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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing its name to the Walt Disney Company in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

The company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, Star+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Steamboat Willie (1928) is an animated cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse and the first appearance by Minnie Mouse released on November 18, 1928. It was the first Mickey Mouse cartoon released -- Mickey had appeared in two earlier efforts Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. It was also the first Disney cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee De Forest's Phonofilm system without giving De Forest any credit. Steamboat Willie premiered at New York's 79th Street Theatre, and played ahead of the independent film Gang War. Steamboat Willie was an immediate hit while Gang War is all but forgotten today.

The cartoon was written and directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The title is a parody of the Buster Keaton film Steamboat Bill Jr. Music for Steamboat Willie was put together by Wilfred Jackson, one of Disney's animators -- not, as sometimes reported, by Carl Stalling -- and comprises popular melodies including "Steamboat Bill" and "Turkey in the Straw".

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Credit: Coolcaesar

An entrance to Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California

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These are images of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney in their respective articles.

Image 1Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 2Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. (from Disneyland)
Image 3Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 4The Sherman Brothers, who composed many of the Disney songs throughout the 1960s (pictured in 2002) (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 5Adventureland entrance
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 6Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 7View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 8Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 9Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 10Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 11Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 12Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 13Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist. (from Disneyland)
Image 14Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 15Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 16Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 17Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 18Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 19Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 20Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 21Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 22An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 23Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 24The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 25Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 26Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 27Mickey's Toontown
(pictured in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 28A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guest to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 29Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 30Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 31Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney World)
Image 32The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 33The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 34The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 35One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 36Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 37Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 38The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 39New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion in the background and Fantasmic! viewing area in the foreground in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 40Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 41Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 42Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 43Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 44A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 45The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 46Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 47Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 48Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 49Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 50Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 51Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 52Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 53Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 54Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 55An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 56Critter Country
(Splash Mountain; 1989–2023) (from Disneyland)
Image 57Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 58One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney lost the rights to until 2006. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 59Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)

Selected biography

Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has since grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for Marvel Comics and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by LucasArts as an artist and animator in 1988, working on several titles within the company's adventure games era. Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. His main work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials such as shorts and video games. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Encanto's Mirabel is the first Disney heroine to wear glasses?
... that a revival of the comedy series Lizzie McGuire was ordered in 2019, but canceled mid-production after Disney deemed it not family-friendly enough?
... that, for the Space 220 Restaurant, Disney reached out to NASA engineers to understand what a space elevator might look like?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?
... that before Foster City was built on Brewer Island, unsuccessful proposals included a hog farm, two military air bases, two civilian airports, and an entertainment complex larger than Disneyland?
... that some TikTokers make videos about whether to smash or pass Disney characters?

Selected quote

We believe it's the biggest advance in animation since Walt Disney started it all with the release of Snow White 50 years ago.

— Steve Jobs

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More Did you know...

...that Harriet Burns designed the original prototype models of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, Pirates of the Caribbean and New Orleans Square?

...that when Sonny with a Chance actor Demi Lovato bowed out of season three, show-within-a-show So Random! was spun-off into its own sketch comedy series?

...that the creator of Disney Series Doug and 101 Dalmatians, Jim Jinkins, has created an independent company, Cartoon Pizza.
... that Elsa the Snow Queen, a protagonist in Walt Disney's Frozen, was originally written as a villain?
... that the most valuable cartoon movie poster was a poster for the Walt Disney short, Alice's Day at the Sea (USA 1924), was sold in London England at $36534.00 in 1994.

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