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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers 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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Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American film produced by Amblin Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company (released on its Touchstone Pictures banner), which blends traditional animation and live action. The film takes place in a fictionalized version of Los Angeles set in 1947, where animated characters (always referred to as "Toons") are real beings who live and work alongside humans in the real world, most of them as actors in animated cartoons.

At $70 million, Roger Rabbit was one of the most expensive films to date at the time of its release. The film proved a sound investment, earning over $150 million during its original theatrical release. The film is notable for offering a unique chance to see many cartoon characters from different studios interacting in a single film and for being one of the last appearances by voice artists Mel Blanc and Mae Questel from animation's Golden Era. In addition, Who Framed Roger Rabbit won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards ceremony in 1989.

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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 1Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 2Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 3Team 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 4Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 5Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 6Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 7Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 8Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. (from Disneyland)
Image 9Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 10Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 11The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 12Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 13Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 14Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 15The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 16Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 17Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 18Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 19Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer. (from Walt Disney)
Image 20Adventureland
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 21Mickey's Toontown
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 22Walt 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 23Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 24Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 25Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 26An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 27Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 28View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 29Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 30Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 31Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 32The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 33Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 34Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 35New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion and Fantasmic! viewing area in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 36Critter Country
(Splash Mountain; 1989–2023) (from Disneyland)
Image 37The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 38Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921. (from Walt Disney)
Image 39Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 40Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist. (from Disneyland)
Image 41The Sherman Brothers, who composed many of the Disney songs throughout the 1960s (pictured in 2002) (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 42Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 43Disney'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 44An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 45Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 46Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 47The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 48Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 49One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 50One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney lost the rights to until 2006. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 51A 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 52Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 53The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 54Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 55Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 56Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 57Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 58Walt (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 59A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6 cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)

Selected biography

Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has since grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for Marvel Comics and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by LucasArts as an artist and animator in 1988, working on several titles within the company's adventure games era. Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. His main work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials such as shorts and video games. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that vaccine coverage at schools around the Disneyland Resort was too low for herd immunity when measles broke out in 2014?
... 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 before Foster City was built on Brewer Island, unsuccessful proposals included a hog farm, two military air bases, two civilian airports, and an entertainment complex larger than Disneyland?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?
... that some TikTokers make videos about whether to smash or pass Disney characters?
... 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?

Selected quote

Why, oh why couldn't that woman have a fetish for rutabagas, or something?

— Scrooge McDuck

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More Did you know...

...that for scenes in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Jerk De Soleil" where the character Candace had a deep voice, co-creator Dan Povenmire had to step in for the normal voice actress?

...that Michael Eisner credited research economist Harrison Price with being "as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Co. as anybody except Walt Disney himself"?

...that Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle in Southern Germany.
...that there is something called a Hidden Mickey, a hidden silhouette of Mickey's ears inserted into many Disney feature films?
... 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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