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Disney is bringing animated classics back to life.

Since the success of "Maleficent" and "Cinderella," the company has announced (at least) 18 more live-action films based on its animated properties. Some of the movies are remakes of their animated counterparts, while others are based on origin stories or are sequels to existing live-action adaptations.
Here are all of the live-action remakes and sequels Disney has planned:

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Disney is planning 18 live-action remakes of its classic animated movies - here they all are

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Disney is bringing animated classics back to life. Since the success of "Maleficent" and "Cinderella," the company has announced (at least) 18 more live-action films based on its animated properties. Some of the movies are remakes of their animated counterparts, while others are based on origin stories or are sequels to existing live-action adaptations.

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The Walt Disney Company started in 1923 in the rear of a small office occupied by Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. It was there that Walt Disney, and his brother Roy, produced a series of short live-action/animated films collectively called the ALICE COMEDIES. The rent was a mere $10 a month.

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Disney Company, in full The Walt Disney Company, formerly (1929-86) Walt Disney Productions, American corporation that was the best-known purveyor of family entertainment in the 20th and 21st centuries. It also was one of the world's largest media conglomerates, with such notable holdings as ABC, ESPN, Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox. Disney headquarters are in Burbank, California.

Walt Disney began his career in animation with the Kansas City Film Ad Company in Missouri in 1920. In 1922 Disney and his friend Ub Iwerks, a gifted animator, founded the Laugh-O-gram Films studio in Kansas City and began producing a series of cartoons based on fables and fairy tales. Joining Disney and Iwerks in the enterprise were such noted animators as Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Isadore ("Friz") Freleng. In 1923 Disney produced the short subject Alice in Cartoonland, a film combining both live action and animation that was intended to be the pilot film in a series. Within weeks of its completion, Disney filed for bankruptcy and left Kansas City to establish himself in Hollywood as a cinematographer. Alice in Cartoonland turned out to be a surprise hit, and orders from distributors for more Alice films compelled Disney to reopen shop in Hollywood with the help of his brother Roy-a lifelong business partner. The Kansas City team soon joined the Disneys in California, and the company produced mostly Alice films for the next four years.

In 1927 Disney began his first series of fully animated films, featuring the character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. When his distributor appropriated the rights to the character, Disney altered Oswald's appearance and created a new character that he named Mortimer Mouse; at the urging of his wife, Disney rechristened him Mickey Mouse. Two silent Mickey Mouse cartoons- Plane Crazy (1928) and Gallopin' Gaucho (1928)-were produced before Disney employed the novelty of sound for the third Mickey production, Steamboat Willie (1928), which was the first Mickey cartoon released. The film was an immediate sensation and led to the studio's dominance in the animated market for many years.

Throughout the 1930s the company, renamed Walt Disney Productions in 1929, produced cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse and his regular supporting players Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy, as well as the Silly Symphonies series-semiabstract cartoons featuring animation set to classical music or to the music of Carl Stalling, the brilliant musician who scored many of the best Disney and Warner Brothers cartoons. The Silly Symphonies entry Flowers and Trees (1932) was the first cartoon produced in the three-colour Technicolor process, as well as the first animated short subject to be honoured with an Academy Award. The most popular of the Silly Symphonies cartoons was The Three Little Pigs (1933), which earned another Oscar.

Animated film classics: Snow White to Lady and the Tramp

The continuing success of the studio emboldened Disney to make his riskiest move in 1934, when he began production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Although not the first feature-length animated cartoon-that honour probably goes to Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)-it was the first to receive widespread release and publicity. As much of a sensation as Steamboat Willie had been, Snow White revolutionized the industry and proved animation's effectiveness as a vehicle for feature-length stories. Disney advocated a realistic approach to the medium, as opposed to the anarchic style of other animation studios. Scenes in Disney cartoons were composed and framed as they would be for a live-action film, and surreal aspects of the characters were kept to a minimum. Although this approach provoked the criticism that Disney discouraged experimentation and limited animation's possibilities, there is little question of its success in Snow White and the animated features that followed.

Pinocchio (1940), which features complex characters rendered in painstakingly detailed full-figure animation, is perhaps Disney's grandest achievement. Fantasia (1940) is a series of abstract vignettes set to classical compositions; it remains a controversial work, derided for its portentousness and praised for its stunning visual virtuosity. Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942) also achieved recognition as masterpieces by effectively employing the devices Disney had first brought together in Pinocchio: music, comedy, pathos, adventure, and genuine horror. This last element was a key ingredient in Disney's features, as Disney himself felt that youngsters could tolerate evil antagonists and scenes of unpleasantness, provided that the forces of good triumphed in the end.

Disney suffered a major setback in 1941 when the studio's animators went on strike for three months. Disney took the action personally, and many of the studio's top animators were compelled to resign. The enthusiastic mood within the studio had been permanently dampened, and the studio produced little on the level of Pinocchio or Dumbo for the next decade, concentrating instead on short cartoons, nature documentaries, and features that combined live action and animation such as The Three Caballeros (1945) and Song of the South (1946). The feature-length cartoons Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953) were considered fine efforts, but many felt they lacked the panache and dimension of the early '40s features. Lady and the Tramp (1955) was a return to form, but Disney's attention was by then increasingly devoted to live-action features, television productions, and his new theme park, Disneyland, which opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California. It was also about then that Disney established the distribution company Buena Vista Productions in order to ensure complete control over his films and their marketing.

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Disney Company | Overview, History, & Films

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Disney Company, American corporation that was the best-known purveyor of family entertainment in the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the company's many intellectual properties are the cartoon character Mickey Mouse, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment, and the Star Wars films.

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Steven Paul was born in San Francisco, the son of Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble. He is quickly adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs

The Jobs family moves from San Francisco to Mountain View, a suburban town in Santa Clara county, more famous under the name Silicon Valley

13-year-old Steve Jobs calls up Bill Hewlett and gets a summer job at the HP factory

Steve Jobs meets Steve Wozniak, 5 years older, through a mutual friend. Woz and Steve share a love of electronics, Bob Dylan, and pranks

Steve spends the fall semester at Reed College, Oregon, then drops out. He will stay on campus and attend the classes that interest him for a while, then move to a hippie commune

Steve gets his first job at video game maker Atari, and later makes a trip to India to 'seek enlightenment' with his college friend Dan Kottke

Woz and Steve show the early Apple I board at the Homebrew Computer Club

Apple Computer Inc. is incorporated by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne

Steve and Woz start assembling Apple I computers in the Jobses' garage, and sell them to computer hobbyists, including 50 for the Byte Shop

Steve Jobs and Woz show off the Apple I at the Personal Computing Festival in Atlantic City, with help from Dan Kottke

Former Intel executive turned business angel Mike Markkula invests in Apple and hires former colleague Mike Scott as CEO. Woz is forced to leave HP to join Apple full time

Sales of Apple II skyrocket after pioneer spreadsheet software Visicalc is introduced

Steve Jobs is shown the first working graphical user interface at Xerox PARC

Jef Raskin's Macintosh project is green-lighted. Lisa evolves into a GUI-computer, in part because of Steve Jobs' demands

Apple launches the Apple III, which will prove a disastrous flop

Apple goes public, increasing Steve Jobs' net worth from dozens of millions of dollars to over $200 million

Jef Raskin is forced out of his Macintosh project as Steve Jobs takes over

IBM launches the IBM PC, the biggest threat to Apple's future yet

Time instead makes The Computer 'machine of the year' and publishes a hatchet job on Steve Jobs, who becomes furious and suspicious of journalists for the rest of his life

Launch of the Lisa computer. The Lisa team later merges with the Mac team under Steve Jobs's leadership

PepsiCo CEO John Sculley becomes Apple's CEO after having been wooed by Steve Jobs for several months

Steve Jobs celebrates his 30th birthday with Ella Fitzgerald as guest singer for the night

Palace coup: Apple's board sides with John Sculley and strips Steve off all executive duties

Alan Kay first introduces the Pixar team to Steve Jobs

Steve's mother Clara dies. A couple months later, Steve discovers his biological mother Joanne and his sister, novelist Mona Simpson. They will become very close

Jobs buys the computer division of George Lucas' ILM for $10 million and incorporates it as Pixar

Ross Perot invests $20 million in NeXT, based on a $125 million valuation. The startup has still to release a product

NeXT and IBM form a partnership to have NeXT's system run on IBM machines

Pixar launches its new computer graphics workstation, the Pixar Image Computer II, and starts working on the RenderMan computer animation software

NeXT partners with retailer Businessland to sell to corporate America in addition to higher ed

Steve Jobs is named 'Entrepreneur of the decade' by Inc. magazine

Steve shuts down all of Pixar's hardware operations

Canon invests $100 million in NeXT, now valued at $600 million

Steve introduces the cheaper NeXTstation in San Francisco, to boost the modest sales of NeXT hardware

Steve Jobs fires almost half of Pixar's staff and takes back all of the employees' stock in an effort to cut costs, as the company is still in the red 5 years after its launch

Pixar signs a deal with Disney to make a computer-animated feature film

Laurene gives birth to Steve's second child and only son, Reed Paul Jobs

NeXT licenses its operating system, NeXTSTEP, to run on x86 machines

NeXT fires 300 employees as it discontinues all its hardware operations and becomes NeXT Software Inc. This is the nadir of Steve's career

Steve's father, Paul Jobs, dies

Laurene gives birth to Erin Siena Jobs, her second child with Steve

Steve Jobs negotiaties a breakthrough deal between Pixar and Disney with its CEO Michael Eisner. The deal includes landmark rights for a studio, such as equal billing

Gil Amelio is ousted by the Apple Board of directors after a disastrous quarter. Steve Jobs is named interim CEO in his place and installs his NeXT executive team at the top of Apple

Steve Jobs introduces Apple's new board of directors and a truce with Microsoft at Macworld Boston

At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs announces that Apple is profitable again, thanks to sales of the new Power Macintosh computers

Eve Jobs, Laurene and Steve's youngest daughter, is born

Steve Jobs introduces the new Power Mac G3 and the color iMacs at Macworld San Francisco

The Power Mac G4 Cube is unveiled at Macworld NY. It will be discontinued one year later because of disappointing sales

After four years of hard work, Mac OS X 10.0, the new incarnation of NeXTstep, ships

Apple opens its first Retail Stores in Tysons Corner, Virginia and Glendale, California

Steve unveils the iMac G4 and the fourth iApp, iPhoto, at Macworld San Francisco

Apple starts its popular 'Switch' campaign with ads picturing PC users that switched to the Mac

Steve Jobs introduces the first Windows-compatible iPods at Macworld NY

Apple opens the revolutionary online iTunes Music Store in the US, after negotiating landmark deals with all major music labels

Following increasing tension with Michael Eisner, Steve Jobs announces that Pixar is seeking a new distributor to replace Disney after its contract expires

Steve Jobs unveils the Power Mac G5, the world's fastest computer, at WWDC

Steve Jobs is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but stubbornly refuses any modern medical treatment for months. He tries alternative diets instead

Steve unveils the iPod mini and the iLife suite at Macworld. The iPod mini will soon become the world's best-selling MP3 player and truly establish Apple as a consumer electronics powerhouse

Steve Jobs finally has his pancreatic tumor removed by surgery

At Macworld San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveils Apple's productivity suite iWork, the new Mac mini, and the iPod shuffle, the cheapest iPod ever at $49

Steve turns 50

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger is released. A stable, fast release, it is immensely popular and marks the end of the four-year transition from the old Mac OS to UNIX-based Mac OS X

At WWDC 2005, Steve Jobs announces that Apple is going to switch away from Motorola's and IBM's PowerPC architectures, and use Intel processors in its future Macs instead. This move will further help the growing adoption of the Mac

Steve introduces the Motorola ROCKR, an iTunes-compatible cell phone, and the iPod nano

Steve Jobs invites Disney's new CEO Bob Iger on stage at an Apple Music Event where he also introduces the new iPod videos and the iTunes movie store

Steve Jobs unveils the first two Intel Macs at Macworld, the iMac and the new MacBook Pro

Apple releases its first living-room product, the iPod hi-fi, discontinued a year and a half later

Steve Jobs announces Apple's intention to erect a second campus in Cupertino

Apple starts its famous 'Mac vs PC' campaign, a series of TV commercials featuring Justin Long as Mac and John Hodgman as PC. The campaign will last for three years and mark popular culture

Apple completes the transition of its entire product line to the Intel platform with the new Mac Pro

Welcome to iPhone

In his most memorable keynote presentation ever, at Macworld 2007, Steve Jobs introduces iPhone and its revolutionary touch-screen interface. He also introduces Apple TV and announces the company's name change from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. to better reflect its new nature

The SEC files charges against Apple's Nancy Heinen and Fred Anderson for options backdating

Steve Jobs is inducted in the California Hall of Fame by Gov. Schwartzenegger

At Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs introduces MacBook Air, with the tagline 'the world's thinnest notebook'. Three years later, it will come to redefine all of Apple's notebook product line

The press starts speculating about Steve Jobs's health as he appears very thin to unveil the iPhone 3G with an entry price of $199 on stage at WWDC

The SEC clears Steve Jobs of any responsibilities in the options backdating scandal

Steve Jobs announces he will not speak at Macworld 2009 because of his health, and takes a six-month medical leave of absence

Steve receives a liver transplant at the Methodist University Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He was weeks away from dying when he got the surgery

Google CEO Eric Schmidt leaves Apple's board because of conflicting interests due to Android

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, stripped off any code from the original Mac OS

Back at Apple, Steve Jobs makes the first public appearance after his transplant to introduce new iPods at the 'It's Only Rock'N'Roll' event

One month after the release of the new iPhone 4, Steve Jobs holds a press conference to address the smartphone's supposed reception issues, the so-called 'Antennagate'

Jobs surprises the world by announcing his new medical leave of absence, without any end date

Despite his medical leave, Steve Jobs takes the stage to unveil the new iPad 2

Steve Jobs appears at the Cupertino City Council to unveil Apple's plans for its new 'Spaceship' campus. This is his last public appearance

Steve Jobs dies at home, surrounded by his family

A private service is held at Stanford University's Memorial Church in memory of Steve Jobs, attended by many of his friends, former colleagues and industry peers

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Steven Paul was born in San Francisco, the son of Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble. He is quickly adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs The Jobs family moves from San Francisco to Mountain View, a suburban town in Santa Clara county, more famous under the name Silicon Valley 13-year-old Steve Jobs calls up Bill Hewlett and gets a summer job at the HP factory Steve Jobs meets Steve Wozniak, 5 years older, through a mutual friend.

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Katie Mason relates Disneyland's history from Walt's dream to an attraction which has drawn over 400 million visitors since its opening day, July 17, 1955.

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Investopedia.com believes that individuals can excel at managing their financial affairs. As such, we strive to provide free educational content and tools to empower individual investors, including thousands of original and objective articles and tutorials on a wide variety of financial topics.

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Bob Iger wanted approval. It was February 2011, and the Walt Disney Co. CEO gathered his board of directors inside an intimate theater at the company's Team Disney headquarters in Burbank, California. There, just the night before, Iger held an early screening for the board of Captain America: The First Avenger months prior to its release. The soon-to-be blockbuster served as another sign that Iger's bet on reinvigorating Disney's movie business through his acquisitions of Marvel and Pixar was paying off big.

Now, with his directors reassembled and sitting in the first few rows of the theater, Iger set his sights on his next gamble, his boldest yet: to reinvent the brand's most beloved asset, Disney's iconic parks.

Iger planned to pump nearly $1 billion into this venture, called MyMagic+, a sweeping plan to overhaul the digital infrastructure of Disney's theme parks, which would upend how they operated and connected with consumers. At the core of the project was the MagicBand, an electronic wristband that Iger envisioned guests would use to gain entry to Disney World and access attractions; make purchases at restaurants; and unlock their hotel room doors. It would push the boundaries of experience design and wearable computing, and impact everything from Disney's retail operations and data-mining capabilities to its hospitality and transportation services.

Iger, who joined Disney when it acquired ABC in 1996 and survived the tumult of the late-era Michael Eisner reign to become CEO in 2005, knew MyMagic+ represented a huge risk. Privacy concerns aside, the project could prove a logistical nightmare, or worse, after years of investment, be rejected by visitors, who might not want technology intruding on such a traditional vacation experience. That's why, on this sunny afternoon, Iger now sought the full support of his board, an intimidating group that included Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, the former CEOs of Starbucks and P&G, as well as the current head of BlackBerry and chair of Estée Lauder. (Apple CEO Steve Jobs, also a board member, was then too sick to attend, though he would play a role in MyMagic+'s development.)

For the pitch itself, Iger turned to Tom Staggs, the chairman of Disney's Parks and Resorts division, who had overseen the MyMagic+ initiative for the last year. Staggs gave opening remarks about the program. His deputy on the project, executive vice president Nick Franklin, then took over, walking the board through the finer points of MyMagic+ while showing off prototypes of the MagicBand. They had a black display case, emblazoned with the words "Choose a Flavor," that contained 24 colorful MagicBand models, neatly arranged like a box of chocolates.

The board, which had been provided materials breaking down the program's costs, gave positive feedback throughout the presentation. Sandberg interjected at one point to ask whether MyMagic+ could be used to track her kids at the park, since she always worries about losing them in the crowds. "Sheryl, first of all, we don't lose anybody's kids," Franklin responded, wryly. "And I can promise that we'll never lose your kids."

The room erupted with laughter, and the rest of the presentation went off without a hitch. The board decided to back the project unanimously, and the room swelled with palpable excitement for what this historic decision could mean for Disney's future. Iger himself talked about how important MyMagic+ will be for the company, according to people familiar with the meeting-how it will change the fundamental nature of Disney's park experiences and have implications for the company's broader businesses.

The board broke into applause, and the meeting came to its close. The directors were chatting and readying to leave when Iger, aware of the challenges still ahead for MyMagic+, regained the attention of the small room. He looked directly at Staggs. "This better work," he said, bluntly and sternly. "This better work."

The theater was quiet, the elation gone. Iger repeated, "This better work."

This is the story of what it took to deliver on those three simple words. It is not the story Disney wants you to hear, although the company did make certain key figures, like Staggs, accessible. It's based on extensive interviews with dozens of current and former executives, employees, and outside partners involved with the development of MyMagic+. Most would speak only on the condition of anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements, and also because, as one source explains, "You don't mess with the Mouse." It is a tale of corporate politics, personal feuds, and turf wars. But it also the story of a success, even though the project didn't fully deliver on its massive ambitions. This is what happens when a huge corporation tries to reinvent itself. This is what you have to do when you better make it work.

Any effort to reimagine Disney World would need to be monumental, almost by definition. Disney World isn't an amusement park: It's a metropolis. Sprawled across 25,000 acres of central Florida, it contains four theme parks, nearly 140 attractions, 300 dining locations, and 36 resort hotels. Its monorail system zips along 15 miles of track, with a daily ridership of more than 150,000. The parks have their own power plant and security force, plus some of the world's largest laundry facilities, cleaning 280,000 pounds of linen each day as well as dry-cleaning 30,000 cast member garments.

The theme parks play an essential role in Disney's effort to cement its company, characters, and products into the lives of families around the world. The more Disney movies, TV shows, and characters permeate our culture, the more people go to the theme parks; the more traffic the parks get, the more demand is created for toys, apparel, DVDs, and sequels. The cycle works in both directions: Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride opened in 1967, and inspired the movie franchise that since 2003 has generated $3.7 billion in global box-office receipts. The divisions connected by this roundelay-Parks, Studio Entertainment, and Consumer Products-account for more than half of Disney's revenues and profits.

This virtuous circle of brand consumption has helped the company grow to be a $48 billion global media conglomerate. Not only is the Parks and Resorts division (which we'll call Parks from here on) lucrative, it is also more reliable than the company's efforts in movies, which are susceptible to creative failure and audience indifference. Parks' footprint is global and diverse, with destinations in Anaheim, Orlando, Hong Kong, Paris, and Tokyo (a massive Shanghai expansion is set to open in 2016); a fleet of cruise lines; time-share properties; packaged vacation tours; golf courses; and luxury hotels. "The sun never sets on Disney," one employee tells me.

In the mid-2000s, however, Disney executives had reason to worry about the future of the business. Disney World, Parks' crown jewel, seemed to be losing its luster. According to multiple sources, certain key metrics, including guests' "intent to return," were dropping; around half of first-time attendees signaled they likely would not come back because of long lines, high ticket costs, and other park pain points. Simultaneously, the stunningly fast adoption of social media and smartphones threatened the relevance of the parks. If Disney wanted these more tech-oriented generations to love it as much as their parents, who had grown up with fewer entertainment alternatives, had, it would have to embrace change now. "We were failing to recognize key consumer trends that were starting to influence how people interacted with brands," says one former executive. Inside the company, Disney World became known as a "burning platform." As the former executive explains, "If we miss out on that next generation of guests, suddenly our burning platform is fully on fire-panic mode."

In 2008, the Parks division officially kicked off what became known as the Next Generation Experience project. Spurred by Jay Rasulo, who was then chairman of the division, Parks president Al Weiss and Disney World president Meg Crofton formed an exploratory team, following an initial round of technology research and financial modeling in 2007. The "founding five" were technology SVP Andy Schwalb, Imagineering executives Eric Jacobson and Kevin Rice, Parks VP Jim MacPhee, and business development VP John Padgett. By Valentine's Day 2008, Rasulo and Weiss had gathered the team in strict secrecy, and told them, in so many words, to "reinvent the vacation experience-and keep [Disney World] relevant," recalls Schwalb.

While most observers view Disney's parks as kingdoms of escapism, Neal Gabler, in his definitive biography of Walt Disney, argues that their success actually derives from "crafting a better reality than the one outside," with a reassuring "control and order" where all is "harmonious." But in the ensuing weeks, working from a trailer behind Epcot, the founding five started digging into the problems that made the reality of Disney World something less than "harmonious." There were the endless lines for rides, food, and bathrooms; parents juggling maps, hotel keys, baby carriages, and bottles of SPF 75; and kids pulling families on long treks to try to visit every attraction. The park was filled with complications, such as a tiered ticketing system with wonky rules.

Given Disney World's ticket prices, families felt obligated to "divide and conquer," says MacPhee. The team created diagrams illustrating how families, seeking to maximize their time, would crisscross Cinderella Castle, the center of the park, as often as 20 times a day. Worse yet: the swarms of people. On average, 8,000 to 10,000 guests flow through the park's main entrance every hour. "On the surface, we had super happy guests, but in reality, we were making them go through so much hassle at the park that down the road, they would simply say, 'No más!' " says one former longtime Disney manager. As MacPhee, who has the look of a Division II offensive coordinator, admits, Disney World was on the verge of becoming "dangerously complex and transactional." The team soon presented its ideas to Rasulo. He gave them the go-ahead to rethink everything, including turnstile entrances and paper ticketing. That's when the project got its code name, Next Generation Experience, or NGE. The founding five soon found themselves on a perpetual shuttle between Burbank and Orlando.

On one early flight, Padgett, who looks as open and eager as the Toy Story character Woody, had a breakthrough. Flipping through a SkyMall catalog, he landed on a page featuring the Trion:Z, a magnetic wristband that promised to reduce muscle soreness while simultaneously improving one's golf swing. The team started to consider whether Disney could create an electronic band that could digitally carry everything a guest might need-park tickets, photos, coupons, even money. It would give guests entry to Disney World, pay for goods at retail shops, and unlock their hotel room doors. It would be a virtual key to the Magic Kingdom.

The MagicBand, as the bracelet came to be called, became the centerpiece of NGE. To work as magically as planned, the team built an ideation lab inside an abandoned attraction called Body Wars within Epcot's discontinued Wonders of Life pavilion. They called their wearable prototype the xBand (x being short for "experience"), and constructed a makeshift model out of a strip of velcro, plastic liner from Home Depot, and a small RFID tag, which would allow the band to wirelessly communicate with other devices. The group, growing increasingly excited about the potential of NGE, eventually sought resources to further build out a vision for the initiative.

Iger and Rasulo came through the Body Wars lab, and Iger had a chance to play around with their MagicBand prototype in an early NGE presentation. Wearing the device (which wasn't actually functional at the time) on his wrist, Iger told the team according to several people in attendance, "This little thing is going to be special. If I gave you more money, could I have it faster?"

Thanks to brands like ESPN and Pixar, much of Disney is known for a creative approach to business. Not the Parks division. "The rest of Disney is younger, more progressive-risk takers-but [Parks] is not," explains one former high-level company leader with strong ties to NGE. "It's built to be industrial and resilient, for consistency and volume; it's not built for change." Arguably, the division's core competency isn't creativity, but turning creativity into a predictable operation. While the parks do regularly introduce new rides, the division is intent on preserving the spirit of Disney's tradition, the rickety nostalgia of rides like It's a Small World, which has barely changed since its debut at the 1964 New York World's Fair. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it": That's how multiple company sources describe the division's ethos.

Disney's Parks division "is built to be industrial and resilient," says one former senior exec. "It's not built for change."

Every corporate rule-breaker has to figure out a strategy to combat naysayers, the keepers of these traditional flames. The rebels of NGE knew that secrecy was critical if they were to build out the vision without interference from the broader organization. "Parks has tried big, transformational efforts before, but most failed because the culture killed them," the former high-level leader says. That's partly why the NGE team went outside the company for help. Padgett, who led the development of the MagicBand, brought on third-party partners, including designers from the storied San Francisco firm Frog, who signed on in mid-2009.

The NGE team had big dreams for the MagicBand. It would need to interact with short- and long-range sensors that would be installed around the park. The short-range sensors would let guests scan their MagicBand at sales terminals in Disney park stores to pay for merchandise, for example, or to seamlessly check in at their hotel.

The long-range sensors would allow Disney to track guests as they navigated the park. The potential benefits were manifold. By monitoring where crowds were forming, the company could better optimize flow. Say the sensors noted that one section of Magic Kingdom was becoming overwhelmed with guests: Operators could immediately respond with a character parade around the corner, to disperse traffic and ease strain on cast members (as Disney calls all its Parks employees). This kind of traffic management wouldn't just be a service to customers-it could also help Disney fit more guests inside its parks.

The MagicBand would also collect valuable consumer data. Insiders say the company historically knew little about its guests, even its most loyal ones. "We just treated everybody as a giant blob of people," says the former longtime manager involved with NGE. "It was time to figure out who our customers were so we could better serve them and stop delivering this one-size-fits-all experience."

The project eventually ballooned to include a collection of outside contractors, such as Accenture, HP, and Synapse, as well as smaller consultants. These teams, along with Frog and the NGE crew, dreamed up one innovative idea after another. They mocked up new payment portals, in the hope that guests could one day sync their credit cards with the MagicBand to buy goods. They imagined a digital reservation system for attractions, later called FastPass+, which would end the need for paper tickets. The traditional turnstiles at Disney World's entrances could be replaced by sleek digital access posts, designed by Frog, which would grant entry after scanning a guest's MagicBand and act as a checkpoint at each attraction. They planned a radical new restaurant, eventually named Be Our Guest, where patrons could preorder food online and have it "magically" delivered to their tables when they sat down. A character like Goofy, with access to real-time guest data, could even wish happy birthday to a child without prompting. For years, birthday boys and girls had worn a little button on their clothing to get such recognition. Disney had been mulling these kinds of forward-looking concepts for years. It seemed that the time had finally come to say farewell to old-school inefficiencies like birthday buttons.

It's impossible, of course, for such a big project to remain secret. As other groups within Disney learned of NGE, "the pushback was huge," one source tells me. "You had operations pushback, security and fraud pushback, creative pushback. There was never any shortage of pushback."

There was much for naysayers to fault, starting with costs. For example, the earliest bill-of-materials estimate for the MagicBand was $35, 87,000% more expensive than the 4-cent paper tickets Disney historically relied on. "You had folks going, 'Hey! This will drive up our costs! Hey! Why are you taking away our control at the turnstiles?' " recalls one former senior member of the NGE team, which had grown to several dozen employees by late 2009. Whenever anyone would press Parks chairman Jay Rasulo about these concerns, this senior NGE team member recalls, Rasulo would respond, "Well, we're heading down this path. This is the direction we're going."

Insiders say the Frog team found the internal struggles withering. They faced opposition from a powerful corporate force: Disney's Imagineers. The stewards of Walt's creative legacy, Imagineers are responsible for the design and construction of the company's theme parks, from the most obscure visual Easter eggs hidden on Tom Sawyer Island to the all-engrossing story experiences of such large-scale rides as Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror. "The Frog industrial-design team really pissed off the Imagineers, stepping all over their toes and fighting turf battles," explains one insider. The Imagineers pushed back; at one point, multiple sources confirm, they demanded the individual résumés of each Frog designer assigned to the project, a move that some perceived as a personal attack.

"If I'm supposed to be living with fairies, fairies don't have iPhones or MagicBands," says one Imagineer.

The tussle over digital access points, where customers would use their MagicBands to enter each ride, was typical of the dysfunction between Frog and Imagineering. Frog envisioned a waist-high stand featuring the outline of Mickey Mouse's head, with a MagicBand reader embedded. The idea was to help guests understand how to interact with the device, by touching "Mickey to Mickey," since the MagicBand would also feature the Mouse icon. If the access point's Mickey glowed green once a guest touched it with a MagicBand, the guest could enter the ride; if it turned blue, that meant the guest required assistance from a cast member.

Imagineers argued that the uniformity of the access points would disrupt the spirit of their uniquely stylized attractions. For example, seeing Mickey's face on every post would be disconcerting, since there were wide swaths of the park that had nothing to do with the Mouse at all. Ditto for those waist-high digital posts; what business did something looking like a shiny modern mailbox have in the foreground of a medieval castle? The Imagineers preferred designs that would be immersed in the theme of each Disney World ride: futuristic ones for Tomorrowland, Wild West-style ones in Frontierland, and so forth. Their preferences reflected their deepest goal, which is to protect the sanctity of children's imaginations as they engage with real-life fairy tales at the park. Says veteran Imagineer Joe Rohde, "If I'm supposed to be living with fairies, fairies don't have iPhones or MagicBands."

The Frog team was aghast. They felt the Imagineers' criticism went against basic user-experience design. To them, the issues came down to usability and ergonomics; each access point needed to have the predictability of a light switch, so guests could locate them easily. They eventually compromised: access posts have consistent features, like the Mickey icon, but can also be designed with more thematic flourishes. However, the Imagineers did torpedo a number of other Frog concepts.

These early skirmishes signaled tougher battles ahead. "There were disagreements between Frog, Parks operations, and marketing folks; there were disagreements between hotel and theme park operations; disagreements between technology and infrastructure guys," says one former Disney executive closely associated with NGE. As another source puts it, "It was such a reactive environment."

In January 2010, there was a change at the top. As part of a reported "bake-off" engineered by CEO Iger to see who might one day be better suited to succeed him, Tom Staggs and Jay Rasulo swapped roles. Staggs, who had served as Disney's CFO since 1998, replaced Rasulo as the head of Parks; Rasulo became CFO. Staggs took over sponsorship of NGE from Rasulo, and followed through on Rasulo's intention to appoint an executive vice president, Nick Franklin, to oversee the program day to day.

At this point, the project took on a new layer of complexity, as the NGE team felt the need to consistently dazzle the Disney brass. A key part of this was regularly showing off a complex prototype of the MyMagic+ experience. The team had outgrown its original home at Epcot and had moved to Disney World's Hollywood Studios, inside a 12,000-square-foot soundstage. That's where the NGE team built out its advanced R&D lab, or what Franklin calls a "living blueprint" that would "sell the vision."

With typical Disney flair, the soundstage became a storyboard brought to life, with a full-scale living room, including an iMac, which is where the archetypal family would book their Disney vacation via what's now known as My Disney Experience, the website and mobile app for MyMagic+. The family's set of MagicBands would then arrive by mail, in beautiful packaging designed by Frog. Next came the flight-arrival stage of the set, which simulated the experience at Orlando International, with actual seats that the NGE team had purchased from the airport. There, family members would first touch their MagicBands to a digital access point, before proceeding to a replica Magical Express bus. Then came the hotel set, with actual front-desk counters and bedroom furniture from Disney's Contemporary Resort, to reflect the new MyMagic+ check-in process. There were also mock-ups of the in-park experience, including a main entrance; a mini version of the Haunted Mansion ride to demonstrate how attractions could be personalized with consumer data; a small version of the Be Our Guest restaurant concept; merchandising and retail shops; and even a stage exhibiting how MyMagic+ could influence Disney's cruise line. "At Disney, you can't just create a PowerPoint presentation and say, 'Hey, give me $10 million to build this,' " jokes Andy Schwalb.

"It goes back to Walt himself," explains a former top NGE manager. "The story carries the day." Often, sources say, the "theater" of selling an idea is more important than the idea itself. An NGE source recalls how once, right before a presentation, Padgett told one team member with a British accent, "When you're presenting to these guys, sound and act more British. It'll just make the presentation go better." He wasn't joking.

The lab was essential for MyMagic+ to win buy-in from Disney World's 74,000 employees. "We needed to get people's minds wrapped around it all, from the finance and creative folks to the people running day-to-day park operations," Schwalb says.

Just three months into Staggs' Parks tenure, on March 30, the NGE team unveiled the detailed lab to him and Iger. (Many sources argue much of the vision work was complete by the time Staggs replaced Rasulo. "The ship had sailed in terms of front-end thinking," one source says.) Iger and Staggs were impressed, but Iger cautioned the team not to bite off more than it could chew, according to people in attendance; at one point, he recommended that the NGE team "cut [their ambitions] in half" and only worry about MyMagic+ at Disney World, rather than at other potential park sites or on cruise ships. By the tour's end, recalls former NGE leader Michelle Bentubo, "probably around nine of the executives ended up with Bob in the last room, and he [looked toward] Jim MacPhee, John Padgett, and Nick Franklin, and [said], 'It better work.' " The phrase had become an NGE team mantra often referred to as IBFW, or "it better frickin' work," a sentiment Iger would express in similar terms to Staggs at the board meeting.

Iger, Staggs, and also Rasulo went through the soundstage lab many more times. When the CEO would visit, team members would hide behind the soundstage curtains taking detailed notes. "If Bob said something, we would immediately go back that night and say, 'How do we incorporate this?' " one team member recalls. "When he came back, we would be saying, 'As you suggested, we did this. What do you think?' "

Members of the Disney board visited as well, with the exception of Steve Jobs, whose cancer was worsening. Sources say that, despite not seeing MyMagic+ in person, he pledged his support. "I love what you guys are doing," he is said to have conveyed to the group. "You won't get everything right, but doing what you've been doing and believing that will remain the model for the next 20 years is also not right."

The NGE crew had visits from other luminaries in the Disney orbit. Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter, inventor Dean Kamen, and filmmaker James Cameron-then at work on his Avatar-themed expansion at Disney World-all toured the lab. "These icons created momentum with Bob [Iger]," says a high-level NGE leader.

The NGE team presented so many different concepts to the Disney leadership that some wondered if their aim was simply to wow top leaders with the long-term potential of NGE through whiz-bang features. There was, for instance, Padgett's concept for reengineering the airport arrival and departure experience. A team started designing a plastic cart for the guest's luggage, so compact that it would fit through a special Disney x-ray machine without forcing passengers to separate and throw suitcases and backpacks on the conveyer belt. It was a sort of TSA PreCheck for baggage, which would seamlessly be transported straight to a guest's hotel room. The team began discussing ways to reengineer airport x-ray machines, and Padgett even organized a meeting with TSA officials. "That project itself cost probably close to $500,000," says a source familiar with the concept work. "And I honestly don't know: Was it real? Or was it just theater?"

In February 2011, the Disney board authorized a budget of nearly $1 billion for MyMagic+, and Iger told Staggs that "this better work." Sources say that the early target date to deliver MyMagic+ was February 2012. This was optimistic, given the infrastructure challenges and the fact that Disney would have to create and implement the new system while still operating its theme parks, which are open every day.

Many people wanted a piece of the big money flooding into Parks. "That was the big turning point," says one senior NGE contractor involved early on in the program. Each division seemed to have a claim. Should the software fall under IT? Should the merchandising division control the MagicBand? Since the project would completely alter park transactions-admission, payments, crowd flow-shouldn't operations take charge? And what about the Imagineers?

"There were a lot of times when people were like 'This is going to be so painful,' " says project leader Nick Franklin.

The infighting grew intense. "Look, let's put it crudely: People were protecting their jobs!" says one VP-level NGE source. Uncertainty about the consequences of MyMagic+ raised the stakes-that's what new technology does to the status quo. For example, if ticketing were to get digitized, many jobs held by traditional ticketing folks might become irrelevant. One source deeply enmeshed in NGE's development at the time describes Disney as a "culture that is all smiles and happiness, and everyone is going in to give you a hug. But you have no idea who is working against you. You come out bruised and bloody." A former Disney exec says there was "land-grabbing, finger-pointing, and, quite frankly, a lot of yelling in closed-door meetings." But, this source adds, "disagreement was how we were going to get to the end result."

Staggs encouraged a policy that's internally referred to as "constructive discomfort," which was meant to guard against cultural complacency by fostering collaboration. "People would say, 'Okay, this looks a little bit scary because it's different, but it's been this way for years, and it's worked really, really well,' " he tells me. "That's a recipe for stagnation."

Staggs did not engage in project politics. "He stayed above the fray," says the former Disney exec, approvingly. "Tom was right where he was supposed to be: You had to have someone stay in that role so he could come in and be effective when giving guidance." Staggs left it to Nick Franklin to manage day-to-day friction. A former Goldman Sachs banker, Franklin has the personality of a bulldog. "There is a great quote from Machiavelli that talks about how nobody wants change because most people are invested in the status quo," Franklin says. "Even the folks who are open to change don't actually believe it until it's real and in their hands. There were a lot of times [in this process] when people were like, 'This is going to be so painful.' "

Franklin managed to get some teams to collaborate well on the project, but many describe the internal politics as fierce. Sources who were present for early in-park tests of the MyMagic+ enhanced, turnstile-free entrances recall how some Disney groups had cast members attempt to sneak past the gates, in an attempt to prove the system wasn't secure enough. (Others argue that this was a valid security test.) Several sources claim that during a test of whether long-range sensors at the Haunted Mansion ride could identify the MagicBands worn by customers going by at high speeds, Imagineers purposely sat on their hands as the ride zoomed along, to make it harder for the sensors to locate their bands. (A spokesperson for Disney says this was also a valid test, done not just by Imagineers, but by everyone.) Multiple sources indicate the Imagineers were exploring their own alternative to the MagicBand, as were other teams.

"Imagineering is an incredible organization but it has become as institutional as the rest," says a former high-level Disney leader. "They dream of building these big icons of their creative expression, but when a capital budget shows we're going to invest in changing the established guest experience rather than spend on a big fixed asset, that doesn't get met with love."

Other divisions expressed themselves passive-aggressively. "They might see a problem coming, but they don't do anything about it, like, 'Let them figure it out!' " says a former Disney manager. "Then, late in the game, these folks came in going, 'We knew this was going to be a problem.' We were like, 'Really? Where have you been for the last three and a half years?!?' "

The Orlando-based IT group, as it sought to control more of the project's technology initiatives, was often at loggerheads with members of the NGE team as well as their counterparts in Los Angeles at the Parks online group. As IT gained a significant foothold into MyMagic+, some credit the group with ultimately improving the technical underpinnings of MyMagic+; others claim it took advantage of the situation to secure greater leverage and resources. "Everyone is trying to build the best possible guest experience," explains one former senior project developer who tussled with the IT group. "But [we all] had drastically different philosophies about how to get that done. I honestly believe [the IT group] just thought we built pieces of shit." The feeling was mutual. At one point, IT pushed the division to build its own Windows-based tablets, eventually named the 2400 and the 9000, for cast members. One source calls the devices "god-awful bricks. We didn't need their $3,000, piece-of-shit, custom-made mobile devices." Parks eventually opted for iPod Touches and iPads.

As this dynamic played out, the company turned to outside software consultancies, all feasting on Disney's resources for the project, which one partner describes as a "cash cow." (According to a knowledgeable source, Accenture billed over $100 million for its role in developing MyMagic+.) Says a leader of one of these project consultancies, "We were basically chartered as a shadow organization [to the IT group], like a backup plan in case shit hits the fan."

The backroom dealing and finger pointing and glory hogging slowed the ambitious project. "Almost half the work was to support a political situation," says one executive at an NGE partner company. "At the beginning, we could move really rapidly, but when it got public within Disney, it changed the way we worked. It became more about fighting to survive another day."

The February 2012 target came and went.

More than 28,000 hotel doors needed their locks replaced in order to connect wirelessly with the MagicBand, even as some 80% of the rooms at Disney's resorts, on average, were occupied. Two dozen workers spent eight months upgrading 120 doors per day. The company rolled out 6,000 mobile devices to support MyMagic+ in the parks. More than 70,000 cast members got MyMagic+ awareness training, with 15,000 learning service-specific tasks for, say, FastPass+ kiosks or MagicBand merchandising (guests would be able to buy Disney character-themed accessories to decorate their bands).

Disney World's physical infrastructure, which was first built in the late 1960s, needed major capital improvements. Two hundred eighty-three park-entry touch points needed to be upgraded. Much of Disney World lacked a Wi-Fi connection, so in order for guests and cast members to take advantage of MyMagic+ and its mobile apps (which would offer a map service and real-time wait times for attractions), the company had to install more than 30 million square feet of Wi-Fi coverage. "They sure as hell had no ethernet networking, and didn't even have a lot of power lines," says one source involved with the construction. "It was a huge effort to wire a communications infrastructure that was basically the same size as San Francisco."

On January 7, 2013, Disney finally made a splashy announcement revealing MyMagic+. In a story in The New York Times, Staggs called the project "transformational." Disney played up the ways guests would benefit, including how cast members could use data to know when to wish a guest happy birthday, and how a new Little Mermaid-themed ride would feature an animatronic seagull who could interact with guests wearing the MagicBand. "We want to take experiences that are more passive and make them as interactive as possible-moving from, 'Cool, look at that talking bird,' to 'Wow, amazing, that bird is talking directly to me,' " Imagineering chief creative executive Bruce Vaughn told the Times.

But even then, MyMagic+ was not ready for prime time. According to a source, one internal audit around this time found roughly 250 defects plaguing the parks' MyMagic+ hardware and software systems. MyMagic+ would only roll out slowly, bit by bit, over the course of 2013. Meanwhile, the cost to redesign and integrate DisneyWorld.com with MyMagic+ soared to around $80 million.

There were bright spots. The manufacturing cost of the band came down to below $5. Be Our Guest restaurant, inspired by the fairy-tale dining experience in Beauty and the Beast, launched to glowing reviews. The restaurant was the epitome of what MyMagic+ could offer. Guests who preordered food online, or at a restaurant kiosk, could sit down and have their meal arrive automatically, thanks to sensors telling the waitstaff to deliver what food to what table. The seamless experience won top innovation honors from the National Restaurant Association.

But even this success story couldn't transcend the hostility among Parks divisions. Working with outside partners, John Padgett's team had managed to deliver Be Our Guest early-only to find that other groups felt he did so at the expense of their projects. As a former employee involved in Be Our Guest says, "It really didn't go over well with the traditional IT org. It was like, 'Wait, you're going to actually have a successful launch of a project on time, on budget, as you promised? Even though our [technical] components, which were supposed to support the system, aren't ready?' "

The carping weighed heavily on Nick Franklin. From the beginning of his tenure, he made efforts to generate goodwill and friendship among the various players, holding frequent team dinners so people who sources indicate didn't like each other could at least break bread and try to bridge their differences. During one feast on St. Patrick's Day, the team ate "deconstructed fisherman's pie" and "haute cuisine-style bangers and mash" paired with various Irish beers and whiskeys. "I made my team members know each other, and I mean, know who their kids are, where they grew up, and what they're passionate about," Franklin recalls. "Everybody on that team knew that John Padgett built his house himself, and that [technology SVP] Randy Brooks was a motorcycle guy who rode with his kids. That's what bridges the gap. At the end of the day, shit is going to get hard, and when you're in the trenches, that's the stuff that brings you back together."

Franklin's mantra was "we all cross the finish line together or we all fail." But as one VP-level Disney source describes, "[Executives kept asking], 'When is this going to be done?' 'Oh, in two months!' 'No, three months!' It became this slog with one group going, 'We're ready and you're not!' And the other group going, 'No, we're ready, and you're not!' "

According to a source, one Parks leader who helped Padgett deliver the MagicBand, Michael Jungen, would caution his team against playing the blame game because it was all just "booger flicking." Jungen told his team to not give anyone an excuse to "flick the booger back at us."

Disney didn't complete its rollout of MyMagic+ until the first half of 2014.

This January, I made several trips to Disney World. With my MagicBand strapped on, entering and exiting my room at the Contemporary Resort is a cinch. I love leaving my hotel without worrying if I forgot my wallet, or even my phone; whether I venture to the Starbucks at the Downtown Disney shopping village or sit down for an extravagant dinner at the Grand Floridian Resort, I pay by simply flicking my wrist. At dinner one night, an elderly couple tells me they were skeptical of the MagicBand at first ("because we're old!"), but that they have come to love its headache-free benefits.

There is no line at the main entrance to the park, where cast members and a row of polished, golden digital access points greet me, and it takes just seconds to stream through with my MagicBand. According to Disney, the MagicBand has cut turnstile transaction time by 30%. Park capacity has also increased. At the Magic Kingdom alone, Tom Staggs notes, MyMagic+ has allowed "north of 5,000 more people into the park for the same experience."

The creative potential of MyMagic+ is on full display at Test Track, an Epcot ride that lets visitors pretend to drive a concept vehicle through intense stress tests: swerves in bad weather, screeching halts, big bursts of speed. It's extremely popular, often with 60- to 90-minute wait times. But the queue seems to move fast, thanks to what Disney calls "scene ones," interactive moments designed to entertain waiting guests. Rather than fidgeting in line, I get to walk through an auto design studio with rows of touch-screen kiosks. Using my MagicBand, I digitally customize my own car, modifying its color, body shape, and engine capabilities. As I'm about to hop on the ride, I use the MagicBand again to integrate my personal vehicle into the attraction. Zipping through the track, display screens at the tail end of each section show a leaderboard simulating how my rig is performing. Afterward, I make a digital commercial for my car, one of a slew of experiences available to guests once the ride is finished.

At the Magic Kingdom alone, Tom Staggs notes, MyMagic+ has allowed "north of 5,000 more people into the park for the same experience."

Test Track has 197 touch-interaction points. Disney has measured the impact of effective "scene ones" on customers' perception of waiting in line. According to Disney World SVP Jim MacPhee, "a 35-minute wait felt like a 15- to 20-minute wait."

Executives point to this kind of thing to explain why Disney's intent-to-return metrics are up, though the company won't provide specific figures. They also say they are seeing guests spend more money while in the park. And MacPhee lets slip that guest intent to recommend, another key Disney metric, is "really high, with overall satisfaction in the 70% range."

There are many other tangible results. The Be Our Guest restaurant has become incredibly popular. Kids are accessorizing their MagicBands with Frozen-themed tchotchkes, which are fast becoming a material revenue generator for the company. And with Disney's slick PhotoPass service, photos and videos captured of guests shrieking down the Splash Mountain water ride are tied to their MagicBands and automatically uploaded to the My Disney Experience website, where they can later view and purchase prints.

During my return monorail ride back to the hotel one cool winter night, two exhausted parents, baby carriages in tow and a tuckered-out young girl wrapped around Dad's neck, tell me the MagicBand is a lifesaver; they couldn't imagine going back to the old system, with all those paper tickets and FastPasses. It is indeed a "better reality than the one outside," as Disney biographer Neal Gabler put it.

"Honestly, it's not so magical," one cast member tells me about MyMagic+, echoing a common sentiment I hear from park employees during my visit. "It's just for your hotel room [door] and paying for things." When you look closely, there's less to MyMagic+ than what some on the team had hoped for.

Few rides other than Test Track tap into the storytelling potential of MyMagic+. "When you go to the park today, you'll say, 'Where is it all?' " says one former top NGE manager. "The Imagineers, the R&D group, they're supposed to be the innovative team-they're the Walt Disney Imagineers, for Christ's sake! And yet, for this newest innovation, they simply didn't deliver. Well, they delivered the barest, thinnest, most minimum creative support for NGE."

"Honestly, it's not so magical," one cast member tells me about MyMagic+.

MyMagic+ was always designed to be a platform to build on, but even the elements the company publicly promised in The New York Times' announcement are still missing in action. Though Disney executives still boast, inexplicably, that MyMagic+ lets cast members wish guests a happy birthday, the fact is that feature plainly does not exist. (When I point out to Staggs that cast members don't yet fully take advantage of MyMagic+, he mentions there may be ways in the future to acknowledge a guest's birthday through the program, but also tells me, "You know what, we've got the buttons, people put on the buttons [that say] happy birthday, and people say happy birthday, [and] they love it.") Cast members engage with MyMagic+ only in an operational capacity, predominantly at the park entrances, the FastPass+ kiosks, and the guest relations centers. They don't even wear MagicBands. And that animatronic seagull on the Little Mermaid ride that was supposed to talk with guests wearing MagicBands? During my visit, it squawked on a loop to an empty room.

Disney executives are still figuring out how to talk about MyMagic+. When MacPhee takes me to the classic Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride, he says, "This, to me, is the poster child of everything MyMagic+ is about." But other than using a MagicBand at the entryway touch point, as one does at every attraction, Dumbo had nothing to do with MyMagic+ technology. The space was recently renovated, but mainly to add an area where parents can sit and relax in line while their kids play on a jungle gym. Cast members hand out buzzers, like the ones you might find at an Olive Garden. The buzzer vibrates when the ride is ready, so parents have time to collect their kids. (A Disney spokesperson asserts that MyMagic+ and the Next Generation Experience encompassed more than just technology, and thus that the Dumbo renovations fall under the NGE initiative.)

Later, I am shown a new meet-and-greet attraction. While I watch, a Venezuelan family is ushered into a small room, where a cast member, dressed in a full Mickey Mouse getup with automated voice features, kneels down to welcome and hug a shy boy. Without missing a beat, Mickey speaks Spanish, and the kid's face lights up. ("Queso!" the multilingual Mickey squeaks as a set of family photos are snapped.) I assume that when the boy entered with his MagicBand, the cast member somehow received an instant and invisible notification that the child is a native Spanish speaker from South America. Not so. Afterward, MacPhee acknowledges that the system doesn't use MyMagic+. The real trick-which my hosts only share on the condition I not publish it-is quite impressive, but almost goes out of its way to avoid taking advantage of the MagicBand.

Shortly after my last Disney World trip, I go to Glendale, California, to visit the folks many NGE insiders blame for everything unrealized by MyMagic+. Ever since Walt first corralled a group of animators, writers, and engineers into his WED Enterprises group in 1952, the mission of the Disney Imagineers has been to transport guests into another world, to immerse them into experiences so delightful that they return again and again. So why did they resist MyMagic+?

"A big part of the company culture is trying to guard against dangerous change. If Disney had followed every trend in the past 60 years, it wouldn't be Disney anymore."

The Imagineers speak about the project with enthusiasm, but also-always-with caveats. "There are a million ideas, like . . . I walk through the park, and my face is integrated into movie posters," says Bruce Vaughn, the chief creative executive. "Do you really want that? Is that special the third time I see it?" The group has always been wary of introducing technology for technology sake, although it is willing to experiment, such as with a short-lived interactive game developed in 2006, based on the Kim Possible cartoon series, which enabled guests to use cell phones to go on a virtual scavenger hunt of the parks. As one MyMagic+ partner points out, with admiration for the Imagineers, "A big part of the company culture is trying to guard against dangerous change. If Disney had followed every trend in the past 60 years, it wouldn't be Disney anymore."

There certainly are reasons for caution. MyMagic+'s rocky rollout makes the Imagineers' case for conservatism in the face of technological change seem sound. A slew of problems reared up after launch: The My Disney Experience app was buggy, digital access points would turn blue when they were supposed to turn green, hotel reservations were a mess, and guests griped that the new FastPass+ system was unintuitive and difficult to program. Many of these issues have since been fixed (the company tripled the size of its customer support department), but every time a guest has to raise her hand for help with MyMagic+, the Imagineers' carefully crafted illusion is spoiled.

One former NGE executive believes the public won't "see Imagineering leverage the NGE platform until the next wave of attractions." Even then, he believes, the group will never see MyMagic+ as anything more than another paintbrush at its disposal. "The Imagineers didn't know what [MyMagic+ would become]," this source says. "So if you need to design it into a ride that has to handle thousands of people an hour, continuously, that can be really hard! The Imagineers wanted to wait to figure out how they want to use it in their storytelling."

Imagineer Joe Rohde, who sports a tribal-style earring that weighs down his left ear, speaks eloquently about the pros and cons of MyMagic+. We meet over a model of Avatar Land, the movie-inspired Disney World extension set to open in 2017. He tells me the Imagineers are trying to hit that sweet spot where the technology stays "subconscious," because he doesn't want to see "switching behavior"-he waves his wrist around in front of his face-"in between the human and the experience."

I ask where MyMagic+ will influence Avatar Land, and Rohde turns my attention to the model, which is the size of three Ping-Pong tables. He swirls his finger around a tiny section. This little spot is where MyMagic+ will be put to use, in "the most intensive, interactive moments." What about the area's two big attractions? "Less so," he adds.

What excites the Imagineers about Avatar Land? The robotics prototypes they've built, which they think represent the next generation of animatronics. MyMagic+ is just a tool that Imagineers tell me they don't want to force on visitors. "We don't want to say, 'Hey, guest, go around and tap with your MagicBand to cause something magical to happen,' " Vaughn says. "We never want to do it just because we can."

On February 5, I am waiting outside Tom Staggs's office in Burbank when two PR representatives walk over to me briskly to declare that my planned interview has been canceled. Bob Iger has just appointed Staggs chief operating officer of the Walt Disney Company.

That day, beat reporters covering Disney write that Staggs won the "bake-off" over CFO Jay Rasulo due in part to his success at ramping up revenue and profits at Parks. The latter had jumped 20% the previous quarter, helping Disney deliver spectacular earnings, which sent its stock to an all-time high. Most reports also highlight two major achievements: Shanghai Disneyland and MyMagic+. Iger himself praised MyMagic+ during the earnings call that week. "About 10 million guests have already worn the bands, and so far, what we're hearing from them is overwhelmingly positive," he said. "What that basically tells us and what we have actually seen is that it is serving the purpose we set out to serve."

The following afternoon, Staggs meets me at Imagineering headquarters. He spends one day a week there taking meetings, an opportunity for the former Morgan Stanley investment banker to improve his creative chops. Outside his first-floor corner office, he greets me with a knowing smile as he apologizes for yesterday's unforeseen schedule change. Staggs cuts a slim figure, a result of his intense fitness routine and healthy eating habits. He is relaxed and polished, with a cordiality rooted in his Minnesota upbringing. After walking past the poster of Captain Jack Sparrow on his door, we kick back on a sofa set in his neat office. Staggs, wearing jeans and a white button-down, rests his clasped leather shoes on top of the coffee table as we chat. He's exceedingly humble when I ask about what his COO promotion means for his future at Disney, and avoids any discussion about whether he might one day replace Iger, though he acknowledges nothing was promised. "I've been asked to do one job, the COO job, and that's what I'm going to do, and whatever comes next will be subject to separate process," he says.

Staggs gives me an overview of the MyMagic+ development. He says the project was under budget ("not enough to do a victory lap over"), and claims it wasn't delayed. "Since we said there's no set schedule, it's hard to really say whether we were on that set schedule," he explains. "I don't mean to be at all glib with you. Truth be told, it might make better copy to write 'delay' than to write 'certain aspects are taking longer than originally anticipated.' "

Eventually, the discussion shifts toward the future of MyMagic+. Key veterans of the project have departed, including executive VP Nick Franklin and the NGE cofounder John Padgett. "There's a reason why so many NGE people have left Disney," says one NGE source involved with the program nearly from the outset. "The project basically has devolved back into the [traditional] business. Is there a next generation of Next Generation Experience?"

Like Iger, Staggs heralds how MyMagic+ will eventually spread to the other Disney theme parks. But when I press him on exactly what this means, Staggs says the company will roll out "variations on MyMagic+." He explains that this "doesn't mean the MagicBand will be used in every [park]." MagicBand probably won't come to Disneyland in Anaheim, California, because restructuring costs would be too high. Shanghai is expected to have such a high proportion of guests with smartphones, he says, that there wouldn't be any need to export the MagicBand. A MyMagic+ app could essentially replace it.

Staggs seems to be suggesting that the MagicBand may not be necessary in the future. That's hardly a sign of failure. Staggs is quietly making a point that's broader and more important than the carping of employees worried about the future of their project. Moving to a smartphone-based MyMagic+ infrastructure may now be more reflective of the realities of the rapidly changing technology landscape. Perhaps it would be foolish to try to keep up with the Apples and Googles of the world when it comes to wearables. "We help ourselves by being less precious, [like] 'Gee, we invented this MagicBand, we've got to use that everywhere,' " Staggs says. "We'll use it everywhere it makes sense. But we don't want to let something we think is cool and cutting edge become a legacy item that we're trying to drag along."

For execs like Staggs, what matters most is that the big ship Disney is headed in the right direction. If "serving the purpose we set out to serve," as Iger puts it, is a mundane judgment of MyMagic+ that falls short of earlier, more transformative goals, that's fine. Staggs explains that this is the "very beginning" of MyMagic+, and that "there is so much more that we can do there." He doesn't go into specifics, but promises the company is learning widely from the MyMagic+ experience. "The key is the collaboration across literally everything from food and beverage, IT folks, online folks, our industrial engineers, our merchandise folks, our core operations team, the finance organization, across all of those," Staggs tells me. "It was a big project. I don't want to appear overly proud of it, but we're very proud of it happening at this organization. It would be folly to say that anything other than the collaborative approach we took would've been successful."

Perhaps Staggs is being coy. The Imagineers and Frog certainly did disagree during the MyMagic+ development, as did many others, and that disagreement had repercussions and costs. But it ultimately led to a successful conclusion. What Staggs calls "constructive discomfort" is what sophisticated collaboration is all about.

After all, he tells me, "[This was] one of the most collaborative processes that we've undertaken, and we tend to be pretty collaborative by nature."

See the history of Disney's Princesses Brand in 200 sparkly seconds

[ Illustrations: Ramona Ring; Photos: courtesy of Disney; Avatar: 20th Century Fox/Everett Collection; Zebra: iStock; Captain EO: Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection; Jim Henson Co.: Photos 12, Alamy; Epcot 1982: Roger Viollet, Getty Images]

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The Messy Business Of Reinventing Happiness

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Bob Iger wanted approval. It was February 2011, and the Walt Disney Co. CEO gathered his board of directors inside an intimate theater at the company's Team Disney headquarters in Burbank, California. There, just the night before, Iger held an early screening for the board of Captain America: The First Avenger months prior to its release.

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Card Walker, Donn Tatum and Ron Miller

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Roy O. Disney, who after Walt's death oversaw the building and financing of Walt Disney World, died late in 1971, and for the next decade the Company was led by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum and Ron Miller — all originally trained by the Disney brothers.

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Walt Disney arrived in California in the summer of 1923 with a lot of hopes but little else. He had made a cartoon in Kansas City about a little girl in a cartoon world, called Alice's Wonderland, and he decided that he could use it as his "pilot" film to sell a series of these "Alice Comedies" to a distributor. Soon after arriving in California, he was successful. A distributor in New York, M. J. Winkler, contracted to distribute the Alice Comedies on October 16, 1923, and this date became the start of the Disney company. Originally known as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, with Walt Disney and his brother, Roy, as equal partners, the company soon changed its name, at Roy's suggestion, to the Walt Disney Studio.

Walt Disney made his Alice Comedies for four years, but in 1927, he decided to move instead to an all-cartoon series. To star in this new series, he created a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Within a year, Walt made 26 of these Oswald cartoons, but when he tried to get some additional money from his distributor for a second year of the cartoons, he found out that the distributor had gone behind his back and signed up almost all of his animators, hoping to make the Oswald cartoons in his own studio for less money without Walt Disney. On rereading his contract, Walt realized that he did not own the rights to Oswald-the distributor did. It was a painful lesson for the young cartoon producer to learn. From then on, he saw to it that he owned everything that he made.

The original Disney Studio had been in the back half of a real estate office on Kingswell Avenue in Hollywood, but soon Walt had enough money to move next door and rent a whole store for his studio. That small studio was sufficient for a couple of years, but the company eventually outgrew it, and Walt had to look elsewhere. He found an ideal piece of property on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood, built a studio, and in 1926, moved his staff to the new facility.

It was at the Hyperion Studio, after the loss of Oswald, that Walt had to come up with a new character, and that character was Mickey Mouse. With his chief animator, Ub Iwerks, Walt designed the famous mouse and gave him a personality that endeared him to all. Ub animated two Mickey Mouse cartoons, but Walt was unable to sell them because they were silent films, and sound was revolutionizing the movie industry. So, they made a third Mickey Mouse cartoon, this time with fully synchronized sound, and Steamboat Willie opened to rave reviews at the Colony Theater in New York November 18, 1928. A cartoon star, Mickey Mouse, was born. The new character was immediately popular, and, a lengthy series of Mickey Mouse cartoons followed.

Not one to rest on his laurels, Walt Disney soon produced another series-the Silly Symphonies-to go with the Mickey series. It featured different casts of characters in each film and enabled animators to experiment with stories that relied less on the gags and quick humor of the Mickey cartoons and more on mood, emotion, and musical themes. Eventually the Silly Symphonies turned into the training ground for all Disney artists as they prepared for the advent of animated feature films. Flowers and Trees, a Silly Symphony and the first full-color cartoon, won the Academy Award ® for Best Cartoon for 1932, the first year that the Academy offered such a category. For the rest of that decade, a Disney cartoon won the Oscar ® every year.

While the cartoons were gaining popularity in movie houses, the Disney staff found that merchandising the characters was an additional source of revenue. A man in New York offered Walt $300 for the license to put Mickey Mouse on some pencil tablets he was manufacturing. Walt Disney needed the $300, so he said okay. That was the start of Disney merchandising. Soon there were Mickey Mouse dolls, dishes, toothbrushes, radios, figurines-almost everything you could think of bore Mickey's likeness. The year 1930 was a big one for the mouse that started it all, as it saw the first Mickey Mouse book and newspaper comic strip published.

Walt was never satisfied with what he had already accomplished. As his motion pictures and television programs became successful, he felt a desire to branch out. One area that intrigued him was amusement parks. As a father, he had taken his two young daughters to zoos, carnivals, and other entertainment enterprises, but he always ended up sitting on the bench as they rode the merry-go-round and had all the fun. He felt that there should be a park where parents and children could go and have a good time together. This was the genesis of Disneyland. After several years of planning and construction, the new park opened on July 17, 1955.

Disneyland was a totally new kind of park. Observers coined the term "theme park," but even that does not seem to do Disneyland justice. It has been used as a pattern for every amusement park built since its opening, becoming internationally famous and attracting hundreds of millions of visitors. Walt said that Disneyland would never be completed as long as there was imagination left in the world, and that statement remains true today. New attractions are added regularly, and Disneyland is even more popular now than it was in 1955.

After the success of Disneyland, it was only natural for Walt to consider another park on the East Coast. Prior to his death, the Company purchased land in Florida, and the Walt Disney World project, located on some 28,000 acres near Orlando, was announced. It opened October 1, 1971. In Florida, the Company had the space it lacked in California. Finally there was room to create a destination resort, unencumbered by the urban sprawl that had grown up around Disneyland. Walt Disney World would include not only a Magic Kingdom theme park like Disneyland but also hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, and shopping villages. It did not take long for Walt Disney World to become the premier vacation destination in the world.

Roy O. Disney, who after Walt's death oversaw the building and financing of Walt Disney World, died in late 1971, and for the next decade the Company was led by a team including Card Walker, Donn Tatum, and Ron Miller-all originally trained by the Disney brothers. One of Walt's last plans had been for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT, as he called it. While he died before the plans could be refined, they were brought out again in a few years, and in 1979 ground was broken for the new park in Florida. EPCOT Center, a combination of Future World and World Showcase representing an investment of more than a billion dollars, opened to great acclaim October 1, 1982.

WED Enterprises (later renamed Walt Disney Imagineering), the design and development division for the parks, had several projects in the works during the early 1980s. In addition to designing Epcot, it was hard at work on plans for Tokyo Disneyland, the first foreign Disney park. Tokyo Disneyland opened April 15, 1983, and was an immediate success in a country that had always loved anything Disney. Now that the Japanese had their own Disneyland, they flocked to it in increasing numbers.

Moviemaking also was changing in America in the early 1980s. Audiences were diminishing for the family films that had been the mainstay of the Company for many years, and Disney was not meeting the competition for films that attracted the huge teenage and adult market. To reverse that trend, Disney established a new label, Touchstone Pictures, with the release of Splash in 1984. At the same time, because of the widespread perception that Disney stock was undervalued relative to the company's assets, two "corporate raiders" attempted to take over Disney. The efforts to keep the company from being broken up ended when Michael Eisner and Frank Wells became chairman and president, respectively.

Filmmaking hit new heights in 1988 as Disney, for the first time, led Hollywood studios in box-office gross. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Good Morning, Vietnam, Three Men and a Baby, and later, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Dick Tracy, Pretty Woman, and Sister Act each passed the $100 million milestone. Disney moved into new areas by starting Hollywood Pictures and acquiring the Wrather Corp. (owner of the Disneyland Hotel) and television station KHJ (Los Angeles), which was renamed KCAL. In merchandising, Disney purchased Childcraft and opened numerous highly successful and profitable Disney Stores.

Disney animation began reaching even greater audiences, with The Little Mermaid being topped by Beauty and the Beast in 1991 which was in turn topped by Aladdin in 1992. Hollywood Records was formed to offer a wide selection of recordings ranging from rap to movie soundtracks. New television shows, such as Live With Regis and Kathy Lee, Empty Nest, Dinosaurs, and Home Improvement, expanded Disney's television base. For the first time in 1991, Disney moved into publishing, forming Hyperion Books, Hyperion Books for Children, and Disney Press, which released books on Disney and non-Disney subjects. Disney purchased Discover magazine, the leading consumer science monthly. As a totally new venture, Disney was awarded in 1993 the franchise for a National Hockey League team, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

By 1996, there were more than 450 Disney Stores worldwide, and by 1999 that number was up to 725. In Florida, the first home sites were sold in the new city of Celebration, located next to Walt Disney World. Eventually, 20,000 people would call Celebration their home. After the death of the owner Gene Autry, Disney acquired the California Angels baseball team to add to its hockey team, and in 1997 opened Disney's Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World.

Early in 1996, Disney completed its acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC. The $19 billion transaction, second-largest in U.S. history, brought the country's top television network to Disney, in addition to 10 TV stations, 21 radio stations, seven daily newspapers, and ownership positions in four cable networks.

A whole new park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened at Walt Disney World in 1998. With a gigantic Tree of Life as its centerpiece, the park was Disney's largest, spanning 500 acres. A major attraction was the Kilimanjaro Safaris, where Guests could experience live African animals in an amazingly accurate reproduction of the African savannah. An Asian area opened at Animal Kingdom in 1999. Back in California, Tomorrowland at Disneyland was redesigned in 1998.

As the world moved toward a new century, Epcot became the host of Millennium Celebration, Test Track (the longest and fastest Disney park attraction) opened, and other attractions were revised and updated. The Walt Disney Company welcomed a new president-Robert A. Iger-and the Company reached the $25 billion revenue threshold for the first time.

Disney regional entertainment expanded with DisneyQuest and the ESPN Zone in 1998, and that same year, the Disney Magic, the first of two luxury cruise ships, made its maiden voyage to the Caribbean, stopping at Disney's own island paradise, Castaway Cay.

The year 2000 opened with the release in IMAX theaters of an almost totally new version of Fantasia entitled Fantasia/2000. Other classically animated features were The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lilo & Stitch, Treasure Planet, and Brother Bear. Continuing collaborations with Pixar brought the computer-animated blockbuster Monsters, Inc. Popular live-action productions continued with Remember the Titans, Mission to Mars, Pearl Harbor, The Princess Diaries, and The Rookie. The new cable network, SoapNet, was launched, and award-winning productions on ABC included The Miracle Worker, Anne Frank, and Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.

DVD releases became increasingly popular, especially when the company began adding generous amounts of bonus material for viewers. The Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs DVD in 2001 sold more than one million units on the first day of release.

For the first time, in 2001, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts opened two new theme parks in the same year. In February, Disney's California Adventure opened after several years of major construction, which transformed the entire Anaheim area. The new park celebrated the history, culture, and spirit of California, with areas ranging from a Hollywood Pictures Backlot to the amusements of Paradise Pier. Joining it was an upscale shopping area, Downtown Disney and the Grand Californian Hotel, celebrating the Craftsman style of architecture. Across the Pacific in Japan, Tokyo DisneySea opened in September, looking to the myths, legends, and lore of the ocean as the inspiration for its attractions and shows. March 2002 saw the opening of another foreign park, Walt Disney Studios, featuring the history and lore and excitement of the movies, adjacent to Disneyland Paris. Ground was broken in January 2003 for Hong Kong Disneyland.

In 2001, The Walt Disney Company honored the 100th Anniversary of the birth of its founder, Walt Disney. The celebration, called "100 Years of Magic," was centered at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Florida, and included several parades, an exhibit of archival memorabilia, and the installation of a gigantic Mickey's sorcerer cap in the Chinese Theater plaza.

At Disney parks in 2008, Disney-MGM Studios was renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Midway Mania! opened there and at Disney's California Adventure, and it's a small world opened at Hong Kong Disneyland. The Company reacquired ownership of the Disney Stores' retail locations from The Children's Place, and the first Disney-operated language training center, Disney English, opened in China. In theaters, audiences flocked to WALL*E and Bolt. Tinker Bell, the first of a series of Disney Fairies films, was released, and Camp Rock and Phineas and Ferb debuted on Disney Channel. Then, all the way on a stage under the sea, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway.

The big news in 2009 was the acquisition of Marvel Entertainment. The films Up (which would win two Oscars), the first Disneynature film, Earth, and with a return to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog, were in theaters that year. The first Disney film locally produced in Russia, The Book of Masters, was released. D23: The Official Disney Fan Club launched, Disney twenty-three magazine began publication, and the first biennial D23 Expo was held in Anaheim. Bay Lake Tower opened at Walt Disney World, and a Disney Vacation Club section was added to the Grand Californian Hotel. Disney XD replaced Toon Disney, and at the end of the year the Company mourned the passing of Roy E. Disney.

Later in the year, Miguel and Dante introduced us to the power of family in the Academy Award winner Coco. Then, Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered in December and continued the saga of Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo Ren.

On Broadway, the stage got a bit chillier when Frozen The Broadway Musical premiered. Pixar Pier also debuted at Disney California Adventure, and across the way at Disneyland, the Tropical Hideaway opened in Adventureland. As if that wasn't enough, a brand-new way to explore, play, and listen in the parks arrived with the launch of the Play Disney app.

The Walt Disney Studios had a hugely successful year, releasing notable titles including Aladdin, The Lion King, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Toy Story 4, and Frozen 2. Marvel Studios released Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, which was the climactic finale to the Studios' remarkable first 10 years of cinematic adventure. And Lucasfilm concluded the Skywalker saga with the epic Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, with a lavish Hollywood premiere and rollout in December.

While 2020 saw Company theme parks pause because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, Disney still delivered some incredible experiences, including the opening of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland park in January, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disney's Hollywood Studios in March, a major Fantasyland expansion at Tokyo Disneyland in September, and the debut of the Castle of Magical Dreams at Hong Kong Disneyland in November.

And, in addition to delivering more beloved films and TV series from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, 20th Century Studios, and National Geographic, Disney+ delivered scores of new entertainment to viewers around the globe, including Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (February), Stargirl (March), Prop Culture (May), Artemis Fowl (June), Broadway's Hamilton (July), the live-action Mulan (September), and Pixar's wondrous Soul (December).

Early in 2021, two Disney+ series from Marvel Studios became instant hits- WandaVision, which debuted in January, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, in March. Also in March, the animated Raya and the Last Dragon premiered to rave reviews on both Disney+ (with Premiere Access) and in theaters, and the new series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers arrived on the streaming service, returning Coach Bombay (Emilio Estevez) to the ice. And, after more than a year of closure due to the pandemic, Disneyland Park welcomed guests back to Walt Disney's original magic kingdom on April 30, before Avengers Campus officially opened its gates at Disney California Adventure on June 4. The Walt Disney World Resort also prepared in earnest for its 50 th anniversary festivities, kicking off The World's Most Magical Celebration on October 1, 2021. Featuring the opening of Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT, and the debut of several new entertainment offerings, including Harmonious, also at EPCOT, and Disney Enchantment at Magic Kingdom Park, the 18 th month celebration will welcome Guests from across the globe to help celebrate this momentous milestone.

For nearly a century, The Walt Disney Company has created entertainment of the very highest quality. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the early 1920s to the Company of today-which includes Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Studios, along with Disney Parks and Resorts around the globe-Disney continues to provide timeless entertainment for the entire family.

In early 2022, the Company won six Academy Awards ®, for the films Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), West Side Story, Cruella, and Encanto-the last of which became a cultural phenomenon. Each of the animated feature's songs, by Lin-Manual Miranda, was a hit on Billboard's Hot 100, with "We Don't Talk About Bruno" spending five weeks at No. 1. In April, the Emmy ® Award-nominated ABC comedy series black-ish ended its history-making eight-season run. Marvel Studios releases ruled the year's box office, as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever all became global hits. Disney and Pixar's Turning Red drew stellar viewership and reviews after its spring debut on Disney+, where Hocus Pocus 2 became the streamer's most-watched film ever in the fall. September's D23 Expo: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event at the Anaheim Convention Center was the most successful ever, attracting worldwide fan and media attention. On November 20, Robert A. Iger returned as Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company.

Important Dates in the History of The Walt Disney Company

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From humble beginnings, The Walt Disney Company for nine decades has succeeded in making its name preeminent in the field of family entertainment.

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Just some of at least 147 movies were made from when the founders began.

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Meet the founders of the company.

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One of many events Disney has to offer at Disneyland.

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All the characters that have been created and more to come within the years.

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What tactics has helped to make the company what it is today? 

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What tactics has helped to make the company what it is today? 

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Steve's Jobs Family inherent the stocks shares in Disney throughout their family and keeps the company going.

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Steve Jobs' Family Cuts Disney Stake in Half

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Laurene Powell Jobs reduced her beneficial ownership in the media giant to 64 million shares, a 4% stake.

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What tactics has helped to make the company what it is today? 

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What tactics has helped to make the company what it is today? 

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Throughout the years Disney created more and more characters, also improved on all aspects of their company.

In 1925, the Disneys made a deposit on a Hyperion Avenue lot in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles. Construction began on the new studio shortly there.

In 1928 they made  more characters Mickey Mouse and followed by Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck, and the rest of the Disney gang.

In 1937, Disney's innovative first full length animated feature, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, was released to critical acclaim and worldwide success.

During the 1940s and 1950s many prominent animated features were produced in Burbank, including FANTASIA, BAMBI, CINDERELLA, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, and PETER PAN.

Beginning in the late 1940s, Disney launched into the production of live-action features and television programs.

The Studio lot was subsequently expanded during the 1950s, to include sound stages and production craft facilities.

Almost a decade later, on Nov. 22, 1995, Disney (DIS) released Pixar’s Toy Story, the first computer-animated feature-length film. Pixar went public the week after the film opened. Disney also released Pixar’s A Bug’s Life; Monsters, Inc.; Finding Nemo; and Toy Story 2; and in January 2006 it agreed to acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion in stock.

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The Walt Disney Company started in 1923 in the rear of a small office occupied by Holly-Vermont Realty in Los Angeles. It was there that Walt Disney, and his brother Roy, produced a series of short live-action/animated films collectively called the ALICE COMEDIES. The rent was a mere $10 a month.

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Disney confronts various contenders over its different markets, with Viacom (VIA), Time Warner (TWC), 21st Century Fox (FOX),CBS (CBS) and Comcast (CMCSA) being its fundamental rivals. These organizations contend with Disney's items for the most part through television, link and other media markets, for example, DVD/Blue-beam, computer games and the Web.

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The Walt Disney Company ( DIS) has built a diverse empire since its beginning in the 1920s, creating a huge range of lucrative products in a number of marketplaces. As the largest mass media conglomerate in the world, Disney is best known for its film and TV productions and theme parks. Its television arm controls the ABC television network, with eight owned-and-operated broadcasting stations and over 230 affiliates, as well as a number of cable networks, including Freeform, Disney Channel and ESPN.

Walt Disney Pictures, Disney Animation and Pixar produce films for Walt Disney Studios, and Disney also owns Marvel Entertainment and Lucasfilm, which have become cash cows for them in the film and merchandise markets. It also has a presence in the travel industry, with the Disney Cruise line and theme parks, Walt Disney World and Disneyland, which have remained extremely popular for decades and now include foreign parks around the world.

Disney faces a number of competitors across its various markets, with Viacom (VIA), Time Warner (TWC), 21st Century Fox (FOX), Sony (SNE), CBS (CBS) and Comcast (CMCSA) being its main competitors. These companies compete with Disney's products mainly through TV, cable and other media markets such as DVD/Blue-ray, video games and the internet. The growth of multichannel video programming network distributors and cable networks has increased the competitive pressure for Disney. Contracts are renegotiated at certain points in these markets, and the rise of competition puts increased difficulty on Disney to renew the contracts with such favorable conditions as it has had in the past.

Disney also competes in the strong and lucrative sports market. It has done extremely well with sports channel ESPN, which provides 24% of its total revenues. This is due in part to the popularity of sports channels, but also to program bundling packages.

In the theme-park market, major rivals to Disney include Six Flags Entertainment ( SIX), Cedar Fair ( FUN), Universal Studios and Comcast. This competition has increased in recent times, particularly due to Universal's cashing in on the popularity of the Harry Potter books and movies. Universal Orlando has opened a Harry Potter-themed land in Orlando and Hollywood, which has boosted attendance numbers.

Disney's studio entertainment businesses continually manage to innovate, and profits often show this. Disney produces a range of consumer products with involvement in licensing, publishing and retail, and therefore competes with other vendors in these areas. However, according to Market Realist, Disney believes it is the largest worldwide licensor of character-based merchandise.

Recently, Disney and Fox made headlines when it was revealed that Disney had been negotiating with 21st Century Fox to acquire some of Fox's assets, particularly its film studio and the streaming service Hulu, in order to create a competitor to Netflix.

According to its annual 2016 report, Disney showed a revenue increase of 6.79% year-over-year. While Disney's profits do fluctuate, in part due to seasonality and timing of releases, it remains a massive presence in several industries and one that most people identify with when they think of animated films and theme parks.

For related reading, check out How Disney (DIS) Has Managed to Deliver for Decades.

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The Walt Disney Company ( DIS) has built a diverse empire since its beginning in the 1920s, creating a huge range of lucrative products in a number of marketplaces. As the largest mass media conglomerate in the world, Disney is best known for its film and TV productions and theme parks.

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Did a specific advertisement campaign, product, or person help to grow the business? 

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Did a specific advertisement campaign, product, or person help to grow the business? 

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Roy O. Disney and Walt Disney partnered with a distributor named M.J. Winkler who offered $1,500 per reel in 1923.

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500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank,California 91521
U.S.A.
Telephone: (818) 560-1000
Fax: (818) 840-1930
Web site: http://www.disney.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1938 as Walt Disney Productions
Employees: 117,000
Sales: $27.06 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York Pacific Midwest Tokyo
Ticker Symbol: DIS
NAIC: 515120 Television Broadcasting; 515112 Radio Stations; 713110 Amusement and Theme Parks; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 511120 Periodical Publishers; 423990 All Other Durable Good Merchant Wholesalers; 511210 Software Publishers; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 711510 Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers

A colossal force in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to families through its amusement parks, television series, and many classic live-action and animated motion pictures. Beginning in 1984, Disney enjoyed an enormous creative and financial renaissance, due to the leadership of CEO Michael Eisner; the success of such subsidiaries as Touchstone Films, Hollywood Pictures, The Disney Studios, Buena Vista Distribution, The Disney Channel, and Buena Vista Home Video; the sales of Disney consumer products through The Disney Stores and a multitude of licensing arrangements; and a recommitment to excellence in the making of original feature-length animated films. Under Eisner's reign, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, a $19 billion deal that increased the company's stature enormously. Adding to the theme parks, cruise ships, professional sports teams, and dozens of other businesses owned by the company, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC gave Disney the power of broadcasting and the ability to meld entertainment content with programming. During the late 1990s, the company was aggressively building a presence on the Internet and adopting a concerted approach to international expansion.

The Birth of a U.S. Icon

Walt Disney, the company's founder, was born in Chicago in 1901. His appeal to the greater United States is said to have had roots in his humble, middle-class upbringing. Disney's father, Elias, moved the family throughout the Midwest seeking employment. Young Disney grew up in a household where hard work was prized: feeding the family's five children left little pocket change for amusement. Walt Disney began working at the age of nine as a newspaper delivery boy. His father instructed him and his siblings in the teachings of the Congregational Church and socialism.

Drawing provided an escape for Disney, and at the age of 14 he took his work on the road and enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute. His art was temporarily put on hold when he joined the Red Cross at age 16 to serve as an ambulance driver at the end of World War I. In 1919 he returned to the United States and found work as a commercial artist. Together with Ub Iwerks, another artist at the studio, Disney soon formed an animated cartoon company in Kansas City.

In 1923, following the bankruptcy of this company, Disney joined his brother Roy O. Disney in Hollywood. By the time he arrived on the West Coast, word came from New York that a company wanted to purchase the rights to a series of Disney's live-action cartoon reels, ultimately titled Alice Comedies. A distributor named M.J. Winkler offered $1,500 per reel, and Disney joined her as a production partner.

A series of animated films followed on Alice 's heels. In 1927 Disney started a series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which met with public acclaim. The distributor, however, had the character copyrighted in its own name, so Disney earned only a few hundred dollars. It was while pondering the unfairness of this situation on a California-bound train that Disney first thought of creating a mouse character named Mortimer. He changed the name to Mickey Mouse, drew up some simple sketches, and went on to make several Mickey Mouse films with his brother Roy, using their own money.

On the third Mickey Mouse film, Disney decided to take a bold step and add sound to Steamboat Willie. The cartoon was synchronized with a simple musical background. The process provided some of the first technical steps in film continuity: music was played at two beats a second and the film was marked every 12 frames as a guide to the animator, and later an orchestra.

Film distributors laughed at Disney's idea. Finally one, Pat Powers, released Steamboat Willie in theaters. Audiences loved what they saw and heard, and suddenly Disney was a hit in the animation business. In 1935 the New York Times called Mickey Mouse "the best-known and most popular international figure of his day." Meanwhile, Disney suffered criticism from observers who judged him to be a cartoonist of only mediocre ability. (Iwerks was responsible for the actual design of Mickey Mouse and the other characters.) Disney was, however, given credit for his ability to conceptualize characters and stories.

The Mickey Mouse projects brought in enough cash to allow Walt Disney to develop other projects, including several full-length motion pictures and advances in Technicolor film. Disney's first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, opened in 1937 to impressive crowds and led to a string of Disney hits, including Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940, Dumbo in 1941, Bambi in 1942, and Saludos Amigos in 1943.

Around 1940 Disney decided to tackle live-action films, first with The Reluctant Dragon and to a greater extent with 1946's Song of the South. Meanwhile, during World War II, Disney lent his characters to the war effort, making shorts, including one in which Minnie Mouse showed U.S. homemakers the importance of saving fats. After the war, Walt Disney Productions was back in business with live-action features including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Living Desert was released in the early 1950s by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista, to tremendous box office success.

Taking on Television: 1950s

During the 1950s, as Americans began to spend more time at home watching television for entertainment, Disney's studio took full advantage of the small screen revolution. In 1954, the "Disneyland" television series premiered. The show included an introduction by Walt Disney and incorporated film clips from Disney productions with live action and coverage of Disneyland. Some four million people tuned in each week. Disney also made a national folk hero out of Davy Crockett when he devoted a three-part program to coverage of his life. Within a matter of weeks, U.S. boys could not live without coonskin caps and other Crockett merchandise, all of which earned Disney a fortune. Crockett's popularity led to the era of the Disney live-action adventures that included the 1950s hits The Great Locomotive Chase, Westward Ho, Old Yeller, and The Light in the Forest.

In October 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on the ABC television network. The hour-long show aired at 5 p.m. weekdays and made television history. Six years later, his groundbreaking Sunday night color TV show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (later changed to The Wonderful World of Disney ), began its 20-year run on NBC. At the same time, Disney was making stars out of Fred MacMurray, Hayley Mills, and Dean Jones in such movies as The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Pollyanna, and The Parent Trap. In 1964 Disney's Mary Poppins became one of the top-grossing films of all time.

Disney required professionalism of his staff and demanded the highest-quality Technicolor available, and as a result his live-action films topped competitors in both creativity and technical standards. He also had his hand in several other projects, including Audio-Animatronics (automatically controlled robots) and a Florida amusement complex that eventually became Walt Disney World, complementing California's vacation hot spot, Disneyland.

On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer. Shortly after Disney's death, his brother Roy issued an optimistic statement pledging that Walt Disney's philosophy and genius would be carried on by his employees.

But no one could match Walt Disney's keen story sense or enthusiasm, and the studio floundered through most of the 1970s despite several strong CEOs, including E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who had joined the company as a traffic boy in 1938. The studio did manage a few successes during this period, including Blackbeard's Ghost, with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette, and the 1969 release The Love Bug, which became the year's biggest box office hit. Other popular releases of the late 1960s and early 1970s included The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and several live-action features.

But a run of box office disappointments followed in the mid-1970s before The Rescuers proved successful. Pete's Dragon, an experimental film combining human and animated characters, followed. Progress was slow but steady for the Disney studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well. The studio released three new live-action movies: The World's Greatest Athlete, Gus, and The Shaggy D.A. Return from Witch Mountain, a sequel to the popular mystery-fantasy Escape to Witch Mountain, premiered in 1978. A risky science fiction venture titled The Black Hole cost $20 million to produce but was lost in the amazing success of an all-time box office recordbreaker. CEO Ron Miller brought in new directors and younger writers who produced such films as Watcher in the Woods and the computer-generated Tron, but achieved only mild success in the face of competition from other movie studios.

Company Perspectives:

The Walt Disney Company's objective is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products.

In 1983, beginning with the release of Mickey's Christmas Carol, Disney's fortunes finally began to look up. A string of successful movies followed, including the Arctic adventure Never Cry Wolf and a production of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That same year the company also began marketing a family-oriented pay-TV channel called the Disney Channel, which quickly became the fastest-growing channel on cable television.

Corporate raider Saul Steinberg attempted a hostile takeover of the company in 1984. Disney ultimately bought Steinberg's 11.1 percent holding in the company for $325.4 million. A number of lawsuits were filed by shareholders against both Disney and Steinberg's Reliance Group Holdings, charging that Disney's managers had attempted to secure their positions and had lowered the value of the stock. The suits were settled in 1989 when the two companies jointly agreed to pay shareholders $45 million.

The Eisner Era Begins: 1984

Shortly after its purchase of 18.7 percent of Disney's stock, the Bass family of Texas supported the Disney board's hiring of Michael Eisner from Paramount Pictures to be Disney's new CEO and Frank Wells to be president.

Eisner, responsible for such Paramount blockbusters as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Beverly Hills Cop, immediately began to emphasize Touchstone Films, a subsidiary devoted to attracting adult movie audiences. Commentators began to note that Eisner, like Walt Disney, had the ability to predict and deliver movies people wanted to see. The 1985 release of Down and Out in Beverly Hills helped Touchstone build momentum, which it increased with Outrageous Fortune, Tin Men, Ruthless People, and other hits. In Eisner's first four years as CEO, Disney surged from last place to first in box office receipts among the eight major studios.

Eisner also set out to take full advantage of expanding markets such as cable television and home video. Disney signed a long-term deal with Showtime Networks, Inc., giving the cable service exclusive rights to Touchstone and other Disney releases through 1996. In addition, Eisner bought KHJ, an independent Los Angeles TV station; sought new markets for old Disney productions through television syndication; and began to distribute such TV shows as The Golden Girls.

Certain Disney classics, including Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella, were released on videocassette during the late 1980s. Eisner protected the value of the films by limiting the availability of the tapes. He also scheduled the re-release of many other films for the late 1980s and early 1990s, by which time a new generation of children would be ready to see the films in the theater once again. Disney's revenues soon began to increase, averaging an improvement of approximately 20 percent annually during the second half of the 1980s.

In 1989 Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened near Orlando, Florida, on the grounds of Walt Disney World. Despite its name, the park was not a collaboration between the two studios; Disney purchased the rights to include attractions based on MGM films. Euro Disney, of which Disney owned 49 percent, opened outside of Paris, in Marne-la-Valle, on April 12, 1992; and Tokyo Disneyland, licensed though not owned by Disney, regularly drew phenomenal crowds in a powerful consumer market. Plans were made to open a second Disney-MGM Studios park, on a site adjacent to Euro Disney, in the mid-1990s.

In the early 1980s the parks were responsible for about 70 percent of the company's revenue. Although they continued to be a crucial part of the company, the theme parks found competition with Disney's newer projects, including hotel expansions, home video distribution, and Disney merchandising, which together in 1991 garnered an impressive 28 percent of fiscal revenues. Virtually as important, perhaps more so given their unrealized potential, were Disney's international operationsevident not only in Japan and France, but throughout much of Europe, the former Soviet Union, South America, and China which contributed 22 percent of total revenues in 1991.

Key Dates:

1901:

Walt Disney, the company's founder, is born.

1919:

With Ub Iwerks, Disney forms Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.

1923:

The distributor M.J. Winkler purchases Disney's Alice Comedies for $1,500 per reel; Disney creates Disney Bros. Studios with his brother Roy.

1924:

M.J. Winkler Productions debuts the Alice Comedy Series, with the film Alice's Day at Sea, in theaters.

1928:

Mickey Mouse is "born"; Disney releases Steamboat Willie, its first film with sound.

1937:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first full-length animated film, debuts.

1940:

Pinocchio and Fantasia are released.

1955:

The Mickey Mouse Club debuts; Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.

1966:

Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.

1971:

Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida; Roy O. Disney dies.

1982:

EPCOT Center opens on the grounds of Walt Disney World.

1983:

The first foreign Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, opens.

1984:

Michael Eisner is named Disney's new CEO; Disney releases Splash under its new label, Touchstone Pictures.

1989:

Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opens near Orlando, Florida.

1992:

Euro Disney (later named Disneyland Paris) opens.

1996:

Disney acquires television station Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion; Radio Disney debuts.

1998:

Animal Kingdom opens in Walt Disney World, Florida.

1999:

Disney Cruise Line begins operations with the Disney Magic.

2001:

Disney's California Adventure opens next to Disneyland; Disney acquires Fox Family Worldwide for $5.3 billion.

2003:

Roy E. Disneyson of Roy O. Disney, last of the founding family associated with the companyand Stanley Gold quit the Disney board and start Save Disney.com in an attempt to oust CEO Michael Eisner.

Meanwhile, Touchstone remained healthy. Hollywood Pictures, Disney's newest film-producing arm, also began making more films in the late 1980s. Disney continued to score hits with Three Men and a Baby, Good Morning Vietnam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and others. Most importantly, production costs, though constantly rising, were held by Disney in 1989 to an average of $15 million per movie, compared to an industry average of more than $23 million.

Taking a Roller-Coaster Ride: 1990s

The 1990s, termed the "Disney Decade" by the company, promised to witness perhaps the most dramatic changes and accomplishments of Disney's more than half-century history. The combined talents of Eisner, President Frank Wells, and studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg caused a rush of excitement as the decade began. By the second quarter of 1991, the studio, under Katzenberg's strong leadership, had surpassed the theme parks in profitability, leading the company to commit to a record-high 25 new films in 1992. By far the greatest highlight of 1991 was Disney's 30th feature-length animated film, Beauty and the Beast. Amid a troubled year and a depressed economy, during which corporate net income plummeted by 23 percent and Disney, despite the success of its studio, experienced its first year with no growth since 1984, this filmnominated for best picture and winner of Academy Awards for best original score and best original songprovided much welcomed relief. Beauty, like its 1989 Oscar-winning predecessor The Little Mermaid, shattered previous records for the most successful opening of an animated film. It quickly became the highest-grossing picture of its genre.

Although Disney was notorious for undercutting its Hollywood competitors, it, too, was forced to pay exorbitant amounts for top creative talent. Both Bernard Weinraub, in a New York Times article, and Eisner, in the company's 1991 annual report, reported that Disney was going to try to stem the flow of high production costs for big-budget films and instead offer films with appealing storylines and engaging characters. According to Ron Grover, Katzenberg himself began pushing for such a redirection in early 1991. Presumably, films like the modestly budgeted 1990 sleeper Pretty Woman were expected in the future.

Disney's next foraysits creation, for example, of Hyperion Press and Hollywood Records for stakes in the publishing and adult music industrieswere expected to further strengthen its reputation as an entertainment giant. Yet, here too, it became increasingly cautious. In August, the company revealed that its Imagineering division, responsible for theme park design, was laying off up to 400 of its employees. Further news that Euro Disney's profitability for its first year was in serious doubt indicated to some that Disney might be struggling. However, Disney's overseas investment was less than $200 million, "a fraction of the total," according to Stewart Toy. "And whether or not there's a profit, Walt Disney gets 10 percent of ticket sales and 5 percent of merchandise sales."

During the latter half of the 1990s, Disney grew at a prolific rate, but by the decade's end there was little cause to celebrate. The remainder of the Disney Decade was pocked with troubling developments that shook the foundation of the Disney empire, prompting some experts to suggest the previously unimaginable: that the omnipotent Disney name was losing its market appeal. The tumultuous period began with tragedy, when Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994. The fatal accident left Eisner without his most trusted aide and left Disney without a president, a title Katzenberg reportedly coveted. Two days after the helicopter crash, Katzenberg approached Eisner about the job, but his bid to become president was rebuffed. Katzenberg responded by leaving Disney, departing on decidedly unfriendly terms. An acrimonious feud between Eisner and Katzenberg erupted that became litigious. Upon his departure, Katzenberg was given the equivalent of ten year's pay, but the former studio head wanted considerably more cash. He filed a lawsuit against Disney, demanding $580 million in compensation.

Against the backdrop of a sordid legal battle, whose ugly details became the stuff of headlines, Eisner prepared to add a new dimension to Disney's operations. In 1994, Eisner attempted to buy the NBC television network from General Electric Company, but the deal fell through because General Electric reportedly wanted to retain ownership of 51 percent of the network. Eisner pressed ahead, determined to buy a television network. His search ended in 1995 when Disney announced its head-turning merger with Capital Cities/ABC, a $19 billion deal that gave Disney control over television stations, radio stations, cable networks, and legions of other properties. Applauded by industry pundits as a strategically sound move, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC married the vast content collection controlled by Disney to the expansive broadcasting capabilities of the ABC network, exponentially increasing the might of what, after the transaction was completed in 1996, stood as a more than $20 billion entertainment conglomerate.

The late 1990s saw Eisner steer Disney in several other strategically important directions. The growth of the Internet presented the company's chairman and CEO with another opportunity to disseminate Disney's entertainment content to the public. In 1998, Disney acquired Starwave, which maintained ESPN.com and Mr. Showbiz, as well as other web sites, and purchased 43 percent of Infoseek, acquiring the rest of the Internet search engine company in 1999. In January of that year, the company launched the GO Network Web portal. Other additions to the company's operations included the opening of the 540-acre Animal Kingdom park in Florida, the Disney version of a zoo, and the launching of an 875-stateroom cruise ship christened the Disney Magic, to be followed by the debut of a sister ship, the Disney Wonder. Eisner also acquired two professional sports clubs, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a professional hockey team, and Major League Baseball's Anaheim Angels. Concurrent with the numerous acquisitions he presided over, Eisner endeavored to expand Disney's geographic reach. During the late 1990s, the company collected roughly 20 percent of its revenue from overseas businesstoo low of a percentage from Eisner's viewpoint. China and India were considered to be high-growth markets.

The scope and scale of Disney's properties by the late 1990s represented an impressive list of businesses that few companies in the world could equal. The additions to the Disney portfolio during the latter half of the decade turned an already sprawling empire into a multifaceted entertainment conglomerate of mind-boggling proportions, but no matter the size of a company, success depended on execution. As it became evident during the court proceedings to resolve Katzenberg's lawsuit, Disney's massive revenue-generating, profit-making engine was sputtering inefficiently. The details delineating the company's problems were divulged because of the nature of the Katzenberg case. Eisner, who had the opportunity to settle his former studio chief's compensation claim for $100 million, decided not to give in without a fight, believing the demand for as much as $580 million was preposterously high. It was a decision he later regretted. In court, Eisner learned that Katzenberg had negotiated a contract with Wells during the 1980s. A passage in the contract, as published by the Financial Times on June 4, 1999, read: "It is, of course, obvious but nonetheless worth pointing out that many of these pictures still have substantial revenues forthcoming from ancillary markets which continue to accrue to Jeffrey's benefit. . . . Of course, some of these will continue 'forever' in the sense that even if he should leave one day, there would be an arbitrated amount as to future income from the pictures." The inclusion of the word "forever" in the contract struck a crippling blow to Eisner's hope of leaving the courtroom victorious.

Because the amount of Katzenberg's claim depended on the future profit potential of certain facets of the Disney enterprise, company lawyers were inclined to paint a bleak picture of the company's financial health at the end of the 1990s and its prospects for the years ahead. Despite the incentive to underestimate the company's financial might, it became obvious to onlookers that all was not right in the Magic Kingdom. The theme parks were performing well, but nearly every other aspect of the company's business suffered from disappointing results. ABC was at the top of the list, hobbled by low ratings and rising costs, including the $9.2 billion spent for ABC and ESPN to acquire the rights for the NFL through 2008. Internationally, the company was not making headway, notoriously evident in two cinematic failures. Mulan, the Chinese-themed animation film, generated a paltry $1.3 million during its run in China. The release of Hercules in India fell decidedly flat and actually led to a loss of $14,000. On the whole, the last year of the decade signaled a depressing end to the 20th century for Disney. For the first nine months of 1999, excluding the income gained from an asset sale, operating income was down 17 percent, net income dropped 26 percent, and earnings per share fell 27 percent.

The Katzenberg compensation claim was settled for a reported $200 million, although both parties refused to divulge the amount. More significant to industry observers than the exact dollar amount of the settlement was the information revealed during the proceedings, prompting some analysts to cast a wary eye toward the entertainment behemoth. Some critics charged that Eisner's autocratic leadership inhibited efficiency and progress, but the most threatening diagnosis struck at the company's fundamental strength. Some industry experts contended that "age compression," the theory that youths of the late 1990s emulated teenage behavior at an earlier age than in decades past, was draining the strength of the Disney name. Rebellion against the wholesome Disney image was the result, reducing the size of Disney's target audience. "They've never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms," a former, unnamed, Disney executive explained in the September 6, 1999 issue of Fortune magazine. Sociological intricacies aside, the future financial health of Disney depended on the ability of the company to reap the rewards inherent in its operations, on its effectiveness in churning out profits from a powerful entertainment machine that looked good on the outside but internally was suffering. The continued attraction of the Disney name in the 21st century represented the foundation upon which the company's return to soaring profits would be built.

Disney's finances improved in 2000, with a 9 percent increase in total revenues and an impressive 39 percent jump in net income. The boost in growth was due particularly to the success of the ABC Network and ESPN. Parks and Resorts also had an impact on growth, achieving record results for the sixth consecutive year. Creatively, Disney had a positive year, with the premier of The Emperor's New Groove, as well as the Broadway premier of its musical Aida. But the success of 2000 would be short-lived.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. immediately impacted Disney's financial situation. The hardest hit were Disney's Parks and Resorts, as vacation travel came to a halt. The recession that followed the attacks did not help matters. The suffering economy, coupled with a drop in ratings, led to a dramatic decrease in advertising rates for Disney's Media Networks, and in particular, the ABC Network. By 2001's end, Disney suffered a staggering $158 million loss in net income. Also contributing to a loss of income was a costly acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. (FFW), for $5.3 billion.

In reaction to troubled times, Disney implemented a number of cost-cutting measures. Such measures included decreasing operations at Disney parks; cutting its annual investment in live-action films; and minimizing Internet operations. Additionally, Disney cut approximately 4,000 employees from its payroll. On a more positive note, Disney's Monsters, Inc. premiered at this time, quickly becoming a top 20 film for the studio.

Revenues for 2002 dropped slightly below those for 2001; yet, largely because of Disney's cost-cutting measures, the company's net income jumped to $1.2 billion. The year 2002 also witnessed creative successes for Disney, with the releases of Peter Pan: Return to Neverland and Lilo & Stitch. The latter, in particular, was hugely successful. The Walt Disney Studios reaped large rewards in 2003, becoming the first in history to exceed over $3 billion in worldwide box office sales. Contributing to this success were the premieres of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bringing Down the House,; Finding Nemo, and Brother Bear.

But the mood was partly spoiled by turmoil within the company, between CEO Eisner and board members Roy E. Disney (son of Roy O. Disney) and Stanley Gold. Conflict came to the fore when Eisner pushed the board to deny the reelection of Disney to the board, claiming the latter, at age 72, was required to retire. In response, Gold resigned from the board, urging other board members to oust Eisner.

Eisner's difficulties did not lessen in 2004. For one, Pixar Animation Studios, creator of such hits as Toy Story and Finding Nemo, chose to look for another distributor. The end of the 12-year relationship between the twospawned by Pixar's longstanding battles with Eisner over issues of control and moneywas anticipated to further damage Disney's financial situation. Also in 2004, cable giant Comcast Corporation placed an unsolicited $54 billion bid to acquire the Walt Disney Company, which the latter refused, but which spread doubt concerning the company's future. Uncertainty seemed to surround Disney, even within its movie division. The 2004 movies The Alamo and Home on the Range yielded poor box office earnings, especially considering their high price tags ( The Alamo alone cost $100 million). In the face of such difficulties and general dissatisfaction among certain board members, Eisner was forced to cede chairmanship, with some members desiring to see his resignation as CEO.

Principal Subsidiaries

ABC, Inc.; A&E Network (37.5%); Anaheim Sports; Buena Vista Home Video; Buena Vista International; Buena Vista Internet Group; Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.; Buena Vista Television; Childcraft Educational Corp.; The Disney Channel; The History Channel; Disney Consumer Products International, Inc.; Disney Development Co.; The Disney Store, Inc.; EDL Holding Co.; Euro Disney S.C.A. (49%); E! Entertainment Television (39.5%); ESPN (80%); Fairchild Publications; Hyperion; Infoseek Corporation; KHJ-TV, Inc.; Lake Buena Vista Communities; Lifetime Entertainment Services (50%); Miramax Films; Reedy Creek Energy Services, Inc.; Touchstone Films; Touchstone Television; Walt Disney Attractions; Walt Disney Imagineering; Walt Disney Pictures and Television; WCO Parent Corp.; WED Transportation Systems, Inc.

Principal Divisions

Broadcasting; Creative Content; Theme Parks; Resorts; Sports.

Principal Competitors

DreamWorks SKG; Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.; Liberty Media Corporation; Lucasfilm Ltd.; MGM; Microsoft Corporation; NBC Universal; Six Flags, Inc.; Sony Corporation; AOL Time Warner Inc.

Further Reading

Beard, Richard R., Walt Disney's Epcot, New York: Abrams, 1982.

Birnbaum, Steve, The Best of Disneyland, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

"Disney Merges Television Production Arms," MEDIAWEEK, July 12, 1999, p. 3.

"Disney Profit Jumps 30%," New York Times, April 28, 1992.

"Disney Trimming Theme Park Staff As Par Gears Up," Variety, August 3, 1992.

"Eisner's Mousetrap," Fortune, September 6, 1999, p. 106.

Flower, Joe, Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991.

Gilpen, Kenneth N., "Comcast Withdraws Its Bid for The Walt Disney Company," New York Times, April 28, 2004.

Grover, Ron, The Disney Touch: How a Daring Management Team Revived an Entertainment Empire, Homewood, Ill.: Business One Irwin, 1991.

Holliss, Richard, The Disney Studio Story, New York: Crown, 1988.

Holstein, William J., "Mickey's Net Loss," U.S. News & World Report, June 21, 1999, p. 48.

La Franco, Robert, "Disney's Problems Go Well Beyond One Big Lawsuit," Forbes, July 5, 1999, p. 50.

Leebron, Elizabeth, Walt Disney: A Guide to References and Resources, Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979.

Maltin, Leonard, The Disney Films, New York: Crown, 1984.

Masters, Kim, Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else, HarperInformation, 2001.

Parkes, Christopher, "Inside the Magic Kingdom," Financial Times, June 4, 1999, p. 6.

Taylor, John, Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the Raiders, and the Battle for Disney, New York: Knopf, 1987.

Thomas, Bob, Walt Disney, an American Original, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.

Toy, Stewart, Patrick Oster, and Ronald Grover, "The Mouse Isn't Roaring," Business Week, August 24, 1992.

"Walt Disney Co.," Discount Store News, June 21, 1999, p. 26.

Weinraub, Bernard, "2 Titans Clash and All of Filmdom Feels Shock Waves," New York Times, April 13, 1992.

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Walter Elias Disney
Founder of Walt Disney Co.
Founded: 1923

" If you can dream it, you can do it."-Walter Elias Disney

Few individuals have had a greater impact on both the entertainment industry and the popular culture of the 20th century than Walter Elias Disney. His many innovations include the first cartoons with synchronized sound, the first full-length animated feature film and, of course, the theme park. His most famous creation, Mickey Mouse, is a universally recognized cultural icon. And his numerous films celebrating the triumph of the little guy and the simple charms of small-town life captured the imaginations and fueled the dreams of six generations. But while wholesomeness and nostalgic sentimentality were Disney's trademarks, the forces that shaped this maverick movie mogul and his empire were much darker and more complex.

Walt Disney's childhood was anything but idyllic. His father was a strict disciplinarian who thought nothing of taking a switch to Walt and his brother Roy to administer "corrective" beatings that became a part of their daily routine. Young Walt found an escape from his father's brutality through drawing. With pen and ink, he created his own little fantasy world where life was always beautiful, people were always happy, and, most important, he was always in control. World War I provided Disney with yet another means of escape. At the age of 16, he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps and was sent to France.

After the war, Disney moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he took a job with Film Ad Co. The firm's principal products were animated advertisements that were shown before feature films. Disney had found his calling. He loved bringing his drawings to life through the magic of animation. Advertising was less than fulfilling, though, so he converted his garage into a studio and, with borrowed equipment, began producing his own shorts, called Laugh-O-Grams. But he found it difficult to persuade local theater owners to show them. Strapped for cash, Disney gave up his apartment and started living out of his office, surviving on cold beans. But it was to no avail.

It wasn't until he moved to Los Angeles in 1923 and teamed up with his shrewd and kindly older brother, Roy, who took care of business for him, that Walt began to modestly prosper. Even so, his first commercially successful creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was stolen from him. Disney had carelessly allowed the character to be copyrighted not under his name, but under his distributor's name. It was a mistake Disney would not repeat. In subsequent years, he would gain a reputation for keeping close tabs on his creations and insisting on complete control. (In 2006, Disney CEO Robert Iger re-acquried the rights to use Oswald the Lucky Rabitt in video games, t-shirts and other merchandise in exchange for allowing football broadcaster Al Michaels to leave his contract with ESPN to join NBC Universal).

Searching for a replacement for Oswald, Disney hit upon the idea of creating a new cartoon character based on a mouse that had lived in his office in Kansas City. As Disney liked to tell it, "Mice gathered in my wastebasket when I worked late at night. One of them was my particular friend."

With the help of Roy and Ub Iwerks, an illustrator from his Film Ad days, Disney fleshed out his new character-and Mickey Mouse was born. Disney released two Mickey Mouse cartoons, which were met with moderate success. But the real breakthrough came in 1928 with the release of "Steamboat Willie." The first cartoon to include a synchronized soundtrack, "Steamboat Willie" was an instant hit. The day after its debut in Manhattan, Variety gave the cartoon a rave review, and The New York Times called it ingenious.

Disney hired a team of artists and animators, and Mickey Mouse films rolled out of the studio. Disney continued to embrace the latest techniques, adopting the new medium of Technicolor just as readily as he had sound. While the Depression gripped the rest of the country, the Disney studio flourished. Disney's cartoons offered escape at a time when Americans needed it most. Meanwhile, as his short features raked in cash, Disney was planning a bigger project-a movie-length cartoon in full color, with music.

Given the time-consuming nature of animation, the project was costly and risky. But when "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was released in 1937, it proved to be no risk at all. Three years in the making, it was Hollywood's first full-length animated film. Previously, Disney's work had been the sideshow; now it was the main event. Critics raved at this artistic breakthrough and audiences crowded the theaters. Disney even received a special Academy Award for his work.

"Snow White" was followed by other animated features: "Pinocchio," "Fantasia," "Dumbo" and "Bambi." Each became a classic and contributed to the legend that was growing around its creator. In addition, Disney began making nature documentaries and live-action films such as "Treasure Island" and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." He was also the first Hollywood studio head to embrace the new medium of television, with "The Mickey Mouse Club" and "Walt Disney Presents." The latter, hosted by Disney himself, became not just a profit center for the company, but also a promotional engine for all its works, including Disney's greatest achievement, which was still yet to come.

Disney had long dreamed of creating an amusement park based on his characters, but had difficulty getting financing for the project. Finally, in the early 1950s, he mortgaged his life insurance, stock holdings, house and furniture to purchase an orange grove near Anaheim, California, and finance the construction of a 185-acre amusement park. Opened in 1955, Disneyland quickly became one of the world's most popular tourist attractions. Dubbed "The Happiest Place on Earth," Disneyland became the real-life version of the fantasy world Disney had escaped to in his youth.

By the early 1960s, Disney presided over a sprawling family entertainment empire, but, unsatisfied, he bought 27,000 acres near Orlando, and soon a second magic kingdom, Walt Disney World, began to rise above the Florida swamps. But Disney never saw his dream completed. He died of lung cancer in 1966, at the age of 65.

Shortly before his death, Disney said, "I hate to see downbeat pictures.I know life isn't that way, and I don't want anyone telling me it is." Clearly millions of his fans agreed, and their adulation made him one of the most popular and influential figures in postwar American culture. And as the studio he founded continues to churn out films that bear his personal signature, Disney's magic is sure to touch the lives of many more generations to come."

Mortimer Mouse?

Originally, Walter Elias Disney wanted to name his famous mouse Mortimer. But his wife, Lillian, thought it sounded "too sissy" and suggested the name Mickey instead. In what was probably one of the smartest decisions of his life, Disney chose to take his wife's advice.

Empire Expansion

One of the reasons Walter Elias Disney's legacy has endured lies in his extraordinary management skills. Disney pioneered branding, brand stretching and merchandising. In addition to being the first full-length animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was also the first film to have a complete merchandising campaign in place when it was released. Walt Disney Co. is now a merchandising machine, with nearly 25 percent of its revenue coming from consumer products.

Beyond merchandising, Disney has become one of the greatest media empires in the world thanks to their expansions and acquisitions over the last several decades. To capitalize on the growth of cable television, Disney launched The Disney Channel in 1983, which has become one of the most watched networks by children around the world. In 1995, the company acquired Cap Cities, the holding company for ABC and ESPN, making Disney one of the most powerful and influential players in professional sports. Disney acquired animation studio Pixar in 2006 with $7.4 billion in stock, greatly increasing its reach in the kid's market. The company also purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009, forseeing the value of the company's superhero IP to create summer blockbuster films. In 2012, the company purchased Lucasfilm, making themselves the masters of the Star Wars universe. And finally, in 2019, the company launched Disney Plus, already one of the most popular streaming services in the world, thanks to its massive entertainment inventory, which now includes the entire 21st Century Fox library.

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Who were original founders and investors?

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Who were original founders and investors?

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Laurene Powell Jobs, already Walt Disney 's biggest single shareholder, as of late cut her gainful stake in the organization fifty-fifty, to around 64 million shares, as per administrative filings.

Trusts named for Powell Jobs and Jobs’ three biological children — Eve Claire, Erin and Reed Paul — each held 461,521 Disney shares. A trust named for Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs, Steve’s daughter from an earlier relationship, held 230,760 Disney shares.

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Steve Jobs' Family Cuts Disney Stake in Half

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Laurene Powell Jobs reduced her beneficial ownership in the media giant to 64 million shares, a 4% stake.

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Who were original founders and investors?

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Who were original founders and investors?

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Roy O. Disney and Walt Disney are the original founders of the company.

A distributor named M.J. Winkler offered $1,500 per reel, and Disney joined her as a creation accomplice in 1923. Pat Powers was a distributor that released Steamboat Willie in theaters during this time.

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500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank,California 91521
U.S.A.
Telephone: (818) 560-1000
Fax: (818) 840-1930
Web site: http://www.disney.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1938 as Walt Disney Productions
Employees: 117,000
Sales: $27.06 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York Pacific Midwest Tokyo
Ticker Symbol: DIS
NAIC: 515120 Television Broadcasting; 515112 Radio Stations; 713110 Amusement and Theme Parks; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 511120 Periodical Publishers; 423990 All Other Durable Good Merchant Wholesalers; 511210 Software Publishers; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 711510 Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers

A colossal force in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to families through its amusement parks, television series, and many classic live-action and animated motion pictures. Beginning in 1984, Disney enjoyed an enormous creative and financial renaissance, due to the leadership of CEO Michael Eisner; the success of such subsidiaries as Touchstone Films, Hollywood Pictures, The Disney Studios, Buena Vista Distribution, The Disney Channel, and Buena Vista Home Video; the sales of Disney consumer products through The Disney Stores and a multitude of licensing arrangements; and a recommitment to excellence in the making of original feature-length animated films. Under Eisner's reign, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, a $19 billion deal that increased the company's stature enormously. Adding to the theme parks, cruise ships, professional sports teams, and dozens of other businesses owned by the company, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC gave Disney the power of broadcasting and the ability to meld entertainment content with programming. During the late 1990s, the company was aggressively building a presence on the Internet and adopting a concerted approach to international expansion.

The Birth of a U.S. Icon

Walt Disney, the company's founder, was born in Chicago in 1901. His appeal to the greater United States is said to have had roots in his humble, middle-class upbringing. Disney's father, Elias, moved the family throughout the Midwest seeking employment. Young Disney grew up in a household where hard work was prized: feeding the family's five children left little pocket change for amusement. Walt Disney began working at the age of nine as a newspaper delivery boy. His father instructed him and his siblings in the teachings of the Congregational Church and socialism.

Drawing provided an escape for Disney, and at the age of 14 he took his work on the road and enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute. His art was temporarily put on hold when he joined the Red Cross at age 16 to serve as an ambulance driver at the end of World War I. In 1919 he returned to the United States and found work as a commercial artist. Together with Ub Iwerks, another artist at the studio, Disney soon formed an animated cartoon company in Kansas City.

In 1923, following the bankruptcy of this company, Disney joined his brother Roy O. Disney in Hollywood. By the time he arrived on the West Coast, word came from New York that a company wanted to purchase the rights to a series of Disney's live-action cartoon reels, ultimately titled Alice Comedies. A distributor named M.J. Winkler offered $1,500 per reel, and Disney joined her as a production partner.

A series of animated films followed on Alice 's heels. In 1927 Disney started a series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which met with public acclaim. The distributor, however, had the character copyrighted in its own name, so Disney earned only a few hundred dollars. It was while pondering the unfairness of this situation on a California-bound train that Disney first thought of creating a mouse character named Mortimer. He changed the name to Mickey Mouse, drew up some simple sketches, and went on to make several Mickey Mouse films with his brother Roy, using their own money.

On the third Mickey Mouse film, Disney decided to take a bold step and add sound to Steamboat Willie. The cartoon was synchronized with a simple musical background. The process provided some of the first technical steps in film continuity: music was played at two beats a second and the film was marked every 12 frames as a guide to the animator, and later an orchestra.

Film distributors laughed at Disney's idea. Finally one, Pat Powers, released Steamboat Willie in theaters. Audiences loved what they saw and heard, and suddenly Disney was a hit in the animation business. In 1935 the New York Times called Mickey Mouse "the best-known and most popular international figure of his day." Meanwhile, Disney suffered criticism from observers who judged him to be a cartoonist of only mediocre ability. (Iwerks was responsible for the actual design of Mickey Mouse and the other characters.) Disney was, however, given credit for his ability to conceptualize characters and stories.

The Mickey Mouse projects brought in enough cash to allow Walt Disney to develop other projects, including several full-length motion pictures and advances in Technicolor film. Disney's first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, opened in 1937 to impressive crowds and led to a string of Disney hits, including Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940, Dumbo in 1941, Bambi in 1942, and Saludos Amigos in 1943.

Around 1940 Disney decided to tackle live-action films, first with The Reluctant Dragon and to a greater extent with 1946's Song of the South. Meanwhile, during World War II, Disney lent his characters to the war effort, making shorts, including one in which Minnie Mouse showed U.S. homemakers the importance of saving fats. After the war, Walt Disney Productions was back in business with live-action features including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Living Desert was released in the early 1950s by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista, to tremendous box office success.

Taking on Television: 1950s

During the 1950s, as Americans began to spend more time at home watching television for entertainment, Disney's studio took full advantage of the small screen revolution. In 1954, the "Disneyland" television series premiered. The show included an introduction by Walt Disney and incorporated film clips from Disney productions with live action and coverage of Disneyland. Some four million people tuned in each week. Disney also made a national folk hero out of Davy Crockett when he devoted a three-part program to coverage of his life. Within a matter of weeks, U.S. boys could not live without coonskin caps and other Crockett merchandise, all of which earned Disney a fortune. Crockett's popularity led to the era of the Disney live-action adventures that included the 1950s hits The Great Locomotive Chase, Westward Ho, Old Yeller, and The Light in the Forest.

In October 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on the ABC television network. The hour-long show aired at 5 p.m. weekdays and made television history. Six years later, his groundbreaking Sunday night color TV show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (later changed to The Wonderful World of Disney ), began its 20-year run on NBC. At the same time, Disney was making stars out of Fred MacMurray, Hayley Mills, and Dean Jones in such movies as The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Pollyanna, and The Parent Trap. In 1964 Disney's Mary Poppins became one of the top-grossing films of all time.

Disney required professionalism of his staff and demanded the highest-quality Technicolor available, and as a result his live-action films topped competitors in both creativity and technical standards. He also had his hand in several other projects, including Audio-Animatronics (automatically controlled robots) and a Florida amusement complex that eventually became Walt Disney World, complementing California's vacation hot spot, Disneyland.

On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer. Shortly after Disney's death, his brother Roy issued an optimistic statement pledging that Walt Disney's philosophy and genius would be carried on by his employees.

But no one could match Walt Disney's keen story sense or enthusiasm, and the studio floundered through most of the 1970s despite several strong CEOs, including E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who had joined the company as a traffic boy in 1938. The studio did manage a few successes during this period, including Blackbeard's Ghost, with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette, and the 1969 release The Love Bug, which became the year's biggest box office hit. Other popular releases of the late 1960s and early 1970s included The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and several live-action features.

But a run of box office disappointments followed in the mid-1970s before The Rescuers proved successful. Pete's Dragon, an experimental film combining human and animated characters, followed. Progress was slow but steady for the Disney studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well. The studio released three new live-action movies: The World's Greatest Athlete, Gus, and The Shaggy D.A. Return from Witch Mountain, a sequel to the popular mystery-fantasy Escape to Witch Mountain, premiered in 1978. A risky science fiction venture titled The Black Hole cost $20 million to produce but was lost in the amazing success of an all-time box office recordbreaker. CEO Ron Miller brought in new directors and younger writers who produced such films as Watcher in the Woods and the computer-generated Tron, but achieved only mild success in the face of competition from other movie studios.

Company Perspectives:

The Walt Disney Company's objective is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products.

In 1983, beginning with the release of Mickey's Christmas Carol, Disney's fortunes finally began to look up. A string of successful movies followed, including the Arctic adventure Never Cry Wolf and a production of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That same year the company also began marketing a family-oriented pay-TV channel called the Disney Channel, which quickly became the fastest-growing channel on cable television.

Corporate raider Saul Steinberg attempted a hostile takeover of the company in 1984. Disney ultimately bought Steinberg's 11.1 percent holding in the company for $325.4 million. A number of lawsuits were filed by shareholders against both Disney and Steinberg's Reliance Group Holdings, charging that Disney's managers had attempted to secure their positions and had lowered the value of the stock. The suits were settled in 1989 when the two companies jointly agreed to pay shareholders $45 million.

The Eisner Era Begins: 1984

Shortly after its purchase of 18.7 percent of Disney's stock, the Bass family of Texas supported the Disney board's hiring of Michael Eisner from Paramount Pictures to be Disney's new CEO and Frank Wells to be president.

Eisner, responsible for such Paramount blockbusters as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Beverly Hills Cop, immediately began to emphasize Touchstone Films, a subsidiary devoted to attracting adult movie audiences. Commentators began to note that Eisner, like Walt Disney, had the ability to predict and deliver movies people wanted to see. The 1985 release of Down and Out in Beverly Hills helped Touchstone build momentum, which it increased with Outrageous Fortune, Tin Men, Ruthless People, and other hits. In Eisner's first four years as CEO, Disney surged from last place to first in box office receipts among the eight major studios.

Eisner also set out to take full advantage of expanding markets such as cable television and home video. Disney signed a long-term deal with Showtime Networks, Inc., giving the cable service exclusive rights to Touchstone and other Disney releases through 1996. In addition, Eisner bought KHJ, an independent Los Angeles TV station; sought new markets for old Disney productions through television syndication; and began to distribute such TV shows as The Golden Girls.

Certain Disney classics, including Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella, were released on videocassette during the late 1980s. Eisner protected the value of the films by limiting the availability of the tapes. He also scheduled the re-release of many other films for the late 1980s and early 1990s, by which time a new generation of children would be ready to see the films in the theater once again. Disney's revenues soon began to increase, averaging an improvement of approximately 20 percent annually during the second half of the 1980s.

In 1989 Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened near Orlando, Florida, on the grounds of Walt Disney World. Despite its name, the park was not a collaboration between the two studios; Disney purchased the rights to include attractions based on MGM films. Euro Disney, of which Disney owned 49 percent, opened outside of Paris, in Marne-la-Valle, on April 12, 1992; and Tokyo Disneyland, licensed though not owned by Disney, regularly drew phenomenal crowds in a powerful consumer market. Plans were made to open a second Disney-MGM Studios park, on a site adjacent to Euro Disney, in the mid-1990s.

In the early 1980s the parks were responsible for about 70 percent of the company's revenue. Although they continued to be a crucial part of the company, the theme parks found competition with Disney's newer projects, including hotel expansions, home video distribution, and Disney merchandising, which together in 1991 garnered an impressive 28 percent of fiscal revenues. Virtually as important, perhaps more so given their unrealized potential, were Disney's international operationsevident not only in Japan and France, but throughout much of Europe, the former Soviet Union, South America, and China which contributed 22 percent of total revenues in 1991.

Key Dates:

1901:

Walt Disney, the company's founder, is born.

1919:

With Ub Iwerks, Disney forms Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.

1923:

The distributor M.J. Winkler purchases Disney's Alice Comedies for $1,500 per reel; Disney creates Disney Bros. Studios with his brother Roy.

1924:

M.J. Winkler Productions debuts the Alice Comedy Series, with the film Alice's Day at Sea, in theaters.

1928:

Mickey Mouse is "born"; Disney releases Steamboat Willie, its first film with sound.

1937:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first full-length animated film, debuts.

1940:

Pinocchio and Fantasia are released.

1955:

The Mickey Mouse Club debuts; Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.

1966:

Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.

1971:

Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida; Roy O. Disney dies.

1982:

EPCOT Center opens on the grounds of Walt Disney World.

1983:

The first foreign Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, opens.

1984:

Michael Eisner is named Disney's new CEO; Disney releases Splash under its new label, Touchstone Pictures.

1989:

Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opens near Orlando, Florida.

1992:

Euro Disney (later named Disneyland Paris) opens.

1996:

Disney acquires television station Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion; Radio Disney debuts.

1998:

Animal Kingdom opens in Walt Disney World, Florida.

1999:

Disney Cruise Line begins operations with the Disney Magic.

2001:

Disney's California Adventure opens next to Disneyland; Disney acquires Fox Family Worldwide for $5.3 billion.

2003:

Roy E. Disneyson of Roy O. Disney, last of the founding family associated with the companyand Stanley Gold quit the Disney board and start Save Disney.com in an attempt to oust CEO Michael Eisner.

Meanwhile, Touchstone remained healthy. Hollywood Pictures, Disney's newest film-producing arm, also began making more films in the late 1980s. Disney continued to score hits with Three Men and a Baby, Good Morning Vietnam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and others. Most importantly, production costs, though constantly rising, were held by Disney in 1989 to an average of $15 million per movie, compared to an industry average of more than $23 million.

Taking a Roller-Coaster Ride: 1990s

The 1990s, termed the "Disney Decade" by the company, promised to witness perhaps the most dramatic changes and accomplishments of Disney's more than half-century history. The combined talents of Eisner, President Frank Wells, and studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg caused a rush of excitement as the decade began. By the second quarter of 1991, the studio, under Katzenberg's strong leadership, had surpassed the theme parks in profitability, leading the company to commit to a record-high 25 new films in 1992. By far the greatest highlight of 1991 was Disney's 30th feature-length animated film, Beauty and the Beast. Amid a troubled year and a depressed economy, during which corporate net income plummeted by 23 percent and Disney, despite the success of its studio, experienced its first year with no growth since 1984, this filmnominated for best picture and winner of Academy Awards for best original score and best original songprovided much welcomed relief. Beauty, like its 1989 Oscar-winning predecessor The Little Mermaid, shattered previous records for the most successful opening of an animated film. It quickly became the highest-grossing picture of its genre.

Although Disney was notorious for undercutting its Hollywood competitors, it, too, was forced to pay exorbitant amounts for top creative talent. Both Bernard Weinraub, in a New York Times article, and Eisner, in the company's 1991 annual report, reported that Disney was going to try to stem the flow of high production costs for big-budget films and instead offer films with appealing storylines and engaging characters. According to Ron Grover, Katzenberg himself began pushing for such a redirection in early 1991. Presumably, films like the modestly budgeted 1990 sleeper Pretty Woman were expected in the future.

Disney's next foraysits creation, for example, of Hyperion Press and Hollywood Records for stakes in the publishing and adult music industrieswere expected to further strengthen its reputation as an entertainment giant. Yet, here too, it became increasingly cautious. In August, the company revealed that its Imagineering division, responsible for theme park design, was laying off up to 400 of its employees. Further news that Euro Disney's profitability for its first year was in serious doubt indicated to some that Disney might be struggling. However, Disney's overseas investment was less than $200 million, "a fraction of the total," according to Stewart Toy. "And whether or not there's a profit, Walt Disney gets 10 percent of ticket sales and 5 percent of merchandise sales."

During the latter half of the 1990s, Disney grew at a prolific rate, but by the decade's end there was little cause to celebrate. The remainder of the Disney Decade was pocked with troubling developments that shook the foundation of the Disney empire, prompting some experts to suggest the previously unimaginable: that the omnipotent Disney name was losing its market appeal. The tumultuous period began with tragedy, when Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994. The fatal accident left Eisner without his most trusted aide and left Disney without a president, a title Katzenberg reportedly coveted. Two days after the helicopter crash, Katzenberg approached Eisner about the job, but his bid to become president was rebuffed. Katzenberg responded by leaving Disney, departing on decidedly unfriendly terms. An acrimonious feud between Eisner and Katzenberg erupted that became litigious. Upon his departure, Katzenberg was given the equivalent of ten year's pay, but the former studio head wanted considerably more cash. He filed a lawsuit against Disney, demanding $580 million in compensation.

Against the backdrop of a sordid legal battle, whose ugly details became the stuff of headlines, Eisner prepared to add a new dimension to Disney's operations. In 1994, Eisner attempted to buy the NBC television network from General Electric Company, but the deal fell through because General Electric reportedly wanted to retain ownership of 51 percent of the network. Eisner pressed ahead, determined to buy a television network. His search ended in 1995 when Disney announced its head-turning merger with Capital Cities/ABC, a $19 billion deal that gave Disney control over television stations, radio stations, cable networks, and legions of other properties. Applauded by industry pundits as a strategically sound move, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC married the vast content collection controlled by Disney to the expansive broadcasting capabilities of the ABC network, exponentially increasing the might of what, after the transaction was completed in 1996, stood as a more than $20 billion entertainment conglomerate.

The late 1990s saw Eisner steer Disney in several other strategically important directions. The growth of the Internet presented the company's chairman and CEO with another opportunity to disseminate Disney's entertainment content to the public. In 1998, Disney acquired Starwave, which maintained ESPN.com and Mr. Showbiz, as well as other web sites, and purchased 43 percent of Infoseek, acquiring the rest of the Internet search engine company in 1999. In January of that year, the company launched the GO Network Web portal. Other additions to the company's operations included the opening of the 540-acre Animal Kingdom park in Florida, the Disney version of a zoo, and the launching of an 875-stateroom cruise ship christened the Disney Magic, to be followed by the debut of a sister ship, the Disney Wonder. Eisner also acquired two professional sports clubs, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a professional hockey team, and Major League Baseball's Anaheim Angels. Concurrent with the numerous acquisitions he presided over, Eisner endeavored to expand Disney's geographic reach. During the late 1990s, the company collected roughly 20 percent of its revenue from overseas businesstoo low of a percentage from Eisner's viewpoint. China and India were considered to be high-growth markets.

The scope and scale of Disney's properties by the late 1990s represented an impressive list of businesses that few companies in the world could equal. The additions to the Disney portfolio during the latter half of the decade turned an already sprawling empire into a multifaceted entertainment conglomerate of mind-boggling proportions, but no matter the size of a company, success depended on execution. As it became evident during the court proceedings to resolve Katzenberg's lawsuit, Disney's massive revenue-generating, profit-making engine was sputtering inefficiently. The details delineating the company's problems were divulged because of the nature of the Katzenberg case. Eisner, who had the opportunity to settle his former studio chief's compensation claim for $100 million, decided not to give in without a fight, believing the demand for as much as $580 million was preposterously high. It was a decision he later regretted. In court, Eisner learned that Katzenberg had negotiated a contract with Wells during the 1980s. A passage in the contract, as published by the Financial Times on June 4, 1999, read: "It is, of course, obvious but nonetheless worth pointing out that many of these pictures still have substantial revenues forthcoming from ancillary markets which continue to accrue to Jeffrey's benefit. . . . Of course, some of these will continue 'forever' in the sense that even if he should leave one day, there would be an arbitrated amount as to future income from the pictures." The inclusion of the word "forever" in the contract struck a crippling blow to Eisner's hope of leaving the courtroom victorious.

Because the amount of Katzenberg's claim depended on the future profit potential of certain facets of the Disney enterprise, company lawyers were inclined to paint a bleak picture of the company's financial health at the end of the 1990s and its prospects for the years ahead. Despite the incentive to underestimate the company's financial might, it became obvious to onlookers that all was not right in the Magic Kingdom. The theme parks were performing well, but nearly every other aspect of the company's business suffered from disappointing results. ABC was at the top of the list, hobbled by low ratings and rising costs, including the $9.2 billion spent for ABC and ESPN to acquire the rights for the NFL through 2008. Internationally, the company was not making headway, notoriously evident in two cinematic failures. Mulan, the Chinese-themed animation film, generated a paltry $1.3 million during its run in China. The release of Hercules in India fell decidedly flat and actually led to a loss of $14,000. On the whole, the last year of the decade signaled a depressing end to the 20th century for Disney. For the first nine months of 1999, excluding the income gained from an asset sale, operating income was down 17 percent, net income dropped 26 percent, and earnings per share fell 27 percent.

The Katzenberg compensation claim was settled for a reported $200 million, although both parties refused to divulge the amount. More significant to industry observers than the exact dollar amount of the settlement was the information revealed during the proceedings, prompting some analysts to cast a wary eye toward the entertainment behemoth. Some critics charged that Eisner's autocratic leadership inhibited efficiency and progress, but the most threatening diagnosis struck at the company's fundamental strength. Some industry experts contended that "age compression," the theory that youths of the late 1990s emulated teenage behavior at an earlier age than in decades past, was draining the strength of the Disney name. Rebellion against the wholesome Disney image was the result, reducing the size of Disney's target audience. "They've never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms," a former, unnamed, Disney executive explained in the September 6, 1999 issue of Fortune magazine. Sociological intricacies aside, the future financial health of Disney depended on the ability of the company to reap the rewards inherent in its operations, on its effectiveness in churning out profits from a powerful entertainment machine that looked good on the outside but internally was suffering. The continued attraction of the Disney name in the 21st century represented the foundation upon which the company's return to soaring profits would be built.

Disney's finances improved in 2000, with a 9 percent increase in total revenues and an impressive 39 percent jump in net income. The boost in growth was due particularly to the success of the ABC Network and ESPN. Parks and Resorts also had an impact on growth, achieving record results for the sixth consecutive year. Creatively, Disney had a positive year, with the premier of The Emperor's New Groove, as well as the Broadway premier of its musical Aida. But the success of 2000 would be short-lived.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. immediately impacted Disney's financial situation. The hardest hit were Disney's Parks and Resorts, as vacation travel came to a halt. The recession that followed the attacks did not help matters. The suffering economy, coupled with a drop in ratings, led to a dramatic decrease in advertising rates for Disney's Media Networks, and in particular, the ABC Network. By 2001's end, Disney suffered a staggering $158 million loss in net income. Also contributing to a loss of income was a costly acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. (FFW), for $5.3 billion.

In reaction to troubled times, Disney implemented a number of cost-cutting measures. Such measures included decreasing operations at Disney parks; cutting its annual investment in live-action films; and minimizing Internet operations. Additionally, Disney cut approximately 4,000 employees from its payroll. On a more positive note, Disney's Monsters, Inc. premiered at this time, quickly becoming a top 20 film for the studio.

Revenues for 2002 dropped slightly below those for 2001; yet, largely because of Disney's cost-cutting measures, the company's net income jumped to $1.2 billion. The year 2002 also witnessed creative successes for Disney, with the releases of Peter Pan: Return to Neverland and Lilo & Stitch. The latter, in particular, was hugely successful. The Walt Disney Studios reaped large rewards in 2003, becoming the first in history to exceed over $3 billion in worldwide box office sales. Contributing to this success were the premieres of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bringing Down the House,; Finding Nemo, and Brother Bear.

But the mood was partly spoiled by turmoil within the company, between CEO Eisner and board members Roy E. Disney (son of Roy O. Disney) and Stanley Gold. Conflict came to the fore when Eisner pushed the board to deny the reelection of Disney to the board, claiming the latter, at age 72, was required to retire. In response, Gold resigned from the board, urging other board members to oust Eisner.

Eisner's difficulties did not lessen in 2004. For one, Pixar Animation Studios, creator of such hits as Toy Story and Finding Nemo, chose to look for another distributor. The end of the 12-year relationship between the twospawned by Pixar's longstanding battles with Eisner over issues of control and moneywas anticipated to further damage Disney's financial situation. Also in 2004, cable giant Comcast Corporation placed an unsolicited $54 billion bid to acquire the Walt Disney Company, which the latter refused, but which spread doubt concerning the company's future. Uncertainty seemed to surround Disney, even within its movie division. The 2004 movies The Alamo and Home on the Range yielded poor box office earnings, especially considering their high price tags ( The Alamo alone cost $100 million). In the face of such difficulties and general dissatisfaction among certain board members, Eisner was forced to cede chairmanship, with some members desiring to see his resignation as CEO.

Principal Subsidiaries

ABC, Inc.; A&E Network (37.5%); Anaheim Sports; Buena Vista Home Video; Buena Vista International; Buena Vista Internet Group; Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.; Buena Vista Television; Childcraft Educational Corp.; The Disney Channel; The History Channel; Disney Consumer Products International, Inc.; Disney Development Co.; The Disney Store, Inc.; EDL Holding Co.; Euro Disney S.C.A. (49%); E! Entertainment Television (39.5%); ESPN (80%); Fairchild Publications; Hyperion; Infoseek Corporation; KHJ-TV, Inc.; Lake Buena Vista Communities; Lifetime Entertainment Services (50%); Miramax Films; Reedy Creek Energy Services, Inc.; Touchstone Films; Touchstone Television; Walt Disney Attractions; Walt Disney Imagineering; Walt Disney Pictures and Television; WCO Parent Corp.; WED Transportation Systems, Inc.

Principal Divisions

Broadcasting; Creative Content; Theme Parks; Resorts; Sports.

Principal Competitors

DreamWorks SKG; Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.; Liberty Media Corporation; Lucasfilm Ltd.; MGM; Microsoft Corporation; NBC Universal; Six Flags, Inc.; Sony Corporation; AOL Time Warner Inc.

Further Reading

Beard, Richard R., Walt Disney's Epcot, New York: Abrams, 1982.

Birnbaum, Steve, The Best of Disneyland, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

"Disney Merges Television Production Arms," MEDIAWEEK, July 12, 1999, p. 3.

"Disney Profit Jumps 30%," New York Times, April 28, 1992.

"Disney Trimming Theme Park Staff As Par Gears Up," Variety, August 3, 1992.

"Eisner's Mousetrap," Fortune, September 6, 1999, p. 106.

Flower, Joe, Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991.

Gilpen, Kenneth N., "Comcast Withdraws Its Bid for The Walt Disney Company," New York Times, April 28, 2004.

Grover, Ron, The Disney Touch: How a Daring Management Team Revived an Entertainment Empire, Homewood, Ill.: Business One Irwin, 1991.

Holliss, Richard, The Disney Studio Story, New York: Crown, 1988.

Holstein, William J., "Mickey's Net Loss," U.S. News & World Report, June 21, 1999, p. 48.

La Franco, Robert, "Disney's Problems Go Well Beyond One Big Lawsuit," Forbes, July 5, 1999, p. 50.

Leebron, Elizabeth, Walt Disney: A Guide to References and Resources, Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979.

Maltin, Leonard, The Disney Films, New York: Crown, 1984.

Masters, Kim, Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else, HarperInformation, 2001.

Parkes, Christopher, "Inside the Magic Kingdom," Financial Times, June 4, 1999, p. 6.

Taylor, John, Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the Raiders, and the Battle for Disney, New York: Knopf, 1987.

Thomas, Bob, Walt Disney, an American Original, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.

Toy, Stewart, Patrick Oster, and Ronald Grover, "The Mouse Isn't Roaring," Business Week, August 24, 1992.

"Walt Disney Co.," Discount Store News, June 21, 1999, p. 26.

Weinraub, Bernard, "2 Titans Clash and All of Filmdom Feels Shock Waves," New York Times, April 13, 1992.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
500 South Buena Vista Street Burbank,California 91521 U.S.A.

# data[].attributes.headline
When and where was the business started?

# data[].attributes.subject
When and where was the business started?

# data[].attributes.body
October 16, 1923, Los Angeles, CA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank,California 91521
U.S.A.
Telephone: (818) 560-1000
Fax: (818) 840-1930
Web site: http://www.disney.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1938 as Walt Disney Productions
Employees: 117,000
Sales: $27.06 billion (2003)
Stock Exchanges: New York Pacific Midwest Tokyo
Ticker Symbol: DIS
NAIC: 515120 Television Broadcasting; 515112 Radio Stations; 713110 Amusement and Theme Parks; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 511120 Periodical Publishers; 423990 All Other Durable Good Merchant Wholesalers; 511210 Software Publishers; 512110 Motion Picture and Video Production; 711510 Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers

A colossal force in the entertainment industry, The Walt Disney Company (Disney) is best known for bringing decades of fantasy and fun to families through its amusement parks, television series, and many classic live-action and animated motion pictures. Beginning in 1984, Disney enjoyed an enormous creative and financial renaissance, due to the leadership of CEO Michael Eisner; the success of such subsidiaries as Touchstone Films, Hollywood Pictures, The Disney Studios, Buena Vista Distribution, The Disney Channel, and Buena Vista Home Video; the sales of Disney consumer products through The Disney Stores and a multitude of licensing arrangements; and a recommitment to excellence in the making of original feature-length animated films. Under Eisner's reign, Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC in 1996, a $19 billion deal that increased the company's stature enormously. Adding to the theme parks, cruise ships, professional sports teams, and dozens of other businesses owned by the company, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC gave Disney the power of broadcasting and the ability to meld entertainment content with programming. During the late 1990s, the company was aggressively building a presence on the Internet and adopting a concerted approach to international expansion.

The Birth of a U.S. Icon

Walt Disney, the company's founder, was born in Chicago in 1901. His appeal to the greater United States is said to have had roots in his humble, middle-class upbringing. Disney's father, Elias, moved the family throughout the Midwest seeking employment. Young Disney grew up in a household where hard work was prized: feeding the family's five children left little pocket change for amusement. Walt Disney began working at the age of nine as a newspaper delivery boy. His father instructed him and his siblings in the teachings of the Congregational Church and socialism.

Drawing provided an escape for Disney, and at the age of 14 he took his work on the road and enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute. His art was temporarily put on hold when he joined the Red Cross at age 16 to serve as an ambulance driver at the end of World War I. In 1919 he returned to the United States and found work as a commercial artist. Together with Ub Iwerks, another artist at the studio, Disney soon formed an animated cartoon company in Kansas City.

In 1923, following the bankruptcy of this company, Disney joined his brother Roy O. Disney in Hollywood. By the time he arrived on the West Coast, word came from New York that a company wanted to purchase the rights to a series of Disney's live-action cartoon reels, ultimately titled Alice Comedies. A distributor named M.J. Winkler offered $1,500 per reel, and Disney joined her as a production partner.

A series of animated films followed on Alice 's heels. In 1927 Disney started a series called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which met with public acclaim. The distributor, however, had the character copyrighted in its own name, so Disney earned only a few hundred dollars. It was while pondering the unfairness of this situation on a California-bound train that Disney first thought of creating a mouse character named Mortimer. He changed the name to Mickey Mouse, drew up some simple sketches, and went on to make several Mickey Mouse films with his brother Roy, using their own money.

On the third Mickey Mouse film, Disney decided to take a bold step and add sound to Steamboat Willie. The cartoon was synchronized with a simple musical background. The process provided some of the first technical steps in film continuity: music was played at two beats a second and the film was marked every 12 frames as a guide to the animator, and later an orchestra.

Film distributors laughed at Disney's idea. Finally one, Pat Powers, released Steamboat Willie in theaters. Audiences loved what they saw and heard, and suddenly Disney was a hit in the animation business. In 1935 the New York Times called Mickey Mouse "the best-known and most popular international figure of his day." Meanwhile, Disney suffered criticism from observers who judged him to be a cartoonist of only mediocre ability. (Iwerks was responsible for the actual design of Mickey Mouse and the other characters.) Disney was, however, given credit for his ability to conceptualize characters and stories.

The Mickey Mouse projects brought in enough cash to allow Walt Disney to develop other projects, including several full-length motion pictures and advances in Technicolor film. Disney's first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, opened in 1937 to impressive crowds and led to a string of Disney hits, including Pinocchio and Fantasia in 1940, Dumbo in 1941, Bambi in 1942, and Saludos Amigos in 1943.

Around 1940 Disney decided to tackle live-action films, first with The Reluctant Dragon and to a greater extent with 1946's Song of the South. Meanwhile, during World War II, Disney lent his characters to the war effort, making shorts, including one in which Minnie Mouse showed U.S. homemakers the importance of saving fats. After the war, Walt Disney Productions was back in business with live-action features including 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Living Desert was released in the early 1950s by Disney's new distribution company, Buena Vista, to tremendous box office success.

Taking on Television: 1950s

During the 1950s, as Americans began to spend more time at home watching television for entertainment, Disney's studio took full advantage of the small screen revolution. In 1954, the "Disneyland" television series premiered. The show included an introduction by Walt Disney and incorporated film clips from Disney productions with live action and coverage of Disneyland. Some four million people tuned in each week. Disney also made a national folk hero out of Davy Crockett when he devoted a three-part program to coverage of his life. Within a matter of weeks, U.S. boys could not live without coonskin caps and other Crockett merchandise, all of which earned Disney a fortune. Crockett's popularity led to the era of the Disney live-action adventures that included the 1950s hits The Great Locomotive Chase, Westward Ho, Old Yeller, and The Light in the Forest.

In October 1955 The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on the ABC television network. The hour-long show aired at 5 p.m. weekdays and made television history. Six years later, his groundbreaking Sunday night color TV show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (later changed to The Wonderful World of Disney ), began its 20-year run on NBC. At the same time, Disney was making stars out of Fred MacMurray, Hayley Mills, and Dean Jones in such movies as The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Pollyanna, and The Parent Trap. In 1964 Disney's Mary Poppins became one of the top-grossing films of all time.

Disney required professionalism of his staff and demanded the highest-quality Technicolor available, and as a result his live-action films topped competitors in both creativity and technical standards. He also had his hand in several other projects, including Audio-Animatronics (automatically controlled robots) and a Florida amusement complex that eventually became Walt Disney World, complementing California's vacation hot spot, Disneyland.

On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer. Shortly after Disney's death, his brother Roy issued an optimistic statement pledging that Walt Disney's philosophy and genius would be carried on by his employees.

But no one could match Walt Disney's keen story sense or enthusiasm, and the studio floundered through most of the 1970s despite several strong CEOs, including E. Cardon "Card" Walker, who had joined the company as a traffic boy in 1938. The studio did manage a few successes during this period, including Blackbeard's Ghost, with Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette, and the 1969 release The Love Bug, which became the year's biggest box office hit. Other popular releases of the late 1960s and early 1970s included The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and several live-action features.

But a run of box office disappointments followed in the mid-1970s before The Rescuers proved successful. Pete's Dragon, an experimental film combining human and animated characters, followed. Progress was slow but steady for the Disney studio in the late 1970s and early 1980s as well. The studio released three new live-action movies: The World's Greatest Athlete, Gus, and The Shaggy D.A. Return from Witch Mountain, a sequel to the popular mystery-fantasy Escape to Witch Mountain, premiered in 1978. A risky science fiction venture titled The Black Hole cost $20 million to produce but was lost in the amazing success of an all-time box office recordbreaker. CEO Ron Miller brought in new directors and younger writers who produced such films as Watcher in the Woods and the computer-generated Tron, but achieved only mild success in the face of competition from other movie studios.

Company Perspectives:

The Walt Disney Company's objective is to be one of the world's leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products.

In 1983, beginning with the release of Mickey's Christmas Carol, Disney's fortunes finally began to look up. A string of successful movies followed, including the Arctic adventure Never Cry Wolf and a production of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. That same year the company also began marketing a family-oriented pay-TV channel called the Disney Channel, which quickly became the fastest-growing channel on cable television.

Corporate raider Saul Steinberg attempted a hostile takeover of the company in 1984. Disney ultimately bought Steinberg's 11.1 percent holding in the company for $325.4 million. A number of lawsuits were filed by shareholders against both Disney and Steinberg's Reliance Group Holdings, charging that Disney's managers had attempted to secure their positions and had lowered the value of the stock. The suits were settled in 1989 when the two companies jointly agreed to pay shareholders $45 million.

The Eisner Era Begins: 1984

Shortly after its purchase of 18.7 percent of Disney's stock, the Bass family of Texas supported the Disney board's hiring of Michael Eisner from Paramount Pictures to be Disney's new CEO and Frank Wells to be president.

Eisner, responsible for such Paramount blockbusters as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Beverly Hills Cop, immediately began to emphasize Touchstone Films, a subsidiary devoted to attracting adult movie audiences. Commentators began to note that Eisner, like Walt Disney, had the ability to predict and deliver movies people wanted to see. The 1985 release of Down and Out in Beverly Hills helped Touchstone build momentum, which it increased with Outrageous Fortune, Tin Men, Ruthless People, and other hits. In Eisner's first four years as CEO, Disney surged from last place to first in box office receipts among the eight major studios.

Eisner also set out to take full advantage of expanding markets such as cable television and home video. Disney signed a long-term deal with Showtime Networks, Inc., giving the cable service exclusive rights to Touchstone and other Disney releases through 1996. In addition, Eisner bought KHJ, an independent Los Angeles TV station; sought new markets for old Disney productions through television syndication; and began to distribute such TV shows as The Golden Girls.

Certain Disney classics, including Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella, were released on videocassette during the late 1980s. Eisner protected the value of the films by limiting the availability of the tapes. He also scheduled the re-release of many other films for the late 1980s and early 1990s, by which time a new generation of children would be ready to see the films in the theater once again. Disney's revenues soon began to increase, averaging an improvement of approximately 20 percent annually during the second half of the 1980s.

In 1989 Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened near Orlando, Florida, on the grounds of Walt Disney World. Despite its name, the park was not a collaboration between the two studios; Disney purchased the rights to include attractions based on MGM films. Euro Disney, of which Disney owned 49 percent, opened outside of Paris, in Marne-la-Valle, on April 12, 1992; and Tokyo Disneyland, licensed though not owned by Disney, regularly drew phenomenal crowds in a powerful consumer market. Plans were made to open a second Disney-MGM Studios park, on a site adjacent to Euro Disney, in the mid-1990s.

In the early 1980s the parks were responsible for about 70 percent of the company's revenue. Although they continued to be a crucial part of the company, the theme parks found competition with Disney's newer projects, including hotel expansions, home video distribution, and Disney merchandising, which together in 1991 garnered an impressive 28 percent of fiscal revenues. Virtually as important, perhaps more so given their unrealized potential, were Disney's international operationsevident not only in Japan and France, but throughout much of Europe, the former Soviet Union, South America, and China which contributed 22 percent of total revenues in 1991.

Key Dates:

1901:

Walt Disney, the company's founder, is born.

1919:

With Ub Iwerks, Disney forms Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists.

1923:

The distributor M.J. Winkler purchases Disney's Alice Comedies for $1,500 per reel; Disney creates Disney Bros. Studios with his brother Roy.

1924:

M.J. Winkler Productions debuts the Alice Comedy Series, with the film Alice's Day at Sea, in theaters.

1928:

Mickey Mouse is "born"; Disney releases Steamboat Willie, its first film with sound.

1937:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first full-length animated film, debuts.

1940:

Pinocchio and Fantasia are released.

1955:

The Mickey Mouse Club debuts; Disneyland opens in Anaheim, California.

1966:

Walt Disney dies of lung cancer.

1971:

Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida; Roy O. Disney dies.

1982:

EPCOT Center opens on the grounds of Walt Disney World.

1983:

The first foreign Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, opens.

1984:

Michael Eisner is named Disney's new CEO; Disney releases Splash under its new label, Touchstone Pictures.

1989:

Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opens near Orlando, Florida.

1992:

Euro Disney (later named Disneyland Paris) opens.

1996:

Disney acquires television station Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion; Radio Disney debuts.

1998:

Animal Kingdom opens in Walt Disney World, Florida.

1999:

Disney Cruise Line begins operations with the Disney Magic.

2001:

Disney's California Adventure opens next to Disneyland; Disney acquires Fox Family Worldwide for $5.3 billion.

2003:

Roy E. Disneyson of Roy O. Disney, last of the founding family associated with the companyand Stanley Gold quit the Disney board and start Save Disney.com in an attempt to oust CEO Michael Eisner.

Meanwhile, Touchstone remained healthy. Hollywood Pictures, Disney's newest film-producing arm, also began making more films in the late 1980s. Disney continued to score hits with Three Men and a Baby, Good Morning Vietnam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and others. Most importantly, production costs, though constantly rising, were held by Disney in 1989 to an average of $15 million per movie, compared to an industry average of more than $23 million.

Taking a Roller-Coaster Ride: 1990s

The 1990s, termed the "Disney Decade" by the company, promised to witness perhaps the most dramatic changes and accomplishments of Disney's more than half-century history. The combined talents of Eisner, President Frank Wells, and studio Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg caused a rush of excitement as the decade began. By the second quarter of 1991, the studio, under Katzenberg's strong leadership, had surpassed the theme parks in profitability, leading the company to commit to a record-high 25 new films in 1992. By far the greatest highlight of 1991 was Disney's 30th feature-length animated film, Beauty and the Beast. Amid a troubled year and a depressed economy, during which corporate net income plummeted by 23 percent and Disney, despite the success of its studio, experienced its first year with no growth since 1984, this filmnominated for best picture and winner of Academy Awards for best original score and best original songprovided much welcomed relief. Beauty, like its 1989 Oscar-winning predecessor The Little Mermaid, shattered previous records for the most successful opening of an animated film. It quickly became the highest-grossing picture of its genre.

Although Disney was notorious for undercutting its Hollywood competitors, it, too, was forced to pay exorbitant amounts for top creative talent. Both Bernard Weinraub, in a New York Times article, and Eisner, in the company's 1991 annual report, reported that Disney was going to try to stem the flow of high production costs for big-budget films and instead offer films with appealing storylines and engaging characters. According to Ron Grover, Katzenberg himself began pushing for such a redirection in early 1991. Presumably, films like the modestly budgeted 1990 sleeper Pretty Woman were expected in the future.

Disney's next foraysits creation, for example, of Hyperion Press and Hollywood Records for stakes in the publishing and adult music industrieswere expected to further strengthen its reputation as an entertainment giant. Yet, here too, it became increasingly cautious. In August, the company revealed that its Imagineering division, responsible for theme park design, was laying off up to 400 of its employees. Further news that Euro Disney's profitability for its first year was in serious doubt indicated to some that Disney might be struggling. However, Disney's overseas investment was less than $200 million, "a fraction of the total," according to Stewart Toy. "And whether or not there's a profit, Walt Disney gets 10 percent of ticket sales and 5 percent of merchandise sales."

During the latter half of the 1990s, Disney grew at a prolific rate, but by the decade's end there was little cause to celebrate. The remainder of the Disney Decade was pocked with troubling developments that shook the foundation of the Disney empire, prompting some experts to suggest the previously unimaginable: that the omnipotent Disney name was losing its market appeal. The tumultuous period began with tragedy, when Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994. The fatal accident left Eisner without his most trusted aide and left Disney without a president, a title Katzenberg reportedly coveted. Two days after the helicopter crash, Katzenberg approached Eisner about the job, but his bid to become president was rebuffed. Katzenberg responded by leaving Disney, departing on decidedly unfriendly terms. An acrimonious feud between Eisner and Katzenberg erupted that became litigious. Upon his departure, Katzenberg was given the equivalent of ten year's pay, but the former studio head wanted considerably more cash. He filed a lawsuit against Disney, demanding $580 million in compensation.

Against the backdrop of a sordid legal battle, whose ugly details became the stuff of headlines, Eisner prepared to add a new dimension to Disney's operations. In 1994, Eisner attempted to buy the NBC television network from General Electric Company, but the deal fell through because General Electric reportedly wanted to retain ownership of 51 percent of the network. Eisner pressed ahead, determined to buy a television network. His search ended in 1995 when Disney announced its head-turning merger with Capital Cities/ABC, a $19 billion deal that gave Disney control over television stations, radio stations, cable networks, and legions of other properties. Applauded by industry pundits as a strategically sound move, the acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC married the vast content collection controlled by Disney to the expansive broadcasting capabilities of the ABC network, exponentially increasing the might of what, after the transaction was completed in 1996, stood as a more than $20 billion entertainment conglomerate.

The late 1990s saw Eisner steer Disney in several other strategically important directions. The growth of the Internet presented the company's chairman and CEO with another opportunity to disseminate Disney's entertainment content to the public. In 1998, Disney acquired Starwave, which maintained ESPN.com and Mr. Showbiz, as well as other web sites, and purchased 43 percent of Infoseek, acquiring the rest of the Internet search engine company in 1999. In January of that year, the company launched the GO Network Web portal. Other additions to the company's operations included the opening of the 540-acre Animal Kingdom park in Florida, the Disney version of a zoo, and the launching of an 875-stateroom cruise ship christened the Disney Magic, to be followed by the debut of a sister ship, the Disney Wonder. Eisner also acquired two professional sports clubs, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, a professional hockey team, and Major League Baseball's Anaheim Angels. Concurrent with the numerous acquisitions he presided over, Eisner endeavored to expand Disney's geographic reach. During the late 1990s, the company collected roughly 20 percent of its revenue from overseas businesstoo low of a percentage from Eisner's viewpoint. China and India were considered to be high-growth markets.

The scope and scale of Disney's properties by the late 1990s represented an impressive list of businesses that few companies in the world could equal. The additions to the Disney portfolio during the latter half of the decade turned an already sprawling empire into a multifaceted entertainment conglomerate of mind-boggling proportions, but no matter the size of a company, success depended on execution. As it became evident during the court proceedings to resolve Katzenberg's lawsuit, Disney's massive revenue-generating, profit-making engine was sputtering inefficiently. The details delineating the company's problems were divulged because of the nature of the Katzenberg case. Eisner, who had the opportunity to settle his former studio chief's compensation claim for $100 million, decided not to give in without a fight, believing the demand for as much as $580 million was preposterously high. It was a decision he later regretted. In court, Eisner learned that Katzenberg had negotiated a contract with Wells during the 1980s. A passage in the contract, as published by the Financial Times on June 4, 1999, read: "It is, of course, obvious but nonetheless worth pointing out that many of these pictures still have substantial revenues forthcoming from ancillary markets which continue to accrue to Jeffrey's benefit. . . . Of course, some of these will continue 'forever' in the sense that even if he should leave one day, there would be an arbitrated amount as to future income from the pictures." The inclusion of the word "forever" in the contract struck a crippling blow to Eisner's hope of leaving the courtroom victorious.

Because the amount of Katzenberg's claim depended on the future profit potential of certain facets of the Disney enterprise, company lawyers were inclined to paint a bleak picture of the company's financial health at the end of the 1990s and its prospects for the years ahead. Despite the incentive to underestimate the company's financial might, it became obvious to onlookers that all was not right in the Magic Kingdom. The theme parks were performing well, but nearly every other aspect of the company's business suffered from disappointing results. ABC was at the top of the list, hobbled by low ratings and rising costs, including the $9.2 billion spent for ABC and ESPN to acquire the rights for the NFL through 2008. Internationally, the company was not making headway, notoriously evident in two cinematic failures. Mulan, the Chinese-themed animation film, generated a paltry $1.3 million during its run in China. The release of Hercules in India fell decidedly flat and actually led to a loss of $14,000. On the whole, the last year of the decade signaled a depressing end to the 20th century for Disney. For the first nine months of 1999, excluding the income gained from an asset sale, operating income was down 17 percent, net income dropped 26 percent, and earnings per share fell 27 percent.

The Katzenberg compensation claim was settled for a reported $200 million, although both parties refused to divulge the amount. More significant to industry observers than the exact dollar amount of the settlement was the information revealed during the proceedings, prompting some analysts to cast a wary eye toward the entertainment behemoth. Some critics charged that Eisner's autocratic leadership inhibited efficiency and progress, but the most threatening diagnosis struck at the company's fundamental strength. Some industry experts contended that "age compression," the theory that youths of the late 1990s emulated teenage behavior at an earlier age than in decades past, was draining the strength of the Disney name. Rebellion against the wholesome Disney image was the result, reducing the size of Disney's target audience. "They've never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms," a former, unnamed, Disney executive explained in the September 6, 1999 issue of Fortune magazine. Sociological intricacies aside, the future financial health of Disney depended on the ability of the company to reap the rewards inherent in its operations, on its effectiveness in churning out profits from a powerful entertainment machine that looked good on the outside but internally was suffering. The continued attraction of the Disney name in the 21st century represented the foundation upon which the company's return to soaring profits would be built.

Disney's finances improved in 2000, with a 9 percent increase in total revenues and an impressive 39 percent jump in net income. The boost in growth was due particularly to the success of the ABC Network and ESPN. Parks and Resorts also had an impact on growth, achieving record results for the sixth consecutive year. Creatively, Disney had a positive year, with the premier of The Emperor's New Groove, as well as the Broadway premier of its musical Aida. But the success of 2000 would be short-lived.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. immediately impacted Disney's financial situation. The hardest hit were Disney's Parks and Resorts, as vacation travel came to a halt. The recession that followed the attacks did not help matters. The suffering economy, coupled with a drop in ratings, led to a dramatic decrease in advertising rates for Disney's Media Networks, and in particular, the ABC Network. By 2001's end, Disney suffered a staggering $158 million loss in net income. Also contributing to a loss of income was a costly acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. (FFW), for $5.3 billion.

In reaction to troubled times, Disney implemented a number of cost-cutting measures. Such measures included decreasing operations at Disney parks; cutting its annual investment in live-action films; and minimizing Internet operations. Additionally, Disney cut approximately 4,000 employees from its payroll. On a more positive note, Disney's Monsters, Inc. premiered at this time, quickly becoming a top 20 film for the studio.

Revenues for 2002 dropped slightly below those for 2001; yet, largely because of Disney's cost-cutting measures, the company's net income jumped to $1.2 billion. The year 2002 also witnessed creative successes for Disney, with the releases of Peter Pan: Return to Neverland and Lilo & Stitch. The latter, in particular, was hugely successful. The Walt Disney Studios reaped large rewards in 2003, becoming the first in history to exceed over $3 billion in worldwide box office sales. Contributing to this success were the premieres of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Bringing Down the House,; Finding Nemo, and Brother Bear.

But the mood was partly spoiled by turmoil within the company, between CEO Eisner and board members Roy E. Disney (son of Roy O. Disney) and Stanley Gold. Conflict came to the fore when Eisner pushed the board to deny the reelection of Disney to the board, claiming the latter, at age 72, was required to retire. In response, Gold resigned from the board, urging other board members to oust Eisner.

Eisner's difficulties did not lessen in 2004. For one, Pixar Animation Studios, creator of such hits as Toy Story and Finding Nemo, chose to look for another distributor. The end of the 12-year relationship between the twospawned by Pixar's longstanding battles with Eisner over issues of control and moneywas anticipated to further damage Disney's financial situation. Also in 2004, cable giant Comcast Corporation placed an unsolicited $54 billion bid to acquire the Walt Disney Company, which the latter refused, but which spread doubt concerning the company's future. Uncertainty seemed to surround Disney, even within its movie division. The 2004 movies The Alamo and Home on the Range yielded poor box office earnings, especially considering their high price tags ( The Alamo alone cost $100 million). In the face of such difficulties and general dissatisfaction among certain board members, Eisner was forced to cede chairmanship, with some members desiring to see his resignation as CEO.

Principal Subsidiaries

ABC, Inc.; A&E Network (37.5%); Anaheim Sports; Buena Vista Home Video; Buena Vista International; Buena Vista Internet Group; Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc.; Buena Vista Television; Childcraft Educational Corp.; The Disney Channel; The History Channel; Disney Consumer Products International, Inc.; Disney Development Co.; The Disney Store, Inc.; EDL Holding Co.; Euro Disney S.C.A. (49%); E! Entertainment Television (39.5%); ESPN (80%); Fairchild Publications; Hyperion; Infoseek Corporation; KHJ-TV, Inc.; Lake Buena Vista Communities; Lifetime Entertainment Services (50%); Miramax Films; Reedy Creek Energy Services, Inc.; Touchstone Films; Touchstone Television; Walt Disney Attractions; Walt Disney Imagineering; Walt Disney Pictures and Television; WCO Parent Corp.; WED Transportation Systems, Inc.

Principal Divisions

Broadcasting; Creative Content; Theme Parks; Resorts; Sports.

Principal Competitors

DreamWorks SKG; Fox Entertainment Group, Inc.; Liberty Media Corporation; Lucasfilm Ltd.; MGM; Microsoft Corporation; NBC Universal; Six Flags, Inc.; Sony Corporation; AOL Time Warner Inc.

Further Reading

Beard, Richard R., Walt Disney's Epcot, New York: Abrams, 1982.

Birnbaum, Steve, The Best of Disneyland, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

"Disney Merges Television Production Arms," MEDIAWEEK, July 12, 1999, p. 3.

"Disney Profit Jumps 30%," New York Times, April 28, 1992.

"Disney Trimming Theme Park Staff As Par Gears Up," Variety, August 3, 1992.

"Eisner's Mousetrap," Fortune, September 6, 1999, p. 106.

Flower, Joe, Prince of the Magic Kingdom: Michael Eisner and the Re-Making of Disney, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1991.

Gilpen, Kenneth N., "Comcast Withdraws Its Bid for The Walt Disney Company," New York Times, April 28, 2004.

Grover, Ron, The Disney Touch: How a Daring Management Team Revived an Entertainment Empire, Homewood, Ill.: Business One Irwin, 1991.

Holliss, Richard, The Disney Studio Story, New York: Crown, 1988.

Holstein, William J., "Mickey's Net Loss," U.S. News & World Report, June 21, 1999, p. 48.

La Franco, Robert, "Disney's Problems Go Well Beyond One Big Lawsuit," Forbes, July 5, 1999, p. 50.

Leebron, Elizabeth, Walt Disney: A Guide to References and Resources, Boston: G.K. Hall, 1979.

Maltin, Leonard, The Disney Films, New York: Crown, 1984.

Masters, Kim, Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else, HarperInformation, 2001.

Parkes, Christopher, "Inside the Magic Kingdom," Financial Times, June 4, 1999, p. 6.

Taylor, John, Storming the Magic Kingdom: Wall Street, the Raiders, and the Battle for Disney, New York: Knopf, 1987.

Thomas, Bob, Walt Disney, an American Original, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976.

Toy, Stewart, Patrick Oster, and Ronald Grover, "The Mouse Isn't Roaring," Business Week, August 24, 1992.

"Walt Disney Co.," Discount Store News, June 21, 1999, p. 26.

Weinraub, Bernard, "2 Titans Clash and All of Filmdom Feels Shock Waves," New York Times, April 13, 1992.

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