Portal:Disney
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Introduction
The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing its name to the Walt Disney Company in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.
After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.
The company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, Star+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)
Selected article
Originally, guests rode in "test vehicles" in a GM "testing facility" through a series of assessments to illustrate how automobile prototype evaluations were conducted. The highlight of the attraction is a speed trial on a track around the exterior of the building at a top speed of 64.9 miles per hour (104.4 km/h) making it the fastest Disney theme park attraction ever built. Test Track closed for refurbishment on April 15, 2012, and re-opened on December 6, 2012. It is now sponsored by the Chevrolet brand instead of General Motors as a whole. Guests now design their own car in the Chevrolet Design Studio. Then they board a "Sim-Car" and are taken through the "digital" testing ground of the "SimTrack". Throughout the ride, guests see how their designs performed in each test. After the ride, guests can see how their car did overall, film a commercial, race their designs, and have a picture taken with their own virtually designed vehicle with a chosen backdrop in the background.
Selected image
General images - load new batch
- Image 1The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 2Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 4One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 5Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
- Image 6Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 7Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 9An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 10The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 11A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
- Image 12View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 14Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
- Image 15The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
- Image 17Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 18Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 19Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 21Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland) - Image 22Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 23Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
- Image 24Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 25Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
- Image 26Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 27Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 28Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 29Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland) - Image 30The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 31An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
- Image 32Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
- Image 33Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 36Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. (from Disneyland)
- Image 37Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
- Image 38Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 39The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 40Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 42Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
- Image 43One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney lost the rights to until 2006. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 44Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 45Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 46Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
- Image 47Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 48Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist. (from Disneyland)
- Image 49The Sherman Brothers, who composed many of the Disney songs throughout the 1960s (pictured in 2002) (from The Walt Disney Company)
- Image 51The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
- Image 52A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guest to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
- Image 54Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
- Image 55Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
- Image 57New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion in the background and Fantasmic! viewing area in the foreground in 2010) (from Disneyland) - Image 58Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
- Image 59Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Selected biography
Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing. He took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy. With Ub Iwerks, he developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success; he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, he became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons and technical developments in cameras. The results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio, Fantasia (both 1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942), furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella (1950) and Mary Poppins (1964), the latter of which received five Academy Awards.
In the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in July 1955 he opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. To fund the project he diversified into television programs, such as Walt Disney's Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club. He was also involved in planning the 1959 Moscow Fair, the 1960 Winter Olympics, and the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1965, he began development of another theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city, the "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT). Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his life and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed.
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
- ... that before the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Manhattan opened, its workers were sent to Walt Disney World for training?
- ... that vaccine coverage at schools around the Disneyland Resort was too low for herd immunity when measles broke out in 2014?
- ... that Disney once created a political advertisement for Dwight D. Eisenhower (featured)?
- ... that, for the Space 220 Restaurant, Disney reached out to NASA engineers to understand what a space elevator might look like?
- ... that Encanto's Mirabel is the first Disney heroine to wear glasses?
Selected quote
— Zummi, "A New Beginning" - Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears |
More Did you know...
- ...that Joyce Carlson, designer of the Disney theme park attraction "It's a Small World", was the first female employee to achieve a fifty-year service record with Disney?
- ...that Tomorrow's Pioneers is a television program for children produced by Hamas?
- ...that Newsies is based on the true story of the Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City.
- ...that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest set several records in its first three days, with an opening weekend of $136 million.
- ... that in 1989, a black-and-white drawing from Walt Disney's "Orphan's Benefit" (USA 1934), depicting Donald Duck being punched by an orphan, raised $280,000 at Christie's London, England.
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- Requested articles: Walt Disney's Fun-to-Read Library, More...
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