Disney turns 100
On October 16, Disney turned 100 years old. In 1923, the company was founded as the “Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio,” said brothers being Walt Disney and his brother Roy Disney. The company changed its name to “Walt Disney Studio” in 1926, and “Walt Disney Productions” in 1929; the Mouse House kept that name until 1986, when it changed to its current name, “The Walt Disney Company.”
Disney at 100: Pros and cons
Disney’s become a massive conglomerate and a dominant influence on the animation industry, for better and for worse. The studio stands out for placing an emphasis on animation as a premium product, not just as something disposable. It’s also the home of the world’s most famous cartoon characters, particularly one Mickey Mouse; even the most cynical/edgy Disney parodies assume the audience has heard of or seen at least one Disney film. Its influence is one reason Disney’s being targeted by homophobic politicians in the “culture wars.”
Disney also values being independent, versus being sold to a company like Apple, as some on Wall Street think should happen. But as I’ve written before, Apple doesn’t need to be on the hook for running everything Mouse-related, from producing “Princess and the Frog” napkins for Disneyland to maintaining ESPN’s sports contracts to deciding if “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” or "The Mandalorian" should be renewed.
On the “for worse” side, Disney also stands out for its aggressive business practices. Among other examples, there’s: its current gargantuan size, thanks to lax federal regulations allowing Disney to buy Lucasfilm, Pixar, ABC/ESPN, Marvel, and 20th Century Fox; and Disney (plus some others) distorting the nation’s copyright laws, despite Disney’s reliance on the public domain for its most lucrative properties.
Overall, Disney’s had quite a history. While Wikipedia goes into much greater detail, here is a Statista infographic outlining its highlights.
Other highlights
The infographic covered some important milestones, but I’d add a few others:
“Mickey & Friends” characters’ debut
Collectively dubbed “Mickey & Friends” these days by Disney, this basically consists of the animated theatrical shorts of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Also tied to this are their related spin-offs (“DuckTales,” “Goof Troop,” the comics, etc.) and fellow characters (Chip ‘n Dale, Donald’s nephews, Scrooge McDuck, etc.). At a minimum, I’d throw in the main six characters’ debuts:
Mickey and Minnie Mouse: 1928 (in “Steamboat Willie”)
Pluto: 1930 (in “The Chain Gang”)
Goofy: 1932 (as “Dippy Dawg,” in “Mickey’s Revue”) / 1934 (as Goofy, in “Orphan’s Benefit”)
Donald Duck: 1934 (in “The Wise Little Hen”)
Daisy Duck: 1940 (in “Mr. Duck Steps Out,” though there’s a prototype Daisy-like character from 1937’s “Don Donald”)
Disney’s TV presence
Disney’s had a television presence since the debut of their anthology TV series in 1954, under the title “Walt Disney’s Disneyland.” It went through many titles over the decades, though most people will know it by its longest-lasting and current name, “The Wonderful World of Disney.” (Baby Boomers might also know it by its 1960s title, “The Wonderful World of Color.”)
A few other major TV landmarks for Disney:
1955: The debut of “The Mickey Mouse Club.”
1983: The launch of the Disney Channel, Disney’s first cable channel. However, while it had some live-action originals in the 1980s and 1990s, things didn’t really get going for the Disney Channel until the late 1990s, when it became a basic cable channel (versus a pay TV one similar to HBO).
1985: The debuts of Disney’s first made-for-TV animated series, “The Wuzzles” and “Adventures of the Gummi Bears.”
1987: The debut of “DuckTales,” the series that really kick-started Disney’s TV animation presence. “DuckTales”’s massive success also helped start the modern era of TV animation overall, with the bar raised for writing and animation quality.
Conclusion
Do you have any major Disney milestones you'd note? Let everyone know in the comments.
Photo by HenningE (Pixabay)