Walt Disney Animation Studios

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Walt Disney Animation Studios

logo
legal form Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
founding 1923
Seat Burbank , California , United States
management Ed Catmull , President
John Lasseter , CCO
Andrew Millstein, President / General Manager
Number of employees 800+
Branch Computer animation
Website www.disneytoonstudios.com

The Walt Disney Animation Studios (formerly under the name Walt Disney Feature Animation , Walt Disney Productions and Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio are) an American animation film and animation studio, animation and cartoons, or -Fernsehserien for The Walt Disney Company produced. The studio is headquartered in Burbank , California , United States . The subsidiary DisneyToon Studios , also under the direction of Catmull and Lasseter, specialized in the production of direct-to-video films.

history

After Walt Disney's first animation studio, Laugh-O-Gram , went bankrupt in 1923, he moved to Hollywood and founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio with his brother Roy . This should be the starting point for Disney's successes - this is where the Alice series, Mickey Mouse , the Silly Symphonies films, Donald Duck and many others were made.

The "golden years of animation" began with the first full-length cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . For decades, the Disney studios shaped the cartoon landscape and the technology used . Although Walt Disney himself increasingly turned to real film and television from the 1950s onwards, success was achieved by turning away from the classic Disney characters and turning to other subjects - for example with 101 Dalmatians , Winnie the Pooh or The Jungle Book .

After Disney's death Woolie Reitherman took over the animation department and was able to achieve another great success and an Oscar nomination with Bernard and Bianca - Die Mäusepolizei 1977. In September 1979, however, the illustrators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy and the screenwriter Don Bluth left the studio and founded their own production, which should make Disney stiff competition in the 1980s. The remaining staff focused on completing Taran and the Magic Cauldron , which was aimed at an older audience and showcased the new talent from Disney's academy - including John Lasseter and Tim Burton . However, Lasseter was fired in 1983 for promoting the use of computer animation , which those responsible refused. Burton was also fired in 1984 after the completion of Frankenweenie because the film was perceived by Disney as too scary and unsuitable for children. At the same time, a power struggle between the heirs of Disney raged in the management of the Walt Disney Company. Taran and the Magic Cauldron finally appeared in 1985 and flopped at $ 25 million in production costs - the highest to date. The new CEO Michael Eisner considered closing the animation division completely, which the chairman of the board, Roy E. Disney, was just able to prevent. Eisner then appointed Roy Disney as head of the animation department. He set himself the goal of renewing the company's animation tradition. In 1986 the division was renamed Walt Disney Feature Animation .

With Oliver & Co. and Arielle, the mermaid , the so-called “Disney Renaissance” began. For the first time, a large part of the scenes was created with the help of computer animation, at the same time musical interludes played an important role again - while these are kept contemporary in Oliver & Co. , Arielle marks the return of the musical in Disney films. The latter film then served as a template for all Disney animated films of the 1990s: musical comedies with Broadway songs and action sequences, flanked by cross-promotion and merchandising , intended for all ages and all types of audiences. Animation became an important and lucrative part of the Disney Company's business again, and the division grew.

Jeffrey Katzenberg , who ran the animation studios together with Roy Disney, arranged a contract with Pixar through which Walt Disney Feature Animation was involved in the production of Toy Story and Disney also took over the worldwide distribution . The partnership expanded to include five films after the success of Toy Story , but Katzenberg left Disney in 1994 after falling out with Eisner and Roy Disney. Once again, a big rival was created “in-house”, Katzenberg's DreamWorks Animation was supposed to become Disney's main competitor in the animation film sector.

Meanwhile, large areas of the Disney Company depended on the success of the animated films: Based on these, merchandising, Disneyland attractions, direct-to-video sequels and television series were produced in the other areas . Disappointments like Pocahontas or Hercules therefore resulted in uncertainty throughout the group. In 1999 Thomas Schumacher became President of Walt Disney Feature Animation . He had the difficult task of implementing an austerity program and reduced the workforce from 2,200 to just under 1,200. After the hand-drawn A Kingdom for a Lama remained at the box office compared to the computer-animated Dreamworks and Pixar films Shrek and Die Monster AG , the end of classic cartoon was constant from many sides.

The studio's most recent successes were Lilo & Stitch (2002) and Bärenbrüder (2003). At the end of 2003, the Disney Feature Animation locations were gradually closed because in-house productions such as Treasure Planet were no longer economically successful. David Stainton became President of Animation Studios and announced the full conversion into a CGI studio. There were only 600 employees left and traditional animation equipment was sold. In 2004 negotiations between Disney and Pixar about an extension of the distribution agreement failed. Disney CEO Eisner had insisted that sequels like Toy Story 3 should not be counted as separate films in the contract. In 2005, Heaven and Chicken, Disney Animation's first fully computer-animated feature film was released. While it was a financial success, it didn't get too good reviews.

After Michael Eisner retired from the top of the group at the end of 2005 and Robert Iger took over the post, negotiations with Pixar were resumed. On January 24, 2006 it was announced that the Walt Disney Company would take over Pixar entirely. As part of the deal, John Lasseter and Edwin Catmull became the artistic directors and directors of both Walt Disney Feature Animation , including DisneyToon Studios , and Pixar Animation . The two divisions remain strictly separate and work on different projects.

In early 2007, the current management of the now renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios announced the return to traditional 2D animation. As early as 2006, the first considerations were made to revive the cartoon division. Disney's animation departments, the starting point and heart of the group for many, reopened in 2007 after a four-year break. At the end of 2009, Kiss the Frog, the first hand-drawn animation film since The Cows Are Going, was released in cinemas. The moderate financial success in the English-speaking world was attributed to the traditional title, which is why the word "princess" was banned from the title in subsequent productions. The last hand-drawn film so far is Winnie the Pooh , while the commercially successful Rapunzel - New Treats and The Ice Queen - Totally Unabashedly were completely computer animated. However, the short film Get a Horse! , which combines black and white animation in the style of the 1920s with modern CGI animation, as a supporting film for Frozen .

Films (selection)

Feature films

For a full list of feature films, see the Disney Movies List article .

Short films (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walt Disney Animation Studios ( English ) Disneyanimation.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  2. ↑ Walt Disney Animation Studios ( English ) Disneyanimation.com. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  3. ↑ Thomas, Bob : Disney's Art of Animation: from Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast . Hyperion, 1991.
  4. ↑ Why Disney Fired John Lasseter - And How He Came Back to Heal the Studio
  5. ↑ Tim Burton: How Disney fired me
  6. ↑ a b Hahn, Don . (2009). Waking Sleeping Beauty  [Documentary film]. Stone Circle Pictures / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
  7. ↑ a b Disney-Pixar split heightens pressure for new hits . In: The Hour . January 30, 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
  8. ↑ DisneyToon Studios to be Restructured and Will Operate as a Separate Unit ... - re> BURBANK, Calif, June 22 / PRNewswire /. ( English ) Prnewswire.com. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  9. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2007/02/10/disney-handdrawn-animation.html ( Memento from December 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/25/business/media/25lasseter.html
  11. ↑ Ken Poisson: Chronology of the Walt Disney Company . KPolsson.com. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
  12. ↑ Josh Armstrong: From Snow Queen to Pinocchio II: Robert Reece's animated adventures in screenwriting • Animated Views ( English ) Animatedviews.com. April 22, 2013. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  13. ↑ The Princess and the Frog in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  14. ↑ Home on the Range in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  15. ↑ Dawn C. Chmielewski, Claudia Eller: Disney restyles 'Rapunzel' to appeal to boys . In: Los Angeles Times , March 9, 2010. Retrieved January 20, 2014. 
Films from Walt Disney Animation Studios
1937-1949

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  (1937)  • Pinocchio  (1940)  • Fantasia  (1940)  • Dumbo  (1941)  • Bambi  (1942)  • Saludos Amigos  (1943)  • Three Caballeros  (1944)  • Make Mine Music  (1946)  • Happy, Free, fun while doing it  (1947)  • Music, dance and rhythm  (1948)  • The adventures of Ichabod and Taddäus Toad  (1949)

1950-1999

Cinderella  (1950)  • Alice in Wonderland  (1951)  • Peter Pan  (1953)  • Lady and the Tramp  (1955)  • Sleeping Beauty  (1959)  • 101 Dalmatians  (1961)  • The Witch and the Wizard  (1963)  • The Jungle Book  (1967)  • Aristocats  (1970)  • Robin Hood  (1973)  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh  (1977)  • Bernard and Bianca - The Mouse Police  (1977)  • Cap and Capper  (1981)  • Taran and the Cauldron  (1985)  • Basil, the Great Mouse Detective  (1986)  • Oliver & Co.  (1988)  • Arielle, the Mermaid  (1989)  • Bernard and Bianca in Kangaroo Land  (1990)  • Beauty and the Beast  (1991)  • Aladdin  (1992)  • The Lion King  ( 1994)  • Pocahontas  (1995)  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame  (1996)  • Hercules  (1997)  • Mulan  (1998)  • Tarzan  (1999)  • Fantasia 2000  (1999)

from 2000

Dinosaurs  (2000)  • A Kingdom for a Lama  (2000)  • Atlantis - The Secret of the Lost City  (2001)  • Lilo & Stitch  (2002)  • The Treasure Planet  (2002)  • Brothers Bear  (2003)  • The Cows Are Going  (2004)  • Heaven and Chicken  (2005)  • Meet the Robinsons  (2007)  • Bolt - A Dog for All Cases  (2008)  • Kiss the Frog  (2009)  • Rapunzel - New Spoiled  (2010)  • Winnie the Pooh  (2011)  • Ralph Enough  ( 2012)  • The Frozen - Totally Unabashed  (2013)  • Baymax - Giant Robowabohu  (2014)  • Zoomania  (2016)  • Vaiana  (2016)  • Chaos in the Net  (2018)  • The Frozen II  (2019)

Future

Raya and the Last Dragon  (2021)

Coordinates: 34 ° 9 ′ 24.7 "  N , 118 ° 19 ′ 30.2"  W.