Portal:Disney

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Introduction

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

After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

The company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, Star+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Ariel is a fictional character and the lead protagonist of Walt Disney Pictures' twenty-eighth animated film The Little Mermaid (1989). She subsequently appears in the film's prequel television series, direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (where her daughter takes over as the protagonist, while Ariel is a secondary character instead) and direct-to-video prequel The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. Ariel is voiced by Jodi Benson (pictured) in all animated appearances and merchandise. She is the fourth Disney Princess and the only one to become a mother. Ariel has a very distinctive appearance, with her long, flowing red hair, blue eyes, greenish-blue tail, and a purple seashell bikini top. In the films and television series she is the youngest daughter of King Triton and Queen Athena. She is often rebellious, and in the first film longs to be a part of the human world. She marries Prince Eric, whom she rescued from a shipwreck, and together they have a daughter, Melody. The character is based on the protagonist of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" story, but was developed into a different personality for the 1989 animated film adaptation. Ariel has received a mixed reception from critics; some publications such as Time criticize her for being too devoted to her man whereas others, such as Empire, praise the character for her rebellious personality, a departure from previous Disney Princesses.

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Credit: Protostar

The entrance to Disney California Adventure at Anaheim, showing the large letters spelling CALIFORNIA

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

Image 1Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 2Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 3Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 4Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 5Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 6Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 7Walt (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 8Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 9Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 10Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 11Critter Country
(Splash Mountain; 1989–2023) (from Disneyland)
Image 12An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 13Disney'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 14Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 15Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 16One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney lost the rights to until 2006. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 17The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 18Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 19Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist. (from Disneyland)
Image 20One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 21New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion in the background and Fantasmic! viewing area in the foreground in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 22Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 23Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 24An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 25Team 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 26Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. (from Disneyland)
Image 27Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 28Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 29The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 30Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 31Overlay 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 32The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort
Image 33View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 34Mickey's Toontown
(pictured in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 35A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guest to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 36Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 37Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 38The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 39Walt 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 40The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 41Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 42Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 43Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 44Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 45Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 46Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 47Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 48Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 49Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 50A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 51The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 52Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 53Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 54Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 55Adventureland entrance
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 56Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 57The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 58Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 59Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)

Selected biography

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.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Disney once created a political advertisement for Dwight D. Eisenhower (featured)?
... that, for the Space 220 Restaurant, Disney reached out to NASA engineers to understand what a space elevator might look like?
... that Encanto's Mirabel is the first Disney heroine to wear glasses?
... that vaccine coverage at schools around the Disneyland Resort was too low for herd immunity when measles broke out in 2014?
... that some TikTokers make videos about whether to smash or pass Disney characters?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?

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Gummis, as you know, The Great Book of Gummi will never be finished. It contains history of Gummi bears the world over, and now we have made a contribution. Zummi writes on blank page. Today, we helped a young boy save his kingdom.

— Zummi, "A New Beginning" - Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears

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More Did you know...

...that Dan Povenmire was at a Wild Thyme restaurant in South Pasadena, California, when he first drew the character Phineas Flynn?

...that child actor Joey Pollari was 15 years old when he appeared in the Disney XD film, Skyrunners?

...that Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle in Southern Germany.
...that Donald và bạn hữu (Vietnamese for "Donald and friends") is a bilingual weekly Disney comics magazine in Vietnamese and English published by Tre Publishing House in co-operation with The Saigon Times under license from the Walt Disney Company.
... that in 1989, a black-and-white drawing from Walt Disney's "Orphan's Benefit" (USA 1934), depicting Donald Duck being punched by an orphan, raised $280,000 at Christie's London, England.

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