Portal:Disney

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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 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 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 Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox. 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, 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 the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Selected article

Test Track is a high-speed slot car thrill ride located in World Discovery at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The ride is a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that General Motors uses to evaluate its concept cars, culminating in a high-speed drive around the exterior of the attraction. The attraction soft-opened to the public on December 19, 1998, after a long delay due to problems revealed during testing and to changes in design. As a result, the attraction officially opened on March 17, 1999. Test Track replaced the World of Motion ride, which closed three years earlier in 1996.

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

Randy Cartwright at the Disney Studio in 1991.

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

Image 1Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 2Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 3Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 4The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 5Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 6Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 7Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 8One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 9Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 10Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 11One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney regained the rights to in 2006. The initial run of Oswald shorts by Disney have all entered the public domain as of January 1, 2024. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 12View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 13Disney in 1956 (from Walt Disney)
Image 14Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 15The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 16Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 17Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 18Mickey's Toontown
(pictured in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 19Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 20Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of the Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 21Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 22Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 23A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 24An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 25Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 26Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland in 2008. (from Disneyland)
Image 27Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 28Disney (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)
Image 29New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion in the background and Fantasmic! viewing area in the foreground in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 30Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 31Disney receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 from President Lyndon B. Johnson. (from Walt Disney)
Image 32Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 33An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 34The original animation building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 35The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 36Adventureland entrance
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 37Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 38Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 39Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 40Bayou Country
(Tiana's Bayou Adventure) (from Disneyland)
Image 41Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 42Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 43The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 44Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 45Disney in 1954 with Wernher von Braun (from Walt Disney)
Image 46Disney'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 47Walt (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 48Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 49Disney with film roll and Mickey Mouse on his right arm in 1935 (from Walt Disney)
Image 50Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 51Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 52Team 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 53Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 54Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 55Disney next to a cat and a drawing of Mickey Mouse (by Harris & Ewing), 1931 (from Walt Disney)
Image 56Walt 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 57The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 58Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 59Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 60Overlay 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 61The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 62Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 63Characters from Alice in Wonderland host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist in 2005. (from Disneyland)
Image 64A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guests to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)

Selected biography

Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has since grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for Marvel Comics and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by LucasArts as an artist and animator in 1988, working on several titles within the company's adventure games era. Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. His main work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials such as shorts and video games. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?
... that a revival of the comedy series Lizzie McGuire was ordered in 2019, but canceled mid-production after Disney deemed it not family-friendly enough?
... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
... that Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company alleging that the release strategy for Black Widow breached her contract?
... that some TikTokers make videos about whether to smash or pass Disney characters?

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More selected quotes • More at Wikiquote

More Did you know...

...that Harriet Burns designed the original prototype models of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, Pirates of the Caribbean and New Orleans Square?

...that Alan Wagner, the first president of the Disney Channel, was also an opera critic and radio personality?

...that Disneyland has only ever had three unscheduled closures: In 1963 due to President Kennedy's Assassination; In August 1970 due to an invasion by Yippies and September 11, 2001.
...that there is something called a Hidden Mickey, a hidden silhouette of Mickey's ears inserted into many Disney feature films?
... that Disney CEO Michael Eisner was struck with inspiration for the show, Adventures of the Gummi Bears when his son requested gummi bear candies one day.

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