Portal:Disney

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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (/ˈdɪzni/ DIZ-nee), 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 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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Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who has become an icon for the Walt Disney Company. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. He was voiced by Walt Disney from 1928–1946 theatrically, and again from 1955–1959 for the original ABC TV The Mickey Mouse Club television series. The Walt Disney Company celebrates his birth as November 18, 1928, upon the release of Steamboat Willie, although Mickey had already appeared six months earlier in an unfinished test screening of Plane Crazy (Steamboat Willie being the first Mickey Mouse Cartoon to be released). The anthropomorphic mouse has evolved from being simply a character in animated cartoons and comic strips to become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world. Mickey is currently the main character in the Disney Channel's Disney Junior series "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". Mickey is the leader of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, with help from Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and other friendly friends of his. In late 2009, The Walt Disney Company announced that they will begin to re-brand the Mickey Mouse character by putting a little less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality, starting with the newly released Epic Mickey.

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Credit: Coolcaesar

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

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 before the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Manhattan opened, its workers were sent to Walt Disney World for training?
... that a revival of the comedy series Lizzie McGuire was ordered in 2019, but canceled mid-production after Disney deemed it not family-friendly enough?
... that, for the Space 220 Restaurant, Disney reached out to NASA engineers to understand what a space elevator might look like?
... that some TikTokers make videos about whether to smash or pass Disney characters?
... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
... that in response to Disney's stance on Florida's House Bill 1557, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, Pixar employees stated that Disney removes LGBT references from the studio's films?

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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 Le Journal de Mickey, a French comics magazine first published in 1934, is credited with "the birth of the modern bande dessinée"?

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

...that Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle in Southern Germany.
...that the structure of the Epcot's Mexico pavilion was designed by architect and structural engineer Arturo Dulzaides in 1984.
... that the most valuable cartoon movie poster was a poster for the Walt Disney short, Alice's Day at the Sea (USA 1924), was sold in London England at $36534.00 in 1994.

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