Walt Disney Animation Studios facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Walt Disney Animation Studios

Type	Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios Division of Walt Disney Pictures
Industry	Animation Motion pictures Traditional animation CGI animation Flash animation
Founded	October 16, 1923 (1923-10-16) (as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio)
Founder	Walt and Roy Disney
Headquarters	2100 W Riverside Dr Burbank, California U.S.
Key people	Ed Catmull, President John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer Andrew Millstein, General Manager
Products	Animated films
Parent	Walt Disney Pictures
Divisions	Disney Television Animation DisneyToon Studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios (often called Disney Animation) is a famous American animation studio. It creates amazing animated movies and short films for The Walt Disney Company. You might recognize its logo, which shows a scene from its very first cartoon with sound, Steamboat Willie (1928).

This studio was started on October 16, 1923, by two brothers, Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney. It is the oldest animation studio still running in the world! Today, it's part of Walt Disney Studios and is located in Burbank, California. Since it began, the studio has made 62 feature films. These include classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and newer movies like Wish (2023). They've also made hundreds of short films.

The History of Disney Animation

How Did Disney Animation Start?

The building on Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz, where the studio was located from 1923 to 1926.

Walt and Roy Disney, who were from Kansas City, Missouri, started their company in Los Angeles in 1923. It was first called Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. They began by making silent short films called Alice Comedies. These films mixed a real child actress with animated characters.

Later, the studio made another cartoon series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In 1926, the studio changed its name to Walt Disney Studio. By 1929, it became a bigger company known as Walt Disney Productions.

The Birth of Mickey Mouse and Sound Films

Mickey Mouse in Plane Crazy, his first short film.

The first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy and The Galloping Gaucho, were shown in 1928. But for the third Mickey cartoon, Disney added sound! They worked with musician Carl Stalling and businessman Pat Powers.

This third cartoon, Steamboat Willie, was Disney's first cartoon with synchronized sound. It was a huge hit when it came out in November 1928. The Mickey Mouse cartoons with sound quickly became super popular across the United States. In 1929, Disney also started another series of sound cartoons called Silly Symphonies, beginning with The Skeleton Dance.

From Short Films to Feature Films

For many years, the studio focused on making short films. But in 1934, they decided to make a full-length movie. This led to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. It was one of the very first full-length animated movies ever made and the first one in the U.S.

In 1986, the company changed a lot. Walt Disney Productions, which had grown into a huge international media company, was renamed The Walt Disney Company. The animation studio then became Walt Disney Feature Animation to show it was different from other parts of the company. Its current name, Walt Disney Animation Studios, was chosen in 2006 after Disney bought Pixar.

The Disney Animation Logo

How the Studio Logo Changed Over Time

Before 2007, Walt Disney Animation Studios didn't have its own special logo. It just used the regular Walt Disney Pictures logo. But starting in 2007, they added a new logo based on Steamboat Willie.

This logo shows Mickey Mouse in his classic look, being drawn on a beige paper background. As the pages flip like a flip book, Mickey starts whistling, just like in the Steamboat Willie cartoon. The camera then zooms out to a yellow-gold background, and the studio's name appears below the scene.

Where You Can See the Logo

This logo has been shown on every film since Meet the Robinsons (2007). For special movies, they sometimes change the logo a bit. For example, Tangled (2010) and Encanto (2021) had text saying "50th Animated Motion Picture" and "60th Animated Motion Picture." Mickey's whistling was also muted in some films, like Frozen (2013) and Moana (2016), so that the movie's opening music could play.

Even though Steamboat Willie became available for everyone to use (entered the public domain) on January 1, 2024, the studio still uses this logo.

Where is Disney Animation Located?

The south side of the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California.

Since 1995, Walt Disney Animation Studios has been based in the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California. This building is right across from the main Walt Disney Studios.

The lobby of the Disney Animation Building has a huge version of the famous hat from the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" part of Fantasia (1940). Because of this, people sometimes call it the "hat building."

Other Important Disney Animation Locations

Before the mid-1990s, Disney Animation worked out of old airplane hangars and offices in Glendale, California. The Disneytoon Studios unit was also located there.

Disney Animation also has a special place called the Animation Research Library (ARL) in Glendale. This library holds over 64 million pieces of animation artwork dating back to 1924! It's so important that visitors have to agree not to tell anyone its exact location.

In the past, Disney also had animation studios in Paris, France, and near Orlando, Florida. The Paris studio closed in 2002, and the Florida studio closed in 2004.

In 2014, the main Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank got a big upgrade. It took 16 months to make the inside better and more open for all the employees.

Filmography: Disney's Animated Movies

Since 1937, Walt Disney Animation Studios has made many movies with Walt Disney Pictures. The first one, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, came out in 1937. The most recent film, Wish, was released in 2023.

Released Films by Walt Disney Animation Studios

Upcoming Films from Disney Animation

Franchises: Disney's Popular Worlds

This section lists the popular movie worlds (franchises) created by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It does not include movies made directly for video or TV by other Disney animation groups.

Amazing Achievements and Innovations

Walt Disney Animation Studios is known for inventing many new things in the animation world. Here are some of their cool achievements:

• Multiplane Camera: This camera made cartoons look more realistic by adding depth. It was first used in the short film "The Old Mill" and then for Snow White.
• Realistic Animation: They were pioneers in making special effects and human characters look very real, starting with Snow White.
• Combining Live-Action and Animation: They found advanced ways to mix real actors and animated characters using color film, as seen in The Three Caballeros.
• Xerography in Animation: This process allowed drawings to be transferred directly to animation cels (clear sheets) using a copier, instead of being traced by hand. It was used for 101 Dalmatians.
• All-Digital Production: They developed the CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) to paint, combine, and record animated films completely digitally.

Here are some of their other big achievements:

• First Technicolor Animated Feature: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first animated movie made in full color.
• First Major Film with Stereophonic Sound: Fantasia was a groundbreaking film that used advanced surround sound, called Fantasound.
• First Animated Feature in CinemaScope: Lady and the Tramp was the first to use this wide-screen film format.
• First Large Format Animated Movie: Sleeping Beauty was made in 70mm, a very large film size.
• First Use of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI): The Black Cauldron was the first Disney animated film to use some computer graphics.
• Heavy Use of CGI: Oliver & Company was the first Disney animated movie to use a lot of CGI animation.
• First Digital Coloring: The Little Mermaid was the first Disney film to be colored digitally using the CAPS process.
• First 100% Digital Film: The Rescuers Down Under was the first feature film made entirely with digital processes.
• Oscar Nomination for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
• First to Gross $200 Million: Aladdin was the first Disney animated film to earn over $200 million and was the highest-earning movie of 1992.
• Highest-Grossing Hand-Drawn Movie: The Lion King is the highest-earning traditionally animated (hand-drawn) movie of all time.
• Largest Movie Premiere: Pocahontas had a huge premiere with over 100,000 viewers.
• Most Expensive Animated Movie: Tangled was the most expensive animated movie ever made at the time, costing $260 million.
• Most Original Characters: Wreck-It Ralph created the highest number of original characters for an animated movie (188 characters).

Documentary Movies About Disney Animation

• A Trip Through the Walt Disney Studios (1937, a short film)
• The Reluctant Dragon (1941, a fun "mockumentary" about the studio)
• Frank and Ollie (1995, about two famous Disney animators)
• Dream On Silly Dreamer (2005)
• Waking Sleeping Beauty (2010, about the studio's comeback in the 1980s and 90s)

Related Pages

• The Walt Disney Company
• Disney's Nine Old Men
• Pixar
• Blue Sky Studios
• 20th Century Animation
• Disney Television Animation

Images for kids

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  Walt Disney introduces each of the Seven Dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer.

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  The Disney animators' strike started in May, 1941.

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  The original Animation Building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, the headquarters of the animation department from 1940 to 1985.

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  Roy E. Disney (Chairman, 1985–2003), nephew of Walt Disney, was a key figure in restructuring the animation department following the reorganization of the Disney company in 1984.

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  1400 Flower Street in Glendale, California, one of several buildings used by Walt Disney Feature Animation between 1985 and 1995.

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  622/610 Circle 7 Drive (the Hart-Dannon Building), another Glendale building used by Walt Disney Feature Animation during the early 1990s.

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  Walt Disney Feature Animation logo, used from 1994 to 1997.

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  John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer, 2006–18, left) and Edwin Catmull (President, 2006–18, right) came to Disney following its acquisition of Pixar and dedicated themselves to revitalizing Walt Disney Animation Studios after the studio's unsuccessful early 2000s period.

See also

In Spanish: Walt Disney Animation Studios para niños