Early years and 

Mickey Mouse

Walt Disney began his career in animation with the Kansas City Film Ad Company in Missouri in
1920. In 1922 Disney and his friend Ub Iwerks, a gifted animator, founded the Laugh-O-gram
Films studio in Kansas City and began producing a series of cartoons based on fables and fairy
tales. Joining Disney and Iwerks in the enterprise were such noted animators as Hugh Harman,
Rudolf Ising, and Isadore (“Friz”) Freleng. In 1923 Disney produced the short subject Alice in
Cartoonland, a film combining both live action and animation that was intended to be the pilot
film in a series. Within weeks of its completion, Disney filed for bankruptcy and left Kansas City
to establish himself in Hollywood as a cinematographer. Alice in Cartoonland turned out to be a
surprise hit, and orders from distributors for more Alice films compelled Disney to reopen shop
in Hollywood with the help of his brother Roy—a lifelong business partner. The Kansas City team
soon joined the Disneys in California, and the company produced mostly Alice films for the next
four years.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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In 1927 Disney began his first series of fully animated films, featuring the character Oswald the
Lucky Rabbit. When his distributor appropriated the rights to the character, Disney altered
Oswald’s appearance and created a new character that he named Mortimer Mouse; at the
urging of his wife, Disney rechristened him Mickey Mouse. Two silent Mickey Mouse cartoons—
Plane Crazy (1928) and Gallopin’ Gaucho (1928)—were produced before Disney employed the
novelty of sound for the third Mickey production, Steamboat Willie (1928), which was the first
Mickey cartoon released. The film was an immediate sensation and led to the studio’s
dominance in the animated market for many years.
Walt Disney

Walt Disney.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Throughout the 1930s the company, renamed Walt Disney Productions in 1929, produced
cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse and his regular supporting players Donald Duck, Pluto,
and Goofy, as well as the Silly Symphonies series—semiabstract cartoons featuring animation set
to classical music or to the music of Carl Stalling, the brilliant musician who scored many of the
best Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons. The Silly Symphonies entry Flowers and Trees (1932)
was the first cartoon produced in the three-colour Technicolor process, as well as the first
animated short subject to be honoured with an Academy Award. The most popular of the Silly
Symphonies cartoons was The Three Little Pigs (1933), which earned another Oscar.

Animated film classics: Snow White to Lady and the Tramp

The continuing success of the studio emboldened Disney to make his riskiest move in 1934,
when he began production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Although not the first
feature-length animated cartoon—that honour probably goes to Lotte Reiniger’s The
Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)—it was the first to receive widespread release and
publicity. As much of a sensation as Steamboat Willie had been, Snow White revolutionized the
industry and proved animation’s effectiveness as a vehicle for feature-length stories. Disney
advocated a realistic approach to the medium, as opposed to the anarchic style of other
animation studios. Scenes in Disney cartoons were composed and framed as they would be for a
live-action film, and surreal aspects of the characters were kept to a minimum. Although this
approach provoked the criticism that Disney discouraged experimentation and limited
animation’s possibilities, there is little question of its success in Snow White and the animated
features that followed.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

PRNewsFoto/Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment/AP Images

Pinocchio (1940), which features complex characters rendered in painstakingly detailed full-

figure animation, is perhaps Disney’s grandest achievement. Fantasia (1940) is a series of
abstract vignettes set to classical compositions; it remains a controversial work, derided for its
portentousness and praised for its stunning visual virtuosity. Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942)
also achieved recognition as masterpieces by effectively employing the devices Disney had first
brought together in Pinocchio: music, comedy, pathos, adventure, and genuine horror. This last
element was a key ingredient in Disney’s features, as Disney himself felt that youngsters could
tolerate evil antagonists and scenes of unpleasantness, provided that the forces of good
triumphed in the end.

Pinocchio

A scene from Pinocchio (1940).

© 1940 Walt Disney Productions

Disney suffered a major setback in 1941 when the studio’s animators went on strike for three
months. Disney took the action personally, and many of the studio’s top animators were
compelled to resign. The enthusiastic mood within the studio had been permanently dampened,
and the studio produced little on the level of Pinocchio or Dumbo for the next decade,
concentrating instead on short cartoons, nature documentaries, and features that combined live
action and animation such as The Three Caballeros (1945) and Song of the South (1946). The
feature-length cartoons Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953)
were considered fine efforts, but many felt they lacked the panache and dimension of the early
’40s features. Lady and the Tramp (1955) was a return to form, but Disney’s attention was by
then increasingly devoted to live-action features, television productions, and his new theme
park, Disneyland, which opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California. It was also about then that
Disney established the distribution company Buena Vista Productions in order to ensure
complete control over his films and their marketing.

Disneyland: Sleeping Beauty Castle

Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, Anaheim, California.

© Marcorubino/Dreamstime.com
Walt Disney

Walt Disney, c. 1955.

© The Walt Disney Company

Live-action films and later decline

The Disney Company continued to flourish during the 1950s and ’60s. It produced hit television
shows such as The Mickey Mouse Club, Zorro, and Walt Disney Presents, which, under various
titles (such as Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color and The Wonderful World of Disney) and
despite periodic hiatuses, was still in production at the beginning of the 21st century. Quality
animated features such as Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmatians (1961), and Winnie the Pooh
and the Honey Tree (1965) were still produced, and well-received live-action vehicles
included 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Old Yeller (1957), Darby O’Gill and the Little
People (1959), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961), and The Incredible Journey (1963). Disney’s
finest live-action film, Mary Poppins (1964), was heralded as the studio’s greatest achievement
in more than 20 years. The film won five Academy Awards, including a best actress Oscar
for Julie Andrews, and was nominated in seven additional categories.

Mary Poppins

Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964), directed by Robert Stevenson.

© The Walt Disney Company

Walt Disney was never a rich man by Hollywood standards, largely because he valued perfection
more than profits. “I don’t make movies to make money,” he once said, “I make money so I can
make more movies.” The company was in financial disarray when he died on December 15,
1966, but enterprises he had planned before his death assured the company’s future. In 1965 he
purchased 43 acres of barren land in central Florida for his most ambitious project, the Walt
Disney World Resort. Roy Disney assumed supervision of the project, and the park opened in
1971 to great success; in 1982 the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or Epcot
Center, later known as Epcot, was incorporated into the park and immediately became one of its
main attractions. Epcot was the last project Walt Disney himself envisioned during his lifetime,
and by the turn of the 21st century it was attracting more than 10 million visitors annually.
Walt Disney World

Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida.

© Sunflower6000/Dreamstime.com

Epcot: Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth at Epcot, Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida.

Chensiyuan

During the 1970s and ’80s the company produced few films of note and realized its greatest
profits from the distribution of old films and from Disney World, which had become one of the
world’s leading tourist destinations. Top animators such as Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John
Pomeroy defected from the company in 1977, and Disney’s subsequent efforts, such as the
animated feature The Fox and the Hound (1981), failed to capture the magic of the studio’s glory
days.

Return to prominence
Ron Miller, Disney’s son-in-law, is credited with initiating the company’s astounding resurgence.
In the early 1980s Miller broadened the company’s product line and founded Touchstone
Pictures, a subsidiary devoted to producing films for adult audiences. Touchstone produced
some of the most financially and critically successful films of the 1980s and ’90s,
including Splash (1984), The Color of Money (1986), Three Men and a Baby (1987), Who Framed
Roger Rabbit? (1988), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Pretty
Woman (1990), Father of the Bride (1991), Ed Wood (1994), and The Horse Whisperer (1998). In
order to maintain its image as a purveyor of family entertainment, Disney does not use its name
on any Touchstone production.

Johnny Depp in  Ed Wood

Johnny Depp in Ed Wood (1994), directed by Tim Burton.

© 1994 Touchstone Pictures

During a bitter board of directors’ dispute in 1984, Michael Eisner wrested power from Miller
and, as chairman of the board and company CEO, began a further expansion of the Disney
empire. The company added two more film subsidiaries with the establishment in 1989 of
Hollywood Pictures (devoted to producing films for teenagers and young adults) and with the
acquisition of Miramax Films in 1993 (producer of films such as Pulp Fiction [1994], Good Will
Hunting [1997], and Shakespeare in Love [1998]); in 2010 Disney sold Miramax to an investor
group.
Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon (left) and Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting (1997).

Courtesy of Miramax Films

The 1990s were a hugely successful decade for the Disney Company. The revival was heralded
by the release of The Little Mermaid (1989), an animated feature regarded as Disney’s best such
effort in more than 40 years. More animated blockbusters followed, including Beauty and the
Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996),
and Fantasia 2000 (1999). The company had experimented with computerized animation for the
live-action feature Tron (1982) and realized the technology’s potential with the enormously
successful Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999), films that Disney jointly developed and
produced with Pixar Animation Studios. Live-action features also found success, especially 101
Dalmatians (1996), a remake of Disney’s own 1961 animated feature.

Toy Story

Publicity still from Toy Story (1995), the first computer-animated feature film.

© 1995 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

Expansion: ABC, Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilm

Although films continue to be a major component of the Disney Company, they constitute but

one of many successful ventures of recent years. New Disney theme parks were opened
in Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and DisneyQuests—indoor theme parks featuring
interactive virtual-reality arcades—debuted in Orlando, Florida, and in Chicago; the latter
subsequently closed. In the early 21st century more than 115 million people visited Disney
attractions annually worldwide. The Disney Magic, the first ship in the Disney Cruise Line, was
launched on July 30, 1998, and offered vacation packages to the Caribbean islands. In addition
to the long-running Disney Channel cable network, broadcasting interests were expanded to
include the ABC network, the ESPN sports cable network, and Radio Disney. The company’s
most visible and noteworthy enterprise of the 1990s was its foray into Broadway musicals.
Stage adaptations of the animated features Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, both
visually resplendent and long-running successes, premiered in 1994 and 1997, respectively. The
company purchased Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre in 1997 and has been credited with
many civic improvements in the Broadway area. Disney’s most ambitious stage production is a
modern version of Aida (2000), with a score by the Lion King composing team of Elton
John and Tim Rice. At the end of the 20th century, the Walt Disney Company was one of the
world’s largest entertainment conglomerates, and it consistently ranked among America’s top
50 corporations.

Disney Company

Mickey and Minnie Mouse on a parade float.

© Bastiaan Slabbers/iStock.com

In the 21st century, Disney’s partnership with Pixar continued to bear fruit, and their innovative
films challenged previously held notions of what could be done with computer animation. A
number of their films, including Finding
Nemo (2003), Ratatouille (2007), WALL∙E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Inside
Out (2015), Coco (2017), and Toy Story 4 (2019), won Academy Awards for best animated film.
Disney’s own computer-animated films also proved popular. Among them
were Tangled (2010), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), and Frozen (2013). Disney’s live-action films
experienced something of a rebirth when Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black
Pearl (2003), a film loosely inspired by a ride at Disney theme parks, scored huge numbers at the
box office. The film, which featured Johnny Depp as the sea-addled pirate Captain Jack Sparrow,
launched a franchise that grossed more than $3.7 billion worldwide.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Promotional poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

PRNewsFoto/Starz Encore Group/AP Images

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Michael Eisner concluded his two-decade run as Disney’s CEO in 2005. He was succeeded by
former ABC chairman Robert Iger. Iger oversaw a dramatic expansion of the Disney brand and
orchestrated a string of high-profile acquisitions. In 2006 Disney purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion,
and it acquired Marvel Entertainment, a company best known as a comic book publisher, for $4
billion in 2009. Marvel, which had just begun to accelerate its film-development schedule at the
time of the purchase, produced a string of superheroic blockbusters that took place in a shared
world known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The MCU films quickly became the top-
grossing franchise in box office history, with standout titles such as The
Avengers (2012), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and Black
Panther (2018) captivating audiences around the world. Disney continued producing live-action
remakes of its animated classics, including Alice in Wonderland (2010), Cinderella (2015), Beauty
and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), and Mulan (2020).

Black Panther

(From left) Lupita Nyong'o, Chadwick Boseman, and Danai Gurira in a publicity still from Black
Panther (2018).

© Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Entertainment

In 2012 Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. from filmmaker George Lucas for approximately $4

billion. The purchase brought the Star Wars franchise under the Disney umbrella, and in 2015
the company released the seventh installment in the series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens,
which was directed by J.J. Abrams. Disney also produced stand-alone films that took place
within the Star Wars universe, the first of which was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). In
2017 Disney agreed to purchase most of the holdings of 21st Century Fox, including the film
studio 20th Century Fox. The deal closed in 2019 and was valued at about $71 billion. In
November 2019 Disney entered the crowded streaming market with Disney+, a subscription
video service that collected some of the world’s most recognizable film and television franchises
on a single platform. The following year Iger stepped down and was replaced by Bob Chapek,
who had been in charge of the company’s parks, experiences, and products division.