Everything about Walt Disney Animation Studios totally explained
Walt Disney Animation Studios is the
animation studio that makes up a key element of
The Walt Disney Company, and the oldest existing animation studio in the world. The feature animation studio was an integrated part of Walt Disney Productions from
1934 (the start of production on
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) until
1986, when, during the corporate restructuring to create The Walt Disney Company, it officially became a subsidiary of the company. The studio was named
Walt Disney Feature Animation (
WDFA) until 2007, when it was renamed to reflect its change of direction under new management.
(External Link
) Its current logo - which debuted with the
2007 film
Meet the Robinsons - is a sheet-to-screen time lapse using a clip from the classic Disney short
Steamboat Willie.
History
Walt Disney began the move into features in 1934, pulling selected animators away from the
short subjects division that had previously been the whole of Walt Disney Productions. The result was the first animated feature in
English and
Technicolor,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Snow White became an unprecedented success when it was released to theatres in February 1938, and it and many of the subsequent feature productions became film classics. These first features were presented as being made in "multiplane technicolor", since both the multiplane camera and technicolor were still something new in the area of animation. Following the successes of these features, Disney expanded his company's operations, moving into live-action features,
television, and
theme parks. Beside successes like
Snow White,
Dumbo, and
Cinderella, Disney also directed the Feature Animation staff create experimental and stylized films such as
Fantasia and
Sleeping Beauty which sustained losses and didn't recoup their costs until decades after their original releases. In 1962, Walt Disney shut down the corporation's short subject department, focusing its attention mainly on television and feature film production (the next short subject was the widescreen Mickey Mouse cartoon
Runaway Brain in the mid 1990s).
After Walt Disney's death in 1966, the animation department found itself without direction. The animators struggled to regain their footing but created films that were technically polished but told lackluster stories, even though most of them were successful. In 1973, lead animator
Eric Larson began an experimental recruitment program to see if new young talent could be found to bring new blood to the industry. This began the training of a whole new generation of animators that would bring animation to new heights and greatly influence the world's popular culture. After honing their craft on a series of fairly modest pictures, these new artists finally found true success again with
The Little Mermaid in 1989. A string of successful films, such as
Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin, and
The Lion King followed suit, and Disney expanded WDFA to a total staff of over 2,400 by 1999, including employees located at satellite studios in Orlando and Paris.
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 2D animated features a costly proposition, and beginning in 2000, massive layoffs were done to bring the staff back down to 600. Deciding that the reason for its failing box office draw was the fact that they still used
traditional animation methods in a time when
Pixar and
DreamWorks Animation were producing highly successful
CGI-animated films, Disney converted WDFA into an all-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. The Orlando studio was turned into an
attraction at a Disney theme park.
Walt Disney Animation Studios once announced that
Home on the Range was the last traditionally animated film, and from
Chicken Little onwards, all future Walt Disney Animation Studios films would be computer-generated-imagery CGI animation.
Walt Disney Animation Studios will be returning to traditional animation with the release in 2009 of
The Princess and the Frog. All films between
Home on the Range and
The Princess and the Frog will be done in CGI.
Management
From
1985 until his resignation in November
2003, Walt Disney Feature Animation was officially headed by Chairman
Roy E. Disney, who exercised much influence within the division. Most decisions, however, were made by the WDFA President, who officially reported to Disney but who in practice also reported to the Disney's studio chairman as well as its corporate chairman and CEO,
Michael Eisner. From 1985 to 1999, the President of WDFA was
Peter Schneider.
As of 2007,
Ed Catmull serves as president of the combined Disney-Pixar animation studios, and
John Lasseter serves as the studios' Chief Creative Officer. Catmull reports to Walt Disney Company President & CEO
Bob Iger as well as Walt Disney Studios chairman
Dick Cook. Lasseter, who has greenlight authority, reports directly to Disney's President & CEO Bob Iger.
Locations
Walt Disney Animation Studios is headquartered in
Burbank, California, across the street from the original
Walt Disney Studios in a specialized building completed in
1995. Satellite studios once existed at
Disney-MGM Studios in
Lake Buena Vista, Florida (
1989–
2003) and at
Paris, France (
1995–
2002), but those studios were closed in an effort to revive lagging profits by restructuring and recentralizing the division to produce fully computer-animated features solely in Burbank.
Collaborations
WDFA has occasionally joined forces with
Walt Disney Imagineering to create an attraction for a Disney theme park that has required the expertise of Disney animators. Among this select number of attractions are:
WDFA and WDI also collaborated with the in-house entertainment studios at
Disneyland and the
Disney-MGM Studios to develop the night-time
Fantasmic! show.
In the 1980s, WDFA collaborated with director
Robert Zemeckis to create
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a film that combined traditional hand-drawn animation with live action footage.
WDFA did the Sprites and backgrounds for the Sega Genesis, Commodore Amiga and PC Video Game
Disney's Aladdin (video game) and the SNES, PC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis & Amiga video game
The Lion King (video game)
Achievements
The Animation studio is noted for creating a number of now-standard innovations in the animation industry, including:
the multiplane camera (for Snow White, but first used in the Academy-award winning short "The Old Mill")
the realistic animation of special effects and human characters (for Snow White)
advanced composition processes to combine live-action and animated elements using color film (for The Three Caballeros)
the use of xerography in animation to transfer drawings to cels as opposed to ink-tracing (developed for One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but first tested in a few scenes in Sleeping Beauty and first fully used in the Academy-award nominated short Goliath II)
the use of all-digital methods for painting, compositing, and recording animated features CAPS (Computer Animation Production System)
Among its significant achievements are:
the first animated feature in Technicolor (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs).
the first major motion picture in stereophonic sound (Fantasia).
the first animated feature in CinemaScope (Lady and the Tramp).
the first large format animated film (the 70mm Sleeping Beauty).
the first film to have use of xerography (One Hundred and One Dalmatians).
the first animated feature to use computer-generated imagery (The Black Cauldron).
the first animated feature using heavy use of CGI computer animation. (Oliver & Company).
the first animated feature to use digital coloring (The Little Mermaid, which introduced Disney's CAPS process).
the first feature film to be shot using an all-digital process (The Rescuers Down Under, CAPS)
the first and only animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (Beauty and the Beast),
the highest-grossing traditionally animated feature of all time (The Lion King).
the largest film premiere in history with over 100,000 viewers (Pocahontas).Further Information
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