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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 Cartoon 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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WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL·E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future. He eventually falls in love with another robot named EVE, and follows her into outer space on an adventure that changes the destiny of both his kind and humanity. After directing Finding Nemo, Stanton felt Pixar had created believable simulations of underwater physics and was willing to direct a film largely set in space. Most of the characters do not have actual human voices, but instead communicate with body language and robotic sounds, designed by Ben Burtt, that resemble voices. In addition, it is the first animated feature by Pixar to have segments featuring live-action characters. Walt Disney Pictures released it in the United States and Canada on June 27, 2008. The film grossed US$23.1 million on its opening day, and $63 million during its opening weekend in 3,992 theaters, ranking #1 at the box office. This ranks as the fourth highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film as of May 31, 2009. Following Pixar tradition, WALL-E was paired with a short film, Presto, for its theatrical release. WALL-E has been met with overwhelmingly positive reviews among critics. It grossed $534 million worldwide, won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as well as being nominated for five other Academy Awards at the 81st Academy Awards. WALL-E ranks first in TIME's "Best Movies of the Decade."

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Credit: Janke

Randy Cartwright at the Disney Studio in 1991.

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

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 Disney once created a political advertisement for Dwight D. Eisenhower (featured)?
... that Encanto's Mirabel is the first Disney heroine to wear glasses?
... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
... that before the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Manhattan opened, its workers were sent to Walt Disney World for training?
... that vaccine coverage at schools around the Disneyland Resort was too low for herd immunity when measles broke out in 2014?
... 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?

Selected quote

Now, while I'm in the Navy, boys, you mind your Uncle Scrooge.

— Donald Duck, "Treasure of the Golden Suns, Part I: Don't Give Up The Ship", DuckTales

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More Did you know...

...that for scenes in the Phineas and Ferb episode "Jerk De Soleil" where the character Candace had a deep voice, co-creator Dan Povenmire had to step in for the normal voice actress?

...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 Mikey Blumberg's singing was voiced by Robert Goulet, who has starred in Rose-Marie and released more than 15 albums.
...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?

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