company's third feature Fantasia (1940) introduced groundbreaking advancements in cinema technology, chiefly Fantasound , an early surround sound system making it

41193-664: Was released in 1970; according to Dave Kehr of Chicago Tribune , "the absence of his [Walt's] hand is evident". The following year, the anti-fascist musical Bedknobs and Broomsticks was released and won the Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects . At the time of Walt's death, Roy was ready to retire but wanted to keep Walt's legacy alive; he became the first CEO and chairman of the company. In May 1967, Roy had legislation passed by Florida's legislatures to grant Disney World its own quasi-government agency in an area called Reedy Creek Improvement District . Roy changed Disney World's name to Walt Disney World to remind people it

41400-422: Was released in 1977, grossing $ 16 million in the US and Canada, but was a disappointment to the company. In 1979, Disney's first PG-rated film and most expensive film to that point at $ 26 million The Black Hole was released, showing Disney could use special effects. It grossed $ 35 million, a disappointment to the company, which thought it would be a hit like Star Wars (1977). The Black Hole

41607-624: Was released in 2007 on Disney Channel and broke several cable rating records. In April 2007, the Muppets Holding Company was moved from Disney Consumer Products to the Walt Disney Studios division and renamed the Muppets Studios to relaunch the division. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End became the highest-grossing film of 2007 at $ 960 million. Disney-Pixar films Ratatouille (2007) and WALL-E (2008) were

41814-626: Was released on November 11, 1992, and grossed $ 504 million, becoming the highest-grossing animated film to that point, and the first animated film to gross a half-billion dollars. It won two Academy Awards—Best Song for " A Whole New World " and Best Score; and "A Whole New World" was the first-and-only Disney song to win the Grammy for Song of the Year . For $ 60 million, Disney broadened its range of mature-audience films by acquiring independent film distributor Miramax Films in 1993. The same year, in

42021-469: Was released on November 13, garnering praise and $ 511 million at the box office. To replace Ovitz, Eisner named ABC network chief Bob Iger Disney's president and chief operating officer in January 2000. In November, Disney sold DIC Entertainment back to Andy Heyward . Disney had another huge success with Pixar when they released Monsters, Inc. in 2001. Later, Disney bought children's cable network Fox Family Worldwide for $ 3 billion and

42228-432: Was released on November 16, 1990, and created using Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), digital software developed by Disney and Pixar —the computer division of Lucasfilm —becoming the first feature film to be entirely created digitally. Although the film struggled in the box office, grossing $ 47 million, it received positive reviews. In 1991, Disney and Pixar agreed to a deal to make three films together,

42435-444: Was retitled Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color when NBC began airing it. The first NBC episode even dealt with the principles of color, as explained by a new character named Ludwig Von Drake (voiced by Paul Frees ), a bumbling professor with a thick German accent, who was the uncle of Donald Duck . Von Drake was the first Disney character created specifically for television. Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, 12 years after

42642-534: Was the first film released under the label, and a much-needed success, grossing over $ 6 million in its first week. Disney's first R-rated film Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) was released and was another hit, grossing $ 62 million. The following year, Disney's first PG-13 rated film Adventures in Babysitting was released. In 1984, Saul Steinberg attempted to buy out the company, holding 11% of

42849-709: Was then the 2nd-largest corporate takeover in US history. Through the deal, Disney would obtain broadcast network ABC, an 80% majority stake in sports networks ESPN and ESPN 2 , 50% in Lifetime Television , a majority stake of DIC Entertainment , and a 38% minority stake in A&;E Television Networks . Following the deal, the company started Radio Disney , a youth-focused radio program on ABC Radio Network , on November 18, 1996. The Walt Disney Company launched its official website disney.com on February 22, 1996, mainly to promote its theme parks and merchandise. On June 19,

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