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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (/ˈdɪzni/), 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. Early in its existence, the company established itself as a leader in the animation industry, with the creation of the widely popular character Mickey Mouse, who first appeared in Steamboat Willie, which used synchronized sound, to become the first post-produced sound cartoon. The character would go on to become the company's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, the company diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. Following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. Once Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as the head of the company in 1984, it became overwhelmingly successful during a period called the Disney Renaissance. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company started to expand and acquire other corporations. Bob Chapek became the head of Disney in 2020 after Iger's retirement. Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

Since the 1980s, Disney has created and acquired corporate divisions to market more mature content than is typically associated with its family-oriented brands. 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 broadcast 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 Parks, Experiences and Products, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Selected article

Presto is a 2008 American Pixar computer-animated short film shown in theaters before their feature length film WALL-E. The short is about a magician trying to perform a show with his uncooperative rabbit and is a gag-filled homage to classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes. Presto was directed by veteran Pixar animator Doug Sweetland, in his directorial debut. The original idea for the short was a magician who incorporated a rabbit into his act who suffered from stage fright. This was considered to be too long and complicated, and the idea was reworked. To design the theater featured in Presto, the filmmakers visited several Opera Houses and theaters for set design ideas. Problems arose when trying to animate the theater's audience of 2,500 patrons—which was deemed too expensive—and was solved by showing the back of the audience. Reaction to the short was very positive, and reviewers of WALL-E's home media release considered it to be an enjoyable special feature. One critic called Presto a "winner through and through", while another found it to be "a short and hilarious animated film".Presto was nominated for an Annie Award and Academy Award. It was included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2008.

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Credit: Coolcaesar

Pixar Animation Studios is an American CGI animation film studio based in Emeryville, California, United States. Pixar became a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company in 2006. The studio has earned twenty-four Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammys, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide.

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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 in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 2The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 3Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer. (from Walt Disney)
Image 4A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guest to and from the terminal from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 5Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 6Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 7Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist. (from Disneyland)
Image 8Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 9Walt 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 10An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 11Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 12Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 13Magic Kingdom, the world's most visited theme park (from Walt Disney World)
Image 14Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 15Aerial shot of Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park (from Walt Disney World)
Image 16Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 17One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 18Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 19The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 20New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion and Fantasmic! viewing area in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 21Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 22The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid 1990s; this logo is still used as an alternate logo, mainly for retro-themed merchandise. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 23Overlay 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 24Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 25View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 26Adventureland
(themed for a 1950s view of adventure, capitalizing on the post-war Tiki craze) (from Disneyland)
Image 27Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. (from Disneyland)
Image 28Mickey's Toontown
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 29The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 30The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 31Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight and the Matterhorn Bobsleds) (from Disneyland)
Image 32Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 33Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 34Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom (from Walt Disney World)
Image 35Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 36Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921. (from Walt Disney)
Image 37An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 38Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 39Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 40The Chinese Theatre at Disney's Hollywood Studios (from Walt Disney World)
Image 41Paddlefish restaurant at Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 42Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom (from Walt Disney World)
Image 43Entrance to Disney's Blizzard Beach waterpark (from Walt Disney World)
Image 44Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 45Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 46Spaceship Earth at Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 47Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 48Critter Country
(Splash Mountain; 1989–2023) (from Disneyland)
Image 49Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 50Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 51The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 52Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 53Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 54A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6 cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 55Team Disney building in Burbank, which is the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)

Selected biography

Steve Jobs (b. 1955, d. 2011) was an American business magnate and inventor. He is co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in the 1995 film Toy Story as an executive producer. In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. In 2011, Apple announced that Steve Jobs had died at the age of 56.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that although Pixie Davies has been performing in films since 2012, her breakout role came in Disney's Mary Poppins Returns in 2018?
... that some TikTokers make videos about whether to smash or pass Disney characters?
... that in response to Disney's stance on Florida's House Bill 1557, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, Pixar employees stated that Disney removes LGBT references from the studio's films?
... that before the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Manhattan opened, its workers were sent to Walt Disney World for training?
... that astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson called out Disney for an inaccurate Frozen II poster?
... that Auliʻi Cravalho was the last person to audition for the role of the eponymous character in Moana and was ultimately cast for the role?

Selected quote

I could almost hear Pooh cheering for us. — Piglet (Winnie the Pooh)

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More Did you know...

...that Go.com partnered with Goto.com in 2001, even though a judge had ordered Go.com to pay Goto.com $21.5 million earlier for having a similar logo?

...that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects?

...that Disneyland has only ever had three unscheduled closures: In 1963 due to President Kennedy's Assassination; In August 1970 due to an invasion by Yippies and September 11, 2001.
...that press releases for the Phineas and Ferb episode "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" detailed a cut subplot where the character Lawrence Fletcher searches for a rare bottle cap?

...that Walt Disney was an ambulance driver during World War One?

More did you know facts

Topics

The Walt Disney Company

Company
officials

Key	Founders Walt Disney Roy O. Disney CEO Bob Iger
Board of directors	Mark Parker (chair) Mary Barra Safra Catz Francis deSouza Michael Froman Bob Iger Maria Elena Lagomasino

Entertainment

Studios

General
Entertainment

Disney Branded Television	Disney Channel Disney Junior Disney XD Production Disney Television Animation It's a Laugh Productions
ABC Entertainment Group	ABC ABC News ABC Audio ABC News Radio Lincoln Square Productions ABC News Live ABC Daytime
Entertainment	Disney Television Studios 20th Television 20th Television Animation Searchlight Television ABC Signature ABC Family Worldwide Freeform BVS Entertainment Onyx Collective FX Networks FX FXX FXM FX Entertainment FX Productions
Other units	BabyTV (US distribution) A&E Networks (50%)

Streaming

Distribution

Other

International

Disney Branded Television
Fox Networks Group
EMEA
- France
- Italy
- CIS
- Portugal
India
- Disney Star
  - Disney+ Hotstar
  - Star Studios
Latin America
- Argentina
  - Patagonik Film Group (33.3%)
- Brazil
  - Rede Telecine (12.5%)

Parks,
Experiences
and Products

Parks and resorts	Disneyland Resort Disneyland Paris Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (43%) Shanghai Disney Resort (43%) Disney Attractions Japan Walt Disney World Imagineering (Muppets Studio)
Experiences	Adventures by Disney National Geographic Expeditions Disney Cruise Line Disney Vacation Club
Consumer Products	Disney Store Disney Publishing Disney English NG Media Disney Online Games & Interactive Experiences

ESPN Inc. (80%)

Other assets

Buena Vista
D23
Disney Institute
Disney Programs
- Disney College Program
- Disney International Programs
Disney University
National Geographic Partners (73%)
- National Geographic
- National Geographic Wild
Reedy Creek Energy

Former/defunct
units and
predecessors

Category

Recognized content

Extended content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. ((WikiProject Disney))) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.