Portal:Disney

Introduction

The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Founded on October 16, 1923, as an animation studio by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Disney operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before adopting its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation sector, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation from 1989 to 1999. In 2005, under the new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

Disney operates the largest television and film studio in Hollywood. Walt Disney Studios includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions operating the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article

Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by The Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney Television, with dedicated content hubs for the brands Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, as well as Star in some regions. Original films and television series are also distributed on Disney+.

Disney+ relies on technology developed by Disney Streaming Services, which was originally established as BAMTech in 2015 when it was spun off from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM). Disney increased its ownership share of BAMTech to a controlling stake in 2017, and subsequently transferred ownership to DTCI, as part of a corporate restructuring in anticipation of Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox.Disney+ was launched on November 12, 2019, in the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands, and expanded to Australia, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico a week later. It became available in select European countries in March 2020 and in India in April through Star India's Hotstar streaming service, which was rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar. Additional European countries received the service in September 2020, with the service expanding to Latin America in November 2020. The service expanded to South Africa in May 2022, with other countries in Africa, Western Asia and Europe following suit in June 2022, and other Southeast Asian countries at the end of the year. Upon launch, it was met with positive reception of its content library, but was criticized for technical problems and missing content. Alterations made to films and television shows also attracted media attention. Ten million users had subscribed to Disney+ by the end of its first day of operation.

More selected articles • Read more

Selected image

Credit: Coolcaesar

An entrance to Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California

More selected pictures • Read more...

General images - load new batch

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

Image 1An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 2Disney with film roll and Mickey Mouse on his right arm in 1935 (from Walt Disney)
Image 3Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 4The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s. This logo is still used on retro merchandise. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 5Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 6Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 7The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 8Adventureland entrance
(from Disneyland)
Image 9Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 10Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 11Disney receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 from President Lyndon B. Johnson. (from Walt Disney)
Image 12Hollywood Studios' Park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 13Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney)
Image 14Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 15A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 16Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 17Main Street, USA
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 18Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 19Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 20The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 21Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 22Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 23Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 24Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 25Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 26The original animation building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 27Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of the Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 28Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney World)
Image 29Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 30Disney in 1954 with Wernher von Braun (from Walt Disney)
Image 31New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion) (from Disneyland)
Image 32Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 33An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 34A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guests to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 35The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 36The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 37Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 38Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 39Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 40The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 41View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 42Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) (from Disneyland)
Image 43Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 44Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 45Mickey's Toontown
(Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway) (from Disneyland)
Image 46Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 47One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney regained the rights to in 2006. The initial run of Oswald shorts by Disney has entered the public domain as of January 1, 2024. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 48Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 49Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 50Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 51Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 52Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run) (from Disneyland)
Image 53Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 54Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 55Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland in 2008. (from Disneyland)
Image 56Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 57Bayou Country
(Tiana's Bayou Adventure) (from Disneyland)
Image 58Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 59Characters from Alice in Wonderland host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist in 2005. (from Disneyland)
Image 60Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 61Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 62One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)

Selected biography

Steve Jobs (b. 1955, d. 2011) was an American business magnate and inventor. He is co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in the 1995 film Toy Story as an executive producer. In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. In 2011, Apple announced that Steve Jobs had died at the age of 56.

More selected biographies • Read more

Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company alleging that the release strategy for Black Widow breached her contract?
... that cyclist Mike Allen compared participating in the Olympics to Disneyland?
... that a reviewer for Rolling Stone said that a 2024 concert tour by Weezer resembled a cross between an Iron Maiden concert and the Disneyland attraction Star Tours?
... that the Miller House in Indiana opened to the public in 2011, drawing high visitor numbers that were likened to the opening of a new Disney ride?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?
... that the art of Villains Are Destined to Die was said to be "almost in-between the Disney happy-ending fairy tales and the original Grimm's stories"?

Selected quote

Come on, Goofy, it's a beautiful day! Let's go out and shoot some golf!

— Mickey Mouse

More selected quotes • More at Wikiquote

More Did you know...

...that producers hope to use Good Luck Charlie "to debunk the myth that Disney never has the mom in the picture"?

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

...that Walt Disney started sketching Disney Characters in 1908?
...that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest set several records in its first three days, with an opening weekend of $136 million.
... that in 1989, a black-and-white drawing from Walt Disney's "Orphan's Benefit" (USA 1934), depicting Donald Duck being punched by an orphan, raised $280,000 at Christie's London, England.

More did you know facts

Topics

Recognized content

Extended content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Disney}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.