| Type | Subsidiary of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group |
|---|---|
| Industry | Animation Motion pictures |
| Founded | October 16, 1923 (As Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio) |
| Founder(s) | Walt and Roy Disney |
| Headquarters | Burbank, California, U.S. |
| Key people | Ed Catmull, President John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer Andrew Millstein, General Manager |
| Products | Animated films |
| Parent | The Walt Disney Company |
| Divisions | Disney Television Animation DisneyToon Studios (TBA) Walt Disney Animation Paris (TBA) Walt Disney Animation Tokyo (TBA) Walt Disney Animation London (TBA) |
| Website | www.disneyanimation.com |
Walt Disney Animation Studios is an American animation studio headquartered in Burbank, California. The studio, founded in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is the oldest subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. It is responsible for creating the company's well-known animated feature films and short subjects.
From 1926 to 1929 the studio was known as The Walt Disney Studio. In 1929 the company restructured and diversified under the name Walt Disney Productions, Ltd. The animation studio was then an integrated part of Walt Disney Productions which also included other divisions such as the live action film studio. In 1986 the company again restructured, creating The Walt Disney Company as a separate parent company, and making the animation studio an official subsidiary, called at the time Walt Disney Feature Animation. The division took on its current name in 2007.
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Although the animation studio was first established on October 16, 1923, Walt Disney began the move into features in 1934, pulling selected animators away from the short subjects division that had previously been the whole of Walt Disney Productions. The result was the first full-length animated feature in English and Technicolor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White became an unprecedented success when it was released to theatres in February 1938, and it and many of the subsequent feature productions became film classics. These first features were presented as being made in 'multiplane technicolor', since both the multiplane camera and the full-color Technicolor process were still something new in the area of animation. The early high-water mark came with Fantasia, an experimental film produced to an accompanying orchestral arrangement conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
Production of features was temporarily suspended due to World War II, between the releases of Bambi and Cinderella. This was partly because many of the animators got drafted, partly because the European market was cut off by the war, and partly because a huge amount of what the studio produced was for the army, especially propaganda films. From 1942 to 1943, 95 percent of the studio's animation was for the military.[1] The next several features consisted of package films composed of short subjects, some already pre-existing. Two, Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart, were a combination of animated and live-action footage. Production of original features resumed after World War II, leading to the 1950 release of Cinderella, proving the viability of the animated feature. Several hits followed throughout the 1950s.
Sleeping Beauty provided a stylistic shift for the studio, leading to renewed interest through the 1960s. However, all these features were very expensive undertakings. Some of these films sustained losses and did not recoup their costs until decades after their original releases. In 1962, Walt Disney shut down the corporation's short subject department, focusing its attention mainly on television and feature film production, with the occasional short subject.
The expansion into television coincided with a decline in both revenue and quality of the department's output. The 1970s saw a decline in popularity that would spread to the 1980s. In 1979, Don Bluth left Disney Animation and created his own studio, producing works that arguably surpassed Disney quality and, for a time, challenged Disney's economic dominance in the field. The proverbial "rock bottom" for Disney came in 1985 when The Black Cauldron (the first animated Disney film to be PG-rated by the MPAA) failed to break even. It was so poorly received that it would not be released for home viewing more than a decade following its initial theatrical release.
But the administration of Michael Eisner would see a shift in quality and style in Disney feature animation. Disney features soon became bombastic animated musicals, using music as well as high-quality animation to attract audiences. This coincided with the introduction of computer-aided animation techniques, the first of which was CAPS in the late 1980s. Also playing a role was Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a non-canon Disney-produced film with both live action and animated element that helped respark interest in Disney animation.
Beginning in 1988 with Oliver & Company, Disney released a string of profitable and enduring blockbusters. The next five films–1989's The Little Mermaid (the first Disney animated film as a fairy-tale for 30 years), 1991's Beauty and the Beast, 1992's Aladdin, 1994's The Lion King and 1995's Pocahontas–would each win the Academy Award for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture of 1991. The Lion King still stands as the highest-grossing traditionally-animated feature ever made, being the top money-maker among all films in North America in 1994.
Competition from other studios drove animator salaries to a high level, making traditional animated features even more costly to produce. Beginning in 2000, massive layoffs brought staff numbers down to 600. Following a string of dismal performances, and the rise of studios that relied on 3D animation like Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Animation and Blue Sky Studios, Disney converted WDFA into a CGI studio, performing more layoffs and selling off its traditional animation equipment. The Paris studio was shut down in 2003, and the Orlando studio followed suit in 2004. The Orlando studio was turned into an attraction at a Disney theme park. What was purported to be the final traditionally-animated feature by Disney was Home on the Range in 2004. The first 3D film in the Disney Animation Canon was Chicken Little in 2005, followed by Meet the Robinsons and Bolt.
The transition to CGI was not enough to renew interest in Disney animation as Disney's features were routinely outperformed by those of corporate partner Pixar, whom Disney had contracted to create CGI films originally. In response to this, Disney purchased Pixar in 2006.[2] As part of the acquisition, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios continue to maintain separate studios and release their films under separate banners, with former Pixar executives Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter serving as both studios' president and Chief Creative Officer, respectively.
In a change of strategy, Lasseter re-opened Disney as a traditional animation house. With CAPS dismantled and obsolete, hand-drawn animation moved to the Harmony software suite by DisneyToon Studios. The Princess and the Frog, the first 2D-animated film for five years, was released in late 2009, and succeeded in renewing interest in the product.
In late 2009 DisneyToon Studios, the former television animation satellite studio with previous operations in Australia, Paris and Burbank was rolled into Walt Disney Animation Studios as a division focussed on direct-to-video features based upon Disney Consumer Products franchises, television programs, and original properties.
In March 2010, Disney released a feature length documentary called Waking Sleeping Beauty The film chronicles the events of Disney Animation Studios during the late 1980s to mid 1990s. It features topics such as the Disney Renaissance, and it includes early footage of notables such as Tim Burton, John Lasseter, and Roy E. Disney.
On November 24, 2010, Disney's 50th animated motion picture, Tangled, Disney's first 3D-animated fairy-tale, was released in late 2010. Shortly after the film's release, the Los Angeles Times reported that Ed Catmull said the "princess" genre of films was taking a hiatus until, "someone has a fresh take on it … but we don't have any other musicals or fairytales lined up." He explained that they were looking to get away from the princess era due to the changes in audience composition and preference.[3] However in the Facebook page, Ed Catmull stated that this was just a rumor.[4]
From 1985 until his resignation in November 2003, Walt Disney Feature Animation was officially headed by Chairman Roy E. Disney, who exercised much influence within the division. Most decisions, however, were made by the WDFA President, who officially reported to Disney but who in practice also reported to the Disney's studio chairman as well as its corporate chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner.
The Former Presidents of WDFA were Peter Schneider (1985-December 1999), Thomas Schumacher (January 2000-December 2002) and David Stainton (January 2003-January 2006).
As of May 2006, Ed Catmull serves as president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios, and John Lasseter serves as the studios' Chief Creative Officer.[2] Catmull reports to Walt Disney Company President & CEO Bob Iger as well as Walt Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross. Lasseter, who has greenlight authority, reports directly to Disney's President & CEO Bob Iger.
Andrew Millstein has been named general manager of Walt Disney Animation Studios in September 2008. In this new position, Millstein is in charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.[5]
Walt Disney Animation Studios is headquartered in Burbank, California, across the street from the original Walt Disney Studios in a specialized building completed in 1995. Satellite studios once existed at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida (1989–2003) and at Paris, France (1995–2002), but those studios were closed in an effort to revive lagging profits by restructuring and recentralizing the division to produce fully computer-animated features solely in Burbank.
Walt Disney Animation Studios has released 51 films in what is known as the "Disney Animation Canon". The first one, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released in 1937 and the most recent, Winnie the Pooh, was released in 2011.
Walt Disney Animation Studios has occasionally joined forces with Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Animation France, Walt Disney Animation Japan, and DisneyToon Studios to create attractions for various Disney theme parks around the world that requires the expertise of Disney animators. Among this select number of attractions are:
WDFA did the Sprites and backgrounds for the Sega Genesis, Commodore, Amiga and PC versions of the video game for Disney's Aladdin, and the Super Nintendo, PC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Amiga versions of the video game adaptation of The Lion King. Walt Disney Feature Animation also provided second-layering traditional animation for the Disney-produced film, The Nightmare Before Christmas.[6] In 2009, WDAS produced their first animated Christmas special, the CGI Prep & Landing for the self-owned over-the-air television entity, ABC.
The Animation studio is noted for creating a number of now-standard innovations in the animation industry, including:
Among its significant achievements are:
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