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109-402: Walt Disney Animation Studios ( WDAS ), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation , is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company . The studio's current production logo features a scene from its first synchronized sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie (1928). Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney after

218-484: A full-length animated feature film i.e. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , which laid the foundation for other studios to try to make full-length movies. In 1932 Flowers and Trees , a production by Walt Disney Productions and United Artists , won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film . This period, from the 1920s to the 1950s or sometimes considered from 1911 to the death of Walt Disney in 1966,

327-636: 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). 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. A significant critical and commercial success, Roger Rabbit won three Academy Awards for technical achievements. and

436-482: A group with the animated sequences in Disney's live-action/animated hybrid feature Pete's Dragon (1977), the animation for which was directed by Bluth. In September 1979, dissatisfied with what they felt was a stagnation in the development of the art of animation at Disney, Bluth and several of the other new guard animators quit to start their own studio, Don Bluth Productions , which became Disney's chief competitor in

545-601: A longer running manga or animated series. As the OAV market is not adapted to the rigors that are faced by television shows or feature films, they have been known to show gratuitous amounts of violence and/or pornography. Some OAV's have registered such strong acclaim that they have been remade as anime television series as well as theatrical releases. Since most new OVA's are derived from other animated media, many animation studios that have previously worked on animated series or movies, and adaptations of Japanese manga, have now entered

654-450: 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. Working in secret while the rest of the staff finished the remaining Oswalds on contract, Disney and his head animator Ub Iwerks led

763-479: A lukewarm response at the box office and was a sharp critical disappointment in its initial release. Peter Pan , released in 1953, on the other hand, was a commercial success and the sixth 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 , earning an estimated $ 6.5 million in rentals at

872-404: A modern pop soundtrack. Oliver & Company opened in the theaters on the same day as another Bluth/Amblin/Universal animated film, The Land Before Time ; however, 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. At

981-506: A new animation studio, Studio Ghibli , which would be used for the personal works of Miyazaki and his close friend, Isao Takahata . Many of Ghibli's works have become Japan's top-grossing theatrical films, whether in live-action or animated form. The market for 'OAV's or ' Original Anime Video ' later the acronym would be better known as 'OVA' meaning 'Original video animation' as the term 'OAV' could often be misunderstood for 'Original Adult Video', began in 1984. These are often tended towards

1090-554: A new distribution contract with Columbia Pictures . Powers, in return, signed away Ub Iwerks, who began producing cartoons at his own studio, although he would return to Disney in 1940. 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 , which allowed for fuller-color reproduction where previous color film processors could not. The result

1199-508: A profitable enterprise and many have entered the made for television market since, with Joseph Barbera and William Hanna refining the production process for television animation on their show Ruff and Reddy . It was in 1958 that The Huckleberry Hound Show claimed the title of being the first all-new half-hour cartoon show. This, along with their previous success with the series Tom and Jerry , elevated their animation studio, H.B. Enterprises (later Hanna-Barbera Productions ), to dominate

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1308-595: 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, its reign over the most awards had been ended by MGM 's Tom and Jerry cartoons, Warner Bros' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies , and

1417-565: A separate "story department" with storyboard artists dedicated to story development. 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, with its theme song " Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? " becoming a popular chart hit. 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

1526-558: A series of silent Alice Comedies short films featuring a live-action child actress in an animated world. 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. Upon relocating to California, the Disney brothers initially started working in their uncle Robert Disney's garage at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in

1635-486: A small handful of loyal staffers in producing cartoons starring a new character named Mickey Mouse . 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,

1744-550: A very small core group. After being bought out or sold to other companies, they eventually consolidated with other studios and became larger. The drawback of this setup was that there was now a major thrust towards profitability with the management acting as a damper towards creativity of these studios, continuing even in today's scenario. Currently, the independent animation studios are looking to ensure artistic integrity by signing up with big animation studios on contracts that allow them to license out movies, without being directed by

1853-489: Is among Disney's most notable assets, with the stars of its animated shorts— Mickey Mouse , Minnie Mouse , Donald Duck , Daisy Duck , Goofy , and Pluto —becoming recognizable figures in popular culture and mascots for the Walt Disney Company as a whole. Three of the studio's films— Frozen (2013), Zootopia (2016), and Frozen II (2019)—are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time , with

1962-515: Is an American animator , voice actor, film director, and producer known for his work at Disney's Walt Disney Animation Studios and 20th Century Animation , as well as Warner Bros. Animation . Goldberg was born and raised in Levittown, Pennsylvania , and moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey as a child, where he attended Cherry Hill High School East . Goldberg later studied at Pratt Institute , where he majored in illustration. He first entered

2071-707: Is commonly known as the Golden Age of American Animation as it included the growth of Disney, as well as the rise of Warner Bros. Cartoons and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio as prominent animation studios. Disney continued to lead in technical prowess among studios for a long time afterwards, as can be seen with their achievements . In 1941, Otto Messmer created the first animated television commercials for Botany Tie ads/weather reports. They were shown on NBC-TV in New York until 1949. This marked

2180-591: Is dated around 1917, but it would take until 1956 for the Japanese animation industry to successfully adopt the studio format as used in the United States. In 1961, these productions began to be aired in the US. Toei Animation , formed in 1948, was the first Japanese animation studio of importance and saw the reduction of animators as independent anime artists. After the formation of Toei Animation Co. Ltd. in 1948,

2289-606: Is subject to local intellectual property rights. The animators must also be aware of the contracts laws and labour laws prevalent in the jurisdiction to which the animation studio is subject to. There have been numerous legal battles fought over the copyright of famous franchises, such as Kung Fu Panda and SpongeBob SquarePants . This has come about as a result of the clause in Copyright contracts that states that an idea cannot be protected, only an actual piece of work can be said to be infringed upon. This means that though

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2398-578: The Disneyland theme park, 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 , which was finally released in 1959. At $ 6 million, it was Disney's most expensive film to date, produced in a heavily stylised art style devised by artist Eyvind Earle and presented in large-format Super Technirama 70 with six-track stereophonic sound. However, despite being

2507-732: The Donald Duck cartoons eclipsed the Mickey Mouse series in popularity. Silly Symphonies , which garnered seven Academy Awards , ceased in 1939, until the shorts returned to theatres with some re-issues and re-releases. 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. The studio launched into

2616-546: 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

2725-428: 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

2834-532: The 1950s. 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. Alice in Wonderland , released in 1951, met with

2943-527: 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. 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 . Using xerography, animation drawings could be photochemically transferred rather than traced from paper drawings to

3052-688: The 1970s to the present. 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. 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, to be followed by several other Pooh featurettes over the years and a full-length compilation feature, The Many Adventures of Winnie

3161-620: The 1970s with the release of The Aristocats , the last film project to be approved by Walt Disney. 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. The next feature, Robin Hood (1973), was produced with a significantly reduced budget and animation repurposed from previous features. Both The Aristocats and Robin Hood were minor box office and critical successes. The Rescuers , released in 1977,

3270-554: The Disney studio. 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. As Walt Disney Productions was being set up as a union shop, Walt Disney and several studio employees were sent by the U.S. government on a Good Neighbor policy trip to Central and South America. The Disney strike and its aftermath led to an exodus of several animation professionals from

3379-524: 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 . 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

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3488-673: The Japanese studios churned out minor works of animation. But with the release of Toei's first theatrical feature, The Tale of the White Serpent released in October 1958, the animation industry in Japan came into the eye of the general public. The success of Alakazam the Great led to the finding of the artist Osamu Tezuka , who would go on to become the father of Japanese manga with his brand of modern, fast-paced fantasy storylines. He became influenced by Hanna-Barbera productions of

3597-424: The London satellite office and retool the film into a musical-comedy format similar to The Little Mermaid . Alan Menken and Howard Ashman were retained to write the songs and score, though Ashman died before production was completed. Animation studio The idea of a studio dedicated to animating cartoons was spearheaded by Raoul Barré and his studio, Barré Studio , co-founded with Bill Nolan , beating out

3706-858: The North American and European markets, direct-to-video animation has seen a rise, as a concept, in the Western markets. With many comic characters receiving their versions of OVA 's, original video animations , under the Westernized title of direct-to-video animations, the OVA market has spread to American animation houses. Their popularity has resulted in animated adaptations of comic characters ranging from Hellboy , Green Lantern and Avengers . Television shows such as Family Guy and Futurama also released direct-to-video animations. DC Comics have continually released their own animated movies for

3815-467: The North American box office in 1955. Lady and the Tramp is significant as Disney's first widescreen animated feature, produced in the CinemaScope process, and was the first Disney animated feature to be released by Disney's own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution . By the mid-1950s, with Walt Disney's attention primarily set on new endeavours such as live-action films, television and

3924-406: The North American television animation market during the latter half of the 20th century. In 2002, Shrek , produced by DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature . Since then, Disney / Pixar have produced the most number of movies either to win or be nominated for the award. Though the term "direct-to-video" carries negative connotations in

4033-413: The OVA market, looking to capitalize on the popularity of their flagship shows. Studios participating in such circumstances include Production I.G and Studio Deen . Although there are permanent/full-time positions in studios, most animators work on a contract basis. There are some animators that are considered to be in the core group of the studio, which can either be as a result of being there since

4142-604: 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. However, the film did not duplicate the success of The Little Mermaid . 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

4251-456: The Pooh , which was released in 1977. Walt Disney died in December 1966, ten months before the studio's next film The Jungle Book , was completed and released. The film was a success, finishing 1967 as the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. Following Walt Disney's death, Wolfgang Reitherman continued as both producer and director of the studio's feature films. It was Reitherman who

4360-669: The animation field during the 1980s. Delayed half a year by the defection of the Bluth group, 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 produced in Super Technirama 70. The Black Cauldron

4469-433: 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. The studio

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4578-477: The animators may have forwarded ideas to the animation studios about certain characters and plots, these ideas alone cannot be protected and can lead to studios profiting on individual animator's ideas. However, this has not stopped many independent artists from filing claims to characters produced by different studios. Due to the wide range of animation techniques and styles, many animation studios typically specialize in certain types. Traditional animation employs

4687-455: The beginning of a changing of the guard process in the personnel at the Disney animation studio, 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 . The new animators, selected from the animation program at CalArts and trained by Eric Larson, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Woolie Reitherman, got their first chance to prove themselves as

4796-547: The bigger studios. Examples of such co-operation are the joint ventures between DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures and that of Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Studios . On August 22, 2016, Comcast's NBCUniversal acquired DreamWorks Animation , appointing Meledandri oversee Comcast's Universal Animation/DreamWorks/Illumination, Disney's Disney Animation/Pixar/20th Century Animation, & Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Animation/Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. The first known example of Japanese animation, also called anime ,

4905-603: The board to fire Miller. Roy E. Disney brought in Michael Eisner as Disney's new CEO and Frank Wells as president. Eisner in turn named Jeffrey Katzenberg chairman of the film division, The Walt Disney Studios. 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. The studio's most expensive feature to that point at $ 44 million, The Black Cauldron

5014-493: The box office and became the highest-grossing first-issue animated film to that point. 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. 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

5123-709: The box office, and had laid off a large portion of their hand-drawn animators. However, the studio stated in 2019 and 2023 that they are open to proposals from filmmakers for future hand-drawn feature projects. In addition, in April 2022, Eric Goldberg , one of the studio's hand-drawn animators who has been working with the studio since 1992, confirmed plans within the Disney studio to once again return to hand-drawn animation. 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

5232-497: The camera to appear to move dimensionally through an animated scene. 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

5341-531: 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 . Other head animators at Disney during this period included Norm Ferguson, Bill Tytla and Fred Moore . The development of

5450-407: The clear acetate sheets (" cels ") used in final animation production. The resulting art style – a scratchier line which revealed the construction lines in the animators' drawings – typified Disney films into the 1980s. The film was a success, being the tenth highest-grossing film of 1961 with rentals of $ 6.4 million. The Disney animation training program started at the studio in 1932 before

5559-794: The closure of Laugh-O-Gram Studio , 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 . Since its foundation, the studio has produced 63 feature films , from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Moana 2 (2024), 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,

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5668-475: 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. 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

5777-446: The creative head of Pixar , a pioneering computer animation studio that would begin a close association with Disney in the late 1980s. 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

5886-445: The day-to-day operations in 1985. On February 6, 1986, Disney executives moved the animation division from the Disney studio lot in Burbank to a variety of warehouses, hangars and trailers located about two miles east (3.2 kilometers) at 1420 Flower Street in nearby Glendale, California . About a year later, the growing computer graphics (CG) group would move there too. The animation division's first feature animation at its new location

5995-631: The development of Snow White eventually led to Walt Disney helping found the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) . 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

6104-620: The director of animation for Warner Bros. ' 2003 live-action/animation hybrid feature Looney Tunes: Back in Action , and also provided the voices of Bugs Bunny (one line), Marvin the Martian , Tweety , and Speedy Gonzales . Although the film was not commercially successful at the box office, it was met with relatively positive reviews from film critics, and Goldberg was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Directing in an Animated Feature Production for his animation direction. He animated

6213-505: 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

6322-519: The feature animation studio and outsourcing future animation. Roy E. Disney intervened, offering to head the feature animation division and turn its fortunes around, while Eisner established the Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group to produce lower-cost animation for television. Named Chairman of feature animation by Eisner, Roy E. Disney appointed Peter Schneider president of animation to run

6431-610: The film Aladdin , for which he became the lead animator on the character Genie , and later the lead animator on Phil in Hercules (1997). Goldberg also was one of the directors of Disney's 1995 feature Pocahontas . During his time as the lead animator for the Genie , he also provided the majority of the original animation for MC Skat Kat 's " Big Time " music video, which was finished in 1992 but left unaired. In December 1998, Goldberg began plans to produce an animated short set to

6540-502: The film industry, who dubbed the production "Disney's Folly", Disney proceeded undaunted into the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , 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

6649-431: The film's final original box office take varying between $ 1.4 million and $ 1.9 million. 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. Fantasia , an experimental film produced to an accompanying orchestral arrangement conducted by Leopold Stokowski ,

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6758-452: The first forays of animation designed for the smaller screen and was to be followed by the first animated series specifically made for television, Crusader Rabbit , in 1948. Its creator, Alex Anderson , had to create the studio 'Television Arts Productions' specifically for the purpose of creating this series as his old studio, Terrytoons , refused to make a series for television. Since Crusader Rabbit, however, many studios have seen this as

6867-414: The home video market, while not tending to the television or theatrical audience as such. They refer to those movies that are launched as direct-to-video releases and not meant to be released in theatres. Video productions can run from half an hour productions to well over two hours. They require that premise or story be original in order to be counted as an OVA, though sometimes, the story can be derived from

6976-421: The inception of the company or being talented recruits from other animation studios. These are the more secure positions in an animation studio, though the studio might have policies concerning the possible tenure of animators. Since studios can hire animators on a work for hire basis nowadays, many artists do not retain rights over their creations, unlike some of the early animators. The extent of these copyrights

7085-516: The industry in the mid-1970s working on Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure for the Richard Williams studio, eventually moving to Williams' London studio and rising through the ranks from assistant to director. During the 1980s, Goldberg started his own London-based studio, Pizazz Pictures, to produce television commercials. Later, Goldberg closed his studio to work at Disney Animation Studios, Burbank, California , to work on

7194-575: The late 1950s and made Japan's first made for television animation studio, Mushi Productions . The success of the studios' first show in 1963, Astro Boy , was so immense that there were 3 other television animation studios by the end of the year and Toei had opened their own made for television division. The greatest difference between Japanese studios and North American studios was the difference in adult-themed material to make way in Japan. Tezuka's thought that animation should not be restricted to kids alone has brought about many studios that are employed in

7303-412: The latter becoming the third-highest-grossing animated feature film of all time . It also had the highest-grossing worldwide opening of all time for an animated feature film up until the release of Nintendo and Illumination 's The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). By 2013, the studio had no hand-drawn animated features in development as a result of their computer animated films performing better at

7412-470: The main output accompanied by cartoons starring Mickey Mouse, Figaro and, in the 1950s, Chip 'n' Dale and Humphrey the Bear . In addition, Disney began reissuing the previous features, beginning with re-releases of Snow White in 1944, Pinocchio in 1945, and Fantasia in 1946. This led to a tradition of reissuing the Disney films every seven years, which lasted into the 1990s before being translated into

7521-405: 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. Dumbo was the first Disney animated film to be completed at

7630-505: The music of George Gershwin 's Rhapsody in Blue . His film eventually became part of Disney's Fantasia 2000 after Goldberg was allowed to use the Disney staff to complete the film during a production hiatus. He also served as director for Fantasia 2000 's " The Carnival of the Animals " segment. Goldberg's wife Susan served as art director on both segments. Goldberg served as

7739-501: 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. Production of full-length animated features was temporarily suspended after the release of Bambi . Given the financial failures of some of

7848-560: The production of adult-themed adaptations of classic stories such as Heidi ( Heidi, Girl of the Alps ), One Thousand and One Nights and The Diary of a Young Girl and many more. In the 1980s, animation studios were led back to their theatrical roots due to the success of Hayao Miyazaki 's film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind , which led publishing house Tokuma Shoten to finance

7957-430: The production of new animated features, the first of which was Pinocchio , released in February 1940. Pinocchio was not initially a box office success. The box office returns from the film's initial release were below both Snow White 's unprecedented success and the studio's expectations. Of the film's $ 2.289 million cost – twice of Snow White  – Disney recouped $ 1 million by late 1940, with studio reports of

8066-489: 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. 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. Following the United States' entry into World War II after

8175-593: The resulting frames are played back. Notable studios specializing in this style of animation include Aardman Animations , Laika and ShadowMachine . 3D animation is the newest of the animation techniques, using the assistance of computers and software, such as Houdini , to create 3D models that are then manipulated and rendered to create movement. Notable studios include Pixar Animation Studios , Sony Pictures Imageworks , Blue Sky Studios , Illumination , DNEG and Marza Animation Planet . Eric Goldberg (animator) Eric Allen Goldberg (born May 1, 1955)

8284-487: 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 . 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 ,

8393-410: 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 animation was It's Tough to Be a Bird . Disney shorts would only be produced on a sporadic basis from this point on, with notable later shorts including Runaway Brain (1995, starring Mickey Mouse) and Paperman (2012). Despite

8502-417: The sole purpose of sale in the direct-to-video market. With growing worries about piracy, direct to video animation might become more popular in the near future. With the growth of animation as an industry, the trends of ownership of studios have gradually changed with time. Current studios such as Warner Bros. and early ones such as Fleischer Studios , started life as small, independent studios, being run by

8611-603: 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). 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. Ron Miller , Walt Disney's son-in-law, became president of Walt Disney Productions in 1980 and CEO in 1983. That year, he expanded

8720-399: The studio and observe animators at work. 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'd been co-directors on The Great Mouse Detective , The Little Mermaid earned $ 84 million at the North American box office, a record for

8829-566: The studio created by J.R. Bray , Bray Productions , to the honor of the first studio dedicated to animation. Though beaten to the post of being the first studio, Bray's studio employee, Earl Hurd , came up with patents designed for mass-producing the output for the studio. As Hurd did not file for these patents under his own name but handed them to Bray, they would go on to form the Bray-Hurd Patent Company and sold these techniques for royalties to other animation studios of

8938-440: 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 , had begun at the studio in 1932 and were greatly expanded into orientation training and continuing education classes. In the course of teaching the classes, Graham and the animators created or formalized many of

9047-436: 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

9156-409: The studio's animation output was for the military. During the war, Disney produced the live-action/animated military propaganda feature Victory Through Air Power (1943), 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). Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros set

9265-480: The studio's handling of home video releases. 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. 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

9374-411: 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, leading to massive layoffs throughout the studio. By the end of the decade, the Disney short subjects were no longer being produced on

9483-486: 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 . 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. Dumbo , in production during

9592-412: 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. The Little Mermaid won two Academy Awards, for Best Original Song and Best Original Score . The Little Mermaid vigorously relaunched a profound new interest in the animation and musical film genres. The film was also the first to feature

9701-434: The techniques and processes that became the key tenets and principles of traditional animation. 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 , an invention that split animation artwork layers into several planes, allowing

9810-744: 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. 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. Shorts production continued during this period as well, with Donald Duck , Goofy , and Pluto cartoons being

9919-778: 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. The Mickey Mouse series of sound cartoons, distributed by Powers through Celebrity Productions, quickly became the most popular cartoon series in the United States. A second Disney series of sound cartoons, Silly Symphonies , debuted in 1929 with The Skeleton Dance . 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

10028-417: The time. The biggest name in animation studios during this early time was Disney Brothers Animation Studio (now known as Walt Disney Animation Studios ), co-founded by Walt and Roy O. Disney . Started on October 16, 1923, the studio went on to make its first animated short, Steamboat Willie in 1928, to much critical success, though the real breakthrough was in 1937, when the studio was able to produce

10137-455: The title sequence of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 's 2006 remake of The Pink Panther , with Bob Kurtz of Kurtz and Friends. In 2006, Goldberg returned to Disney, where he directed four minutes of animation for the Epcot attraction Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros and contributed to the 2007 animated short How to Hook Up Your Home Theater , which starred Goofy . Most recently, he

10246-571: The unprecedented success of Gone with the Wind two years later, grossing over $ 8 million on its initial release, the equivalent of $ 173,163,120 in 1999 dollars. 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

10355-436: The use of Disney's Computer Animation Production System (CAPS). Developed for Disney by Pixar, 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. The Little Mermaid

10464-513: The use of hand-drawn frames, and is used in the world of cartoons, movies and anime. Notable studios that specialize in this style include Studio Ghibli , Cartoon Saloon , Nickelodeon Animation Studio , Disney Television Animation , 20th Television Animation , Warner Bros. Animation , Cartoon Network Studios , Titmouse , Ufotable , Studio Chizu and CoMix Wave Films . Stop-motion animation uses objects that are incrementally moved and photographed in order to create an illusion of movement when

10573-559: 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. During the 1950s, only one Disney short, the stylized Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom , won the Best Short Subject (Cartoons) Oscar. 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

10682-533: The years. 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. 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

10791-462: 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 . The film was enough of a critical and commercial success to instill executive confidence in the animation studio. 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

10900-424: Was a critical and commercial failure. The film's $ 21 million box office gross led to a loss for the studio, putting the future of the animation division in jeopardy. 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. As new CEO, Michael Eisner strongly considered shuttering

11009-460: Was a success exceeding the achievements of the previous two Disney features. 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 . The film was reissued in 1983, accompanied by a new Disney featurette, Mickey's Christmas Carol . The production of The Rescuers signaled

11118-471: 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, but went on to become

11227-616: Was key in renewing mainstream interest in American animation. Other than the film itself, the studio also produced three Roger Rabbit shorts during the late 1980s and early 1990s. 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 at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida , and visitors were allowed to tour

11336-503: Was recognized as the premier American animation studio for much of its existence and was "for many decades the undisputed world leader in animated features"; it developed many of the techniques, concepts and principles that became standard practices of traditional animation . 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. The studio's catalog of animated features

11445-480: 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, the high cost ($ 85,000 per theater) of installing Fantasound placed Fantasia at a greater loss than Pinocchio . RKO assumed distribution of Fantasia in 1941, later reissuing it in severely edited versions over

11554-444: Was responsible for a noticeable softening of Disney villains, and over the next two decades, nearly all Disney villains were more comical or pitiful than scary. 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. According to Andreas Deja , Reitherman said that "if we lose the kids, we lose everything". The studio began

11663-563: Was the Silly Symphony cartoon Flowers and Trees , the first film commercially released in full Technicolor. Flowers and Trees was a major success and all Silly Symphonies were subsequently produced in Technicolor. 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, and this realization led him to create

11772-485: 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 . 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. Accompanied in theaters by the Mickey Mouse featurette The Prince and

11881-964: Was the supervising animator for Louis in The Princess and the Frog (2009), Rabbit in Winnie the Pooh (2011), and Maui 's tattoos in Moana (2016). Goldberg has also animated Mickey Mouse on Nighttime Spectaculars in DisneyParks and Resorts, including Disney Gifts of Christmas and Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland in Tokyo Disneyland , and "We Love Mickey" Main Street Projection Show in Hong Kong Disneyland . In April 2022, Goldberg confirmed plans within

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