Walt Disney Animation Studios
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Redirect Template:Redirect Template:Redirect-distinguish Template:Use mdy dates {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }} Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that produces animated feature films 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 after the closure of Laugh-O-Gram Studio,<ref name="thewaltdisneycompany1" /> it is the longest-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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since its foundation, the studio has produced 63 feature films, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), which is also the first hand drawn animated feature film, to Moana 2 (2024),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and hundreds of short films.
Founded as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (DBCS) in 1923, renamed Walt Disney Studio (WDS) in 1926 and incorporated as Walt Disney Productions (WDP) 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 (WDFA) in order to differentiate it from the company's other divisions. Its current name was adopted in 2006 after Pixar Animation Studios 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.<ref name="Furniss_Page_107">Template:Cite book</ref> The studio was recognized as the premier American animation studio for much of its existence<ref name="Cavalier_Page_14">Template:Cite book</ref> and was "for many decades the undisputed world leader in animated features";<ref name="Cavalier_Page_78">Template:Cite book</ref> it developed many of the techniques, concepts and principles that became standard practices of traditional animation.<ref name="training">Template:Harvnb.</ref> The studio also pioneered the art of storyboarding, which is now a standard technique used in both animated and live-action filmmaking, as well as television shows and video games.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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), Frozen 2 (2019), and the aforementioned Moana 2—are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Frozen 2 becoming the fourth-highest-grossing animated feature film of all time.
By 2013, the studio had no hand-drawn animated features in development as a result of their computer animated films performing better at the box office, and had laid off a large portion of their hand-drawn animators.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, the studio stated in 2019 and 2023 that they are open to proposals from filmmakers for future hand-drawn feature projects.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In addition, in April 2022, Eric Goldberg, a hand-drawn animator who has been working with the studio since 1992, confirmed plans within the Disney studio to once again return to hand-drawn animation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
HistoryEdit
1923–1929: Early yearsEdit
Kansas City, Missouri, natives Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney founded Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Angeles in 1923 and got their start producing a series of silent Alice Comedies short films featuring a live-action child actress in an animated world.<ref name="Alice">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Alice Comedies were distributed by Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictures, which later also distributed a second Disney short subject series, the all-animated Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, through Universal Pictures starting in 1927.<ref name=Alice /><ref name=oswald>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upon relocating to California, the Disney brothers initially started working in their uncle Robert Disney's garage at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, then, in October 1923, formally launched their studio in a small office on the rear side of a real estate agency's office at 4651 Kingswell Avenue. In February 1924, the studio moved next door to office space of its own at 4649 Kingswell Avenue. In 1925, Disney put down a deposit on a new location at 2719 Hyperion Avenue in the nearby Silver Lake neighborhood, which came to be known as the Hyperion Studio to distinguish it from the studio's other locations, and, in January 1926, the studio moved there and took on the name Walt Disney Studio.<ref name=Hist>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Meanwhile, after the first year's worth of Oswalds, Walt Disney attempted to renew his contract with Winkler Pictures, but Charles Mintz, who had taken over Margaret Winkler's business after marrying her, wanted to force Disney to accept a lower advance payment for each Oswald short. Disney refused and, as Universal owned the rights to Oswald rather than Disney, Mintz set up his own animation studio to produce Oswald cartoons. Most of Disney's staff was hired away by Mintz to move over once Disney's Oswald contract expired in mid-1928.<ref name="gabler109">Template:Harvnb</ref>
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Working in secret while the rest of the staff finished the remaining Oswalds on contract, Disney and his head animator Ub Iwerks led a small handful of loyal staffers in producing cartoons starring a new character named Mickey Mouse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho, were previewed in limited engagements during the summer of 1928. For the third Mickey cartoon, however, Disney produced a soundtrack, collaborating with musician Carl Stalling and businessman Pat Powers, who provided Disney with his bootlegged "Cinephone" sound-on-film process. Subsequently, the third Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willie, became Disney's first cartoon with synchronized sound and was a major success upon its November 1928 debut at the West 57th Theatre in New York City.<ref name="gabler128">Template:Harvnb</ref> The Mickey Mouse series of sound cartoons, distributed by Powers through Celebrity Productions, quickly became the most popular cartoon series in the United States.<ref name="gabler129">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="DisneyMuseum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A second Disney series of sound cartoons, Silly Symphonies, debuted in 1929 with The Skeleton Dance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In total, five different shorts from the Silly Symphonies series were released by the end of 1929. All were scored by Stalling and involved animation by Iwerks.
1929–1940: Reincorporation, Silly Symphonies and Snow White and the Seven DwarfsEdit
In 1929, disputes over finances between Disney and Powers led to Disney's animation production company, reincorporated on December 16, 1929, as Walt Disney Productions, signing a new distribution contract with Columbia Pictures.Template:Sfn<ref name="ChWDC">
- The Disney Touch, by Ron Grover, 1991.
- Disneyana: Walt Disney Collectibles, by Cecil Munsey, 1974. p. 31.
- The Disney Studio Story, by Richard Holliss & Brian Sibley, 1988.
- Building a Company – Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, by Bob Thomas, 1998. p. 137.</ref><ref name=NewDeal>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Powers, in return, signed away Ub Iwerks, who began producing cartoons at his own studio, although he would return to Disney in 1940.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Columbia distributed Disney's shorts for two years before the Disney studio entered a new distribution deal with United Artists in 1932. The same year, Disney signed a two-year exclusive deal with Technicolor to utilize its new 3-strip color film process,<ref name=Color_coming>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which allowed for fuller-color reproduction where previous color film processors could not.<ref name="HistoryofColorFilm">Template:Cite AV mediaTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The result was the Silly Symphony cartoon Flowers and Trees, the first film commercially released in full Technicolor.<ref name="HistoryofColorFilm" /><ref name=Flowers>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Flowers and Trees was a major success<ref name="HistoryofColorFilm" /><ref name="first Academy Award">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and all Silly Symphonies were subsequently produced in Technicolor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
By the early 1930s, Walt Disney had realized that the success of animated films depended upon telling emotionally gripping stories that would grab the audience and not let go,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and this realization led him to create a separate "story department" with storyboard artists dedicated to story development.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> With well-developed characters and an interesting story, the 1933 Technicolor Silly Symphony cartoon Three Little Pigs became a major box office and pop culture success,<ref name="HistoryofColorFilm" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with its theme song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" becoming a popular chart hit.<ref name=MTk>Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1934, Walt Disney gathered several key staff members and announced his plans to make his first animated feature film. Despite derision from most of the film industry, who dubbed the production "Disney's Folly", Disney proceeded undaunted into the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,<ref name="disneysfolly">Template:Cite book</ref> which would become the first animated feature in English and Technicolor. Considerable training and development went into the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the studio greatly expanded, with established animators, artists from other fields and recent college graduates joining the studio to work on the film. The training classes, supervised by head animators such as Les Clark, Norm Ferguson and Art Babbit and taught by Donald W. Graham, an art teacher from the nearby Chouinard Art Institute,<ref name="training" /><ref name="disneysfolly" /> had begun at the studio in 1932 and were greatly expanded into orientation training and continuing education classes.<ref name="training" /><ref name="disneysfolly" /> In the course of teaching the classes, Graham and the animators created or formalized many of the techniques and processes that became the key tenets and principles of traditional animation.<ref name="training" /> Silly Symphonies such as The Goddess of Spring (1934) and The Old Mill (1937) served as experimentation grounds for new techniques such as the animation of realistic human figures, special effects animation and the use of the multiplane camera,<ref name="multiplane">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> an invention that split animation artwork layers into several planes, allowing the camera to appear to move dimensionally through an animated scene.<ref name="TheOldMillMultiplane">Thomas, Bob. Walt Disney: An American Original. Simon & Schuster, 1976, p. 134.</ref>
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs cost Disney a then-expensive sum of $1.4 million to complete (including $100,000 on story development alone) and was an unprecedented success when released in February 1938 by RKO Radio Pictures, which had assumed distribution of Disney product from United Artists in 1937. It was briefly the highest-grossing film of all time before the unprecedented success of Gone with the Wind two years later,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Sfn grossing over $8 million on its initial release, the equivalent of $Template:Inflation in 1999 dollars.Template:Sfn
During the production of Snow White, work had continued on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series of shorts. Mickey Mouse switched to Technicolor in 1935, by which time the series had added several major supporting characters, among them Mickey's dog, Pluto, and their friends Donald Duck and Goofy. Donald, Goofy, and Pluto would all be appearing in series of their own by 1940, and the Donald Duck cartoons eclipsed the Mickey Mouse series in popularity.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Silly Symphonies, which garnered seven Academy Awards, ceased in 1939, until the shorts returned to theatres with some re-issues and re-releases.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1940–1948: New feature films, strike and World War IIEdit
The success of Snow White allowed Disney to build a new, larger studio on Buena Vista Street in Burbank, where the Walt Disney Company remains headquartered to this day. Walt Disney Productions had its initial public offering on April 2, 1940, with Walt Disney as president and Roy Disney as CEO.<ref name=waltdisneyipo>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The studio launched into the production of new animated features, the first of which was Pinocchio, released in February 1940. Pinocchio was not initially a box office success.<ref name="BarrierPinocchio123">Template:Harvnb.</ref> The box office returns from the film's initial release were below both Snow White's unprecedented success and the studio's expectations.<ref name="BarrierPinocchio123"/><ref name="BobThomasPinocchio">Template:Cite book</ref> Of the film's $2.289 million cost – twice of Snow White – Disney recouped $1 million by late 1940, with studio reports of the film's final original box office take varying between $1.4 million and $1.9 million.<ref name="BarrierPinocchio1111">Template:Harvnb.</ref> However, Pinocchio was a critical success, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, making it the first film of the studio to win not only either Oscar, but both at the same time.<ref name=Roberts1>Template:Cite book</ref>
Fantasia, an experimental film produced to an accompanying orchestral arrangement conducted by Leopold Stokowski, was released in November 1940 by Disney itself in a series of limited-seating roadshow engagements. The film cost $2 million to produce and, although the film earned $1.4 million in its roadshow engagements,<ref name="EpicsBook">Template:Cite book</ref> the high cost ($85,000 per theater)<ref name="EpicsBook" /> of installing Fantasound placed Fantasia at a greater loss than Pinocchio.Template:Sfn RKO assumed distribution of Fantasia in 1941,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> later reissuing it in severely edited versions over the years.Template:Sfn<ref>Disney, Roy E., Levine, James, Canemaker, John, and MacQueen, Scott (2000). DVD audio commentary for Fantasia [DVD]. Walt Disney Home Entertainment</ref> Despite its financial failure, Fantasia was the subject of two Academy Honorary Awards on February 26, 1942 – one for the development of the innovative Fantasound system used to create the film's stereoscopic soundtrack, and the other for Stokowski and his contributions to the film.<ref>Holden, p. 584.</ref> Fantasia was the final Disney animated film to be completed at the Hyperion Studio of the Walt Disney Studios (Walt Disney Productions) in Los Angeles.
Much of the character animation on these productions and all subsequent features until the late 1970s was supervised by a brain-trust of animators Walt Disney dubbed the "Nine Old Men", many of whom also served as directors and later producers on the Disney features: Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Woolie Reitherman, Les Clark, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Milt Kahl, and Marc Davis.<ref name="NOM">Template:Cite book</ref> Other head animators at Disney during this period included Norm Ferguson, Bill Tytla and Fred Moore. The development of the feature animation department created a caste system at the Disney studio: lesser animators (and feature animators in-between assignments) were assigned to work on the short subjects, while animators higher in status such as the Nine Old Men worked on the features. Concern over Walt Disney accepting credit for the artists' work as well as debates over compensation led to many of the newer and lower-ranked animators seeking to unionize the Disney studio.Template:Sfn
A bitter union strike began in May 1941, which was resolved without the angered Walt Disney's involvement in July and August of that year.Template:Sfn As Walt Disney Productions was being set up as a union shop,Template:Sfn Walt Disney and several studio employees were sent by the U.S. government on a Good Neighbor policy trip to Central and South America.<ref name="gabler371">Template:Harvnb</ref> The Disney strike and its aftermath led to an exodus of several animation professionals from the studio, from top-level animators such as Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla to artists better known for their work outside the Disney studio such as Frank Tashlin, Maurice Noble, Walt Kelly, Bill Melendez, and John Hubley.Template:Sfn Hubley, along with several other Disney strikers, went on to found the United Productions of America studio, Disney's key animation rival in the 1950s.Template:Sfn
Dumbo, in production during the midst of the animators' strike, premiered in October 1941 and proved to be a financial success. The film cost $950,000 to produce, half the cost of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, less than a third of the cost of Pinocchio, and two-fifths of the cost of Fantasia. Dumbo eventually grossed $1.6 million during its original release.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dumbo was the first Disney animated film to be completed at the original Animation Building of the Walt Disney Studios (Walt Disney Productions) in Burbank, California. In August 1942, Bambi was released and, as with Pinocchio and Fantasia, did not perform well at the box office. Out of its $1.7 million budget, it grossed $1.64 million.Template:Sfn
Production of full-length animated features was temporarily suspended after the release of Bambi. Given the financial failures of some of the recent features and World War II cutting off much of the overseas cinema market, the studio's financiers at the Bank of America would only loan the studio working capital if it temporarily restricted itself to shorts production.<ref name="gabler375">Template:Harvnb</ref> Features then in production such as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Lady and the Tramp were therefore put on hold until after the war.<ref name="gabler375" /> Following the United States' entry into World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the studio housed over 500 U.S. Army soldiers who were responsible for protecting nearby aircraft factories from enemy bombers. In addition, several Disney animators were drafted to fight in the war and the studio was contracted on producing wartime content for every branch of the U.S. military, particularly military training, and civilian propaganda films. From 1942 to 1943, 95 percent of the studio's animation output was for the military.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During the war, Disney produced the live-action/animated military propaganda feature Victory Through Air Power (1943),<ref name="gabler394" /> and a series of Latin culture-themed shorts resulting from the 1941 Good Neighbor trip were compiled into two features, Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944).<ref name="gabler394">Template:Harvnb</ref>
Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros set the template for several other 1940s Disney releases of "package films": low-budgeted films composed of animated short subjects with animated or live-action bridging material.<ref name="Disney Films 3rd ed p44">Leonard Maltin, Référence:The Disney Films (Leonard Maltin)#3rd Edition The Disney Films: 3rd Edition, Template:P.</ref><ref name="Disney and Europe p175">Robin Allan, Walt Disney and Europe, Template:P..</ref> These films were Make Mine Music (1946), Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time (1948) and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The studio also produced two features, Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1948), which used more expansive live-action stories which still included animated sequences and sequences combining live-action and animated characters. Song of the South, however, would go on to have historical notability due to its now controversial depiction of happy plantation workers. Due to this, the film is not available on Disney+. Shorts production continued during this period as well, with Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pluto cartoons being the main output accompanied by cartoons starring Mickey Mouse, Figaro and, in the 1950s, Chip 'n' Dale and Humphrey the Bear.<ref name="maltin364">Template:Harvnb</ref>
In addition, Disney began reissuing the previous features, beginning with re-releases of Snow White in 1944,<ref name="reissues">Template:Cite book</ref> Pinocchio in 1945, and Fantasia in 1946.<ref>"Re-Release Schedule" feature from The Fantasia Legacy DVD. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2000)</ref> This led to a tradition of reissuing the Disney films every seven years, which lasted into the 1990s before being translated into the studio's handling of home video releases.<ref name="reissues" />
1948–1966: Return of feature films, Buena Vista, end of shorts, layoffs and Walt's final yearsEdit
In 1948, Disney returned to the production of full-length features with Cinderella, a feature film based on the fairy tale by Charles Perrault. At a cost of nearly $3 million, the future of the studio depended upon the success of this film.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Upon its release in 1950, Cinderella proved to be a box-office success, with the profits from the film's release allowing Disney to carry on producing animated features throughout the 1950s.Template:Sfn Following its success, production on the in-limbo features Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp was resumed. In addition, an ambitious new project, an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" set to Tchaikovsky's classic score, was begun but took much of the rest of the decade to complete.<ref name="StuFNorman" />
Alice in Wonderland, released in 1951, met with a lukewarm response at the box office and was a sharp critical disappointment in its initial release.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Peter Pan, released in 1953, on the other hand, was a commercial success and the fifth highest-grossing film of the year. In 1955, Lady and the Tramp was released to higher box office success than any other Disney animated feature since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,<ref name="LadyTramp">Template:Cite book</ref> earning an estimated $6.5 million in rentals at the North American box office in 1955.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Lady and the Tramp is significant as Disney's first widescreen animated feature, produced in the CinemaScope process,<ref name="LadyTramp" /> and was the first Disney animated feature to be released by Disney's own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution.<ref name="gablerRKO">Template:Harvnb</ref>
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By the mid-1950s, with Walt Disney's attention primarily set on new endeavours such as live-action films, television and the Disneyland theme park,<ref name="NOM" /> production of the animated films was left primarily in the hands of the "Nine Old Men" trust of head animators and directors. This led to several delays in approvals during the production of Sleeping Beauty,<ref name="NOM" /> which was finally released in 1959. At $6 million,<ref name="SB" /> it was Disney's most expensive film to date, produced in a heavily stylised art style devised by artist Eyvind Earle<ref name="SB" /> and presented in large-format Super Technirama 70 with six-track stereophonic sound.<ref name="SB">Template:Cite book</ref> However, despite being the studio's highest-grossing animated feature since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the film's large production costs and the box office underperformance of Disney's other 1959 output resulted in the studio posting its first annual loss in a decade for fiscal year 1960,<ref name="BobThomasWD">Template:Cite book</ref> leading to massive layoffs throughout the studio.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
By the end of the decade, the Disney short subjects were no longer being produced on a regular basis, with many of the shorts divisions' personnel either leaving the company or being reassigned to work on Disney television programs such as The Mickey Mouse Club and Disneyland. While the Silly Symphonies shorts had dominated the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) during the 1930s, the studio's reign over the most awards had been ended by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio's Tom and Jerry cartoons, Warner Bros. Cartoons' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, and the works of United Productions of America (UPA), whose flat art style and stylized animation techniques were lauded as more modern alternatives to the older Disney style.<ref name="UPA">Template:Harvnb.</ref> During the 1950s, only one Disney short, the stylized Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, won the Best Short Subject (Cartoons) Oscar.<ref>Lehman, Christopher. (2009) The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907–1954. Amherst, MA: Univ. of Massachusetts Press. p. 117.</ref>
The Mickey Mouse, Pluto and Goofy shorts had all ceased regular production by 1953, with Donald Duck and Humphrey continuing and converting to widescreen CinemaScope before the shorts division was shut down in 1956. After that, all future shorts were produced by the feature films division until 1969. The last Disney short of the golden age of American animation was It's Tough to Be a Bird. Disney shorts would only be produced on a sporadic basis from this point on,<ref name="maltin364" /> with notable later shorts including<ref name=mouse_transition>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Runaway Brain (1995, starring Mickey Mouse)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Paperman (2012).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Despite the 1959 layoffs and competition for Walt Disney's attention from the company's expanded live-action film, TV and theme park departments, production continued on feature animation productions at a reduced level.<ref name="StuFNorman">Shostak, Stu (03-28-2012). "Interview with Floyd Norman". Stu's Show. Retrieved June 22, 2014.</ref>
In 1961, the studio released One Hundred and One Dalmatians, an animated feature that popularized the use of xerography during the process of inking and painting traditional animation cels.<ref name="gabler620">Template:Harvnb</ref> Using xerography, animation drawings could be photochemically transferred rather than traced from paper drawings to the clear acetate sheets ("cels") used in final animation production.<ref name="gabler620" /> The resulting art style – a scratchier line which revealed the construction lines in the animators' drawings – typified Disney films into the 1980s.<ref name="gabler620" /> The film was a success, being the tenth highest-grossing film of 1961 with rentals of $6.4 million.<ref name="Gebert">Gebert, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards (listing of "Box Office (Domestic Rentals)" for 1961, taken from Variety magazine), St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1996. Template:ISBN. "Rentals" refers to the distributor/studio's share of the box office gross, which, according to Gebert, is roughly half of the money generated by ticket sales.</ref>
The Disney animation training program started at the studio in 1932 before the development of Snow White eventually led to Walt Disney helping found the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).<ref name="gabler591">Template:Harvnb</ref> This university formed via the merger of Chouinard Art Institute and the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. It included a Disney-developed animation program of study among its degree offerings. CalArts became the alma mater of many of the animators who would work at Disney and other animation studios from the 1970s to the present.<ref name="gabler591" />
The Sword in the Stone was released in 1963 and was the sixth highest-grossing film of the year in North America with estimated rentals of $4.75 million.<ref>"Big Rental Pictures of 1964", Variety, January 6, 1965, p 39. Please note this figure is rentals accruing to distributors not total gross.</ref> A featurette adaptation of one of A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, was released in 1966,<ref name="PoohBear">Template:Cite news</ref> to be followed by several other Pooh featurettes over the years and a full-length compilation feature, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which was released in 1977.<ref name="PoohBear" />
Walt Disney died in December 1966, ten months before the studio's next film The Jungle Book, was completed and released.<ref name=maltin>Maltin, Leonard: "Chapter 2," section: "The Jungle Book", pages 253–256. The Disney Films, 2000</ref> The film was a success,<ref name=thomas>Thomas, Bob: "Chapter 7: The Post-War Films," section: "Walt Disney's Last Films", pages 106–107. Disney's Art of Animation: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules, 1997</ref> finishing 1967 as the fourth highest-grossing film of the year.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1966–1984: Decline in popularity; Don Bluth's entrance and departureEdit
Following Walt Disney's death, Wolfgang Reitherman continued as both producer and director of the studio's feature films.<ref name="MaltinMiceMagic" /><ref name="Rescuers1" /> It was Reitherman who was responsible for a noticeable softening of the Disney villains. Over the next two decades, nearly all Disney villains were more comical or pitiful rather than scary.<ref name="Keck">Template:Cite journal</ref> Reitherman's main priority was ensuring that the studio would continue to turn a profit and towards that end, he stressed the importance of making family-friendly films.<ref name="Keck" /> According to Andreas Deja, Reitherman said that "if we lose the kids, we lose everything".<ref name="Keck" /><ref name="Deja_Page_51">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Peri_Page_245">Template:Cite book</ref>
The studio began the 1970s with the release of The Aristocats, the last film project to be approved by Walt Disney.<ref name="Rescuers1" /> In 1971, Roy O. Disney, the studio co-founder, died and Walt Disney Productions was left in the hands of Donn Tatum and Card Walker, who alternated as chairman and CEO in overlapping terms until 1978.<ref name="stewart1955" /> The next feature, Robin Hood (1973), was produced with a significantly reduced budget and animation repurposed from previous features.<ref name="MaltinMiceMagic">Template:Cite book</ref> Both The Aristocats and Robin Hood were minor box office and critical successes.<ref name="MaltinMiceMagic" /><ref name="Rescuers1" />
The Rescuers, released in 1977, was a success exceeding the achievements of the previous two Disney features.<ref name="Rescuers1">Template:Cite book</ref> Receiving positive reviews, high commercial returns, and an Academy Award nomination, it ended up being the third highest-grossing film of the year and the most successful and best reviewed Disney animated film since The Jungle Book.<ref name="MaltinMiceMagic" /><ref name="Rescuers1" /> The film was reissued in 1983, accompanied by a new Disney featurette, Mickey's Christmas Carol.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The production of The Rescuers signaled the beginning of a changing of the guard process in the personnel at the Disney animation studio,<ref name="Rescuers1" /> as veterans such as Milt Kahl and Les Clark retired; they were gradually replaced by new talents such as Don Bluth, Ron Clements, John Musker and Glen Keane.<ref name="Rescuers1" /><ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The new animators, selected from the animation program at CalArts and trained by Eric Larson, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Woolie Reitherman,<ref name="Rescuers1" /><ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> got their first chance to prove themselves as a group with the animated sequences in Disney's live-action/animated hybrid feature Pete's Dragon (1977),<ref name="PetesDragon">Template:Cite news</ref> the animation for which was directed by Bluth.<ref name="MaltinMiceMagic" /> In September 1979, dissatisfied with what they felt was a stagnation in the development of the art of animation at Disney,<ref name="BluthDefection">Template:Cite news</ref> Bluth and several of the other new guard animators quit to start their own studio, Don Bluth Productions,<ref name="BluthDefection" /> which became Disney's chief competitor in the animation field during the 1980s.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" />
Delayed half a year by the defection of the Bluth group,<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The Fox and the Hound was released in 1981 after four years in production. The film was considered a financial success by the studio, and development continued on The Black Cauldron, a long-gestating adaptation of the Chronicles of Prydain series of novels by Lloyd Alexander<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> produced in Super Technirama 70.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Black Cauldron was intended to expand the appeal of Disney animated films to older audiences and to showcase the talents of the new generation of Disney animators from CalArts. Besides Keane, Musker and Clements, this new group of artists included other promising animators such as Andreas Deja, Mike Gabriel, John Lasseter, Brad Bird and Tim Burton. Lasseter was fired from Disney in 1983 for pushing the studio to explore computer animation production,<ref name="Lasseter">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Schlender">Template:Cite news</ref> but went on to become the creative head of Pixar, a pioneering computer animation studio that would begin a close association with Disney in the late 1980s.<ref name="Lasseter" /><ref name="Paik">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Price">Template:Cite book</ref> Similarly, Burton was fired in 1984 after producing a live-action short shelved by the studio, Frankenweenie, then went on to become a high-profile producer and director of live-action and stop-motion features for Disney and other studios. Some of Burton's high-profile projects for Disney would include the stop-motion The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), a live-action adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (2010), and a stop-motion feature remake of Frankenweenie (2012).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bird was also fired after a few years working at the company for criticizing Disney's upper management as he felt that they were playing it safe and not taking risks on animation. He subsequently became an animation director at other studios, including Warner Bros. Animation and Pixar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Ron Miller, Walt Disney's son-in-law, became president of Walt Disney Productions in 1980 and CEO in 1983.<ref name="RonMiller" /> That year, he expanded the company's film and television production divisions, creating the Walt Disney Pictures banner under which future films from the feature animation department would be released.<ref name="RonMiller">Template:Cite book</ref>
1984–1989: Restructuring and new projects for prominenceEdit
After a series of corporate takeover attempts in 1984, Roy E. Disney, son of Roy O. and nephew of Walt, resigned from the company's board of directors and launched a campaign called "SaveDisney", successfully convincing the board to fire Miller. Roy E. Disney brought in Michael Eisner as Disney's new CEO and Frank Wells as president.<ref name="stewart1955">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name=disneywar>Template:Cite book</ref> Eisner in turn named Jeffrey Katzenberg chairman of the film division, The Walt Disney Studios.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty">Template:Cite video</ref> Near completion when the Eisner regime took over Disney, The Black Cauldron (1985) came to represent what would later be referred to as the "rock bottom" point for Disney animation.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The studio's most expensive feature to that point at $44 million, The Black Cauldron was a critical and commercial failure.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The film's $21 million box office gross led to a loss for the studio, putting the future of the animation department in jeopardy.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" />
Between the 1950s and 1980s, the significance of animation to Disney's bottom line was significantly reduced as the company expanded into further live-action production, television and theme parks.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> As new CEO, Michael Eisner strongly considered shuttering the feature animation studio and outsourcing future animation. Roy E. Disney intervened, offering to head the feature animation division and turn its fortunes around,<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> while Eisner established the Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group to produce lower-cost animation for television.<ref name="stewart1955" /> Named Chairman of feature animation by Eisner, Roy E. Disney appointed Peter Schneider president of animation to run the day-to-day operations in 1985.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
On February 1, 1985, Disney executives began to move the animation department from the Disney studio lot in Burbank to a variety of warehouses, hangars and trailers located about Template:Convert east at 1420 Flower Street in nearby Glendale, California.<ref name="Farley">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Finch_Page_271">Template:Cite book</ref> About a year later, the growing computer graphics (CG) group would move there too.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" />
The animation department's first feature animation at its new location was The Great Mouse Detective (1986), begun by John Musker and Ron Clements as Basil of Baker Street after both left production of The Black Cauldron.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The film was enough of a critical and commercial success to instill executive confidence in the animation studio.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Later the same year, however, Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment released Don Bluth's An American Tail, which outgrossed The Great Mouse Detective at the box office and became the highest-grossing first-issue animated film to that point.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Katzenberg, Schneider, and Roy Disney set about changing the culture of the studio, increasing staffing and production so that a new animated feature would be released every year instead of every two to four.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The first of the releases on the accelerated production schedule was Oliver & Company (1988), which featured an all-star cast including Billy Joel and Bette Midler and an emphasis on a modern pop soundtrack.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Oliver & Company opened in the theaters on the same day as another Bluth/Amblin/Universal animated film, The Land Before Time. Oliver & Company outgrossed The Land Before Time in the U.S. and went on to become the most successful animated feature in the U.S. to that date, though the latter's worldwide box office gross was higher than the former.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" />
At the same time in 1988, Disney started entering into Australia's long-standing animation industry by purchasing Hanna-Barbera's Australian studio to start Disney Animation Australia.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
While Oliver & Company and the next feature The Little Mermaid were in production, Disney collaborated with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and master animator Richard Williams to produce Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a groundbreaking live-action/animation hybrid directed by Robert Zemeckis, which featured licensed animated characters from other studios (such as Warner Bros., MGM, and Universal).<ref name="comment">Robert Zemeckis, Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, Ken Ralston, Frank Marshall, Steve Starkey, DVD audio commentary, 2003, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment</ref><ref name="Norman">Template:Cite book</ref> Disney set up a new animation studio under Williams' supervision in London to create the cartoon characters for Roger Rabbit, with many of the artists from the California studio traveling to England to work on the film.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /><ref name="stewartWFRR">Template:Harvnb</ref> A significant critical and commercial success,<ref name="stewartWFRR" /> Roger Rabbit won three Academy Awards for technical achievements.<ref name=oscar88>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} The film won for Best Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing,</ref> and was key in renewing mainstream interest in American animation.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Other than the film itself, the studio also produced three Roger Rabbit shorts during the late 1980s and early 1990s.<ref name=RogerRabbit1>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1989–1994: Beginning of the Disney Renaissance, success & impactEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} A second satellite studio, Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, opened in 1989 with 40 employees. Its offices were located within the Disney/MGM Studios Theme Park theme park at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, and visitors were allowed to tour the studio and observe animators at work.<ref name=fbo>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That same year, the studio released The Little Mermaid, which became a keystone achievement in Disney's history as its largest critical and commercial success in decades. Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, who had been co-directors on The Great Mouse Detective, The Little Mermaid earned $84 million at the North American box office, a record for the studio. The film was built around a score from Broadway songwriters Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, who was also a co-producer and story consultant on the film.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The Little Mermaid won two Academy Awards, for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.<ref name=oscar89>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Little Mermaid vigorously relaunched a profound new interest in the animation and musical film genres.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /><ref name="stewartMermaid">Template:Harvnb</ref> The film was also the first to feature the use of Disney's Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). Developed for Disney by Pixar,<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> which had grown into a commercial computer animation and technology development company, CAPS/ink-and-paint would become significant in allowing future Disney films to more seamlessly integrate computer-generated imagery and achieve higher production values with digital ink and paint and compositing techniques.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The Little Mermaid was the first of a series of blockbusters that would be released over the next decade by Walt Disney Feature Animation, a period later designated by the term Disney Renaissance.<ref name="FrozenDisneyReinassance">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Renaissance era also saw the studio return to making films with darker themes and scarier villains, similar to the films it had made when Walt Disney was still alive.<ref name="Keck" />
Accompanied in theaters by the Mickey Mouse featurette The Prince and the Pauper, The Rescuers Down Under (1990) was Disney's first animated feature sequel and the studio's first film to be fully colored and composited via computer using the CAPS/ink-and-paint system.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> However, the film did not duplicate the success of The Little Mermaid.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> The next Disney animated feature, Beauty and the Beast, had begun production in London but was moved back to Burbank after Disney decided to shutter the London satellite office and retool the film into a musical-comedy format similar to The Little Mermaid.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Alan Menken and Howard Ashman were retained to write the songs and score, though Ashman died before production was completed.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" />
Debuting first in a work-in-progress version at the 1991 New York Film Festival before its November 1991 wide release, Beauty and the Beast, directed by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, was an unprecedented critical and commercial success and would later be regarded as one of the studio's best films.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture, a first for an animated work, winning for Best Song and Best Original Score.<ref name=oscar91>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Its $145 million box office gross set new records, and merchandising for the film, including toys, cross-promotions, and soundtrack sales, was also lucrative.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" />
The successes of The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast established the template for future Disney releases during the 1990s: a musical-comedy format with Broadway-styled songs and tentpole action sequences, buoyed by cross-promotional marketing and merchandising, all designed to bring audiences of all ages and types into theaters.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /> In addition to John Musker, Ron Clements, Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, the new guard of Disney artists creating these films included story artists/directors Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, Chris Sanders and Brenda Chapman, and lead animators Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg, Nik Ranieri, Will Finn and many others.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer">Template:Cite video</ref>
Aladdin, released in November 1992, continued the upward trend in Disney's animation success, earning $504 million worldwide at the box office,<ref name="Aladdinboxoffice">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and two more Oscars for Best Song and Best Score.<ref name=oscar92>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Featuring songs by Menken, Ashman and Tim Rice (who replaced Ashman after his death)<ref name="stewartTimRice">Template:Harvnb</ref> and starring the voice of Robin Williams,<ref name="CelebVoices" /> Aladdin also established the trend of hiring celebrity actors and actresses to provide the voices of Disney characters,<ref name="CelebVoices" /> which had been explored to some degree with The Jungle Book and Oliver & Company, but now became standard practice.<ref name="CelebVoices">Template:Cite news</ref>
In June 1994, Disney released The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. An all-animal story set in Africa, The Lion King featured an all-star voice cast which included James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick and Jeremy Irons, with songs written by Tim Rice and pop star Elton John. The Lion King earned $768 million at the worldwide box office,<ref name="lion-initial">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to this date a record for a traditionally-animated film,<ref name=Boxofficemojo>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> earning millions more in merchandising, promotions and record sales for its soundtrack.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" />
Aladdin and The Lion King had been the highest-grossing films worldwide in each of their respective release years.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Between these in-house productions, Disney diversified in animation methods and produced The Nightmare Before Christmas with former Disney animator Tim Burton; Walt Disney Feature Animation contributed by providing the film's second-layering traditional animation.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> With animation becoming again an increasingly important and lucrative part of Disney's business, the company began to expand its operations. The flagship California studio was split into two units and expanded,<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /> and ground was broken on a new Disney Feature Animation building adjacent to the main Disney lot in Burbank, which was dedicated in 1995.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /><ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /> also one of Disney's television animation studios in the Paris, France suburb of Montreuil<ref name="ParisStudio" /> – the former Brizzi Brothers studio<ref name="ParisStudio" /> – became Walt Disney Feature Animation Paris, where A Goofy Movie (1995) and significant parts of later Disney films were produced.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Disney also began producing lower cost direct-to-video sequels and prequels for its successful animated films using the services of its television animation studios under the name Disney MovieToons. The Return of Jafar (1994), a sequel to Aladdin and a pilot for the Aladdin television show spin-off, was the first of these productions.<ref name="DTVSequels">Template:Cite news</ref> Walt Disney Feature Animation was also heavily involved in the adaptations of both Beauty and the Beast in 1994 and The Lion King in 1997 into Broadway musicals.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" />
Jeffrey Katzenberg and the Disney story team were heavily involved in the development and production of Toy Story,<ref name="stewartToyStory">Template:Harvnb</ref> the first fully computer-animated feature ever produced.<ref name="stewartToyStory" /> Toy Story was produced for Disney by Pixar and directed by former Disney animator John Lasseter,<ref name="stewartToyStory" /> whom Peter Schneider had unsuccessfully tried to hire back after his success with Pixar shorts such as Tin Toy (1988).<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Released in 1995, Toy Story opened to critical acclaim<ref name="stewartToyStory" /><ref name="metacritic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="RotTom">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and commercial success,<ref name="stewartToyStory" /><ref name="BOXMOJO">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> leading to Pixar signing a five-film deal with Disney, which bore critically and financially successful computer animated films such as A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001),<ref name="stewart9">Template:Harvnb</ref> Finding Nemo (2003), and The Incredibles (2004).
In addition, the successes of Aladdin and The Lion King spurred a significant increase in the number of American-produced animated features throughout the rest of the decade, with the major film studios establishing new animation divisions such as Fox Animation Studios, Sullivan Bluth Studios (both founded by Don Bluth), Amblimation, Rich Animation Studios, Turner Feature Animation, and Warner Bros. Feature Animation being formed to produce films in a Disney-esque musical-comedy format such as We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), Thumbelina (1994), The Swan Princess (1994), A Troll in Central Park (1994), The Pebble and the Penguin (1995), Cats Don't Dance (1997), Anastasia (1997), Quest for Camelot (1998), and The King and I (1999).<ref>Template:Cite news Anastasia, Quest for Camelot and The King and I are mentioned as upcoming titles.</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Out of these non-Disney animated features, only Anastasia was a box office success, and it later ended up being acquired by Disney through the company's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019.<ref name="Compeittion1990s">Template:Cite book</ref>
1994–1999: Late Disney Renaissance and declining returnsEdit
Concerns arose internally at the Disney studio, particularly from Roy E. Disney, about studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg taking too much credit for the success of Disney's early 1990s releases.<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> Disney Company president Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter accident in 1994, and Katzenberg lobbied CEO Michael Eisner for the vacant president position. Instead, tensions between Katzenberg, Eisner and Disney resulted in Katzenberg being forced to resign from the company on August 24 of that year,<ref name="stewartJK">Template:Harvnb</ref> with Joe Roth taking his place.<ref name="stewartJK" /> On October 12, 1994, Katzenberg went on to become one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG, whose animation division became Disney's key rival in feature animation,<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="stewartDWSKG">Template:Harvnb</ref> with both computer animated films such as Antz (1998) and traditionally-animated films such as The Prince of Egypt (1998).<ref name="Compeittion1990s" /> In December 1994, the Animation Building in Burbank was completed for the animation division.<ref name=lat1>Template:Cite news</ref>
In contrast to the early 1990s productions, not all the films in the second half of the renaissance were successful. Pocahontas, released in the summer of 1995, was the first film of the renaissance to receive mixed reviews from critics. It was still popular with audiences and commercially successful, earning $346 million worldwide.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film won two Academy Awards for its music by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.<ref name=oscar95>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}. Pocahontas won two 1996 Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.</ref>
The next film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) was partially produced at the Paris studio.<ref name="ParisStudio">Template:Cite news</ref> Although it is considered Disney's darkest film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame performed better critically than Pocahontas and grossed $325 million worldwide.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The following summer, Hercules (1997) did well at the box office, grossing $252 million worldwide, but underperformed in comparison to Disney's previous films.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It received positive reviews for its acting but the animation and music were mixed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hercules was responsible for beginning the decline of traditionally-animated films. The declining box office success became doubly concerning inside the studio as wage competition from DreamWorks had significantly increased the studio's overhead,<ref name="disneywar" /><ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /> with production costs increasing from $79 million in total costs (production, marketing, and overhead) for The Lion King in 1994 to $179 million for Hercules three years later.<ref name="stewartDWSKG" /> Moreover, Disney depended upon the popularity of its new features in order to develop merchandising, theme park attractions, direct-to-video sequels and television programming in its other divisions.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /> The production schedule was scaled back<ref name="stewartDWSKG" /> and a larger number of creative executives were hired to more closely supervise production, a move that was not popular among the animation staff.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="DOSDStoryDept" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Mulan (1998), the first film produced primarily at the Florida studio,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> opened to positive reviews from audiences and critics and earned a successful $305 million at the worldwide box office, restoring both the critical and commercial success of the studio. The next film, Tarzan (1999), directed by Kevin Lima and Chris Buck, had a high production cost of $130 million,<ref name="stewartDWSKG" /> again received positive reviews and earned $448 million at the box office.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Tarzan soundtrack by pop star Phil Collins resulted in significant record sales and an Academy Award for Best Song.<ref name=oscar99>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
1999–2005: Experimentation & corporate disorderEdit
Fantasia 2000, a sequel to the 1940 film that had been a pet project of Roy E. Disney's since 1990,<ref name=latimes1997 /><ref name="stewartFantasia2K">Template:Harvnb</ref> premiered on December 17, 1999, at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of a concert tour that also visited London, Paris, Tokyo and Pasadena, California. The film was then released in 75 IMAX theaters worldwide from January 1 to April 30, 2000, making it the first animated feature-length film to be released in the format; a standard theatrical release followed on June 15, 2000. Produced in pieces when artists were available between productions,<ref name=latimes1997>Template:Cite news</ref> Fantasia 2000 was the first animated feature produced for and released in IMAX format.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The film's $90 million worldwide box office total against its $90 million production cost<ref name="stewartFantasia2K" /> resulted in it losing $100 million for the studio.<ref name="stewartFantasia2K" /><ref name="eisnervideo">Template:Cite video</ref>
Peter Schneider left his post as president of Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1999 to become president of The Walt Disney Studios under Joe Roth.<ref name="stewart314" /> Thomas Schumacher, who had been Schneider's vice president of animation for several years, became the new president of Walt Disney Feature Animation.<ref name="stewart314">Template:Harvnb</ref> By this time, competition from other studios had driven animators' incomes to all-time highs,<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /> making traditionally-animated features even more costly to produce.<ref name="stewartDWSKG" /> Schumacher was tasked with cutting costs, and massive layoffs began to cut salaries and bring the studio's staff – which peaked at 2,200 people in 1999 – down to approximately 1,200 employees.<ref name="DisneyLiloRevamp" /><ref name="BurbankLayoffs2002">Template:Cite news</ref>
In October 1999, Dream Quest Images, a special effects studio previously purchased by the Walt Disney Company in April 1996 to replace Buena Vista Visual Effects,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> was merged with the computer-graphics operation of Walt Disney Feature Animation to form a division called The Secret Lab.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Secret Lab produced one feature film, Dinosaur, which was released in May 2000<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and featured CGI prehistoric creatures against filmed live-action backgrounds.<ref name="stewart356" /> The $128 million production earned $349 million worldwide, below studio expectations,<ref name="stewart356">Template:Harvnb</ref> and The Secret Lab was closed in 2001.<ref name=Vty>Template:Cite news</ref>
In December 2000, The Emperor's New Groove was released. It had been a musical epic called Kingdom of the Sun before being revised mid-production into a smaller comedy.<ref name="NewGroovePostRelease">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LaughingPlace">Jim Hill, "The Long Story Behind the Emperor's New Groove". Part 1, page 3. [1]</ref> The film earned $169 million worldwide on release,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> though it was well-reviewed and performed better on video;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine The Emperor's New Groove was the top-selling video release of 2001.</ref> Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), an attempt to break the Disney formula by moving into action-adventure, received mixed reviews and earned $186 million worldwide against production costs of $120 million.<ref name="DisneyLiloRevamp">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="stewartAtlantis">Template:Harvnb</ref>
By 2001 and early 2002, the notable successes of Pixar's computer-animated films (thanks to its distribution deal with Disney), along with DreamWorks' Shrek and Blue Sky Studios' Ice Age, respectively, against Disney's lesser returns for The Emperor's New Groove and Atlantis: The Lost Empire led to the speculation that hand-drawn animation was becoming obsolete.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="APDisneyPixarSplit" /><ref name="LiloOcala" /> Disney laid off most of the employees at the Feature Animation studio in Burbank, downsizing it to one unit and beginning plans to move into fully computer-animated films.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="DOSDTomMeeting">Lund, Dan (2005). "The 'Meeting' Sequence: Super Sized". Bonus features for Dream On Silly Dreamer (Documentary film) DVD release. Orlando, Florida: WestLund Productions. Extended interviews with former Disney Feature Animation artists about the WDFA staff meetings during the week of March 19–25, 2002 with Feature Animation president Thomas Schumacher and producer Alice Dewey where the layoffs and move of the Burbank studio to CGI are discussed at length.</ref> A handful of employees were offered positions doing computer animation. Morale plunged to a low not seen since the start of the studio's ten-year exile to Glendale in 1985.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="stewartTreasurePlanet">Template:Harvnb</ref> The Paris studio was also closed in 2003.<ref name=lat0>Template:Cite news</ref>
The Burbank studio's remaining hand-drawn productions, Treasure Planet and Home on the Range, continued production. Treasure Planet, a futuristic outer space retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, was a pet project of writer-directors Ron Clements and John Musker. It received an IMAX release and generally positive reviews but was financially unsuccessful upon its November 2002 release, resulting in a $74 million write-down for the Walt Disney Company in fiscal year 2003.<ref name="stewartTreasurePlanet" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Burbank studio's 2D departments closed at the end of 2002, following the completion of Home on the Range,<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="FriedmanDOSD">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> a long-in-production feature that had previously been known as Sweating Bullets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Meanwhile, hand-drawn feature animation production continued at the Feature Animation Florida studio, where the films could be produced at lower costs.<ref name="DOSDTomMeeting" /> Lilo & Stitch, an offbeat comedy-drama written and directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois,<ref name="LiloOcala">Template:Cite news</ref> became the studio's first bonafide hit since Tarzan upon its summer 2002 release,<ref name="stewartLiloBB">Template:Harvnb</ref> earning $273 million worldwide against an $80 million production budget.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
By this time, most of the Disney features from the 1990s had been spun off into direct-to-video sequels, television series, or both, produced by the Disney Television Animation unit. Beginning with the February 2002 release of Return to Never Land, a sequel to Peter Pan (1953), Disney began releasing lower-budgeted sequels to earlier films. These films had been intended for video premieres, but they were released in theaters.<ref name="DTVSequels" /> The process was derided by some of the Disney animation staff and the fans of the Disney films.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="stewartSaveDisney">Template:Harvnb</ref>
In 2003, Tom Schumacher was appointed president of Buena Vista Theatrical Group, Disney's stageplay and musical theater arm, and David Stainton, then president of Walt Disney Television Animation, was appointed as his replacement. Stainton continued to oversee Disney's direct-to-video division, Disneytoon Studios, which had been part of the television animation department,<ref name="corpStainton">Template:Cite news</ref> though transferred at this time to Walt Disney Feature Animation management.<ref name=awn>Template:Cite news</ref>
Under Stainton, the Florida studio completed Brother Bear, which did not perform as well as Lilo & Stitch critically or financially.<ref name="stewartLiloBB" /> Disney closed the Florida studio on January 12, 2004,<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" /><ref name="stewartLiloBB" /> with the then in-progress feature My Peoples left unfinished when the studio closed two months later.<ref name="DOSDStoryDept">Lund, Dan (2005). "The 'Story Department' Sequence: Super Sized". Bonus features for Dream On Silly Dreamer (Documentary film) DVD release. Orlando, Florida: WestLund Productions. Extended interviews with several former Disney Feature Animation employees discussing changes to the studio's story development processes between 1999 and 2004. Mulan and My Peoples (also known as A Few Good Ghosts) are discussed at length by director Barry Cook.</ref><ref name="LiloOcala" /><ref name="FriedmanDOSD" /><ref name="DisneyOrlandoClosed">Template:Cite news</ref> Home on the Range, released in April 2004, was also not as critically or commercially successful as Lilo & Stitch.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Disney officially announced its conversion of Walt Disney Feature Animation into a fully CGI studio – a process begun two years prior<ref name="APDisneyPixarSplit" /><ref name="Graham" /> – now with a staff of 600 people.<ref name="APDisneyPixarSplit" /> Disney also began selling off all of its traditional animation equipment.<ref name="dreamonsillydreamer" />
Just after Brother BearTemplate:'s November 2003 release, Feature Animation chairman Roy E. Disney had resigned from the Walt Disney Company. Roy Disney and his business partner Stanley Gold launched a second external "SaveDisney" campaign, similar to the one that had forced Ron Miller out in 1984. This time they were attempting to force out Michael Eisner.<ref name="stewartSaveDisney" /> Two of their arguing points against Eisner included his handling of Feature Animation and the souring of the studio's relationship with Pixar.<ref name="APDisneyPixarSplit" /> The same year, the studio collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering on the 4D Disney Parks film Mickey's PhilharMagic. One of the studio's first attempts at CG animation, several animators returned to work on the film; such as Glen Keane animating Ariel and Nik Ranieri animating Lumière.<ref>The Secret History of Disney Rides: Mickey's PhilharMagic</ref>
Talks between Eisner and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs over renewal terms for the highly lucrative Pixar-Disney distribution deal broke down in January 2004.<ref name="APDisneyPixarSplit">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="stewartPixarLeaves" /><ref name="iger20190918">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Jobs, in particular, disagreed with Eisner's insistence that sequels such as the then in-development Toy Story 3 (2010) would not count against the number of films required in the studio's new deal.<ref name="stewartPixarLeaves" /> To that end, Disney announced the launching of Circle 7 Animation, a division of Feature Animation which would have produced sequels to the Pixar films, while Pixar began shopping for a new distribution deal.<ref name="stewartPixarLeaves">Template:Harvnb</ref>
In 2005, Disney released its first fully computer-animated feature, Chicken Little. The film was a success at the box office, earning $315 million worldwide,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> but was met with critically mixed-to-negative reviews.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Earlier that year, after two years of Roy E. Disney's "SaveDisney" campaign, Eisner announced that he would resign and named Bob Iger, then president of the Walt Disney Company, his successor as chairman and CEO.<ref name="stewartSaveDisney"/>
2005–2010: ReorganizationEdit
Iger later said, "I didn't yet have a complete sense of just how broken Disney Animation was." He described its history since the early 1990s as "dotted by a slew of expensive failures" like Hercules and Chicken Little; the "modest successes" like Mulan and Lilo & Stitch were still critically and commercially unsuccessful compared to the earlier films of the Disney Renaissance.Template:R
After Iger became CEO, Jobs resumed negotiations for Pixar with Disney.<ref name="PixarSequelsCircle7" /> On January 24, 2006, Disney announced that it would acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal,<ref name="Walt-Disney-Company-Jan-2006-8-K">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with the deal closing that May.<ref name="PixarSequelsCircle7">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Walt-Disney-Company-May-2006-8-K"/><ref name=nbc>Template:Cite news</ref> Consequently, the Circle 7 studio launched to produce Toy Story 3 was shut down.<ref name=ew>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Most of that studio's employees returned to Feature Animation and Toy Story 3 returned to Pixar's control.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Iger later said that it was "a deal I wanted badly, and [Disney] needed badly." He believed that Disney Animation needed new leadershipTemplate:R and, as part of the acquisition, Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter were named president and Chief Creative Officer, respectively, of Feature Animation as well as Pixar.<ref name="Walt-Disney-Company-May-2006-8-K">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
While Disney executives had discussed closing Feature Animation as redundant, Catmull and Lasseter refused and instead resolved to try to turn things around at the studio.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Lasseter said, "We weren't going to let that [closure] happen on our watch. We were determined to save the legacy of Walt Disney's amazing studio and bring it back up to the creative level it had to be. Saving this heritage was squarely on our shoulders."<ref name="Wloszczyna">Template:Cite news</ref> Lasseter and Catmull set about rebuilding the morale of the Feature Animation staff,<ref name="ChristopherWilliams">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and rehired a number of its 1980s "new guard" generation of star animators who had left the studio, including Ron Clements, John Musker, Eric Goldberg,<ref name="Schlender" /> Mark Henn, Andreas Deja, Bruce W. Smith and Chris Buck.<ref name="Solomon">Template:Cite book</ref>
To maintain the separation of Walt Disney Feature Animation and Pixar despite their now common ownership and management, Catmull and Lasseter "drew a hard line" that each studio was solely responsible for its own projects and would not be allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other. Catmull said that he and Lasseter would "make sure the studios are quite distinct from each other. We don't want them to merge; that would definitely be the wrong approach. Each should have its own personality."<ref name="Bell">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="Zahed">Template:Cite news</ref>
Catmull and Lasseter also brought to Disney Feature Animation the Pixar model of a "filmmaker-driven studio" as opposed to an "executive-driven studio"; they abolished Disney's prior system of requiring directors to respond to "mandatory" notes from development executives ranking above the producers in favor of a system roughly analogous to peer review, in which non-mandatory notes come primarily from fellow producers, directors and writers.<ref name="Wloszczyna" /><ref name="PixarTen"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Most of the layers of "gatekeepers" (midlevel executives) were stripped away, and Lasseter established a routine of personally meeting weekly with filmmakers on all projects in the last year of production and delivering feedback on the spot.<ref name="Keegan">Template:Cite news</ref>
The studio's then-current team of top creatives who worked together closely on the development of its films became known as the Disney Story Trust. It was somewhat similar to the Pixar Braintrust,<ref name="PixarTen">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Lark">Template:Cite journal</ref> but its meetings were reportedly "more polite" than those of its Pixar counterpart.<ref name=THRPixarVSDisney>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2007, Lasseter changed the name of Walt Disney Feature Animation to Walt Disney Animation Studios,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and re-positioned the studio as an animation house that produced both traditional and computer-animated projects. In order to keep costs down on hand-drawn productions, animation, design and layout were done in-house at Disney while clean-up animation and digital ink-and-paint were farmed out to vendors and freelancers.<ref name="ECatmullInterview">Template:Cite book</ref>
The studio released Meet the Robinsons in 2007, its second all-CGI film, earning $169.3 million worldwide.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That same year, Disneytoon Studios was also restructured and began to operate as a separate unit under Lasseter and Catmull's control.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lasseter's direct intervention with the studio's next film, American Dog, resulted in the departure of director Chris Sanders,<ref name="BoltAmericanDog">Template:Cite news</ref> who went on to become a director at DreamWorks Animation.<ref name="ChrisSandersDWA">Template:Cite news</ref> The film was retooled by new directors Byron Howard and Chris Williams as Bolt. It was released in 2008 and had the best critical reception of any Disney animated feature since Lilo & Stitch.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film also became a moderate financial success, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Film.<ref name="FrozenNYTSuccess" />
The Princess and the Frog was the studio's first hand-drawn animated film in five years. It was loosely based on the fairy tale The Frog Prince and the 2002 novel The Frog Princess. The film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. A return to the musical-comedy format of the 1990s with songs by Randy Newman,<ref name=PrincessFroglasseter>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the film was released in 2009 to a positive critical reception. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards, including two for Best Song.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The box office performance of The Princess and the Frog – a total of $267 million earned worldwide against a $105 million production budget – was seen as an underperformance due to competition with Avatar.<ref name="FrozenNYTSuccess">Template:Cite news</ref> The film's underperformance was also attributed to the word "Princess" in the title. The future Disney films then in production which were about princesses were given gender-neutral, symbolic titles: Rapunzel became Tangled and The Snow Queen became Frozen.<ref name="ChristopherWilliams" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2014, former Disney animator Tom Sito compared the box office performance of The Princess and the Frog to that of The Great Mouse Detective (1986), which was a step-up from the theatrical run of the 1985 film The Black Cauldron.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2009, the studio also produced the computer-animated Prep & Landing holiday special for the ABC television network.<ref name="PrepLanding">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2010–2019: New leadership and return to successEdit
After The Princess and the Frog, the studio released Tangled in 2010, a CGI adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Rapunzel" with songs by Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. In development since 2002 under Glen Keane,<ref name="Graham">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Tangled, directed by Byron Howard and Nathan Greno, became a significant critical and commercial success<ref name="RottenTomatoesTangled">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> nominated for several accolades. The film earned $592 million in worldwide box office revenue, becoming the studio's third most successful release to date.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>The hand-drawn feature Winnie the Pooh, a new feature film based on the eponymous stories by A. A. Milne, followed in 2011 to positive reviews; it remains the studio's most recent hand-drawn feature.<ref name="handdrawnfeatureIger" /> The film was released in theaters alongside the hand-drawn short The Ballad of Nessie.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Wreck-It Ralph, directed by Rich Moore, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim and commercial success. The film follows a video-game villain who redeems himself as a hero. It won numerous awards, including the Annie, Critics' Choice and Kids' Choice Awards for Best Animated Feature Film, and received Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations.<ref name="NYTwin">Template:Cite news</ref> The film earned $471 million in worldwide box office revenue.<ref name="LATAnnie">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Oscar">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In addition, the studio won its first Academy Award for a short film in forty-four years with Paperman, which was released in theaters with Wreck-It Ralph.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Paperman" /> Directed by John Kahrs, Paperman utilized new software developed in-house at the studio called Meander, which merges hand-drawn and computer animation techniques within the same character to create a unique "hybrid". According to Producer Kristina Reed, the studio was at the time continuing to develop the technique for future projects,<ref name="Paperman">Template:Cite magazine</ref> including an animated feature.<ref name="handdrawnfeatureIger">Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2013, the studio laid off nine of its hand-drawn animators, including Nik Ranieri and Ruben A. Aquino,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> leading to speculation on animation blogs that the studio was abandoning traditional animation, an idea that the studio dismissed.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Later that same year, in November, Frozen, a CGI musical film inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen", was released to widespread acclaim and became a blockbuster hit. Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee with songs by the Broadway team of Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez,<ref name="Frozen1" /> it was the first Disney animated film to earn over $1 billion in worldwide box office revenue.<ref name=NYTwin/><ref name="Frozen1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Frozen also became the first film from Walt Disney Animation Studios to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (a category started in 2001), as well as the first feature-length motion picture from the studio to win an Academy Award since Tarzan and the first to win multiple Academy Awards since Pocahontas.<ref name=Reuters_Frozen>Template:Cite news</ref> It was released in theaters with Get a Horse!, a new Mickey Mouse cartoon combining black-and-white hand-drawn animation and full-color CGI animation.<ref name=EWFirstLook>Template:Cite news</ref>
The studio's next feature, Big Hero 6, a comedy-adventure film inspired by the Marvel Comics series of the same name, was released in November 2014.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For the film, the studio developed new light rendering software called Hyperion, which the studio continued to use on all subsequent films.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Big Hero 6 received critical acclaim and was the highest-grossing animated film of 2014, also winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film was accompanied in theaters by the animated short Feast, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the same month that Big Hero 6 was released, it was announced that General Manager, Andrew Millstein had been promoted as President of Walt Disney Animation Studios.<ref name=nbc/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Graser">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In March 2016, the studio released Zootopia, a buddy-comedy film set in a modern world inhabited by anthropomorphic animals.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Moana, a fantasy-adventure film, was released in November 2016.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film was shown in theaters with the animated short, Inner Workings.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Moana was another commercial and critical success for the studio, grossing over $600 million worldwide and receiving two Academy Award nominations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
In November 2017, John Lasseter announced that he was taking a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging what he called "missteps" in his behavior with employees in a memo to staff. According to various news outlets, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees.<ref name="hollywoodreporter_20171121A">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="washingtonpost_20171121A">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="LasseterReturn">Template:Cite news</ref> On June 8, 2018, it was announced that Lasseter would leave Disney and Pixar at the end of the year after the company decided not to renew his contract. He would instead take on a consulting role until the expiration of the contract.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="var19">Template:Cite news</ref> Jennifer Lee was announced as Lasseter's replacement as chief creative officer of Disney Animation on June 19, 2018.<ref name="var19"/><ref name="Kit">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
On June 28, 2018, the studio's division Disneytoon Studios was shut down, resulting in the layoffs of 75 animators and staff.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> On October 23, 2018, it was announced that Ed Catmull would be retiring at the end of the year, and would stay in an adviser role until July 2019.<ref name="Catmull-to-retire">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In November 2018, the studio released a sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, titled Ralph Breaks the Internet.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film grossed over $529 million worldwide and received nominations for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award, both for Best Animated Feature.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2019–present: Ongoing changes & strugglesEdit
In August 2019, it was announced that Andrew Millstein would be stepping down from his role as president, before moving on to become co-president of Blue Sky Studios alongside Robert Baird, while Clark Spencer was named president of Disney Animation, reporting to Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Bergman and working alongside chief creative officer Jennifer Lee.<ref name="LATMillstein" /><ref name="VarietyBlueSky2019" />
Frozen 2, a sequel to Frozen, was released in November 2019.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film grossed over $1 billion worldwide and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
From 2020 to 2022, Disney Animation produced a series of experimental shorts called Short Circuit for the Disney+ streaming service. The first pack of shorts was released in January 2020,<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and a second pack was released in August 2021.<ref>Template:Cite instagram</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During that period, Disney Animation returned to work on hand-drawn animation once again, having released the hand-drawn "At Home with Olaf" web short "Ice,"<ref>"Ice" - At Home With Olaf</ref> as well as three hand-drawn animated Goofy shorts for Disney+,<ref>Inside Goofy's Hilarious and Relatable How to Stay at Home Shorts from Walt Disney Animation Studios</ref> and a hand-drawn animated "Short Circuit" titled "Dinosaur Barbarian".<ref>Here's Your First Look at 'Short Circuit' Season 2, Streaming on Disney Plus (Exclusive)</ref> In April 2022, Eric Goldberg confirmed plans within the studio to develop hand-drawn animated films and series.<ref>Current key staff are Roger Iger CEO, John Nallen COO, Viet Dinh CLO, Steve Tomsic CFO, previously 20th Century Fox (now part of Disney) Stacey Snider CEO, John Gelke VP Global Operations, J Young SVP Growth, Gerard Devan Group Executive APAC, Stephanie Gruber Group Executive Television, Christopher Greavu Vice President of Sales.'Sketchbook': Disney's Return to 2D Animation Reinforced by Documentary Series</ref> That year saw the release of the hand-drawn shorts Mickey in a Minute, released as part of the Disney+ documentary Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which marked the title character's first animated short produced by Disney Animation since Disney acquired the rights for the character in 2006.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>
In December 2020, the studio announced that it was expanding into producing television series – a business usually handled by the Disney Television Animation division. Most of the projects in development were for Disney+.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The CG series produced included Baymax! (a spin-off of Big Hero 6), Zootopia+ (an anthology series set in the Zootopia universe), and Iwájú (an original long-form science fiction anthology series co-produced with British-based Pan-African entertainment company Kugali Media).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In addition, employees from Disney Animation were involved on the Disney Television Animation series Monsters at Work, based on Pixar's Monsters, Inc. franchise.<ref>Disney + "Monsters at Work" Presentation at D23 Expo</ref>
Raya and the Last Dragon, a fantasy-adventure film, was released in March 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was released simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film was accompanied in theaters with the animated short Us Again.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Raya and the Last Dragon grossed over $130 million at the box office<ref>Template:Cite Box Office Mojo</ref> and became a hit on the streaming charts after its Premier Access charge expired on Disney+. The film became the third most streamed film title of 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film also received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In August 2021, it was reported that Disney Animation was opening a new animation studio in Vancouver.<ref name="VancouverStudio">Template:Cite news</ref> Operations at the Vancouver studio started in 2022, with former Disney Animation finance lead Amir Nasrabadi serving as head for the studio.<ref name="VancouverStudio"/> The Vancouver studio works on the animation for the Disney+-exclusive long-form series and future Disney+ specials, while the short-form series are animated at the Burbank studio.<ref name="VancouverStudio"/> Pre-production and storyboarding for the long-form series and specials also take place at the Burbank studio.<ref name="VancouverStudio"/>
In November 2021, the studio released Encanto, a musical-fantasy film.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was given an exclusive 30-day theatrical run in theaters and was released to Disney+ on December 24, 2021.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was released in theaters with the 2D/CG hybrid short Far from the Tree.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Although Encanto was not able to break-even at the box office by grossing $256 million against its $120–150 million budget,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite Box Office Mojo</ref><ref>Template:Cite The Numbers</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> it went viral over the 2021 holiday season and achieved wider commercial success after its digital release to Disney+.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":9">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref> The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score and Best Original Song.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In November 2022, the studio released the action-adventure film Strange World.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Although the film received positive reviews, it was a box-office failure, grossing $73 million worldwide on a budget of $135–180 million, with an estimated loss of $100–147 million.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="100 million">Template:Cite news</ref>
By 2023, the studio had opened a new apprentice program for hand-drawn animators.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That same year, the live-action/animated short film Once Upon a Studio was released to celebrate Disney's 100th anniversary, which occurred in October 2023.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It went on to win the award for Outstanding Animated Short Form Program at the 3rd Children's and Family Emmy Awards.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The 2D/CG hybrid musical-fantasy film Wish was released in November 2023. The film's theme is inspired by Disney's 100th anniversary.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed roughly $255 million worldwide against a production budget of $175–200 million, resulting in a loss of an estimated $131 million.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film was nominated for several awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The studio provided both CG and hand-drawn animation of fireflies for the Disney Parks ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure, which opened in 2024 and is inspired by The Princess and the Frog.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In September 2024, Lee announced that she was stepping down from her position as Disney Animation's chief creative officer to return to full-time filmmaking at the studio—specifically, to direct and write Frozen 3 and also to write and executive produce Frozen 4.<ref name="McClintock">Template:Cite news</ref> Jared Bush was named as her successor.<ref name="McClintock" />
The studio released the sequel Moana 2 in November 2024. The project was originally under development as a series for Disney+ before being reworked into a theatrical feature film.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The film received mixed reviews and was a commercial success, grossing over $1 billion worldwide.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Production logoEdit
Template:External media Until 2007, Walt Disney Animation Studios did not use a traditional production logo, using the standard Walt Disney Pictures logo instead. Starting with 2007 film Meet the Robinsons, an on-screen production logo based on Steamboat Willie was added.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The logo has had variants, such as pixilation for the 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Steamboat Willie entered the public domain on January 1, 2024, as it was published in 1928. The logo remains in use.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
StudioEdit
LeadershipEdit
CurrentEdit
- Jared Bush, Chief Creative Officer (September 2024 – present)
- Clark Spencer, President (August 2019 – present)
- Stacey Snider, chief executive officer
- John Nallen, Chief Operating Officer
- Viet Dinh, Chief Legal Officer
- Steve Tomsic, Chief Financial Officer
- John Gelke, Vice President, Global Operations
- J Young Sr. Vice President, Growth
- Gerard Devan, Group Executive APAC
- Stephanie Gruber, Group Executive Television
- Christopher Greavu, Vice President of Sales
Past LeadershipEdit
- Andrew Millstein, President (November 2014 – July 2019)<ref name="LATMillstein" /><ref name="Kit" />
- Edwin Catmull, President (June 2007 – July 2019)<ref name="Catmull-to-retire" />
- David Stainton, President (January 2003 – January 2006)<ref name="Thomas-David">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Thomas Schumacher, President (January 1999 – December 2002)<ref name=pb>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Thomas-David" />
- Peter Schneider, President (1985 – January 1999)<ref name=cb>Template:Cite news</ref>
- John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer (January 2006 – June 2018)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Jennifer Lee, Chief Creative Officer (June 2018 – September 2024)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Roy E. Disney, Chairman (1984 – 2003)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
LocationsEdit
Since 1995, Walt Disney Animation Studios has been headquartered in the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California, across Riverside Drive from the Walt Disney Studios, where the original Animation building (now housing corporate offices) is located. The Disney Animation Building's lobby is capped by a large version of the magic sorcerer hat from the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia (1940), and the building is informally called the "hat building" for that reason.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Until the mid-1990s, Disney Animation previously operated out of the Air Way complex, a cluster of old hangars, office buildings, and trailers<ref name="wakingsleepingbeauty" /> in the Grand Central Business Centre, an industrial park on the site of the former Grand Central Airport<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> about two miles (3.2 km) east in the city of Glendale. The Disneytoon Studios unit was based in Glendale. Disney Animation's archive, formerly known as "the morgue" (based on an analogy to a morgue file) and today known as the Animation Research Library,<ref name="ARL1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is also located in Glendale.<ref name="JungleBookTelegraph" /> Unlike the Burbank buildings, the ARL is located in a nondescript office building near Disney's Grand Central Creative Campus. The 12,000-square-foot ARL is home to over 64 million items of animation artwork dating back to 1924; because of its importance to the company, visitors are required to agree not to disclose its exact location within Glendale.<ref name="JungleBookTelegraph">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
Previously, feature animation satellite studios were located around the world in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France (a suburb of Paris),<ref name="ParisStudio" /> and in Bay Lake, Florida (near Orlando, at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park).<ref name="LiloOcala" /> The Paris studio was shut down in 2002,<ref name="DisneyOrlandoClosed" /> while the Florida studio was shut down in 2004.<ref name="DisneyOrlandoClosed" /> The Florida animation building survives as an office building, while the former Magic of Disney Animation section of the building is home to Star Wars Launch Bay.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In the wake of Roy E. Disney's death in 2009, the Burbank headquarters were re-dedicated the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in May 2010.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In November 2014, Disney Animation commenced a 16-month upgrade of the Roy E. Disney Animation Building,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="FryeJim">Template:Cite journal</ref> in order to fix what then-studio president Edwin Catmull had called its "dungeon-like" interior.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> For example, the interior was so cramped that it could not easily accommodate "town hall" meetings with all employees in attendance.<ref name="FryeJim" /> Due to the renovation, the studio's employees were temporarily moved from Burbank into the closest available Disney-controlled studio space – the Disneytoon Studios building in the industrial park in Glendale and the old Imagineering warehouse in North Hollywood under the western approach to Bob Hope Airport (the Tujunga Building).<ref name="Lark"/><ref name="Snetiker">Template:Cite news</ref> The renovation was completed in October 2016.<ref name="Snetiker" />
FilmographyEdit
Feature filmsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:Timeline of release years Walt Disney Animation Studios has produced animated features in a series of animation techniques, including traditional animation, computer animation, combination of both and animation combined with live-action scenes. The studio's first film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released on December 21, 1937,<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> and their most recent film, Moana 2, was released on November 27, 2024.
Starting with Chicken Little (2005), most of their films have cost between $150–175 million. Tangled (2010) is the studio's most expensive film, with a budget of $260 million.<ref name="LATimes">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Upcoming filmsEdit
The studio's next film will be the sequel Zootopia 2, scheduled to be released on November 26, 2025.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> An unannounced film is scheduled to be released on November 25, 2026,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and sequel Frozen 3 is scheduled to be released on November 24, 2027.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Short filmsEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:See also Since Alice Comedies in the 1920s, Walt Disney Animation Studios has produced a series of prominent short films, including the Mickey Mouse cartoons and the Silly Symphonies series, until the cartoon studio division was closed in 1956. Many of these shorts provided a medium for the studio to experiment with new technologies that they would use in their filmmaking process, such as the synchronization of sound in Steamboat Willie (1928),<ref name="gabler128" /> the integration of the three-strip Technicolor process in Flowers and Trees (1932),<ref name="HistoryofColorFilm" /> the multiplane camera in The Old Mill (1937),<ref name="TheOldMillMultiplane" /> the xerography process in Goliath II (1960),<ref name="GoliathII">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the hand-drawn/CGI hybrid animation in Off His Rockers (1992),<ref name="OffHisRockers">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Paperman (2012),<ref name="Paperman" /> Get a Horse! (2013).<ref name=EWFirstLook /> and Feast (2014).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Television programmingEdit
Walt Disney Animation Studios announced its expansion into television programming in 2020 and produced original shows for Disney+.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> However, on March 3, 2025, the studio announced that all television series in production and development had been shelved as the studio pivoted away from longform content for streaming in favor of focusing on theatrical feature films.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
| Title | Network | Original run | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short Circuit | Disney+ | 2020–22 | Shorts |
| Zenimation | 2020–21 | ||
| How to Stay at Home | 2021 | ||
| Olaf Presents | |||
| Baymax! | 2022 | TV series | |
| Zootopia+ | |||
| Iwájú | 2024 | TV series; co-production with Kugali Media and Cinesite<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> |
FranchisesEdit
This list includes film series and/or franchises featuring theatrical films, short films, and television series produced by either Walt Disney Animation Studios or follow-ups of them made by Disney's direct-to-video/television units such as Disney Television Animation or Disneytoon Studios through the years, as well as live-action films.
Highest-grossing filmsEdit
| Rank | Title | Year | Box office gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frozen 2 | 2019 | $477,373,578 |
| 2 | Moana 2 | 2024 | $460,072,062 |
| 3 | The Lion King | 1994 | $422,783,777 |
| 4 | Frozen | 2013 | $400,738,009 |
| 5 | Zootopia | 2016 | $341,268,248 |
| 6 | Moana | $248,757,044 | |
| 7 | Big Hero 6 | 2014 | $222,527,828 |
| 8 | Beauty and the Beast | 1991 | $218,967,620 |
| 9 | Aladdin | 1992 | $217,350,219 |
| 10 | Ralph Breaks the Internet | 2018 | $201,091,711 |
| 11 | Tangled | 2010 | $200,821,936 |
| 12 | Wreck-It Ralph | 2012 | $189,422,889 |
| 13 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | $184,925,486 |
| 14 | Tarzan | 1999 | $171,091,819 |
| 15 | Lilo & Stitch | 2002 | $145,794,338 |
| 16 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | 1961 | $144,880,014 |
| 17 | The Jungle Book | 1967 | $141,843,612 |
| 18 | Pocahontas | 1995 | $141,579,773 |
| 19 | Dinosaur | 2000 | $137,748,063 |
| 20 | Chicken Little | 2005 | $135,386,665 |
| 21 | Bolt | 2008 | $114,053,579 |
| 22 | The Little Mermaid | 1989 | $111,543,479 |
| 23 | The Princess and the Frog | 2009 | $104,400,899 |
| 24 | Bambi | 1942 | $102,247,150 |
| 25 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | 1996 | $100,138,851 |
| Rank | Title | Year | Box office gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frozen 2 | 2019 | $1,453,683,476 |
| 2 | Frozen | 2013 | $1,280,802,282 |
| 3 | Moana 2 | 2024 | $1,057,727,242 |
| 4 | Zootopia | 2016 | $1,025,521,689 |
| 5 | The Lion King | 1994 | $979,046,652 |
| 6 | Moana | 2016 | $687,229,282 |
| 7 | Big Hero 6 | 2014 | $657,870,525 |
| 8 | Tangled | 2010 | $592,472,813 |
| 9 | Ralph Breaks the Internet | 2018 | $529,323,962 |
| 10 | Aladdin | 1992 | $504,050,219 |
| 11 | Wreck-It Ralph | 2012 | $471,222,889 |
| 12 | Tarzan | 1999 | $448,191,819 |
| 13 | Beauty and the Beast | 1991 | $438,656,843 |
| 14 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | 1937 | $418,200,000 |
| 15 | The Jungle Book | 1967 | $378,000,000 |
| 16 | Dinosaur | 2000 | $349,822,765 |
| 17 | Pocahontas | 1995 | $346,079,773 |
| 18 | Bolt | 2008 | $328,015,029 |
| 19 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | 1996 | $325,338,851 |
| 20 | Chicken Little | 2005 | $314,432,837 |
| 21 | Mulan | 1998 | $304,320,254 |
| 22 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | 1961 | $303,000,000 |
| 23 | Lilo & Stitch | 2002 | $273,144,151 |
| 24 | The Princess and the Frog | 2009 | $270,997,378 |
| 25 | Bambi | 1942 | $267,447,150 |
See alsoEdit
- 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
- Pixar Canada
- Fox Animation Studios
- Blue Sky Studios
- 20th Century Animation
- List of Disney theatrical animated feature films
- Disney Television Animation
- List of animation studios
Documentary films about Disney animationEdit
- A Trip Through the Walt Disney Studios (1937, short)
- The Reluctant Dragon (1941, a staged "mockumentary")
- Frank and Ollie (1995)
- Dream On Silly Dreamer (2005)
- Waking Sleeping Beauty (2009)
- Walt & El Grupo (2009)
- Howard (2018)
ReferencesEdit
SourcesEdit
External linksEdit
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