Walt Disney Animation Studios

### Founded

October 16, 1923 (following the closure of Laugh-O-Gram Studio in general)February 6, 1986 (following a restructuring of Walt Disney Productions)

### Key people

Edwin Catmull (President)Jennifer Lee (Chief Creative Officer)Andrew Millstein (General Manager)

### Parent

The Walt Disney Studios(The Walt Disney Company)

### Predecessor(s)

Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio (1923-1926)Walt Disney Studio (1926-1929)Walt Disney Productions (1929-1986)Walt Disney Animation (1986-1994)Walt Disney Feature Animation (1994-2007)

**Walt Disney Animation Studios** (formerly known as **Walt Disney Feature Animation**, **Walt Disney Productions**, **Walt Disney Studio** and **Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio** and commonly nicknamed **Disney Animation**, **Walt Disney Animation** and **Disney**) is the name of the flagship animation studio of The Walt Disney Company. It was established as a subsidiary of the company following a restructuring of its predecessor, Walt Disney Productions.

## History

*To find events involving Disney's feature animation and motion picture studios before the 1980s restructuring, see Walt Disney Productions.*
### 1984-1988: Corporate reconstruction

Walt Disney Productions underwent a major shakeup in the 1980s after narrowly escaping a hostile takeover attempt from Saul Steinberg. Michael Eisner, formerly of Paramount Pictures, became CEO in 1984, and was joined by his Paramount associate Jeffrey Katzenberg, while Frank Wells, formerly of Warner Bros., became president. After the disappointing box office performance of the 1985 PG-rated animated feature *The Black Cauldron*, the future of the animation department was in jeopardy.

The company considered shuttering its legacy animation studio. In the interest of saving what he believed to be the studio's core business, Roy E. Disney persuaded Eisner to let him supervise the animation department in the hopes of improving its fortunes. Eisner agreed, making Roy E. Disney chairman of the newly reorganized Walt Disney Feature Animation. Peter Schneider became the first president of Feature Animation at the studio.

On February 1, 1985, the entire animation staff was moved out of the Animation building on the Disney studio lot in Burbank, which was instead occupied by management and television production staff. The animation staff relocated to the Air Way complex, a former air hanger 20 miles away in Glendale.

The next feature for the restructured WDFA team was *The Great Mouse Detective*, begun by John Musker and Ron Clements as Basil of Baker Street after both left *The Black Cauldron* production team. Released in 1986, the film was a moderate box office success. Later the same year, Universal Pictures released Don Bluth's *An American Tail*, which outgrossed *The Great Mouse Detective* at the box office and became the highest-grossing first-issue animated film to that point. Two years later, the studios released *Oliver & Company* and *The Land Before Time* on the same weekend.

*The Land Before Time* made more cash at the box office on opening day. However, *Oliver & Company* beat out *The Land Before Time* at the domestic box office by $5,000,000. Earlier that same year, 1988, Disney collaborated with Steven Spielberg, a long-time animation fan, to produce *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*, a live action/animation hybrid which featured animated characters from several 1930s/1940s studios interacting with live actors. The film was a significant critical and commercial success, winning four Academy Awards and renewing interest in theatrical animated cartoons. Several WDFA members were loaned out to Richard Williams and Dale Baer's animation teams to work on *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*.

### 1989-1999: The Renaissance eraEdit

Disney had been developing *The Little Mermaid* off and on as an animated property since the 1930s. By 1988, after the successes of *Roger Rabbit*, *Oliver & Company*, and *The Great Mouse Detective*, the studio decided to make it into an animated Broadway-like musical. Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken, who worked on Broadway productions such as *Little Shop of Horrors*, wrote the songs and score for the film, with Ashman also producing and heavily involved in the story development process.

The film was released on November 17, 1989 and garnered a higher weekend gross than Don Bluth's *All Dogs Go to Heaven*, which opened the same weekend. It went on to beat *The Land Before Time*'s record and became the highest-grossing animated film at that time, earning $89 million at the US box office. *The Little Mermaid* was a critical and commercial success and received two Academy Awards, for Best Song and Best Score.

*The Rescuers Down Under* was released one year later (sequel to the *The Rescuers*). *The Rescuers Down Under* was a box office disappointment, earning only $47,431,461 in total box office revenue. However, the movie was notable for its' use of Pixar's Computer Animation Production System (better known by the acronym CAPS), and became the first movie to be 100% digitally produced.

The following year, in 1991, came *Beauty and the Beast*, which is often considered by many to be the crown jewel of of all Disney animated films. It was the first animated film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, an accomplishment which has not been matched since Pixar's 2009 film *Up*, only to lose out to *The Silence of the Lambs*.

However, the film won Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) at the Golden Globe Awards and won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. The film was dedicated to Howard Ashman, who died earlier in the year before the film's release due to AIDS-related illness. It became the most successful animated feature in motion picture history up to that time, with domestic box office revenues exceeding $140 million.

As of 2009, ties with Disney/Pixar's *WALL-E* for the record of animated film with most Academy Award nominations (six). *Aladdin* and *The Lion King* followed in 1992 and 1994, respectively. Both films were highest worldwide grosses of their release year, but *The Lion King* became the highest-grossing animated film ever at the time and remains the highest grossing traditionally animated film in history.

Along with that, the films won Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score in the footsteps of *Beauty and the Beast*. Howard Ashman wrote several songs for Aladdin before his death, but only three were finally used in the film. Tim Rice joined the project and completed the score and songs with Alan Menken. Tim Rice went on to collaborate with Elton John in *The Lion King*.

*Pocahontas* and *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* were also in the Disney Renaissance. Despite mature subjects and appealing more towards adults than children both were box-office successes and received general approval and acclaim. *Pocahontas* received two Academy Awards for Best Score and Best Original Song for *Colors of the Wind*. Both were successful with songs written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.

*Pocahontas* was into a critical success, *Hunchback* was not a commercial success; Although *Pocahontas* was met with mixed reception, and *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* was met with favorable reception. Disney continued on with successes from *Hercules* with songs by Alan Menken and David Zippel, (*Hercules* was not a big success, but a moderate success) *Mulan* with score by Jerry Goldsmith and songs by Matthew Wilder and David Zippel, and *Tarzan* with songs by Phil Collins.

### 2000-2005: Post-Renaissance eraEdit

By 2000, the Disney Renaissance had come to an end. Disney continued to release small successes such as *Dinosaur*, *The Emperor's New Groove*, and *Atlantis: The Lost Empire*, but also suffered box office disappointments with *Treasure Planet*, *Brother Bear*, and *Home on the Range*. The other films (*Fantasia 2000* and *Lilo & Stitch*) received very positive reviews and were box office successes.

However, the expansion coincided with a decline in both revenue and quality of the department's output. Competition from other studios drove animator salaries to a high level, making traditional animated features a costly proposition and, beginning in 2000, massive layoffs brought staff numbers down to 600. Deciding that the reason for its unsuccessful box office draw was the fact that they still used traditional animation methods in a time when Pixar Animation Studios, DreamWorks Pictures and Blue Sky Studios were producing highly-successful CGI films, Disney converted WDFA into a CGI studio, performing more layoffs and selling off its traditional animation equipment. The Paris studio was shut down in 2003 and the Orlando studio followed suit in 2004.

After the financial failure of their last few animated features, compared to the immense success of other studios creating films entirely through computer animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios once announced that *Home on the Range* would be the last 2D-traditional animated film. In 2005, *Chicken Little*, the studios' first full length CGI animated feature, received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics, though it performed well at the box office.

### 2006-2008: Lasseter takes chargeEdit

In 2006, The Walt Disney Company purchased Pixar for US$7.4 billion, and hired Pixar executives Ed Catmull and John Lasseter to serve as president and Chief Creative Officer, respectively, for both Pixar and Disney Feature Animation, in which the latter was renamed to Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Before the release of Lasseter's first original project, several other animated features, which were already in development before the arrival of Catmull and Lasseter, were in the midst of being released, these being *Meet the Robinsons* and *Bolt*. Both films received major adjustments after Lasseter's disapproval toward their initial pitches. *Robinsons* was a box office failure, and received mixed to positive reviews, while the following *Bolt* received critical acclaim and was a modest box office success.

In between these films, the studio also released the animated short *How to Hook Up Your Home Theater*, done with traditional animation.

### 2009-present: The New EraEdit

“*I think what's exciting is, not just bringing back hand-drawn animation, but bringing back a Disney animated film. We haven't seen one of these in such a long time.*”
―John Lasseter during a press interview for *The Princess and the Frog*.
Back in 2006, with The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Pixar, it was announced that Lasseter's first order of business was to revive the classic Disney "fairytale" formula, with an animated project done primarily with traditional-animation. This was a response to the misconception that the world had grown "too cynical" for traditional fairytales, resulting in the studio abandoning all fairytale adaptations prior. To revive the genre, Lasseter rehired directors of *The Little Mermaid* and *Aladdin*, John Musker and Ron Clements, who pitched a musical adaptation of "The Frog Prince", set in New Orleans and with an African-American princess as the lead heroine. *The Princess and the Frog* became the first project greenlit by Lasseter, and production quickly began, with many of the artists and animators from the Renaissance era, returning to work on the film.

In 2009, *The Princess and the Frog* was released worldwide, and reached critical acclaim amongst critics and audiences alike, being praised as a "return to form" for the studio The film transcended its initial release, with the characters and story having been integrated in various divisions across the company, including the *Disney Princess* franchise, and the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts around the world, thus becoming a staple in both the company's legacy, and pop-culture; the first project from the studio to do so in nearly a decade. Today, some critics and pundits regard *The Princess and the Frog* as the modern turning point for the studio, and the film to have ignited what is currently considered Disney Animation's contemporary renessaince.

Unfortunately, while not a bomb, the box office returns for *Frog* were lower than the studio expected, bringing in $267,045,057 worldwide, and thus labeling the film as a financial disappointment. The title, which has the word "Princess", was blamed, as it supposedly turned away male audience members. As a result, the two following fairytale adaptation titles of "Rapunzel" and "The Snow Queen" garnered new, gender-neutral titles. In 2010, the studio released their version of "Rapunzel", *Tangled*, which gained widespread positive reviews and became a box office hit. Not only was *Tangled* the most successful film from the studio since 1994's *The Lion King*, it was also the film to have ignited a new method of artistic style, having uniquely blended features of both computer-generated imagery and traditional animation, while using non-photorealistic rendering, which gave the film the appearance of classic Disney animated features, despite being crafted in computer animation. *Tangled*'s marketing, which relied heavily on action and pop-cultural references, was also a massive change from the studio's previous methods. Both the artistic style and marketing featured with *Tangled* would go on to become an influence for all computer-animated films to follow.

In 2011, the studio released its second traditionally animated film of the contemporary regime, *Winnie the Pooh*. Due to the film being released on the same date as another highly anticipated feature, the film's box office was low, however the film gained universal acclaim and became the best reviewed animated film of 2011. Along with the film, the studio released the short *The Ballad of Nessie* with it. *Pooh* was also significant in that it introduced songwriter duo, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, as well as composer Henry Jackman, to the studio; all of whom would become recurring members of the filmaking teams of following, successful features.

On November 2, 2012, the studio would break the box-office record for the most money made on opening weekend for the entire Disney animated canon with the computer animated *Wreck-It Ralph*, based on the concept of centering a film around video games that dates all the way back to the 1980s, and was greenlit by Lasseter in 2009. Along with *Ralph*, the short *Paperman* was released, which broke ground with the use of the Meander software, which is a literal blend of traditional and computer animation. *Wreck-It Ralph* would go on to win numerous accolades for the studio, while *Paperman* became the first Walt Disney Animation Studios short to win the Academy Award for Best Short since 1969's *It's Tough to Be a Bird*.

In April 2013, Walt Disney Animation Studios laid off fewer than 10 people out of a staff of more than 800. Because a majority of them were hand-drawn animators, there was exaggerated speculation on some animation blogs that the studio was abandoning traditional animation once again, an idea that the studio dismissed.

In 2013, the studio released its version of "The Snow Queen', retitled *Frozen*, its 53rd full-length animated film, on November 27. 2013. Like "Rapunzel" and "The Frog Prince" before it, the idea to develop an animated version of "The Snow Queen" had been circling throughout the studio for decades, but complications with the story prevented anything from coming to light. In 2008, however, John Lasseter approached director of *Tarzan*, Chris Buck, to helm a new tackling of the project. Once again, complications with the story interfered, but the project eventually moved forward once more in 2011, with the addition of writer Jennifer Lee, who previously worked on *Wreck-It Ralph*, as co-director, as well as Kristen and Robert Lopez, who developed both the songs and key story points for the film. *Frozen* broke numerous records with widespread critical acclaim, and became a financial juggernaut, eventually surpassing *The Lion King* as the studio's highest-grossing film, and soon became the highest-grossing animated film of all time. In 2014, *Frozen* won both Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song with "Let It Go". The overwhelming success of *Frozen*, in the eyes of various film pundits, solidified the idea that the Walt Disney Animation Studios was in the midst of a modern renaissance.

The 54th feature, *Big Hero 6*, was released on November 7, 2014, and is the first in the Canon series to use Marvel Comics characters. The film performed well with critics, and though it couldn't match up with *Frozen*'s box-office performance, it still earned over $652 million ($222.5 million in the US) and won the Best Animated Feature Oscar for WDAS for a 2nd straight year.

On March 4, 2016, the studio released its 55th animated feature film, *Zootopia*. Centered around the modern world of anthropomorphic animals, *Zootopia* became a surprise hit for the studio, mirroring the success of *Frozen*. The film garnered universal acclaim amongst critics, being praised for its timely and mature themes and well-written characters, among other feats. Financially, *Zootopia* would go on to become Disney Animation's second highest-grossing feature, behind only *Frozen*, with a worldwide box office total of over $1 billion; the fourth animated film to ever reach the milestone. Additionally, with *Zootopia*'s record-breaking success, Walt Disney Animation Studios became the first animation studio in history to have more than one film pass the billion dollar mark at the global box office.

Even further cementing its critical successs, *Zootopia* was honored by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2016, a feat extremely rare for animated motion pictures. *Zootopia* also earned the studio its third consecutive win for the Best Animated Feature category at the 89th Academy Awards.

Eight months following *Zootopia*, the studio released their 56th feature film, *Moana*, centering the daughter of a chief embarking on a journey to save her Polynesian island. It was the seventh film to be directed by John Musker and Ron Celemens, and was a box office and critical success, grossing $600 million worldwide. New technology was created for the water, lava and hair effects. *Moana* also featured a heavy dose of hand-drawn animation, most notably in Maui's tattoos. The studio's next short, *Inner Workings*, was released alongside *Moana*.

In 2017, John Lasseter took a six month leave from both Walt Disney Animation and Pixar due to controversies. *Olaf's Frozen Adventure*, a theatrical featurette, was released alongside Pixar's *Coco* in November.

In 2018, it was formally announced that Lasseter would officially step down and be replaced by Jennifer Lee as Chief Creative Officer of the studio. Not long after, Ed Catmull announced his retirement from the Disney company. In the fall, *Ralph Breaks the Internet* was released to widely positive acclaim and was a financial success, out-grossing the original *Wreck-It Ralph* with over $500 million at the worldwide box office.

In 2019, *Frozen II* was released to mostly positive reviews and financial success, having the highest all-time worldwide opening for an animated film.

Currently in production at the studio is *Raya and the Last Dragon* (2021), *Encanto* (2021), and two untitled films.