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Walt Disney Animation Studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS),[6] sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney,[1] it is the oldest-running animation studio in the world. It is currently organized as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.[7] Since its foundation, the studio has produced 62 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Wish (2023),[8] and hundreds of short films.

Formerly

  • Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (1923–26)
  • Walt Disney Studio (1926–29)
  • Walt Disney Productions (1929–86)
  • Walt Disney Feature Animation (1986–2007)

October 16, 1923 (1923-10-16) (as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio)

Founded as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923, renamed Walt Disney Studio in 1926 and incorporated as Walt Disney Productions in 1929, the studio was dedicated to producing short films until it entered feature production in 1934, resulting in 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, one of the first full-length animated feature films and the first U.S.-based one. In 1986, during a large corporate restructuring, Walt Disney Productions, which had grown from a single animation studio into an international media conglomerate, was renamed The Walt Disney Company and the animation studio became Walt Disney Feature Animation in order to differentiate it from the company's other divisions. Its current name was adopted in 2006 after Pixar was acquired by Disney.


For many people, Disney Animation is synonymous with animation, for "in no other medium has a single company's practices been able to dominate aesthetic norms" to such an overwhelming extent.[9] The studio was recognized as the premier American animation studio for much of its existence[10] and was "for many decades the undisputed world leader in animated features";[11] it developed many of the techniques, concepts and principles that became standard practices of traditional animation.[12] The studio also pioneered the art of storyboarding, which is now a standard technique used in both animated and live-action filmmaking.[13] The studio's catalog of animated features is among Disney's most notable assets, with the stars of its animated shorts—Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto—becoming recognizable figures in popular culture and mascots for the Walt Disney Company as a whole.


Three of the studio's films—Frozen (2013), Zootopia (2016), and Frozen II (2019)—are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with the latter becoming the second-highest-grossing animated feature film of all time. It also had the highest-grossing worldwide opening of all time for an animated feature film up until the release of Nintendo and Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).


By 2013, the studio was no longer developing hand-drawn animated features as a result of 3D computer animation being more profitable, and had laid off most of their hand-drawn animation division.[14][15] However, the studio stated in 2019 and 2023 that they would be open to proposals from filmmakers for future hand-drawn feature projects.[16][17]

Studio[edit]

Management[edit]

Walt Disney Animation Studios is currently managed by Jennifer Lee (Chief Creative Officer, June 2018–present) and Clark Spencer (President, August 2019–present). Stacey Snider is CEO, John Nallen is COO, Viet Dinh is CLO, Steve Tomsic is CFO (previously 20th Century Fox, now part of Disney), John Gelke is VP Global Operations, J Young is SVP Growth, Gerard Devan is Group Executive APAC, Stephanie Gruber is Group Executive Television and Christopher Greavu is Vice President of Sales.


Former presidents of the studio include Andrew Millstein (November 2014–July 2019),[3][276] Edwin Catmull (June 2007–July 2019), David Stainton (January 2003–January 2006), Thomas Schumacher (January 1999–December 2002), and Peter Schneider (1985–January 1999).[333]


Other Disney executives who also exercised much influence within the studio were John Lasseter (2006–18, Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney Animation Studios), Roy E. Disney (1985–2003, Chairman, Walt Disney Animation Studios), Jeffrey Katzenberg (1984–94, Chairman, The Walt Disney Studios), Michael Eisner (1984–2005, CEO, The Walt Disney Company), and Frank Wells (1984–94, President and COO, The Walt Disney Company). Following Roy Disney's death in 2009, the WDAS headquarters in Burbank was re-dedicated as the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in May 2010.[334]

The Walt Disney Company

Disney's Nine Old Men

12 basic principles of animation

Walt Disney Home Video (VHS)

Walt Disney Treasures

Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life

Modern animation in the United States: Disney

Animation studios owned by The Walt Disney Company

Disneytoon Studios

Circle Seven Animation

Pixar

Blue Sky Studios

20th Century Animation

List of Disney theatrical animated feature films

Disney Television Animation

List of animation studios

Barrier, Michael (1999). . New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198020790. OCLC 436041091.

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age

(2006), Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, New York: Random House, ISBN 0-679-43822-X

Gabler, Neal

(2005), DisneyWar, New York: Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-684-80993-1

Stewart, James

Polsson, Ken. . KPolsson.com.

"Chronology of the Walt Disney Company"

Edit this at Wikidata

Official website

on YouTube

Walt Disney Animation Studios's channel