Disney

The Walt Disney Company (commonly simplified to just Disney) is an American multimedia entertainment conglomerate. Originally founded as a pioneer in American animation, it has since grown to become one of the biggest entertainment distributors in the world, mainly in part due to its recent strong of high-profile acquisitions, which include the television channels ABC and ESPN, the animation studio Pixar, comic book publisher Marvel, film studios Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios, and internet production company Maker Studios.

Several franchises Disney owns include; its company mascot Mickey Mouse and other related characters (Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, etc.); Winnie the Pooh; the Muppets; the Disney Princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Anna & Elsa, etc.); live-action films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Herbie, and TRON; various television series (Hannah Montana, Gravity Falls, Kim Possible, Lost, Once Upon A Time, etc.) and television movies (High School Musical, Descendants, etc.); book series such as Percy Jackson & the Olympians and Artemis Fowl; Pixar films such as Toy Story, Cars, and Monsters, Inc.; the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Lucasfilm's Star Wars and Indiana Jones; 20th Century Studios properties including Alien, Predator, Ice Age, The Simpsons, American Horror Story, etc.; and the video game series Disney Infinity, Epic Mickey, and Kingdom Hearts.

Company overview[]

Walt Disney and his brother Roy formed the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio after moving to California in October 16, 1923, originally made to distribute Walt's live-action/animation-hybrid short comedy series Alice's Wonderland and later his animated shorts starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.^[1] After changing the name to Walt Disney Studio and losing the rights to both series, Walt and his employed animator Ub Iwerks began work on a series of shorts starring a new character - Mickey Mouse - which lead to the creation of the first animated cartoon with full sound titled Steamboat Willie (released November 18, 1928).^[1] After a string of successful shorts, Disney released the first ever animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, on December 21, 1937 to immense success.^[1] This lead to the production of more successful features, such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo, across the 40s.

By the 50s, Disney formed Buena Vista as its new distribution arm and developed several live-action films, including Treasure Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.^[1] The world's first theme park, Disneyland, was also opened on July 18, 1955 after heavy previewing from Walt himself through specials broadcast on the American television channel ABC.^[1] The company soon ventured further into television with producing The Mickey Mouse Club^[1] and the Davy Crockett miniseries.

Walt Disney unfortunately passed on December 15, 1966 from lung cancer, with his brother Roy taking over as CEO of the company and finishing the plans for Walt Disney World, a new theme park located in Orlando, Florida.^[1] Following the park's opening on October 1, 1971, Roy himself would succumb to a stroke on the following December 1st, leaving the company in the hands of the brothers' hand-picked and trained successors - Donn Tatum, Card Walker, and Walt's son-in-law Ron Miller.^[1] After a series of moderately successful films and the opening of Tokyo Disneyland, and the prevention of a hostile takeover from two corporate raiders, ownership of the company transferred to Michael Eisner and Frank Wells as the new CEO and President, respectively, after influential investor Sid Bass purchased 18.7% of Disney.^[1][2]

Under Eisner's leadership, Disney saw an increased success as it focused on producing more television, an increased focus on its adult-oriented film studio Touchstone, and a renewed string of hit animated films that have since been dubbed as part of the Disney Renaissance. The 90s became the company's most profitable decade as it expanded into other ventures including publishing with the formation of Hyperion Books, music with the Hollywood Records label, cruise ships with the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder boats,^[3]and sports with the creation of the major hockey team The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (named after the film The Mighty Ducks) and the purchase of the Anaheim Angels baseball team^[1]; however, possibly its most high-profile acquisitions of the decade involved the film studio Miramax, and the merger between Disney and the ABC television network along with its sister channel ESPN.^[1]

The start of the new millenium saw problems for the company, starting with Eisner voting Roy E. Disney (Walt's nephew) out of the board of directors, causing a schism between the two.^[3] Revenue also began to see a decline, with film and park profits dwindling and employees being fired en masse. Disney also sought to acquire Universal Studios in 2002, but were unable to do so due to low stock price on its behalf as well as the likelihood of a deal being blocked on anti-trust laws.^[4] By 2004, Eisner stepped down from his role as CEO and in the fall of 2005, fully ceded from the company as both an executive and board member. Eisner was announced to be replaced by Robert A. Iger as CEO.^[1]

It would be under Iger's leadership that the Disney company saw its most prolific era, as he would be the one to initiate its recent string of high-profile acquisitions; Pixar Animation Studio on January 23, 2006^[5], Marvel Entertainment on December 31, 2009^[6], Lucasfilm on December 21, 2012^[7], Maker Studios on March 24, 2014^[8], and 20th Century Studios on March 20, 2019^[9]. Iger's era also opened a new Disneyland in Shanghai and began its foray into the direct-to-consumer Video-On-Demand industry with the launch of its Disney+ streaming service as well as its majority ownership of Hulu.^[10]

On February 25th, 2020, Iger was succeeded by Bob Chapek as CEO effective immediately, with Iger moving to an executive chairman role as ensure a smooth transition of power while also providing assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[11]

Disney Interactive Studios[]

Disney Interactive Studios was the video game development and publishing arm of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive (a subsidiary that oversees both video game and online/web-based content). Established in September 15, 1988 as Walt Disney Computer Software, it initially was a way to contract third-party developers for games based on the company's existing IP.^[12] It was later rebranded to Disney Interactive On December 5th, 1994 after the merger between WDCS and Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications, now shifting to funding and development management of games to be published by third-party companies.

Another rebrand occured in 2003, with the group now being known as Buena Vista Games (BVG) in an effort to shift into becoming a dedicated games publisher.^[12] During this time, the company began acquiring several studios including Avalanche Studios (creators of Disney Infinity), Propaganda Games (developers of the Turok 2008 reboot and TRON: Evolution), and Black Rock Studio (creators of the racing games Split/Second and Pure).^[12] BVG also created a new in-house studio called Fall Line Studio (developer of several Hannah Montana games as well as the Wii title Ultimate Band).^[12]

One final rebrand took place on February 8th, 2007, with the group now being known as Disney Interactive Studios. Further acquisitions would take place including Junction Point Studios (creators of Epic Mickey), Gamestar (development support on TRON: Evolution)^[13], and Wideload Games (creators of Guilty Party). However, by 2012, Propaganda Games, Black Rock Studio, and Junction Point all shut down.^[14] After the acquisition of Lucasfilm, DIS also shuttered its own video game development arm, LucasArts, in favor of handing the Star Wars video game license to Electronic Arts.^[15] Both profits and interest soon began to wane, leading to the firing of 700 employees on March 6th, 2014. Disney Interactive Studios eventually closed altogether in May 10, 2016 with the cancellation of Disney Infinity.^[16] Video game licensing and distribution is currently handled by Disney Interactive, who have since shifted its focus to mobile gaming with its Disney Mobile brand.

Involvement with Super Smash Bros.[]

Disney became the eleventh third-party company to join Smash as Sora, the protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts franchise (which they co-own with Square Enix), joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a part of Fighters Pass Volume 2. He brings with him the stage Hollow Bastion, 7 music tracks, and multiple Spirits. However, apart from characters original to Kingdom Hearts, no direct references to Disney characters appear in the game apart from the Mickey Mouse-shaped keychain on Sora's Keyblade.

Prior to Sora's inclusion, a handful of games created in partnership between Disney and Nintendo are listed in the Chronicle in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These include Mickey Mouse and Mickey and Donald, both of which were for the Game & Watch, Disney's Magical Quest Starring Mickey and Minnie for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Mickey's Speedway USA for the Nintendo 64, and Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse for the GameCube (the latter three are only listed in the Japanese version of Brawl).

Trivia[]

• Disney is the second-oldest company represented in Smash, being beaten out by Nintendo by 34 years (1889). Both have collaborated on many occasions throughout the decades, with the first being Nintendo-manufactured playing cards based on Disney characters during the 1950s.
• Disney is the first represented company to not solely be a video game company.
• Disney is one of four Western companies to have representation in Smash; the other three are Xbox Game Studios by way of its subsidiaries Rare Ltd. (Diddy Kong, King K. Rool, and Banjo & Kazooie) and Mojang Studios (Steve and Alex), and Retro Studios (Dark Samus).
• Disney is one of six companies to be introduced to Smash through DLC; the other five being Square Enix, Atlus, Xbox Game Studios, SNK, and Mojang Studios.
  • Technically, the list would be seven to include PlatinumGames, which strangely is not credited along with the rest of the copyrights. This could be due to the fact that they technically do not own the Bayonetta intellectual property (Sega does instead).
• Disney is the only third-party company to not have any associating Mii Fighter Costumes.

References[]

Navigation[]

Companies
First/second-party companies	Nintendo  · HAL Laboratory  · Game Freak  · Creatures  · The Pokémon Company  · Intelligent Systems  · Next Level Games  · Monolith Soft  · Retro Studios  · Sora Ltd.
Third-party companies	Konami  · Sega / Atlus  · Capcom  · Bandai Namco  · Square Enix  · PlatinumGames  · Xbox Game Studios / Rare Ltd. / Mojang Studios  · SNK  · Disney
Other related developers	Game Arts  · Havok  · Paon DP List of companies with minor representation