The Walt Disney Company, also known as Disney, is an American diversified multinational entertainment and mass media company headquartered at Walt Disney Studios Complex in Burbank, California. The company was founded on October 16, 1923, by two brothers Walt and Roy O Disney. Initially, the company was called Disney’s brother Cartoon Studio. It also operated and ran under the names The Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions. The name was changed to The Walt Disney Company in 1986. The company became the leading animation company in America before diversifying in television, live-action film production, and theme parks.
- Walt Disney, one of the founders of this big enterprise, was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago. He was the fourth of five children and moved to a farm in Marceline when he was at the age of four.
- Walt Disney started making cartoons when he was a kid. When he was at the farm, he did not make much of characters or subjects but was delighted to sketch horses of its neighboring farm.
- When he was at the age of 16, he dropped out of school to join the army but was rejected as he was underage. Then he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance. Then in 1909, he came back to the United States in 1919.
- Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit or Oswald Rabbit) is a cartoon character that was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. He starred in several animated short films released to theatres from 1927 to 1938.
- The first film produced by Walt Disney Production was Snow White and the seven dwarfs that was released on December 21, 1937. Pinocchio was their second animated movie that was released on February 7, 1940.
- From the 1930s to 2020, the company has produced about 433 movies, out of which The Lion King remake of 2019 is the biggest animated hit with a worldwide gross profit of $1,657,713,458. Whereas Star Wars: The Force Awakens, released in 2015, collected the biggest profit with a worldwide gross of $2,068,223,624.
- The Walt Disney Company is a massive corporate enterprise and owns quite big companies.
- The company owns ABC, ESPN (80% stake), Touchstone Pictures, Marvel, Lucasfilm, A&E, The History Channel (50% stake), Lifetime (50% stake), Pixar, Hollywood Records, 21st century Fox entertainment, National Geographic, Vice Media and Core Publishing. That includes some big fat brand names, isn’t it?
- Disney has 11 theme parks all around the world, out of which The Walt Disney World Resort of Orlando is the biggest. The theme park is stretched in an area of 27,000 Acres.
- The famous Disney character Micky mouse was originally going to be named as mouse Mortimer, but the wife of Walt Disney suggested that mickey will be more suitable.
- The Karnival Kid, an episode of Mickey Mouse, was the first animated episode in which this cartoon character spoke. Mickey Mouse said its first words, which was Hot Dogs.The famous character Wall-E was named after Walt Disney.
- The character Eve in the movie Wall-E was designed by Apple’s senior vice president of Industrial design Jonathan Ive, who use to design iPods and iPhones.
- From the year 1928 to 1947, Walt Disney himself was the voice of the character Mickey Mouse.
- Walt Disney won a total of 26 Academy Awards and holds the record for winning the most academy awards in history. He won a total of 22 competitive Academy Awards from a total of fifty-nine nominations.
- In the 1940s, Disney had a bad time as the company faced box office blunders with the release of Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi, and the employees of the company were gone on strike to form a union which they actually succeeded in.
- Then in 1950, the Disney studios released the movie Cinderella which went a super hit and financially rescued the enterprise.
- In the starting of 1950s, Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland as an amusement value and educational as well, which can entertain adults and their children.
- The last film Walt Disney personally oversaw was The Jungle Book, before his death from lung cancer in the year 1966.
- Robin Hood was the first movie to be released in VHS and was released on December 3, 1984. Whereas Sleeping Beauty was the first movie title to be released in VHS Hi-Fi and in stereo sound. It was released at a price of $29.95 and was released on October 14, 1986.Disney won an Oscar award for a short animated film in which Donald duck became a Nazi. Frozen is the first Disney animated movie to be directed by women.
- In 2016, the Walt Disney Company generated over 40 % of its revenue through its media networks like ESPN, Disney Channel, Hulu, the ABC Television Networks, and other TV brands.
- Till September 28, 2019, the total number of employees employed by the Walt Disney Company was 2,23,000.
- Once a hyena biologist actually sued Disney studios for defamation of the species in their animated movie ‘The Lion King.’
