Walt Disney Animation Studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios is the feature-animation studio of the Walt Disney Company, headquartered at the company’s Burbank, California, campus. It began in 1923 as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, founded by Walt and Roy O. Disney after Walt arrived in Los Angeles with the live-action/animation Alice Comedies concept. The business later operated as the Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions’ animation department; its present name was adopted in 2007. Its early output included the Alice shorts and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, although Universal retained Oswald’s rights after a 1928 contract dispute. Disney’s 1928 Steamboat Willie, featuring Mickey Mouse, became a landmark because its released version used synchronized sound; it was not the first sound cartoon, but it was a success. In 1937 the studio released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cel-animated feature film, after a costly production skeptics called “Disney’s Folly.” Its success helped finance a Burbank studio. Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi followed, though wartime conditions, a 1941 strike, and reduced foreign markets reshaped production. During the 1940s the studio made government and military films and assembled package features including Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. Cinderella (1950) restored feature-film fortunes, followed by Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book, Walt Disney’s last animated feature personally overseen by Walt Disney. One Hundred and One Dalmatians introduced Xerox transfer processes that altered the films’ graphic look. After a difficult 1980s period, The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver & Company preceded The Little Mermaid (1989), which initiated the Disney Renaissance. Beauty and the Beast became the first animated feature nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tarzan followed. The Rescuers Down Under was the first feature completed using the studio’s Computer Animation Production System. Later releases include Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, Encanto, and Wish. Frozen and Encanto each received the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; “Let It Go” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became major songs. At the 2022 Academy Awards, Encanto won Best Animated Feature, while its song “Dos Oruguitas” was nominated for Best Original Song. The studio’s artists continue to combine hand-drawn traditions with computer animation, as seen in 2023’s Wish and its watercolor-inspired visual style during production.