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"The Disneyland Resort is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California, United States. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division and is home to two theme parks (Disneyland and Disney California Adventure), three hotels, and the Downtown Disney shopping, dining, and entertainment district.
The resort was developed by Walt Disney in the 1950s. When it opened to guests on July 17, 1955, the property consisted of Disneyland, its 100-acre (40 ha) parking lot, and the Disneyland Hotel, owned and operated by Disney's business partner Jack Wrather.
After the success with the multi-park, multi-hotel business model at Walt Disney World in Florida, Disney acquired large parcels of land adjacent to Disneyland to apply the same business model in Anaheim. The company purchased the Disneyland Hotel from Wrather in 1988 and in 1995 purchased the Pan Pacific Hotel from the Tokyu Group to become todayâs Pixar Place Hotel. Land purchases continued through the 1990s and the company now owns 489 acres (198 ha) and has long-term lease rights to develop an additional 52 acres (21 ha). A major expansion came in 2001 when the property saw the addition of the Grand Californian Hotel, the second theme park, and the Downtown Disney shopping, dining, and entertainment district.
History
Concept and construction
Walt Disney's early concepts for an amusement park called for a "Mickey Mouse Park" located adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank (presently the site of the West Coast headquarters of ABC). As new ideas emerged, Walt and his brother Roy realized that the Burbank location would be too small for the project, and hired a consultant from Stanford Research Institute to provide them with information on locations and economic feasibility. The consultant recommended a remote location in Anaheim, adjacent to the then-under-construction Santa Ana Freeway. The consultant correctly predicted that the location â covered by orange groves at the time â would become the population center of Southern California.
Since the location was far from Southern California population centers in the 1950s, Walt Disney wanted to build a hotel so that Disneyland visitors traveling long distances could stay overnight. However, the park had depleted his financial resources, so he negotiated a deal with Hollywood producer Jack Wrather in which he would build and operate a hotel called the Disneyland Hotel across the street from Disneyland.
In 1963, city planner James Rouse, in a commencement speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, called Disneyland "the greatest piece of urban design in the United States today."[1]
1955â1998: one park, one hotel
Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, with a televised press preview event on ABC, and the inauguration drew nearly 30,000 guests on the first day [2] Despite the disastrous event, later dubbed "Black Sunday", during which several rides broke down, and other mishaps occurred, Disneyland became a huge success in its first year of operation. The hotel, which opened three months after the park, enjoyed similar success. Walt Disney wanted to build more facilities for Disneyland visitors to stay in Anaheim, but since his financial resources were drained, entrepreneurs established their own independent hotels in the area surrounding the park and hotel to capitalize on Disneyland's success.
To Walt Disney's dismay, the city of Anaheim was lax in restricting their construction, eager for the tax revenue generated by more hotels in the city. The area surrounding Disneyland became suffused with the kind of tacky atmosphere of colorful lights, flashy neon signs, and then-popular Googie architecture which he had wanted to avoid (and which years earlier had caused the city of Burbank to deny his initial request to build his project in Burbank).[4] The Anaheim Convention Center was built across the street from Disneyland's original parking lot, and residences were constructed in the area as part of the city's growth in the late 20th century. Eventually, Disneyland was "boxed in", a factor which would later lead Walt Disney to acquire a significantly larger parcel of land for the construction of Walt Disney World. The Walt Disney Company gradually acquired the land west of the park, notably the Disneyland Hotel in 1988 following Jack Wrather's death in 1984, the Pan Pacific Hotel (known today as Pixar Place Hotel) in 1995, and several properties north of the Disneyland Hotel in the mid to late 1990s.
1998â2001: planning an expansion
After Walt's and Roy's deaths in 1966 and 1971, respectively, the Walt Disney Company would go on to achieve success with the multi-park, multi-hotel resort complex business model of Walt Disney World in Florida, which opened in 1971. In the 1990s, Disney decided to turn Disneyland into a similar multi-park, multi-hotel resort destination. In 1991, Disney announced plans to build WestCOT, a theme park based on Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center, mostly on the site of the 15,167-space 100-acre (40 ha) parking lot.[5][6] Its estimated cost was US$3 billion, largely due to the cost of land that Disney would need to acquire.
However, the Euro Disney Resort, which opened in 1992, was a financial and public relations albatross for the company and Disney was unable to finance the WestCOT project, and it was cancelled in 1995. That summer, Disney executives gathered in Aspen, Colorado for a 3-day retreat, where they came up with the idea for a California-themed park, dubbed Disney's California Adventure Park, a retail district, and hotels. The budget for the project would be $1.4 billion, less than half of WestCOT, achieved by building a smaller theme park only on land Disney owned, focused on shopping and dining and using many off-the-shelf rides, avoiding costly research and development.[6] The parking lot closed on January 21, 1998 to make way for construction. To replace the lost spaces, Disney opened a seven-story, 10,250-space parking structure on July 24, 2000.[5]
California Adventure opened on February 8, 2001[7] and was widely panned by critics and early visitors,[8] leading to substantially less attendance than expected. One area of significant criticism was that the parked was aimed at adults, rather than children and families.[9] Disney executives later acknowledged that the park offered less value to visitors, with one-third as many attractions and fewer characters than Disneyland, leaving many families to chose to visit the older park instead.[10]
2001âpresent: Disneyland Resort complex
Grizzly Peak at Disney California Adventure
Disney began to quickly make changes to California Adventure, adding A Bug's Land to appeal to families and the Tower of Terror thrill ride for older guests. In late 2007, the company began a multi-year, $1.1 billion redesign and expansion plan for California Adventure (against its initial $600 million cost to build).[11][12] The most drastic changes to the park included a complete overhaul of the main entrance the construction of a new Cars Land and the addition of the World of Color nighttime show. Additionally, many of the park's off-the-shelf rides were either removed outright or re-themed to have more of a focus on Disney characters. Construction was completed in 2012.[13] The redesign and expansion of the park saw attendance rates increase dramatically.[14]
In August 2015, it was announced that Disneyland Park would receive a 14-acre Star Wars-themed land scheduled to open in 2019.[15] It opened on May 31, 2019. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is home of two attractions, Millennium Falcon â Smugglers Run, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
In October 2017, Disney announced a new Pixar Pals parking structure for the resort, which includes a 6,500-space parking structure, and a new transportation hub, which opened in July 2019.[16]
In March 2018, it was announced that A Bug's Land would close in September 2018. It was replaced by Avengers Campus on June 4, 2021.[17]
In April 2019, Disneyland announced that Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway would be coming to Disneyland in 2023. The attraction was built behind Mickey's Toontown in a former backstage area and opened on January 27, 2023.[18]
In January 2024, Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel officially reopened as Pixar Place Hotel.[19]
Future expansion and proposed DisneylandForward project
Disney announced plans to build a fourth hotel at the resort in 2016, slated for an opening in 2021.[20] In August 2018, the hotel was placed on hold indefinitely because of a dispute with the city of Anaheim.[21][22] The project was cancelled in October 2018 when the Anaheim City Council removed tax incentives.[23]
In March 2021, the Disney announced a new project for the resort called DisneylandForward. This proposal is designed to change the city of Anaheim's zoning rules so that Disney can build more theme park space for both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. Proposals have included building more space where Pixar Place Hotel and the surrounding parking lots on the west-side of the resort currently reside. Rumors have surfaced that a new version of a mixed-use Disney Springs would be built near the Toy Story parking lot.[24] In May 2024, DisneylandFoward received final approval from the Anaheim City Council.
Location
The Disneyland Resort is located several miles south of downtown Anaheim, in an area branded by the city as the Anaheim Resort near the border of neighboring Garden Grove. The resort is generally bounded by Harbor Boulevard to the east, Katella Avenue to the south, Walnut Street to the west and Ball Road to the north. Interstate 5 borders the resort at an angle on the northeastern corner.
Not all land bordered by these streets is part of the Disneyland Resort, particularly near the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Katella Avenue, and along Ball Road between Disneyland Drive and Walnut Street. Disneyland Drive cuts through the resort on a northâsouth route and provides access to the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure, Downtown Disney, and the three hotels. Magic Way connects Walnut Street to Disneyland Drive just south of the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure and provides access to the parking structure, Disneyland Hotel, and Downtown Disney.
Special off-ramps from Interstate 5 combined with a reversible flyover over the intersection of Ball Road and Disneyland Drive permit access into and out of the Mickey & Friends and Pixar Pals parking garages during peak morning and evening traffic times.
Facilities
The Disneyland Resort includes two theme parks, three hotels owned by Disney, along with a shopping, dining and entertainment complex.
Theme parks
Disneyland, the companyâs first theme park and the only built by Walt Disney, which opened on July 17, 1955.
Disney California Adventure, a theme park based on Disney's interpretation of California, which opened on February 8, 2001.
Shopping, Dining, and Entertainment
Downtown Disney, a 15-acre (6.1 ha) outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment district with approximately 30 venues, mostly operated by third parties that pay rent to Disney.
Hotels
The Disneyland Resort includes three company owned and operated hotels with approximately 2,400 rooms, 180 Disney Vacation Club villas, and 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2) of conference meeting space.
Disneyland Hotel, the resort's original hotel built by Jack Wrather which opened on October 5, 1955, and was purchased by Disney in 1988.
Pixar Place Hotel, a hotel themed to artwork created by Pixar Animation Studios. Opened in 1984 as the Emerald of Anaheim, operated by the Tokyu Group and later named The Pan Pacific Hotel Anaheim,[26] the hotel was purchased by Disney in December 1995, for a reported US$36 million, and renamed the Disneyland Pacific Hotel.[27] As part of the 1998â2001 expansion of the resort, it was re-branded as Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel.[28] The lobby and convention/banquet facilities had undergone several renovations since the re-branding, most notably in 2004 and 2005. It officially reopened as Pixar Place Hotel on January 30, 2024.
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, based on the Craftsman style of architecture of the early 1900s, which opened on January 2, 2001." (wikipedia.)
"A snap fastener, also called snap button, press button,[1] press stud,[1] press fastener, dome fastener, popper, snap and tich (or tich button), is a pair of interlocking discs, made out of a metal or plastic, commonly used in place of traditional buttons to fasten clothing and for similar purposes. A circular lip under one disc fits into a groove on the top of the other, holding them fast until a certain amount of force is applied. Different types of snaps can be attached to fabric or leather by riveting with a punch and die set specific to the type of rivet snaps used (striking the punch with a hammer to splay the tail), sewing, or plying with special snap pliers.
Snap fasteners are a noted detail in American Western wear and were also often chosen for children's clothing, as they are relatively easy for children to use compared with traditional buttons.
Invention
Modern snap fasteners were patented by German inventor Heribert Bauer in 1885 as the "Federknopf-Verschluss", a novelty fastener for men's trousers. Some attribute the invention to Bertel Sanders, of Denmark. In 1886, Albert-Pierre Raymond, of Grenoble, also obtained a patent.[2] These first versions had an S-shaped spring in the "male" disc instead of a groove.[3] Australian inventor Myra Juliet Farrell is also credited with inventing a "stitchless press stud" and the "stitchless hook and eye".[4] In America, Jack Weil (1901â2008) put snaps on his iconic Western shirts, which spread the fashion for them.[5] The Prym company has produced snap fasteners since 1903.
Use
Snaps were incorporated into military gear for their speed of use, comparative freedom from snaring, and ease of disentanglement when caught; they were particularly adapted to paratroop equipment due to the danger of snares in the myriad lines attaching a parachute canopy.
They were also adopted for use with law enforcement holsters and their myriad accessories for similar reasons â replaced in both fields largely by Velcro in recent decades.
Press studs were adopted by rodeo cowboys from the 1930s onwards, because these could be quickly undone if, in the event of a fall, the shirt became snagged in the saddle.[citation needed] Faux pearl snaps entered American mainstream Western fashion during the 1950s, when singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers incorporated them into their embroidered and fringed stage shirts." (wikipedia.)
"Disneyland is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, and opened on July 17, 1955.
Disney initially envisioned building a tourist attraction adjacent to his studios in Burbank to entertain fans who wished to visit; however, he soon realized that the proposed site was too small for the ideas that he had. After hiring the Stanford Research Institute to perform a feasibility study determining an appropriate site for his project, Disney bought a 160-acre (65 ha) site near Anaheim in 1953. The park was designed by a creative team hand-picked by Walt from internal and outside talent. They founded WED Enterprises, the precursor to today's Walt Disney Imagineering. Construction began in 1954 and the park was unveiled during a special televised press event on the ABC Television Network on July 17, 1955. Since its opening, Disneyland has undergone expansions and major renovations, including the addition of New Orleans Square in 1966, Bear Country in 1972, Mickey's Toontown in 1993, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in 2019.[2] Additionally, Disney California Adventure Park opened in 2001 on the site of Disneyland's original parking lot.
Disneyland has a larger cumulative attendance than any other theme park in the world, with 757 million visits since it opened (as of December 2021).[3] In 2022, the park had approximately 16.9 million visits, making it the second most visited amusement park in the world that year, behind only Magic Kingdom, the very park it inspired.[4] According to a 2005 Disney report, 65,700 jobs are supported by the Disneyland Resort, including about 20,000 direct Disney employees and 3,800 third-party employees (independent contractors or their employees).[5] Disney announced "Project Stardust" in 2019, which included major structural renovations to the park to account for higher attendance numbers.[6]
History
Original dedication
To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.
Walter E. Disney, July 17, 1955[7][8][9][10]
20th century
Origins
Walt Disney with Orange County officials
Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954
The concept for Disneyland began when Walt Disney was visiting Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters Diane and Sharon. While watching them ride the merry-go-round, he came up with the idea of a place where adults and their children could go and have fun together, though this idea lay dormant for many years.[11][12] The earliest documented draft of Disney's plans was sent as a memo to studio production designer Dick Kelsey on August 31, 1948, where it was referred to as a "Mickey Mouse Park", based on notes Disney made during his and Ward Kimball's trip to the Chicago Railroad Fair the same month, with a two-day stop in Henry Ford's Museum and Greenfield Village, a place with attractions like a Main Street and steamboat rides, which he had visited eight years earlier.[13][14][15][16]
When people wrote letters to Disney to inquire about visiting the Walt Disney Studios, he realized that a functional movie studio had little to offer to visiting fans, and began to foster various ideas about building a site near the Burbank studios for tourists to visit. His ideas evolved to a small play park with a boat ride and other themed areas. The initial park concept, the Mickey Mouse Park, was originally planned for an eight-acre (3.2 ha) plot to the south, across Riverside Drive from the studio. Besides Greenfield Village and the Chicago Railroad Fair, Disney was also inspired by Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, Knott's Berry Farm, Colonial Williamsburg, the Century of Progress in Chicago, and the New York's World Fair of 1939.[17]
His designers began working on concepts, though the project grew much larger than the land could hold.[18] Disney hired Harrison Price from Stanford Research Institute to identify the proper area in which to position the planned theme park based on expected future growth. Based on Price's analysis (for which he would be recognized as a Disney Legend in 2003), Disney acquired 160 acres (65 ha) of orange groves and walnut trees in Anaheim, southeast of Los Angeles in neighboring Orange County.[18][19] The small Burbank site originally considered by Disney is now home to Walt Disney Animation Studios and ABC Studios.
Difficulties in obtaining funding prompted Disney to investigate new methods of fundraising, and he decided to create a show named Disneyland. It was broadcast on then-fledgling ABC. In return, the network agreed to help finance the park. For its first five years of operation, Disneyland was owned by Disneyland, Inc., which was jointly owned by Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney, Western Publishing and ABC.[20] In addition, Disney rented out many of the shops on Main Street, U.S.A. to outside companies. By 1960, Walt Disney Productions bought out all other shares, but the partnership had already led to a lasting relationship with ABC which would eventually culminate in the Walt Disney Company's acquisition of ABC in the mid-1990s. Construction began on July 16, 1954, and cost $17 million to complete (equivalent to $153 million in 2023[21]). The park was opened one year and one day later.[22] U.S. Route 101 (later Interstate 5) was under construction at the same time just north of the site; in preparation for the traffic Disneyland was expected to bring, two more lanes were added to the freeway before the park was finished.[19]
Opening day
Disneyland was dedicated at an "International Press Preview" event held on Sunday, July 17, 1955, which was open only to invited guests and the media. Although 28,000 people attended the event, only about half of those were invitees, the rest having purchased counterfeit tickets,[23] or snuck into the park by climbing over the fence.[24] The following day, it opened to the public, featuring twenty attractions. The Special Sunday events, including the dedication, were televised nationwide and anchored by three of Walt Disney's friends from Hollywood: Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald Reagan.[25] ABC broadcast the event live, during which many guests tripped over the television camera cables.[26][page needed] In Frontierland, a camera caught Cummings kissing a dancer. When Disney started to read the plaque for Tomorrowland, he read partway then stopped when a technician off-camera said something to him, and after realizing he was on-air, said, "I thought I got a signal",[26][page needed] and began the dedication from the start. At one point, while in Fantasyland, Linkletter tried to give coverage to Cummings, who was on the pirate ship. He was not ready and tried to give the coverage back to Linkletter, who had lost his microphone. Cummings then did a play-by-play of him trying to find it in front of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.[26][page needed]
Traffic was delayed on the two-lane Harbor Boulevard.[26][page needed] Famous figures who were scheduled to show up every two hours showed up all at once. The temperature was an unusually high 101 °F (38 °C), and because of a local plumbers' strike, Disney was given a choice of having working drinking fountains or running toilets. He chose the latter, leaving many drinking fountains dry. This generated negative publicity since Pepsi sponsored the park's opening; disappointed guests believed the inoperable fountains were a cynical way to sell soda, while other vendors ran out of food. The asphalt that had been poured that morning was soft enough to let women's high-heeled shoes sink into it. Some parents threw their children over the crowd's shoulders to get them onto rides, such as the King Arthur Carrousel.[27] In later years, Disney and his 1955 executives referred to July 17, 1955, as "Black Sunday". After the extremely negative press from the preview opening, Walt Disney invited attendees back for a private "second day" to experience Disneyland properly.
At the time, and during the lifetimes of Walt and his brother Roy O. Disney, July 17 was considered a preview, with July 18 the official opening day.[24] Since then, aided by memories of the television broadcast, the company has adopted July 17 as the official date, the one commemorated every year as Disneyland's birthday.[24]
1950s and 1960s
Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo
In September 1959, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev spent thirteen days in the United States, with two requests: to visit Disneyland and to meet John Wayne, Hollywood's top box-office draw. Due to the Cold War tension and security concerns, he was famously denied an excursion to Disneyland.[28] The Shah of Iran and Empress Farah were invited to Disneyland by Walt Disney in the early 1960s.[29] There was mild controversy over the lack of African American employees. As late as 1963, civil rights group the Congress of Racial Equality, was in discussions with Disneyland officials about hiring more black people, with Disneyland telling the group they would consider their requests.[30] Unlike other amusement parks at the time, Disneyland was never racially segregated, and was open to all races since opening day.[31][32]
As part of the Casa de Fritos operation at Disneyland, "Doritos" (Spanish for "little golden things") were created at the park to recycle old tortillas that would have been discarded. The Frito-Lay Company saw the popularity of the item and began selling them regionally in 1964, and then nationwide in 1966.[33]
1970s
On August 6, 1970, an estimated 300+ anti-war Yippies entered Disneyland in a planned protest against the Vietnam War. The protestors held grievances with specific aspects of the theme park itself, such as the Aunt Jemima-themed pancake restaurant in Frontierland and the park's association with Bank of America, a subject of controversy at the time for its lending to military contractors such as Boeing.[34] The Yippies were met by an estimated 100 riot police who established lookouts within the park and another 300 on standby just outside of the entrance gates. Around 4:00 p.m., many of the Yippies occupied Tom Sawyer Island, purportedly smoking cannabis and causing cast members to halt park guests from boarding rafts to the island. An hour later, the group of Yippies converged at Main Street, U.S.A. and became confrontational with other park guests and riot police after tearing down patriotic bunting while unfurling Viet Cong and Youth International Party flags. Standby riot police entered and the park was evacuated around 5:00 p.m. when some of the insurgents approached the park's Bank of America branch, sparking concern that the building could be burned in a similar fashion to the arson of a Bank of America in Isla Vista in February 1970. Police arrested 23 park guests and it was only the second unexpected early closure in park history, the first being in response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. The incident was cited as a clash of the park management's perceived appeal to tradition following the death of Walt Disney and the growing counterculture movement among young people in the United States.[35][36]
Despite the opening of the more expansive Walt Disney World resort in 1971, Disneyland continued to set attendance records and maintained its status as a major tourist attraction. In 1972, the Bear Country land was opened and the Main Street Electrical Parade was introduced.
Disneyland underwent several changes in preparation for the United States Bicentennial. In 1974, Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress was replaced with America Sings, an audio-animatronic theater show featuring the history of American music. America on Parade debuted in 1975 and ran through 1976 in celebration of the bicentennial.
Several of the park's earliest attractions received major changes or were replaced in the mid-to-late 1970s. The Flight to the Moon attraction was rethemed as Mission to Mars in March 1975, five years after Apollo 11 had successfully landed humans on the Moon. Construction of Space Mountain began that same year adjacent to the new Mission to Mars attraction but was delayed by El Niño-related weather complications. The ride opened in 1977 to much acclaim as lines would often stretch all the way to Main Street, U.S.A. The final major change of the decade came in 1977 when the slow-paced Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland was closed and replaced by the similarly themed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rollercoaster in 1979.[37]
1980s
Fantasyland was closed for refurbishment in 1982 and reopened to the public in 1983 as "New Fantasyland."
On December 5, 1985, to celebrate Disneyland's 30th year in operation, one million balloons were launched along the streets bordering Disneyland as part of the Skyfest Celebration.[38]
1990s
In the late 1990s, work began to expand the one-park, one-hotel property. Disneyland Park, the Disneyland Hotel, the site of the original parking lot, and acquired surrounding properties were earmarked to become part of the Disneyland Resort. At that time, the property saw the addition of the Disney California Adventure theme park, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex named Downtown Disney, a remodeled Disneyland Hotel, the construction of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and the acquisition and re-branding of the Pan Pacific Hotel as Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel (known today as Pixar Place Hotel[39]). The park was renamed "Disneyland Park" to distinguish it from the larger complex under construction. Because the existing parking lot (south of Disneyland) was repurposed by these projects, the six-level, 10,250-space Mickey and Friends parking structure was constructed in the northwest corner. Upon completion in 2000, it was the largest parking structure in the United States.[40]
The park's management team during the mid-1990s was a source of controversy among fans and employees. In an effort to boost profits, various changes were begun by then-executives Cynthia Harriss and Paul Pressler. While their initiatives provided a short-term increase in shareholder returns, they drew widespread criticism for their lack of foresight. The retail backgrounds of Harriss and Pressler led to a gradual shift in Disneyland's focus from attractions to merchandising. Outside consultants McKinsey & Company were brought in to help streamline operations, resulting in many changes and cutbacks. After nearly a decade of deferred maintenance, the original park was showing signs of neglect. Fans of the park decried the perceived decline in customer value and park quality and rallied for the dismissal of the management team.[41]
21st century
Disneyland in 2005
An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004
Matt Ouimet, the former president of the Disney Cruise Line, was promoted to assume leadership of the Disneyland Resort in late 2003. Shortly afterward, he selected Greg Emmer as Senior Vice President of Operations. Emmer was a long-time Disney cast member who had worked at Disneyland in his youth prior to moving to Florida and held multiple executive leadership positions at the Walt Disney World Resort. Ouimet set about reversing certain trends, especially concerning cosmetic maintenance and a return to the original infrastructure maintenance schedule, in hopes of restoring Disneyland's former safety record. Similarly to Walt Disney, Ouimet and Emmer could often be seen walking the park during business hours with members of their respective staff, wearing cast member name badges, standing in line for attractions, and welcoming guests' comments. In July 2006, Ouimet left The Walt Disney Company to become president of Starwood. Soon after, Ed Grier, executive managing director of Walt Disney Attractions Japan, was named president of the resort. In October 2009, Grier announced his retirement, and was replaced by George Kalogridis.
The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion.
The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" was an eighteen-month-long celebration (held through 2005 and 2006) of the fiftieth anniversary of Disneyland Park, also celebrating Disneyland's milestone throughout Disney parks worldwide. In 2004, the park underwent major renovations in preparation, restoring many attractions, notably Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room. Attractions that had been in the park on opening day had one ride vehicle painted gold, and the park was decorated with fifty Golden Mickey Ears. The celebration started on May 5, 2005, and ended on September 30, 2006, and was followed by the "Year of a Million Dreams" celebration, lasting twenty-seven months and ending on December 31, 2008.
Beginning on January 1, 2010, Disney Parks hosted the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day volunteer program, in which Disney encouraged people to volunteer with a participating charity and receive a free Disney Day at either a Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World park. On March 9, 2010, Disney announced that it had reached its goal of one million volunteers and ended the promotion to anyone who had not yet registered and signed up for a specific volunteer situation.
In July 2015, Disneyland celebrated its 60th Diamond Celebration anniversary.[42] Disneyland Park introduced the Paint the Night parade and Disneyland Forever fireworks show, and Sleeping Beauty Castle was decorated in diamonds with a large "60" logo. The Diamond Celebration concluded in September 2016 and the whole decoration of the anniversary was removed around Halloween 2016.
Disneyland Park, along with Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and the resort hotels, closed indefinitely starting March 14, 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.[43][44] After nearly four months of closure, Downtown Disney reopened on July 9, 2020.[45] The parks had been scheduled to reopen on Disneyland's 65th anniversary on July 17, 2020, but due to rising cases in California, the parks' reopening was once again postponed.[46][47] It was expected to stay closed until at least December 31, 2020.[48] In February 2021, Disneyland announced a limited-capacity ticketed event called "A Touch of Disney", which would offer guests to shop at stores and enjoy eateries around the park from March 18 through April 19, 2021.[49][50] On March 5, 2021, it was announced by the California Department of Public Health that Disneyland could reopen with capacity restrictions beginning April 1, 2021.[51][52] The following week, then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that the company was planning on officially reopening the park in late April 2021.[53] Disneyland along with Disney California Adventure officially reopened on April 30, 2021, with limited capacity and social distancing/mask guidelines in effect.[54][55] The following week, the company announced a plan titled DisneylandForward to expand the park with more rides, restaurants, and shops with The Anaheim City Council expected to receive the development plans for approval by 2023.[56][57] On June 15, 2021, Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and other theme parks in California were permitted to return to full capacity with most restrictions lifted per California governor Gavin Newsom's Blueprint for a Safer Economy phased re-opening. Prior to this, Disneyland was operating at reduced guest capacity since it re-opened on April 30, 2021, after 13 months of closure due to the pandemic.[58]
On January 27, 2023, Disneyland kicked off the year-long celebration of the centennial of The Walt Disney Company, Disney100. Disneyland Park introduced the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway attraction and Wondrous Journeys fireworks show.
On April 13, 2023, it was announced that Disneyland would be holding its first official "Pride Nite", supporting the LGBTQ community. This comes 25 years after the first celebrated 'Gay Day' at Disneyland, which is identical to the Gay Days at Walt Disney World celebration.[59][60] In May 2023, a male employee of Disneyland was dressed as 'Fairy Godmother's apprentice' welcoming the visitors to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Fantasyland, generating both criticism and support on social media.[61]
On May 18, 2024, Disneyland character performers voted to join the Actors' Equity Association, with 79% voting in favor. The decision marked the first time these workers have unionized since Disneyland's opening in 1955.
Park layout and attractions
Disneyland Park consists of nine themed "lands" and a number of concealed backstage areas, and occupies over 100 acres (40 ha) with the new addition of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway that came to Mickey's Toontown in 2023.[18] The park opened with Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland, and has since added New Orleans Square in 1966, Bear Country (now known as Critter Country) in 1972, Mickey's Toontown in 1993, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in 2019.[63] In 1957, Holidayland opened to the public with a nine-acre (3.6 ha) recreation area including a circus and baseball diamond, and was closed in late 1961. Throughout the park are "Hidden Mickeys", representations of Mickey Mouse heads inserted subtly into the design of attractions and environmental decor. An elevated berm supports the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge Disneyland Railroad that circumnavigates the park.
Main Street, U.S.A.
Main article: Main Street, U.S.A. § Disneyland
Main Street, U.S.A. is patterned after a typical Midwest town of the early 20th century, and took much inspiration from Walt Disney's hometown, Marceline, Missouri.[64] Main Street, U.S.A. has a train station, town square, movie theater, city hall, firehouse with a steam-powered pump engine, emporium, shops, arcades, double-decker bus, horse-drawn streetcar, and jitneys.[65] The second-story of the firehouse is where Walt Disney had his personal apartment, where it remains today, off-limits to the public. Main Street is also home to the Disney Art Gallery and the Opera House which showcases Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, a show featuring an Audio-Animatronic version of Abraham Lincoln. At the far end of Main Street, U.S.A. is Sleeping Beauty Castle, the Partners statue, and the Central Plaza (also known as the Hub), which is a portal to most of the themed lands: the entrance to Fantasyland is by way of a drawbridge across a moat and through the castle.[66] Adventureland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland are on both sides of the castle. Several lands are not directly connected to the Central Plazaânamely, New Orleans Square, Critter Country, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Mickey's Toontown.
The design of Main Street, U.S.A. uses the technique of forced perspective to create an illusion of height.[67] Buildings along Main Street are built at 3â4 scale on the first level, then 5â8 on the second story, and 1â2 scale on the thirdâreducing the scale by 1â8 each level up.
Adventureland
Main article: Adventureland (Disney) § Disneyland
Adventureland is designed to recreate the feel of an exotic tropical place in a far-off region of the world. Attractions include Jungle Cruise, the Indiana Jones Adventure, and Adventureland Treehouse, inspired by Walt Disney's 1960 film Swiss Family Robinson.[68] Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which opened in 1963 and is located at the entrance to Adventureland, was the first attraction to employ Audio-Animatronics.
New Orleans Square
Main article: New Orleans Square
New Orleans Square is based on 19th-century New Orleans, opened on July 24, 1966.[69] It is home to Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, with nighttime entertainment Fantasmic!. This area is also the home of the private Club 33.
Frontierland
Main article: Frontierland § Disneyland
Frontierland recreates the setting of pioneer days along the American frontier and is home to animatronic Native Americans, who live on the banks of the Rivers of America. Entertainment and attractions include Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the Mark Twain Riverboat, the Sailing Ship Columbia, Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, and Frontierland Shootin' Exposition. Frontierland is also home to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon, an Old West-style show palace. On October 31, 2007, author Ray Bradbury attended the presentation of a Halloween Tree in Frontierland, to be included as part of its annual park-wide Halloween decorations every year.[70]
Critter Country
Main article: Critter Country § Disneyland
Critter Country opened in 1972 as Bear Country, and was renamed in 1988. Formerly the area was home to Indian Village, where indigenous tribespeople demonstrated their dances and other customs. Critter County's newest and main attraction will be Tiana's Bayou Adventure, a log-flume ride scheduled to open in 2024.[71][72] Other attractions include The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes.[73]
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
Main article: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge § Disneyland Park
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge is set within the Star Wars universe, in the Black Spire Outpost village on the remote frontier planet of Batuu. Attractions include the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.[74] The land opened in 2019, replacing Big Thunder Ranch and former backstage areas.[75][76]
Fantasyland
Main article: Fantasyland § Disneyland
Fantasyland is home to the dark rides Snow White's Enchanted Wish, Peter Pan's Flight, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, and Alice in Wonderland. The area also includes King Arthur Carrousel, Mad Tea Party, Storybook Land Canal Boats, and It's a Small World.[77] In addition, Sleeping Beauty Castle features a walk-through telling the story of Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, in the style of the film's production designer Eyvind Earle.
Mickey's Toontown
Main article: Mickey's Toontown § Disneyland
Mickey's Toontown opened in 1993 and was partly inspired by the fictional Toontown from the 1988 Touchstone Pictures film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Mickey's Toontown is based on a 1930s cartoon aesthetic and is home to Disney's classic cartoon characters. Toontown features three rides: Chip 'n' Dale's GADGETcoaster, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. The land also includes Mickey's House and Meet Mickey, Minnie's House, Goofy's How-To-Play Yard, and Donald's Duck Pond. Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway opened in 2023 and increased the size of Mickey's Toontown as well as the size of Disneyland Park from 99 to 101 acres (40 to 41 ha).
Tomorrowland
Main article: Tomorrowland (Disney Parks) § Disneyland
Tomorrowland currently has a "retro-future" theme reminiscent of the illustrations of Jules Verne. Attractions include Space Mountain, Star Wars Launch Bay, Autopia, the Disneyland Monorail Tomorrowland Station, Astro Orbitor, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and Star ToursâThe Adventures Continue.
Operations
Backstage
Major buildings backstage include the Frank Gehry-designed Team Disney Anaheim,[78] where most of the division's administration currently works, as well as the Old Administration Building, behind Tomorrowland.
Photography is forbidden in these areas, both inside and outside, although some photos have found their way to a variety of web sites. Guests who attempt to explore backstage are warned and often escorted from the property.[79]
Transportation
Disneyland Railroad
Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station.
Walt Disney had a longtime interest in transportation, and trains in particular. Disney's passion for the "iron horse" led to him building a miniature live steam backyard railroadâthe "Carolwood Pacific Railroad"âon the grounds of his Holmby Hills estate. Throughout all the iterations of Disneyland during the 17 or so years when Disney was conceiving it, one element remained constant: a train encircling the park.[12] The primary designer for the park transportation vehicles was Bob Gurr who gave himself the title of Director of Special Vehicle Design in 1954.[80]
Encircling Disneyland and providing a grand circle tour is the Disneyland Railroad (DRR), a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge short-line railway consisting of five oil-fired and steam-powered locomotives, in addition to three passenger trains and one passenger-carrying freight train. Originally known as the Disneyland and Santa Fe Railroad, the DRR was presented by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway until 1974. From 1955 to 1974, the Santa Fe Rail Pass was accepted in lieu of a Disneyland "D" coupon. With a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge, the most common narrow track gauge used in North America, the track runs in a continuous loop around Disneyland through each of its realms. Each 1900s-era train departs Main Street Station on an excursion that includes scheduled station stops at: New Orleans Square Station; Mickey's Toontown Depot; and Tomorrowland Station. The Grand Circle Tour then concludes with a visit to the "Grand Canyon/Primeval World" dioramas before returning passengers to Main Street, U.S.A.[81]
photo of new Monorail
Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland.
One of Disneyland's signature attractions is its Disneyland Monorail, a monorail service that opened in Tomorrowland in 1959 as the first daily-operating monorail train system in the Western Hemisphere. The monorail guideway has remained almost exactly the same since 1961, aside from small alterations while Indiana Jones Adventure was being built. Five generations of monorail trains have been used in the park since their lightweight construction means they wear out quickly. The most recent operating generation, the Mark VII, was installed in 2008. The monorail shuttles visitors between two stations, one inside the park in Tomorrowland and one in Downtown Disney. It follows a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) route designed to show the park from above. Currently, the Mark VII is running with the colors red, blue and orange. The monorail was originally a loop built with just one station in Tomorrowland. Its track was extended and a second station opened at the Disneyland Hotel in 1961. With the creation of Downtown Disney in 2001, the new destination is Downtown Disney, instead of the Disneyland Hotel. The physical location of the monorail station did not change, but the original station building was demolished as part of the hotel downsizing, and the new station is now separated from the hotel by several Downtown Disney buildings, including ESPN Zone and the Rainforest Café.[82]
Horseless carriage
Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage
All of the vehicles found on Main Street, U.S.A., grouped together as the Main Street Vehicles attraction, were designed to accurately reflect turn-of-the-century vehicles, including a 3 ft (914 mm) gauge[83] tramway featuring horse-drawn streetcars, a double-decker bus, a fire engine, and an automobile.[84] They are available for one-way rides along Main Street, U.S.A. The horse-drawn streetcars are also used by the park entertainment, including The Dapper Dans. The horseless carriages are modeled after cars built in 1903 and are two-cylinder, four-horsepower (3 kW) engines with manual transmission and steering. Walt Disney used to drive the fire engine around the park before it opened, and it has been used to host celebrity guests and in the parades. Most of the original main street vehicles were designed by Bob Gurr.
From the late 1950s to 1968, Los Angeles Airways provided regularly scheduled helicopter passenger service between Disneyland and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and other cities in the area. The helicopters initially operated from Anaheim/Disneyland Heliport, located behind Tomorrowland. Service later moved, in 1960, to a new heliport north of the Disneyland Hotel.[85] Arriving guests were transported to the Disneyland Hotel via tram. The service ended after two fatal crashes in 1968: The crash in Paramount, California, on May 22, 1968, killed 23 (the worst helicopter accident in aviation history at that time). The second crash in Compton, California, on August 14, 1968, killed 21.[86]
Effects on commercial aviation
On October 27, 2014, the United States Federal Aviation Administration declared a permanent zone of prohibited airspace around both Disneyland and some of the surrounding areas at Sleeping Beauty Castle. No aircraft, including recreational and commercial drones, are permitted to fly within this zone. This level is shared with Walt Disney World, other pieces of critical infrastructure (military bases, Pantex), and is typically temporarily established during large sporting events.[87]
Live entertainment
Disneyland Musical Chairs
Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist.
Fantasmic
Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010
In addition to the attractions, Disneyland provides live entertainment throughout the park. Most of the mentioned entertainment is not offered daily, but only on selected days of the week, or selected periods of the year.
Many Disney characters can be found throughout the park, greeting visitors, interacting with children, and posing for photos. Some characters have specific areas where they are scheduled to appear, but can be found wandering as well. Some of the rarest are characters like Rabbit (from Winnie-the-Pooh), Max, Mushu, and Agent P.[88] Periodically through recent decades (and most recently during the summers of 2005 and 2006), Mickey Mouse would climb the Matterhorn attraction several times a day with the support of Minnie, Goofy, and other performers. Other mountain climbers could also be seen on the Matterhorn from time to time. As of March 2007, Mickey and his "toon" friends no longer climb the Matterhorn but the climbing program continues. Every evening at dusk, there is a military-style flag retreat to lower the U.S. Flag by a ceremonial detail of Disneyland's Security staff. The ceremony is usually held between 4:00 and 5:00 pm, depending on the entertainment being offered on Main Street, U.S.A., to prevent conflicts with crowds and music. Disney does report the time the Flag Retreat is scheduled on its Times Guide, offered at the entrance turnstiles and other locations. The Disneyland Band, which has been part of the park since its opening, plays the role of the Town Band on Main Street, U.S.A. It also breaks out into smaller groups like the Main Street Strawhatters, the Hook and Ladder Co., and the Pearly Band in Fantasyland. However, on March 31, 2015, the Disneyland Resort notified the band members of an "end of run". The reason for doing so is that they would start a new higher energy band. The veteran band members were invited to audition for the new Disneyland band and were told that even if they did not make the new band or audition, they would still play in small groups around the park. This sparked some controversy with supporters of the traditional band.[89] Each year since 1960 during the holiday season, Disney's Candlelight Processional is performed in Town Square.
Parades
Disneyland has featured a number of different parades traveling down the park's central Main Street â Fantasyland corridor. There have been daytime and nighttime parades that celebrated Disney films or seasonal holidays with characters, music, and large floats. One of the most popular parades was the Main Street Electrical Parade, which recently ended a limited-time return engagement after an extended run at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. From May 5, 2005, through November 7, 2008, as part of Disneyland's 50th anniversary, "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" was presented, celebrating several Disney films including The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, and Pinocchio. In 2009, "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" was replaced by "Celebrate! A Street Party", which premiered on March 27, 2009. Disney did not call "Celebrate! A Street Party" a parade, but rather a "street event." During the Christmas season, Disneyland presents "A Christmas Fantasy" Parade. "Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams" was replaced by "Mickey's Soundsational Parade", which debuted on May 27, 2011.[90] Disneyland debuted a new nighttime parade called "Paint the Night", on May 22, 2015, as part of the park's 60th anniversary.[91] For two weeks in 2020 before the closure due to the , the parade "Magic Happens" debuted. There was also a virtual parade available for a limited time.[92] At D23 Expo 2022, it was announced that "Magic Happens" would return to Disneyland in spring 2023.[93]
Fireworks shows
Disneyland fireworks
Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle
Elaborate fireworks shows synchronized with Disney songs and often have appearances from Tinker Bell (and other characters) flying in the sky above Sleeping Beauty Castle. Since 2000, presentations have become more elaborate, featuring new pyrotechnics, launch techniques, and story lines. In 2004, Disneyland introduced a new air launch pyrotechnics system, reducing ground-level smoke and noise and decreasing negative environmental impacts. At the time the technology debuted, Disney announced it would donate the patents to a non-profit organization for use throughout the industry.[94] Projection mapping technology debuted on It's a Small World with the creation of The Magic, the Memories and You in 2011, and expanded to Main Street and Sleeping Beauty Castle in 2015 with the premiere of Disneyland Forever.
Regular fireworks shows:
1958â1999; 2015: Fantasy in the Sky
2000â2004: Believe... There's Magic in the Stars
2004â2005: Imagine... A Fantasy in the Sky
2005â2014; 2017â2019: Remember... Dreams Come True
2009â2014 (summer): Magical: Disney's New Nighttime Spectacular of Magical Celebrations
2019 and 2022 (summer): Disneyland Forever
Seasonal fireworks shows:
September to October: Halloween Screams
Independence Day Week: Disney's Celebrate America: A 4th of July Concert in the Sky
November to January: Believe... In Holiday Magic
Limited edition fireworks shows
60th Anniversary: Disneyland Forever
Pixar Fest: Together Forever
Get Your Ears On â A Mickey and Minnie Celebration: Mickey's Mix Magic
Disney100: Wondrous Journeys
Since 2009, Disneyland has moved to a rotating repertoire of firework spectaculars.
Scheduling of fireworks shows depends on the time of year. During the slower off-season periods, the fireworks are only offered on weekends. During the busier times, Disney offers additional nights. The park offers fireworks nightly during its busy periods, which include Easter/Spring Break, Summer and Christmas time. Disneyland spends about $41,000 per night on the fireworks show. The show is normally offered at 8:45 or 9:30 pm if the park is scheduled to close at 10 pm or later, but shows have started as early as 5:45 pm. A major consideration is the weather and wind, especially at higher altitude, which can force the delay or cancellation of the show. In response to this, alternate versions of the fireworks spectaculars have been created in recent years, solely using the projections and lighting effects. With a few minor exceptions, such as July 4 and New Year's Eve, shows must finish by 10:00 pm due to the conditions of the permit issued by the City of Anaheim.
In recent years, Disneyland uses smaller and mid-sized fireworks shells and more low-level pyrotechnics on the castle to allow guests to enjoy the fireworks spectaculars even if there is a weather issue such as high wind. This precedent is known as B-show. The first fireworks show to have this format was Believe... In Holiday Magic from the 2018 holiday season....Promotions
Every year in October, Disneyland has a Halloween promotion. During this promotion, or as Disneyland calls it a "party", areas in the park are decorated in a Halloween theme. Space Mountain and the Haunted Mansion are temporarily re-themed as part of the promotion. A Halloween party is offered on selected nights in late September and October for a separate fee, with a special fireworks show that is only shown at the party.
From early November until the beginning of January, the park is decorated for the holidays. Seasonal entertainment includes the Believe... In Holiday Magic firework show and A Christmas Fantasy Parade, while the Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World are temporarily redecorated in a holiday theme. The Sleeping Beauty Castle is snow-capped and decorated with colorful lights during the holidays." (wikipedia.)
"Disney California Adventure is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. The 72-acre (29 ha) park is themed after Disney's interpretation of California, by the use of Disney, Pixar and Marvel properties. The park opened on February 8, 2001, and is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort complex, after Disneyland.
The concept of a theme park dedicated to California arose from a meeting of Disney executives in 1995, following the cancellation of WestCOT,[1] a planned West Coast version of Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center. Construction of the park began in June 1998 and was completed by early 2001. Disney initially projected high attendance rates at the new park;[2] a series of preview openings held in January 2001 led to negative reviews, however, and after the park officially opened to the public on February 8, 2001, the company's attendance projections were never met. Disney spent the next several years incrementally adding new rides, shows, and attractions, and implementing other promotions aimed at boosting attendance. In 2007, Disney announced a major overhaul of the park consisting of new expansion as well as re-construction of existing areas of the park.[3] Construction lasted for five years and was completed in stages, culminating with the opening of Buena Vista Street and Cars Land along with the re-dedication of the park in June 2012.[4][5] The most recent addition to the park was San Fransokyo Square, which opened in August 2023.[6]
According to the Themed Entertainment Association, the park hosted approximately 9 million guests in 2022, making it the 13th-most visited theme park in the world that year.[7]
History
See also: Disneyland Resort § History, and List of Disney attractions that were never built
Concept and creation
The present-day site of Disney California Adventure was acquired by Walt Disney in the 1950s and functioned as the parking lot of Disneyland for over 40 years. After succeeding with the multi-park business model at Walt Disney World resort in Florida, the Disney company decided to turn Walt Disney's original theme park into a multi-park resort complex as well. Disneyland was boxed-in, however, because of the growth of Anaheim around the park; while the Walt Disney World property was 30,000 acres at the time, the Disneyland site was about 400. This consisted of the park itself, the 100-acre parking lot, and the newly acquired Disneyland Hotel and vacation property from the Wrather Corporation. In 1991, Disney announced plans to build WestCOT, a west coast version of what was then known as EPCOT Center, on the site of Disneyland's parking lot. The price tag of the proposed park was high and the company was facing financial and public relation problems with the newly opened Euro Disneyland (now Disneyland Paris).[8] Additionally, Disney president Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash in 1994.[9] These issues led Disney to cancel WestCOT in 1995.[10]
In the summer of 1995, Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO at the time, gathered company executives in Aspen, Colorado, to think of another idea for a second theme park in California. They broke down the Disneyland problem as follows: The majority of the people visiting Disneyland consisted primarily of California residents, locals, or those traveling from nearby states. Those who were visiting from another state or another country, probably had Disneyland as one of the several attractions to do in California. Based on this, Disney decided it would instead build a park themed to California's history and culture to keep guests at the resort instead of going off-site. This would require less expensive hotels, a single parking garage, and very little additional property acquisition, with most of the park residing on the Disneyland parking lot. Then-Disneyland president Paul Pressler relied on merchandising and retail staff instead of Imagineers to design the park. As an adult-oriented park-like Epcot, dining, and shopping were the design focus. Construction of the park began on January 22, 1998. On Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland, a Disney's California Adventure Preview Center opened in October 1998.[11] The park's construction was accompanied by Downtown Disney and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, in addition to renovation of the Disneyland Hotel and the re-theming of the Disneyland Pacific Hotel into Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel (known today as Pixar Place Hotel).[12][13]
Opening and initial criticism
Grizzly Peak
The original entrance of California Adventure, pictured in 2010
The park was expected to draw large crowds when it opened on February 8, 2001.[14] There were four districts with 22 shows and attractions and 15 restaurants.[11]
On January 14, a Los Angeles Times article stated, "Senior Disney officials acknowledge that there will be days when California Adventure will have to turn patrons away, particularly in the first weeks after the park opens, during spring break and again in the summer."[14] The attendance that year was substantially less than expected, however. This is suggested to have happened as a result of negative reviews from early visitors.[15] For example, Disney had originally planned the park to be aimed at adults, rather than children and families, which became the basis of significant criticism.[16]
The park opened to 5 million visitors in 2001 while its sister park Disneyland saw 12.3 million visitors during the same time frame.[17] Low attendance caused Disney to lower ticket prices for California Adventure, slashing as much as $10 off the park's ticket prices.[18] In its first year, the park averaged 5,000 to 9,000 visitors on weekdays and 10,000 to 15,000 on the weekends, despite having a capacity of 33,000. Visitor surveys reported that 20% of visitors to the park in its first year were satisfied with their experience.[19] By October 2001, both Wolfgang Puck and Robert Mondavi had closed their high-profile restaurants in the park,[20] citing low crowds, though Mondavi remained as a sponsor.[21]
In the 2019 documentary series The Imagineering Story, then-Walt Disney Imagineering creative executive Kevin Rafferty described how he and other Imagineers felt about the original entrance design of California Adventure:
Much to our chagrin, it didn't adhere to our fundamental design principles of theme park design. There were all these visual cues that were kind of contradictory. There were great big California letters. There was a stylized Golden Gate Bridge that was kind of foreshortened and was kind of fake and suggested that this wasn't a real place, and the supergraphics on the toy store. And the first statement that you saw when you walked into the gate with the sharp sun. And you know, frankly, you could have seen that at a shopping mall in Newport Beach. It's like 'why is it here?'[22]
Reflecting on the park's initial reception in The Imagineering Story, Barry Braverman, executive producer of California Adventure (1995â2001) stated;
What we really had was locals who love Disneyland for good reason, basically faced with a choice. Are you going to go to Disneyland or to California Adventure? Equally priced. One with one-third as many attractions, and fewer characters, and things that were intentional on our part to differentiate it. And that's a competition that California Adventure couldn't win.[23]
Early changes and expansions
Two major criticisms of the park in its first year were the lack of attractions appealing to children and the lack of a nighttime show or parade to keep visitors from leaving at nightfall. Within the first year of operation, Disney's Electrical Parade was brought to the park (where it ran until 2010[24]) as well as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire â Play It!, and several of the park's original rides and attractions were closed, such as the stage show Disney's Steps in Time and the Superstar Limo ride, which were closed in 2001 and 2002, respectively. During the 2001 holiday season, Disney's LuminAria was presented on Paradise Bay. In October 2002, Flik's Fun Fair opened as part of the new A Bug's Land area, which added attractions for children, and in May 2004, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened as another E ticket,[25] with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire â Play It! closing in August 2004.[26] The park also regularly featured seasonal promotions such as concert series, food festivals, and promotions for other Walt Disney Company franchises including the X Games and ABC soap operas. Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! opened in the former Superstar Limo building in January 2006.[citation needed]
Major redesign and expansion
Re-dedication
To all who come to this place of dreams, welcome. Disney California Adventure celebrates the spirit of optimism and the promise of endless opportunities, ignited by the imagination of daring dreamers such as Walt Disney and those like him who forever changedâand was forever changed byâThe Golden State. This unique place embraces the richness and diversity of California... Its land, its people, its stories, and, above all, the dreamers it continues to inspire.
Robert A. Iger, June 15, 2012, On the plaque of the flagpole in Buena Vista Plaza on Buena Vista Street
By 2007, Disney began making plans for major updates to the park. CEO Bob Iger said, "Any time you do something mediocre with your brand, that's withdrawal. California Adventure was a brand withdrawal." Iger briefly considered combining California Adventure and Disneyland Park into one large park, but the price would have cost as much as completely remodeling California Adventure.[27] On October 17, 2007, The Walt Disney Company announced a multi-year, $1.1 billion redesign and expansion plan for Disney's California Adventure Park (against its initial $600 million cost to build).[28][29] Each district was reimagined to transform the park from a spoof of modern California culture to a romanticized, idealized version of the state, exploring specific time periods and historic settings inspired by Disney and Pixar stories. The project began in December 2007 and was completed in stages. Toy Story Midway Mania! opened in Paradise Pier in June 2008, in space formerly occupied by a store and restaurants. World of Color, nighttime water and lights show on Paradise Bay, opened in June 2010. That same year, the park also received a modified name; Disney California Adventure.[30] The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure opened on the site formerly occupied by the Golden Dreams theater in June 2011.[31]
Victorian-style architecture in Paradise Pier in 2010
The most drastic changes to the park included a complete overhaul of the main entrance, Sunshine Plaza, and Paradise Pier and an expansion into the last of the parking area originally designated as future growth space for the park. The main entrance and Sunshine Plaza were changed from a giant postcard design into Buena Vista Street, a representation of Los Angeles as it appeared when Walt Disney moved there in the 1920s. The giant "California" letters in front of the turnstiles were removed and donated to Cal Expo in Sacramento. Paradise Pier was turned from a contemporary representation of California boardwalks into a representation of Victorian seaside amusement parks of the 1920s, and some of the area's off-the-shelf rides were either removed outright (Maliboomer) or re-themed to have more of a focus on Disney characters (Mickey's Fun Wheel, Goofy's Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings). Cars Land, an area that recreates Radiator Springs from Disney·Pixar's Cars film franchise, was added to the southeast portion of the park and features three rides, including the E ticket Radiator Springs Racers. Construction was completed in 2012 and the park was then re-dedicated on June 15, 2012.[32]
View of the park in 2012.
The redesign and expansion of the park saw attendance rates increase dramatically. In 2012, Disney California Adventure reached a record high for the park of over 7 million visitors (a 23% increase from the year before), a number Disney had hoped the park would attain in its first year.[33] The day of the park's rededication saw the park draw a record number of 43,000 visitors in one day. The night before the rededication, over 500 people camped outside of the park in order to be the first admitted in. Two days later, the park hit a new record of 45,000 visitors.[34] In 2013, speaking on the attendance increase at Disney California Adventure, Jay Rasulo, then-Disney's chief financial officer, said: "We had a very uneven distribution where most people spent most of their time at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure was empty. Now, half of the folks go to one, half of the folks go to the other. It's almost a dream come true."[35]
Subsequent updates
In 2015, the Condor Flats area of the park was re-themed into Grizzly Peak Airfield and was incorporated into the Grizzly Peak area.[36] The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror closed in January 2017 and was replaced with Guardians of the Galaxy â Mission: Breakout!, which opened in summer of the same year.[37] Pixar Pier, a re-theme of Paradise Pier, debuted in June 2018, with the area that includes Silly Symphony Swings, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Goofy's Sky School, Golden Zephyr and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure becoming Paradise Gardens Park.[38] In September 2018, A Bug's Land was removed to make room for Avengers Campus. In addition, Jessie's Critter Carousel (a re-theme of King Triton's Carousel of the Sea) officially opened in Pixar Pier in April 2019, and the A Bug's Land spinner ride Flik's Flyers was re-themed into Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and relocated to Pixar Pier later that year at the former site of Maliboomer. Avengers Campus opened in 2021,[39][40][41] with Guardians of the Galaxy â Mission: Breakout! then becoming part of it.[42] San Fransokyo Square, a re-theme of the Pacific Wharf area, debuted in late August 2023....Park layout and attractions
See also: List of Disney California Adventure attractions and List of former Disney California Adventure attractions
Disney California Adventure is divided into nine themed lands; Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land, Avengers Campus, Cars Land, San Fransokyo Square, Performance Corridor, Pixar Pier, Paradise Gardens Park, and Grizzly Peak.
Buena Vista Street
Buena Vista Street is the first area seen upon entering the park. It represents Los Angeles in the 1920s, when Walt Disney first arrived there. Similar to Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland Park, it has shops, restaurants, and a transportation system. Its central hub has entrances to Hollywood Land and Grizzly Peak. In the hub's center, also known as Carthay Circle, is a replica of the Carthay Circle Theater, where Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves debuted in 1937. Guests can ride from Buena Vista Street to the end of Hollywood Land on the Red Car Trolley. It stops at Kingswell Camera Shop, and the Carthay Circle Restaurant. Other restaurants along the street include Mortimer's Market; Trolley Treats; Clarabelle's Hand Scooped Ice Cream; and Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe. Main stores along the street include Oswald's, Five & Dime, Big Top Toys, Kingswell Camera Shop, and Elias & Co.
Hollywood Land
Main article: Hollywood Land
Hollywood Land is inspired by the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s.[57] It includes attractions based on film, television, theater and a subsection called Hollywood Studios, which is designed to appear as an active studio backlot. Found within that subsection is the 3D film Mickey's PhilharMagic and the Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! attraction, a dark ride based on the characters from Disney·Pixar's Monsters, Inc. The land is also home to the 2000-seat Hyperion Theater, which most recently presented Rogers: The Musical. Between Monster's Inc. and Mickey's Philharmagic is Stage 17, which most recently housed Backlot Premiere Shop, a large store that was dedicated to carrying Marvel merchandise.[citation needed]
Disney Junior â Live on Stage! opened on March 25, 2011, in the Disney Theater, and has featured stage productions such as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, and Jake and the Never Land Pirates. Its final day of performance was April 9, 2017. It was replaced by Disney Junior Dance Party, which opened on May 26, 2017, and currently features Mickey and the Roadster Racers, Doc McStuffins, and Vampirina. Next door to Disney Theater is the Animation Building, which hosts Sorcerer's Workshop (a walk-through exhibit focused on basic animation), Animation Academy (a workshop that teaches Guests how to draw popular Disney characters), Turtle Talk with Crush, and an Elsa & Anna Meet and Greet. Outside of the Animation Building and Disney Theater are the land's two main stores: Off the Page and Gone Hollywood.[citation needed]
The restroom facilities in the district are designed in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright's Storer House, located in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. The stamped concrete structure is typical of Wright's pioneering design.[citation needed]
Avengers Campus
Main article: Avengers Campus
Avengers Campus is inspired by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), featuring attractions based on characters originating from Marvel Comics and appearing in MCU media. The area is anchored around an Avengers campus located on the former restricted grounds of a California Stark Industries and Strategic Scientific Reserve complex. Attractions and restaurants include Guardians of the Galaxy â Mission: Breakout!, Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure, the Ancient Sanctum, and the Pym Test Kitchen. The area opened on June 4, 2021, on the former site of A Bug's Land, after its July 2020 opening was delayed due to the .
Cars Land
Main article: Cars Land
Cars Land is a tribute to Route 66 and is a recreation of the town of Radiator Springs from Disney·Pixar's 2006 film Cars on the town's big race day. The land spans 12 acres (49,000 m2) and contains three attractions. The largest attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, is a dark ride that utilizes the technology of Test Track at Epcot. With a budget of an estimated US$200 million, Radiator Springs Racers is the most expensive theme park ride ever built.[60]
The other attractions at Cars Land are family attractions with smaller height requirements: Mater's Junkyard Jamboree and Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree opened with Cars Land in 2012. Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters opened on March 7, 2016, and replaced Luigi's Flying Tires.
The land includes several dining and shopping venues. The district serves as a connection between San Fransokyo Square, Hollywood Land, and Avengers Campus.
In September 2017, Cars Land received Halloween decorations during Halloween Time at the Disneyland Resort. Two Cars Land attractions, Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, became Luigi's Honkin' Haul-O-Ween and Mater's Graveyard JamBOOree. Cars Land also receives holiday overlays, where Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters becomes Luigi's Joy to the Whirl, and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree becomes Mater's Jingle Jamboree.
San Fransokyo Square
Located between Cars Land and Pixar Pier, San Fransokyo Square is a waterfront neighborhood inspired by California's fishing wharfs. San Fransokyo, as seen in Disney's 2014 film Big Hero 6, is a combination of San Francisco and Tokyo. The story of San Fransokyo Square is set after the events of the film, with the waterfront neighborhood holding a celebration in honor of the Big Hero 6 superhero team. Most of the signage in the area includes Japanese translations. The area's restaurants include Ghirardelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop, Lucky Fortune Cookery, Aunt Cass CafĂ© (Boudin Bakery), Rita's Turbine Blenders, Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill, and Port of San Fransokyo CervecerĂa (Karl Strauss Brewing Company). The area's shops include San Fransokyo Maker's Market. San Fransokyo Square is also home to The Bakery Tour.
Performance Corridor
The Performance Corridor area hosts the park's parades and cavalcades, with most starting in Paradise Gardens Park and traveling north through the Performance Corridor towards Buena Vista Street. The Performance Corridor area hosts many of the Resort's seasonal and cultural celebrations throughout the year. Some of these celebrations include the Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival in the spring, the Dia de los Muertos celebration during the fall (with two shows, A Musical Celebration of Coco and Mariachi Divas), the Festival of the Holidays (with "Disney Viva Navidad Street Party" and "Mickey's Happy Holidays"), and the Lunar New Year Festival (with "Mulan's Lunar New Year Processional"). The area has no attractions, but several dining locations.
Pixar Pier
Main article: Pixar Pier
Pixar Pier is inspired by Victorian boardwalks that were once found along the coast of California. The area is themed after films produced by Pixar Animation Studios, and is divided into four districts; Incredibles Park, Toy Story Boardwalk, Pixar Promenade, and Inside Out Headquarters. Its attractions include the Pixar Pal-A-Round, Incredicoaster, Jessie's Critter Carousel, Games of Pixar Pier, Toy Story Midway Mania, and the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind. Its main stores are Knick's Knacks, Midway Mercantile, and Bing Bong's Sweet Stuff, and offers table-service dining at the Lamplight Lounge. It is connected to Paradise Gardens Park at both ends; its main entrance is via a bridge under a large Pixar Pier gateway.[citation needed]
Paradise Gardens Park
Main article: Paradise Gardens Park
Paradise Gardens Park has direct entrances to Pixar Pier, San Fransokyo Square and Grizzly Peak. The Paradise Gardens Park area is a prominent place to watch the World of Color water show and for taking photos with Pixar Pier as a backdrop. Paradise Garden's five attractions include Goofy's Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Golden Zephyr, and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure.
Grizzly Peak
Main article: Grizzly Peak
Grizzly Peak is themed around California's wilderness and national parks, with particular references to Yosemite and Redwood national parks. Its main attraction is Grizzly River Run, a Gold Rush-esque river rapids ride around the area's summit. Nearby is the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, a playground area with elements from Disney's Brother Bear (2003) and Pixar's Up (2009). It has an entrance exclusively accessible to guests of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.
Grizzly Peak Airfield is a sub-land within Grizzly Peak, themed to an airfield in California's High Sierras in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The area's main attraction is Soarin', which simulates a hang-glider tour of locations, landscapes and landmarks across six of the world's continents. The area also has the Smokejumpers Grill counter-service restaurant, a shop, and a decorative fire lookout tower.[61]
Former areas
Sunshine Plaza
Sunshine Plaza was the first land guests would find after entering Disney California Adventure. It featured two stores, Engine Ears Toys and Greetings from California. At the center of the plaza was the "Sun Icon".
The land closed in 2010[62] and was replaced by Buena Vista Street in 2012.
Bountiful Valley Farm
Bountiful Valley Farm was a themed area presented by Caterpillar. It featured farm equipment, different crops, and fake animals. When A Bug's Land opened in 2002, the district was absorbed into the land. Caterpillar ended their sponsorship in 2007 and the area closed in 2010. It was replaced by Cars Land.[63] A tribute to Bountiful Valley Farm can be found in Pym Test Kitchen in Avengers Campus on the labels of the enlarged ketchup and mustard bottles over the condiment station.[64]
Paradise Pier
Paradise Pier opened in 2001 with the park. It featured attractions such as California Screaminâ, Maliboomer, The Sun Wheel and King Triton's Carousel of the Sea. The land closed in 2018 and reopened as Pixar Pier.[65]
A Bug's Land
Flik's Flyers as it appeared in A Bug's Land
Main article: A Bug's Land
A Bug's Land (stylized "a bug's land") was seen from the point of view of Flik, the inventor ant from the Disney·Pixar film A Bug's Life, where oversized human items were scattered throughout. It featured Flik's Fun Fair (a collection of themed, family and child-friendly attractions such as Flik's Flyers, Francis' Ladybug Boogie, Tuck & Roll's Drive 'em Buggies, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, and Dot's Puddle Park). It opened as the park's first expansion in 2002 to expand the park's family-friendly attractions. The land was built around the existing attraction It's Tough to Be a Bug!, a 3D film based on A Bug's Life, which opened with the park in 2001.
It's Tough to Be a Bug! closed on March 19, 2018. The rest of A Bug's Land closed on September 4, 2018, to make way for Avengers Campus.[66] When A Bug's Land closed in 2018, Flik's Flyers was re-themed into Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind and relocated to Pixar Pier.
Pacific Wharf
Located between Cars Land and Pixar Pier, Pacific Wharf was themed to resemble the old waterfront of Monterey, California as a tribute to its fishing industry. Its attractions were The Bakery Tour and the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar.[67][68][69] This area was primarily an outdoor food court.
In September 2022, it was announced that Pacific Wharf would be re-themed to San Fransokyo, a combination of San Francisco and Tokyo, as seen in Disney's 2014 film Big Hero 6.[70] In February 2023, it was announced that the name of the re-themed area would be San Fransokyo Square.[71] The area debuted on August 31, 2023.....Live entertainment
Live performances
In the Hyperion Theater, guests were able to see Frozen â Live at the Hyperion, an hour-long musical version of the film of the same name. The show used projections and special effects to create the fictional kingdom of Arendelle with Anna, Elsa, Olaf and Kristoff. Frozen â Live at the Hyperion at the Hyperion Theater opened to the public on May 27, 2016, and closed following the park's reopening in April 2021.
Five and Dime is a traveling street show featuring the musical talents of Dime and her five bandmates. They can be seen driving through Hollywood Land in their 1920s-style car.[75] Following the reopening of Disney California Adventure, the performance has now shifted to a stage in front of the Carthay Circle fountain
Red Car Newsboys is Disney California Adventure's lively street show featuring singing, dancing newsboys, and a surprise character visit.[75]
World of Color is nighttime water and light spectacular that transforms Paradise Bay into a water canvas. The 22-minute water show features scenes from popular Disney and Pixar films and can be used with the Made with Magic ears and accessories. During the holiday season, a holiday version of the show is offered.[75]
Paint the Night Parade came to Disney California Adventure after being in Disneyland.[75]
Character experiences
Anna and Elsa's Royal Welcome. The two sisters of Frozen, plus Olaf, and occasionally Kristoff, meet guests daily at Disney Animation.
Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) characters Captain America, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther currently meet guests daily in Avengers Campus. Additionally, Thor, Loki, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Doctor Strange occasionally meet guests in Avengers Campus, either at designated meet locations or as roaming encounters. Groot (Marvel Cinematic Universe) also meets guests daily in front of the Guardians of the Galaxy â Mission: Breakout! attraction and sometimes joins Star-Lord and Gamora during the Guardians of the Galaxy - Awesome Dance-Off! daily street show performances. Characters introduced in recent MCU installments appear in Avengers Campus for a limited time, and will get rotated on and off with others.
Lightning McQueen, Mater, Red and Cruz Ramirez make appearances outside of The Cozy Cone in Cars Land.
Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Sulley, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and other Pixar characters meet guests at various locations within Pixar Pier.
The Pixar Pals cavalcade began following the reopening of the Park in summer 2021. Throughout the day, a green army man drives a jeep full of Andy's toys, and is followed by characters from various Pixar films, including Woody, Jessie, Bo Peep, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone.
Hiro Hamada and Baymax meet guests in San Fransokyo Square.
Annual events
The Lunar New Year Celebration (originally begun as the Happy Lunar New Year Celebration at Disneyland) is a festival first held at Disney California Adventure in 2013.[76] The festival celebrates the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures and includes Asian-inspired foods and a Mulan-themed processional, taking place in January and February. The event was canceled for 2021 due to the closure of the park as a result of the and resumed in 2022. The 2024 festival took place from January 23, 2024, to February 18, 2024, and in previous years has featured "Hurry Home â Lunar New Year Celebration", a water show preceding the World of Color, calligraphy demonstrations, the Lucky Wishes Wall and Disney character appearances, including Mulan from Mulan, Raya of Raya and the Last Dragon and Mei and Ming from Turning Red.[77]
The Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, inaugurated in 2006, suspended in 2011 and revived in 2016 following a hiatus induced by park construction projects, is an annual festival celebrating the cuisine, wine, and beer of California, taking place during spring.[78] It ended abruptly after two weeks in 2020 and was canceled for 2021, both as a consequence of the before returning in 2022 with the re-opening of the park. The 2024 edition of the festival will run from March 1, 2024, to April 22, 2024, and has historically featured live entertainment, culinary demonstrations, winemaker receptions and tasting seminars.[79]
Oogie Boogie Bash is a separately ticketed after hours event begun in 2019 taking place on selected nights in September and October.[80] The park closes to regular guests several hours early and Bash attendees are treated to special Halloween-themed activities, such as a music and light projection show entitled "Villainous!", an overlay of the Redwood Challenge Creek Trail area called Villains Grove, the DescenDANCE party and Mickey's Trick & Treat Show, the Frightfully Fun Parade, character meet and greets and Disney villain-themed trick or treat candy stations. Event-exclusive food items are available for purchase. Oogie Boogie Bash was canceled for the 2020 Halloween season as a result of the closure of the park due to the . It was held again in fall 2021, featuring three new villain treat trails (including Sid from Disney·Pixar's Toy Story, Cruella from Walt Disney Studios's Cruella (2021), and Agatha Harkness from Marvel Studios's WandaVision).[81] The 2022 Bash began on September 6, 2022 and ran until October 31, 2022, and did not feature the Villainous! show. New treat trail villains include Ernesto de la Cruz from Coco, Mad Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone, and Mother Gothel from Tangled. The 2023 dates for Oogie Boogie Bash were Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from September 5, 2023, through October 31, 2023. Neither the DescenDANCE party nor the Villainous! show returned from previous Bash iterations. The new appearing villains were Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Yokai from Big Hero 6.
Disney Festival of Holidays is a festival inspired by cultural traditions, started in 2016 and taking place in winter.[82][83] The festival celebrates traditions from holidays including Christmas, Navidad, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa and Three Kings Day. The main attraction is the Festive Foods Marketplace, offering multicultural and diverse cuisine at participating kiosks. The event returned for its second year during the 2017 holiday season, and added new entertainment and dining options.[84] The event did not take place for the 2020-21 winter season due to the closure of the park as a result of the but returned for the 2021-22 winter season. The 2023-24 winter season festival ran from November 10, 2023 to January 7, 2024, with live entertainment such as Mickey's Happy Holidays dance party and Holiday Toy Drummers, several musical and dance acts, a Santa meet and greet at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and holiday-themed overlays for the Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree attractions in Cars Land." (wikipedia.)
"The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing its name to the Walt Disney Company in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse,[4] who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.
After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.[5]
The company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, Star+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world.
Disney is one of the biggest and best-known companies in the world and has been ranked number 53 on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of biggest companies in the United States by revenue. In 2023, the company's seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 87.[6] Since its founding, the company has won 135 Academy Awards, 26 of which have been awarded to Walt. The company has been said to have produced some of the greatest films of all time, as well as revolutionizing the theme park industry. The company, which has been public since 1940, trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with ticker symbol DIS and has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1991. In August 2020, about two-thirds of the stock was owned by large financial institutions. The company celebrated their 100th anniversary on October 16, 2023.
1950â1967: Live-action films, television, Disneyland, and Walt Disney's death
In the 1950s, Disney returned to producing full-length animated feature films, beginning with Cinderella (1950), the studio's first in 8 years. A critical and commercial success, Cinderella saved the studio after the financial pitfalls of the wartime era; it was Disney's most financially successful film since Snow White, making $8 million in its first year. Walt began to reduce his involvement with the studio's animation, focusing his attention on the company's increasingly diverse portfolio of projects including live-action films (of which Treasure Island was the studio's first), television and amusement parks.[80][81] In 1950 the company made its first foray into television when NBC aired "One Hour in Wonderland", a promotional program for Disney's next animated film, Alice in Wonderland (1951), and sponsored by Coca-Cola.[82] Alice was financially unsuccessful, falling $1 million short of the production budget.[83] In February 1953, Disney's next animated film Peter Pan was released to financial success;[84] it was the last Disney film distributed by RKO after Disney ended its contract and created its own distribution company Buena Vista Distribution.[85]
Several men looking at plans together
Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954
According to Walt, he first had the idea of building an amusement park during a visit to Griffith Park with his daughters. He said he watched them ride a carousel and thought there "should be ... some kind of amusement enterprise built where the parents and the children could have fun together".[86][87] Initially planning the construction of an eight-acre (3.2 ha) Mickey Mouse Park near the Burbank studio, Walt changed the planned amusement park's name to Disneylandia, then to Disneyland.[88] A new company, WED Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering), was formed in 1952 to design and construct the park.[89] Drawing inspiration from amusement parks in the US and Europe, Walt approached the design of Disneyland with an emphasis on thematic storytelling and cleanliness, innovative approaches for amusement parks of the time.[90][91] The plan to build the park in Burbank was abandoned when Walt realized 8 acres would not be enough to accomplish his vision. Disney acquired 160 acres (65 ha) of orange groves in Anaheim, southeast of LA in neighboring Orange County, at $6,200 per acre to build the park.[92] Construction began in July 1954.
To finance the construction of Disneyland, Disney sold his home at Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs and the company promoted it with a television series of the same name aired on ABC.[93] The Disneyland television series, which would be the first in a long-running series of successful anthology television programs for the company, was a success and garnered over 50% of viewers in its time slot, along with praise from critics.[94] In August, Walt formed another company Disneyland, Inc. to finance the park, whose construction costs totaled $17 million.[95]
Children wearing white shirts with their names on them and Mickey Mouse ears
Man dressed as Davy Crockett with a rifle in his hand, alongside two men in the background
(left to right) Cast for The Mickey Mouse Club, which over 10 million children would watch every day, and Fess Parker as Davy Crockett in the show of the same name, which sold 10 million Crockett coonskin caps and over 10 million records of its theme song
In October, with the success of Disneyland, ABC allowed Disney to produce The Mickey Mouse Club, a variety show for children; the show included a daily Disney cartoon, a children's newsreel, and a talent show. It was presented by a host, and talented children and adults called "Mousketeers" and "Mooseketeers", respectively.[96] After the first season, over ten million children and five million adults watched it daily; and two million Mickey Mouse ears, which the cast wore, were sold.[97] In December 1954, the five-part miniseries Davy Crockett, premiered as part of Disneyland, starring Fess Parker. According to writer Neal Gabler, "[It] became an overnight national sensation", selling 10 million Crockett coonskin caps.[98] The show's theme song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" became part of American pop culture, selling 10 million records. Los Angeles Times called it "the greatest merchandising fad the world had ever seen".[99][100] In June 1955, Disney's 15th animated film Lady and the Tramp was released and performed better at the box office than any other Disney films since Snow White.[101]
Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955; it was a major media event, broadcast live on ABC with actors Art Linkletter, Bob Cummings, and Ronald Reagan hosting. It garnered over 90 million viewers, becoming the most-watched live broadcast to that date.[102] While the park's opening day was disastrous (restaurants ran out of food, the Mark Twain Riverboat began to sink, other rides malfunctioned, and the drinking fountains were not working in the 100 °F. (38 °C) heat),[103][95] the park became a success with 161,657 visitors in its first week and 20,000 visitors a day in its first month. After its first year, 3.6 million people had visited, and after its second year, four million more guests came, making it more popular than the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park. That year, the company earned a gross total of $24.5 million compared to the $11 million the previous year.[104]
two older men looking into the camera
The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s.
Disney continued to delegate much of the animation work to the studio's top animators, known as the Nine Old Men. The company produced an average of five films per year throughout the 1950s and 60s.[105] Animated features of this period included Sleeping Beauty (1959), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), and The Sword in the Stone (1963).[106] Sleeping Beauty was a financial loss for the company, and at $6 million, had the highest production costs up to that point.[107] One Hundred and One Dalmatians introduced an animation technique using the xerography process to electromagnetically transfer the drawings to animation cels, resulting in a transformed art style for the studio's animated films.[108] In 1956, the Sherman Brothers, Robert and Richard, were asked to produce a theme song for the television series Zorro.[109] The company hired them as exclusive staff songwriters, an arrangement that lasted 10 years. They wrote many songs for Disney's films and theme parks, and several were commercial hits.[110][111] In the late 1950s, Disney ventured into comedy with the live-action films The Shaggy Dog (1959), which became the highest-grossing film in the US and Canada for Disney at over $9 million,[112] and The Absent Minded Professor (1961), both starring Fred MacMurray.[106][113]
Teenage girl with blonde hair in a white dress looking into the camera
Black and white photo of a young man looking into the camera
(left to right) Hayley Mills and Kurt Russell were two of Disney's most prominent child actors in the 1960s.
Disney also made live-action films based on children's books including Pollyanna (1960) and Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Child actor Hayley Mills starred in Pollyanna, for which she won an Academy Juvenile Award. Mills starred in 5 other Disney films, including a dual role as the twins in The Parent Trap (1961).[114][115] Another child actor, Kevin Corcoran, was prominent in many Disney live-action films, first appearing in a serial for The Mickey Mouse Club, where he would play a boy named Moochie. He worked alongside Mills in Pollyanna, and starred in features such as Old Yeller (1957), Toby Tyler (1960), and Swiss Family Robinson.[116] In 1964, the live action/animation musical film Mary Poppins was released to major commercial success and rapturous critical acclaim, becoming the year's highest-grossing film and winning five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews as Poppins and Best Song for the Sherman Brothers', who also won Best Score for the film's "Chim Chim Cher-ee".[117][118]
Black and white photo of a man posing and looking into the camera
Black and white photo of a man looking into the camera
(left to right) Dean Jones, "the figure who most represented Walt Disney Productions in the 1960s",[119] and Fred MacMurray, who starred in Disney comedies in the 1960s
Throughout the 1960s, Dean Jones, whom The Guardian called "the figure who most represented Walt Disney Productions in the 1960s", starred in 10 Disney films, including That Darn Cat! (1965), The Ugly Dachshund (1966), and The Love Bug (1968).[119][120] Disney's last child actor of the 1960s was Kurt Russell, who had signed a ten-year contract.[121] He featured in films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit (1968) alongside Dean Jones, The Barefoot Executive (1971), and The Strongest Man in the World (1975).[122]
In late 1959, Walt had an idea to build another park in Palm Beach, Florida, called the City of Tomorrow, a city that would be full of technological improvements.[123] In 1964, the company chose land southwest of Orlando, Florida to build the park and acquired 27,000 acres (10,927 ha). On November 15, 1965, Walt, along with Roy and Florida's governor Haydon Burns, announced plans for a park called Disney World, which included Magic Kingdomââa larger version of Disneylandâââand the City of Tomorrow, at the park's center.[124] By 1967, the company had made expansions to Disneyland, and more rides were added in 1966 and 1967, at a cost of $20 million.[125] The new rides included Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which was the first attraction to use Audio-Animatronics; Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, which debuted at the 1964 New York World's Fair before moving to Disneyland in 1967; and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.[126]
Three men at a table with microphones in front of them announcing something
Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965
On November 20, 1964, Walt sold most of WED Enterprise to Walt Disney Productions for $3.8 million after being persuaded by Roy, who thought Walt having his own company would cause legal problems. Walt formed a new company called Retlaw to handle his personal business, primarily Disneyland Railroad and Disneyland Monorail.[127] When the company started looking for a sponsor for the project, Walt renamed the City of Tomorrow, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (Epcot).[128] Walt, who had been a heavy smoker since World War I, died on December 15, 1966, aged 65, of lung cancer.[129][130]
1967â1984: Roy O. Disney's leadership and death, Walt Disney World, animation industry decline, and Touchstone Pictures
In 1967, the last two films Walt had worked on were released; the animated film The Jungle Book, which was Disney's most successful film for the next two decades, and the live-action musical The Happiest Millionaire.[131][132] After Walt's death, the company largely abandoned animation, but made several live-action films.[133][134] Its animation staff declined from 500 to 125 employees, with the company only hiring 21 people from 1970-77.[135]
Disney's first post-Walt animated film The Aristocats was released in 1970; according to Dave Kehr of Chicago Tribune, "the absence of his [Walt's] hand is evident".[136] The following year, the anti-fascist musical Bedknobs and Broomsticks was released and won the Oscar for Best Special Visual Effects.[137] At the time of Walt's death, Roy was ready to retire but wanted to keep Walt's legacy alive; he became the first CEO and chairman of the company.[138][139] In May 1967, Roy had legislation passed by Florida's legislatures to grant Disney World its own quasi-government agency in an area called Reedy Creek Improvement District. Roy changed Disney World's name to Walt Disney World to remind people it was Walt's dream.[140][141] EPCOT became less the City of Tomorrow, and more another amusement park.[142]
After 18 months of construction at a cost of around $400 million, Walt Disney World's first park the Magic Kingdom, along with Disney's Contemporary Resort and Disney's Polynesian Resort,[143] opened on October 1, 1971, with 10,400 visitors. A parade with over 1,000 band members, 4,000 Disney entertainers, and a choir from the US Army marched down Main Street. The icon of the park was the Cinderella Castle. On Thanksgiving Day, cars traveling to the Magic Kingdom caused traffic jams along interstate roads.[144][145]
On December 21, 1971, Roy died of cerebral hemorrhage at St. Joseph Hospital.[139] Donn Tatum, a senior executive and former president of Disney, became the first non-Disney-family-member to become CEO and chairman. Card Walker, who had been with the company since 1938, became its president.[146][147] By June 30, 1973, Disney had over 23,000 employees and a gross revenue of $257,751,000 over a nine-month period, compared to the year before when it made $220,026,000.[148] In November, Disney released the animated film Robin Hood (1973), which became Disney's biggest international-grossing movie at $18 million.[149] Throughout the 1970s, Disney released live-action films such as The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes' sequel Now You See Him, Now You Don't;[150] The Love Bug sequels Herbie Rides Again (1974) and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977);[151][152] Escape to Witch Mountain (1975);[153] and Freaky Friday (1976).[154] In 1976, Card Walker became CEO of the company, with Tatum remaining chairman until 1980, when Walker replaced him.[138][147] In 1977, Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son and the only Disney working for the company, resigned as an executive because of disagreements with company decisions.[155]
In 1977, Disney released the successful animated film The Rescuers, which grossed $48 million.[156] The live-acton/animated musical Pete's Dragon was released in 1977, grossing $16 million in the US and Canada, but was a disappointment to the company.[157][158] In 1979, Disney's first PG-rated film and most expensive film to that point at $26 million The Black Hole was released, showing Disney could use special effects. It grossed $35 million, a disappointment to the company, which thought it would be a hit like Star Wars (1977). The Black Hole was a response to other Science fiction films of the era.[159][160]
In September, 12 animators, which was over 15% of the department, resigned. Led by Don Bluth, they left because of a conflict with the training program and the atmosphere, and started their own company Don Bluth Productions.[161][162] In 1981, Disney released Dumbo to VHS and Alice in Wonderland the following year, leading Disney to eventually release all its films on home media.[163] On July 24, Walt Disney's World on Ice, a two-year tour of ice shows featuring Disney charters, made its premiere at the Brendan Byrne Meadowlands Arena after Disney licensed its characters to Feld Entertainment.[164][165] The same month, Disney's animated film The Fox and the Hound was released and became the highest-grossing animated film to that point at $40 million.[166] It was the first film that did not involve Walt and the last major work done by Disney's Nine Old Men, who were replaced with younger animators.[135]
A castle painted blue and pink with the bottom layer being made of stone bricks
Blue and white castle with the bottom layer being made of stone bricks
ginormous ball made of triangles
(left to right) Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle, Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle, and Epcot's Spaceship Earth are each park's main icon.
As profits started to decline, on October 1, 1982, Epcot, then known as EPCOT Center, opened as the second theme park in Walt Disney World, with around 10,000 people in attendance during the opening.[167][168] The park cost over $900 million to construct, and consisted of the Future World pavilion and World Showcase representing Mexico, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, France, the UK, and Canada; Morocco and Norway were added in 1984 and 1988, respectively.[167][169] The animation industry continued to decline and 69% of the company's profits were from its theme parks; in 1982, there were 12 million visitors to Walt Disney World, a figure that declined by 5% the following June.[167] On July 9, 1982, Disney released Tron, one of the first films to extensively use computer-generated imagery (CGI). It was a big influence on other CGI movies, though it received mixed reviews.[170] In 1982, the company lost $27 million.[171]
On April 15, 1983, Disney's first park outside the US, Tokyo Disneyland, opened in Urayasu.[172] Costing around $1.4 billion, construction started in 1979 when Disney and The Oriental Land Company agreed to build a park together. Within its first ten years, the park had over 140 million visitors.[173] After an investment of $100 million, on April 18, Disney started a pay-to-watch cable television channel called Disney Channel, a 16-hours-a-day service showing Disney films, twelve programs, and two magazines shows for adults. Although it was expected to do well, the company lost $48 million after its first year, with around 916,000 subscribers.[174][175]
In 1983, Walt's son-in-law Ron W. Miller, who had been president since 1978, became its CEO, and Raymond Watson became chairman.[138][176] Miller wanted the studio to produce more content for mature audiences,[177] and Disney founded film distribution label Touchstone Pictures to produce movies geared toward adults and teenagers in 1984.[171] Splash (1984) was the first film released under the label, and a much-needed success, grossing over $6 million in its first week.[178] Disney's first R-rated film Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) was released and was another hit, grossing $62 million.[179] The following year, Disney's first PG-13 rated film Adventures in Babysitting was released.[180] In 1984, Saul Steinberg attempted to buy out the company, holding 11% of the stocks. He offered to buy 49% for $1.3 billion or the entire company for $2.75 billion. Disney, which had less than $10 million, rejected Steinberg's offer and offered to buy all of his stock for $326 million. Steinberg agreed, and Disney paid it all with part of a $1.3 billion bank loan, putting the company $866 million in debt.[181][182]
1984â2005: Michael Eisner's leadership, the Disney Renaissance, merger, and acquisitions
Man in a tuxedo giving a speech
Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO.
In 1984, shareholders Roy E. Disney, Sid Bass, Lillian and Diane Disney, and Irwin L. Jacobsâwho together owned about 36% of the shares, forced out CEO Miller and replaced him with Michael Eisner, a former president of Paramount Pictures, and appointed Frank Wells as president.[183] Eisner's first act was to make it a major film studio, which at the time it was not considered. Eisner appointed Jeffrey Katzenberg as chairman and Roy E. Disney as head of animation. Eisner wanted to produce an animated film every 18 months rather than four years, as the company had been doing. To help with the film division, the company started making Saturday-morning cartoons to create new Disney characters for merchandising, and produced films through Touchstone. Under Eisner, Disney became more involved with television, creating Touchstone Television and producing the television sitcom The Golden Girls, which was a hit. The company spent $15 million promoting its theme parks, raising visitor numbers by 10%.[184][185] In 1984, Disney produced The Black Cauldron, then the most-expensive animated movie at $40 million, their first animated film to feature computer-generated imagery, and their first PG-rated animation because of its adult themes. The film was a box-office failure, leading the company to move the animation department from the studio in Burbank to a warehouse in Glendale, California.[186] The film-financing partnership Silver Screen Partners II, which was organized in 1985, financed films for Disney with $193 million. In January 1987, Silver Screen Partners III began financing movies for Disney with $300 million raised by E.F. Hutton, the largest amount raised for a film-financing limited partnership.[187] Silver Screen IV was also set up to finance Disney's studios.[188]
In 1986, the company changed its name from Walt Disney Productions to the Walt Disney Company, stating the old name only referred to the film industry.[189] With Disney's animation industry declining, the animation department needed its next movie The Great Mouse Detective to be a success. It grossed $25 million at the box office, becoming a much-needed financial success.[190] To generate more revenue from merchandising, the company opened its first retail store Disney Store in Glendale in 1987. Because of its success, the company opened two more in California, and by 1990, it had 215 throughout the US[191][192] In 1989, the company garnered $411 million in revenue and made a profit of $187 million.[193] In 1987, the company signed an agreement with the Government of France to build a resort named Euro Disneyland in Paris; it would consist of two theme parks named Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park, a golf course, and 6 hotels.[194][195]
Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre
In 1988, Disney's 27th animated film Oliver & Company was released the same day as that of former Disney animator Don Bluth's The Land Before Time. Oliver & Company out-competed The Land Before Time, becoming the first animated film to gross over $100 million in its initial release, and the highest-grossing animated film in its initial run.[196][197] Disney became the box-office-leading Hollywood studio for the first time, with films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Three Men and a Baby (1987), and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987). The company's gross revenue went from $165 million in 1983 to $876 million in 1987, and operating income went from â$33 million in 1983 to +130 million in 1987. The studio's net income rose by 66%, along with a 26% growth in revenue. Los Angeles Times called Disney's recovery "a real rarity in the corporate world".[198] On May 1, 1989, Disney opened Disney-MGM Studios, its third amusement park at Walt Disney World, and later became Hollywood Studios. The new park demonstrated to visitors the movie-making process, until 2008, when it was changed to make guests feel they are in movies.[199] Following the opening of Disney-MGM Studios, Disney opened the water park Typhoon Lagoon in June 1989; in 2022 it had 1.9 million visitors and was the most popular water park in the world.[200][201] Also in 1989, Disney signed an agreement-in-principle to acquire The Jim Henson Company from its founder. The deal included Henson's programming library and Muppet charactersâexcluding the Muppets created for Sesame Streetâas well as Henson's personal creative services. Henson, however, died in May 1990 before the deal was completed, resulting in the companies terminating merger negotiations.[202][203][204]
On November 17, 1989, Disney released The Little Mermaid, which was the start of the Disney Renaissance, a period in which the company released hugely successful and critically acclaimed animated films. The Little Mermaid became the animated film with the highest gross from its initial run and garnered $233 million at the box office; it won two Academy Awards; Best Original Score and Best Original Song for "Under the Sea".[205][206] During the Disney Renaissance, composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman wrote several Disney songs until Ashman died in 1991. Together they wrote 6 songs nominated for Academy Awards; with two winning songsâ"Under the Sea" and "Beauty and the Beast".[207][208] To produce music geared for the mainstream, including music for movie soundtracks, Disney founded the recording label Hollywood Records on January 1, 1990.[209][210] In September 1990, Disney arranged for financing of up to $200 million by a unit of Nomura Securities for Interscope films made for Disney. On October 23, Disney formed Touchwood Pacific Partners, which replaced the Silver Screen Partnership series as the company's movie studios' primary source of funding.[188] Disney's first animated sequel The Rescuers Down Under was released on November 16, 1990, and created using Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), digital software developed by Disney and Pixarâthe computer division of Lucasfilmâbecoming the first feature film to be entirely created digitally.[206][211] Although the film struggled in the box office, grossing $47 million, it received positive reviews.[212][213] In 1991, Disney and Pixar agreed to a deal to make three films together, the first one being Toy Story.[214]
Dow Jones & Company, wanting to replace 3 companies in its industrial average, chose to add Disney in May 1991, stating Disney "reflects the importance of entertainment and leisure activities in the economy".[215] Disney's next animated film Beauty and the Beast was released on November 13, 1991, and grossed nearly $430 million.[216][217] It was the first animated film to win a Golden Globe for Best Picture, and it received 6 Academy Award nominations, becoming the first animation nominated for Best Picture; it won Best Score, Best Sound, and Best Song.[218] The film was critically acclaimed, with some critics considering it to be the best Disney film.[219][220] To coincide with the 1992 release of The Mighty Ducks, Disney founded the National Hockey League team The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.[221] Disney's next animated feature Aladdin was released on November 11, 1992, and grossed $504 million, becoming the highest-grossing animated film to that point, and the first animated film to gross a half-billion dollars.[222][223] It won two Academy AwardsâBest Song for "A Whole New World" and Best Score;[224] and "A Whole New World" was the first-and-only Disney song to win the Grammy for Song of the Year.[225][226] For $60 million, Disney broadened its range of mature-audience films by acquiring independent film distributor Miramax Films in 1993.[227] The same year, in a venture with The Nature Conservancy, Disney purchased 8,500 acres (3,439 ha) of Everglades headwaters in Florida to protect native animals and plant species, establishing the Disney Wilderness Preserve.[228]
Man in suit and glasses
Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995.
On April 3, 1994, Frank Wells died in a helicopter crash; he, Eisner, and Katzenberg helped the company's market value go from $2 billion to $22 billion since taking office in 1984.[229] On June 15 the same year, The Lion King was released and was a massive success, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of all time behind Jurassic Park and the highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross total of $969 million.[230][231] It was critically praised and garnered two Academy AwardsâBest Score and Best Song for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight".[232][233] Soon after its release, Katzenberg left the company after Eisner refused to promote him to president. After leaving, he co-founded film studio DreamWorks SKG.[234] Wells was later replaced with one of Eisner's friends Michael Ovitz on August 13, 1995.[235][236] In 1994, Disney wanted to buy one of the major U.S. television networks ABC, NBC, or CBS, which would give the company guaranteed distribution for its programming. Eisner planned to buy NBC but the deal was canceled because General Electric wanted to keep a majority stake.[237][238] In 1994, Disney's annual revenue reached $10 billion, 48% coming from film, 34% from theme parks, and 18% from merchandising. Disney's total net income was up 25% from the previous year at $1.1 billion.[239] Grossing over $346 million, Pocahontas was released on June 16, garnering the Academy Awards for Best Musical or Comedy Score and Best Song for "Colors of the Wind".[240][241] Pixar's and Disney's first co-release was the first-ever fully computer-generated film Toy Story, which was released on November 19, 1995, to critical acclaim and an end-run gross total of $361 million. The film won the Special Achievement Academy Award and was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay.[242][243]
In 1995, Disney announced the $19 billion acquisition of television network Capital Cities/ABC Inc., which was then the 2nd-largest corporate takeover in US history. Through the deal, Disney would obtain broadcast network ABC, an 80% majority stake in sports networks ESPN and ESPN 2, 50% in Lifetime Television, a majority stake of DIC Entertainment, and a 38% minority stake in A&E Television Networks.[239][244][245] Following the deal, the company started Radio Disney, a youth-focused radio program on ABC Radio Network, on November 18, 1996.[246][247] The Walt Disney Company launched its official website disney.com on February 22, 1996, mainly to promote its theme parks and merchandise.[248] On June 19, the company's next animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released, grossing $325 million at the box office.[249] Because Ovitz's management style was different from Eisner's, Ovitz was fired as the company's president in 1996.[250] Disney lost a $10.4 million lawsuit in September 1997 to Marsu B.V. over Disney's failure to produce as contracted 13 half-hour Marsupilami cartoon shows. Instead, Disney felt other internal "hot properties" deserved the company's attention.[251] Disney, which since 1996 had owned a 25% stake in the Major League Baseball team California Angels, bought out the team in 1998 for $110 million, renamed it Anaheim Angels and renovated the stadium for $100 million.[252][253] Hercules (1997) was released on June 13, and underperformed compared to earlier films, grossing $252 million.[254] On February 24, Disney and Pixar signed a ten-year contract to make five films, with Disney as distributor. They would share the cost, profits, and logo credits, calling the films Disney-Pixar productions.[255] During the Disney Renaissance, film division Touchstone also saw success with film such as Pretty Woman (1990), which has the highest number of ticket sales in the U.S. for a romantic comedy and grossed $432 million;[256][257] Sister Act (1992), which was one of the financially successful comedies of the early 1990s, grossing $231 million;[258] action film Con Air (1997), which grossed $224 million;[259] and the highest-grossing film of 1998 at $553 million Armageddon.[260]
Ginormous tree along with other shrubbery
Mainly white cruise ship out in the ocean
(left to right) Disney's Animal Kingdom's, the largest theme park, main icon the Tree of Life, and Disney Cruise Line's first cruise ship Disney Magic, which first set sail on July 30, 1998
At Disney World, the company opened Disney's Animal Kingdom, the largest theme park in the world covering 580 acres (230 ha) on Earth Day, April 22, 1998. It had six animal-themed lands, over 2,000 animals, and the Tree of Life at its center.[261][262] Receiving positive reviews, Disney's next animated films Mulan and Disney-Pixar film A Bug's Life were released on June 5 and November 20, 1998.[263][264] Mulan became the year's sixth-highest-grossing film at $304 million, and A Bug's Life was the year's fifth-highest at $363 million.[260] In a $770-million transaction, on June 18, Disney bought a 43% stake of Internet search engine Infoseek for $70 million, also giving it Infoseek-acquired Starwave.[265][266] Starting web portal Go.com in a joint venture with Infoseek in January 1999, Disney acquired the rest of Infoseek later that year.[267][268] After unsuccessful negotiations with cruise lines Carnival and Royal Caribbean International, in 1994, Disney announced it would start its own cruise-line operation in 1998.[269][270] The first two ships of the Disney Cruise Line were named Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, and built by Fincantieri in Italy. To accompany the cruises, Disney bought Gorda Cay as the line's private island, and spent $25 million remodeling it and renaming it Castaway Cay. On July 30, 1998, Disney Magic set sail as the line's first voyage.[271]
man in a chair
Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003.
Marking the end of the Disney Renaissance, Tarzan (1999) was released on June 12, garnering $448 million at the box office and critical acclaim; it claimed the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart".[272][273][274][275] Disney-Pixar film Toy Story 2 was released on November 13, garnering praise and $511 million at the box office.[276][277] To replace Ovitz, Eisner named ABC network chief Bob Iger Disney's president and chief operating officer in January 2000.[278][279] In November, Disney sold DIC Entertainment back to Andy Heyward.[280] Disney had another huge success with Pixar when they released Monsters, Inc. in 2001. Later, Disney bought children's cable network Fox Family Worldwide for $3 billion and the assumption of $2.3 billion in debt. The deal included a 76% stake in Fox Kids Europe, Latin American channel Fox Kids, more than 6,500 episodes from Saban Entertainment's programming library, and Fox Family Channel.[281] In 2001, Disney's operations had a net loss of $158 million after a decline in viewership of the ABC television network, as well as decreased tourism due to the September 11 attacks. Disney earnings in fiscal 2001 were $120 million compared with the previous year's $920 million. To help reduce costs, Disney announced it would lay off 4,000 employees and close 300-400 Disney stores.[282][283] After winning the World Series in 2002, Disney sold the Anaheim Angels for $180 million in 2003.[284][285] In 2003, Disney became the first studio to garner $3 billion in a year at the box office.[286] The same year, Roy Disney announced his retirement because of how the company was being run, calling on Eisner to retire; the same week, board member Stanley Gold retired for the same reasons. Gold and Disney formed the "Save Disney" campaign.[287][288]
Gold letters
Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004.
In 2004, at the company's annual meeting, the shareholders in a 43% vote voted Eisner out as chairman.[289] On March 4, George J. Mitchell, who was a member of the board, was named as replacement.[290] In April, Disney purchased the Muppets franchise from the Jim Henson Company for $75 million, founding Muppets Holding Company, LLC.[291][292] Following the success of Disney-Pixar films Finding Nemo (2003), which became the second highest-grossing animated film of all time at $936 million, and The Incredibles (2004),[293][294] Pixar looked for a new distributor once its deal with Disney ended in 2004.[295] Disney sold the loss-making Disney Stores chain of 313 stores to Children's Place on October 20.[296] Disney also sold the NHL team Mighty Ducks in 2005.[297] Roy E. Disney decided to rejoin the company and was given the role of consultant with the title "Director Emeritus".[298]
2005â2020: Bob Iger's first tenure, expansion and Disney+
In March 2005, Bob Iger, president of the company, became CEO after Eisner's retirement in September; Iger was officially named head of the company on October 1.[299][300] Disney's eleventh theme park Hong Kong Disneyland opened on September 12, costing the company $3.5 billion to construct.[301] On January 24, 2006, Disney began talks to acquire Pixar from Steve Jobs for $7.4 billion, and Iger appointed Pixar chief creative officer (CCO) John Lasseter and president Edwin Catmull the heads of the Walt Disney Animation Studios.[302][303] A week later, Disney traded ABC Sports commentator Al Michaels to NBCUniversal, in exchange for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and 26 cartoons featuring the character.[304] On February 6, the company announced it would be merging its ABC Radio networks and 22 stations with Citadel Broadcasting in a $2.7 billion deal, though which Disney acquired 52% of television broadcasting company Citadel Communications.[305][306] The Disney Channel movie High School Musical aired and its soundtrack was certified triple platinum, becoming the first Disney Channel film to do so.[307]
Man in suit looking into the distance, with a blue background with words behind him
Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties
Disney's 2006 live-action film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was Disney's biggest hit to that date and the third-highest-grossing film ever, making $1 billion at the box office.[308] On June 28, the company announced it was replacing George Mitchell as chairman with a board members and former CEO of P&G John E. Pepper Jr..[290] The sequel High School Musical 2 was released in 2007 on Disney Channel and broke several cable rating records.[309] In April 2007, the Muppets Holding Company was moved from Disney Consumer Products to the Walt Disney Studios division and renamed the Muppets Studios to relaunch the division.[310][311] Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End became the highest-grossing film of 2007 at $960 million.[312] Disney-Pixar films Ratatouille (2007) and WALL-E (2008) were a tremendous success, with WALL-E winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.[313][314][315] After acquiring most of Jetix Europe through the acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide, Disney bought the remainder of the company in 2008 for $318 million.[316]
Iger introduced D23 in 2009 as Disney's official fan club.[317][318] In February, Disney announced a deal with DreamWorks Pictures to distribute 30 of their films over the next five years through Touchstone Pictures, with Disney getting 10% of the gross.[319][320] The 2009 film Up garnered Disney $735 million at the box office, and the film won Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards.[321][322] Later that year, Disney launched a television channel named Disney XD, aimed at older children.[323] The company bought Marvel Entertainment and its assets for $4 billion in August, adding Marvel's comic-book characters to its merchandising line-up.[324] In September, Disney partnered with News Corporation and NBCUniversal in a deal in which all parties would obtain 27% equity in streaming service Hulu, and Disney added ABC Family and Disney Channel to the streaming service.[325] On December 16, Roy E. Disney died of stomach cancer; he was the last member of the Disney family to work for Disney.[326] In March 2010, Haim Saban reacquired from Disney the Power Rangers franchise, including its 700-episode library, for around $100 million.[327][328] Shortly after, Disney sold Miramax Films to an investment group headed by Ronald Tutor for $660 million.[329] During that time, Disney released the live-action Alice in Wonderland and the Disney-Pixar film Toy Story 3, both of which grossed a little over $1 billion, making them the sixth-and-seventh films to do so; and Toy Story 3 became the first animated film to make over $1 billion and the highest-grossing animated film. That year, Disney became the first studio to release two $1-billion-dollar-earning films in one calendar year.[330][331] In 2010, the company announced ImageMovers Digital, which it started in partnership with ImageMovers in 2007, would be closing by 2011.[332]
black letters spelling out the word Pixar
Pixar had been making films with Disney from 1995 to 2005, until Disney bought them out in 2006 as one of their subsidiaries.
Red background with white letters spelling out Marvel
Marvel became a subsidiary of Disney in 2009 after Disney acquired them for $4 billion.
Black letters spelling out Lucasfilm in a slight arch
After purchasing Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney vowed to make more Star Wars films.
black logo with a big 20 on the left side and underlined words on the right
In 2019, as Disney's biggest move yet, they bought most of 21st Century Fox's assets for $71 billion, rebranding some of them like the studio 20th Century Fox as 20th Century Studios.
The following year, Disney released its last traditionally animated film Winnie the Pooh to theaters.[333] The release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides garnered a little over $1 billion, making it the eighth film to do so and Disney's highest-grossing film internationally, as well as the third-highest ever.[334] In January 2011, the size of Disney Interactive Studios was reduced and 200 employees laid off.[335] In April, Disney began constructing its new theme park Shanghai Disney Resort, costing $4.4 billion.[336] In August, Iger stated after the success of the Pixar and Marvel purchases, he and the Walt Disney Company were planning to "buy either new characters or businesses that are capable of creating great characters and great stories".[337] On October 30, 2012, Disney announced it would buy Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion from George Lucas. Through the deal, Disney gained access to franchises such as Star Wars, for which Disney said it would make a new film for every two-to-three years, with the first being released in 2015. The deal gave Disney access to the Indiana Jones franchise, visual-effects studio Industrial Light & Magic, and video game developer LucasArts.[338][339][340]
In February 2012, Disney completed its acquisition of UTV Software Communications, expanding its market into India and the rest of Asia.[341] By March, Iger became Disney's chairman.[342] Marvel film The Avengers became the third-highest-grossing film of all time with an initial-release gross of $1.3 billion.[343] Making over $1.2 billion at the box office, the Marvel film Iron Man 3 was released in 2013.[344] The same year, Disney's animated film Frozen was released and became the highest-grossing animated film of all time at $1.2 billion.[345][346] Merchandising for the film became so popular it made the company $1 billion within a year, and a global shortage of merchandise for the film occurred.[347][348] In March 2013, Iger announced Disney had no 2D animation films in development, and a month, later the hand-drawn animnation division was closed, and several veteran animators were laid off.[333] On March 24, 2014, Disney acquired Maker Studios, an active multi-channel network on YouTube, for $950 million.[349]
In June 2015, the company stated its consumer products and interactive divisions would merge to become new a subsidiary called Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media.[350] In August, Marvel Studios was placed under the division Walt Disney Studios.[351] The company's 2015 releases include the successful animated film Inside Out, which grossed over $800 million, and the Marvel film Avengers: Age of Ultron, which grossed over $1.4 billion.[352] Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released and grossed over $2 billion, making it the third-highest-grossing film of all time.[353] On April 4, 2016, Disney announced COO Thomas O. Staggs, who was thought to be next in line after Iger, would leave in May, ending his 26-year career with Disney.[354] Shanghai Disneyland opened on June 16, 2016, as the company's sixth theme-park resort.[355] In a move to start a streaming service, Disney bought 33% of the stock in Major League Baseball technology company Bamtech for $1 billion in August.[356] In 2016, four Disney film releases made over $1 billion; these were the animated film Zootopia, Marvel film Captain America: Civil War, Pixar film Finding Dory, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, making Disney the first studio to surpass $3 billion at the domestic box office.[357][358] Disney made an attempt to buy social media platform Twitter to market their content and merchandise but canceled the deal. Iger stated this was because he thought Disney would be taking on responsibilities it did not need and that it did not "feel Disney" to him.[359]
On March 23, 2017, Disney announced Iger had agreed to a one-year extension as CEO to July 2019, and to remain as a consultant for three years.[360][361] On August 8, 2017, Disney announced it would be ending its distribution deal with Netflix, with the intent of launching its own streaming platform by 2019. During that time, Disney paid $1.5 billion to acquire a 75% stake in BAMtech. Disney planned to start an ESPN streaming service with about "10,000 live regional, national, and international games and events a year" by 2018.[362][363] In November, CCO John Lasseter said he would take a 6-month absence because of "missteps", reported to be sexual misconduct allegations.[364] The same month, Disney and 21st Century Fox started negotiating a deal in which Disney would acquire most of Fox's assets.[365] Beginning in March 2018, a reorganization of the company led to the creation of business segments Disney Parks, Experiences and Products and Direct-to-Consumer & International. Parks & Consumer Products was primarily a merger of Parks & Resorts and Consumer Products & Interactive Media, while Direct-to-Consumer & International took over for Disney International and global sales, distribution, and streaming units from Disney-ABC TV Group and Studios Entertainment plus Disney Digital Network.[366] Iger described it as "strategically positioning our businesses" while according to The New York Times, the reorganization was done in expectation of the 21st Century Fox purchase.[367]
In 2017, two of Disney's films had revenues of over $1 billion; the live-action Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.[368][369] Disney launched subscription sports streaming service ESPN+ on April 12.[370] In June 2018, Lasseter's departure by the end of the year was announced; he would stay as a consultant until then.[371] To replace him; Disney promoted Jennifer Lee, co-director of Frozen and co-writer of Wreck-It Ralph (2012), as head of Walt Disney Animation Studios; and Pete Docter, who had been with Pixar since 1990 and directed Up,Monsters, Inc., and Inside Out, as head of Pixar.[372][373] Comcast offered to buy 21st Century Fox for $65 billion over Disney's $51 billion bid but withdrew its offer after Disney countered with a $71 billion bid. Disney obtained an AntiTrust approval from the United States Department of Justice to acquire Fox.[374][375] Disney again made $7 billion at the box office with three film that made $1 billion; Marvel films Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity Warâthe latter taking over $2 billion and becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film everâ and Pixar film Incredibles 2.[376][377]
blue letters with a plus sign at the end and an arch above the letters
Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022.
On March 20, 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox's assets for $71 billion from Rupert Murdoch, making it the biggest acquisition in Disney's history. After the purchase, The New York Times described Disney as "an entertainment colossus the size of which the world has never seen".[378] Through the acquisition, Disney gained 20th Century Fox; 20th Century Fox Television; Fox Searchlight Pictures; National Geographic Partners; Fox Networks Group; Indian television broadcaster Star India; streaming service Hotstar; and a 30% stake in Hulu, bringing its ownership on Hulu to 60%. Fox Corporation and its assets were excluded from the deal because of antitrust laws.[379][380] Disney became the first film studio to have seven films gross $1 billion: Marvel's Captain Marvel, the live action Aladdin, Pixar's Toy Story 4, the CGI remake of The Lion King, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point at $2.8 billion Avengers: Endgame.[381][382] On November 12, Disney's subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service Disney+, which had 500 movies and 7,500 episodes of television shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and other brands, was launched in the US, Canada and the Netherlands. Within the first day, the streaming platform had over 10 million subscriptions; and by 2022 it had over 135 million and was available in over 190 countries.[383][384] At the beginning of 2020, Disney removed the Fox name from its assets, rebranding them as 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures.[385]
2020âpresent: Bob Chapek's leadership, COVID-19 pandemic, Iger's return & 100th anniversary
Further information: Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Walt Disney Company
Bob Chapek, who had been with the company for 18 years and was chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, became CEO after Iger resigned on February 25, 2020. Iger said he would stay as an Executive chairman until December 31, 2021, to help with its creative strategy.[386][387] In April, Iger resumed operational duties as executive chairman to help the company during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Chapek was appointed to the board of directors.[388][389] During the pandemic, Disney temporarily closed all its theme parks, delayed the release of several movies, and stopped all cruises.[390][391][392] Due to the closures, Disney announced it would stop paying 100,000 employees but still provide healthcare benefits, and urged US employees to apply for government benefits, saving the company $500 million a month. Iger gave up his $47 million salary and Chapek took a 50% salary reduction.[393]
In the company's second fiscal quarter of 2020, Disney reported a $1.4 billion loss, with a fall in earnings of 91% to $475 million from the previous year's $5.4 billion.[394] By August, two-thirds of the company was owned by large financial institutions.[395] In September, the company dismissed 28,000 employees, 67% of whom were part-time, from its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Chairman of the division Josh D'Amaro wrote; "We initially hoped that this situation would be short-lived, and that we would recover quickly and return to normal. Seven months later, we find that has not been the case." Disney lost $4.7 billion in its fiscal third quarter of 2020.[396] In November, Disney laid off another 4,000 employees, raising the total to 32,000 employees.[397] The following month, Disney named Alan Bergman as chairman of its Disney Studios Content division to oversee its film studios.[398] Due to the COVID-19 recession, Touchstone Television ceased operations in December,[399] Disney announced in March 2021 it would be launching a new division called 20th Television Animation to focus on mature audiences,[400] and Disney closed its third animation studio Blue Sky Studios in April 2021.[401] Later that month, Disney and Sony agreed a multi-year licensing deal that would give Disney access to Sony's films from 2022 to 2026 to televise or stream on Disney+ once Sony's deal with Netflix ended.[402] Although it performed poorly at the box office because of Covid, Disney's animated film Encanto (2021) was one of the biggest hits during the pandemic, with its song "We Don't Talk About Bruno" topping the US Billboard Hot 100 charts.[403][404]
After Iger's term as executive chairman ended on December 31, he announced he would resign as chairman. The company brought in an operating executive at The Carlyle Group and former board member Susan Arnold as Disney's first female chairperson.[405] On March 10, Disney ceased operations in Russia because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and was the first major Hollywood studio to halt release of a major picture due to Russia's invasion; other movie studios followed.[406] In March 2022, around 60 employees protested the company's silence on the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act that was dubbed the Don't Say Gay Bill, and prohibits non-age-appropriate classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida's public-school districts. The protest was dubbed the "Disney Do Better Walkout"; employees protested near a Disney Studios lot, and other employees voiced their concerns through social media. Employees called on Disney to stop campaign contributions to Florida politicians who supported the bill, to help protect employees from it, and to stop construction at Walt Disney World in Florida. Chapek responded by stating the company had made a mistake by staying silent and said; "We pledge our ongoing support of the LGBTQ+ community".[407][408] Amid Disney's response to the bill, the Florida Legislature passed a bill to remove Disney's quasi-government district Reedy Creek.[409]
On June 28, Disney's board members unanimously agreed to give Chapek a three-year contract extension.[410] In August, Disney Streaming exceeded Netflix in total subscriptions with 221 million subscribers compared to Netflix's 220 million.[411]
On November 20, 2022, Iger accepted the position of Disney's CEO after Chapek was dismissed following poor earnings performance and decisions unpopular with other executives.[412][413] The board announced Iger would serve for two years with a mandate to develop a strategy for renewed growth and help identify a successor.[414] In January 2023, Disney announced that Mark Parker would replace Arnold as the company's chairperson.[415] In February 2023, Disney announced that it would be cutting $5.5 billion in costs, which includes eliminating 7,000 jobs representing 3% of its workforce. Disney reorganized into three divisions: Entertainment, ESPN, and Parks, Experiences and Products.[416] In April 2023, Disney implemented the second and largest wave of job cuts, affecting Disney Parks, Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and the Experiences and Product division. This move was part of the plan to cut costs by $5.5 billion.[417]
Disney's promotional logo for its centennial.
In 2023, Disney began its "100 Years of Wonder" campaign in celebration of the centennial anniversary of the company's founding. This included a new animated centennial logo intro for the Walt Disney Pictures division, a touring exhibition, events at the parks and a commemorative commercial that aired during Super Bowl LVII.[418][419]
In October 2023, Disney announced its entrance into sports betting through a partnership with Penn Entertainment, launching the ESPN Bet app, despite internal debates and concerns over brand image. This move marked a significant pivot from Iger's earlier stance against gambling, driven by the potential to attract younger audiences and secure a financial future for ESPN, amidst declining traditional TV viewership and increasing online sports gambling revenue.[420] In November 2023, Disney shortened the lengthy name of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products to Disney Experiences.[421]
In February 2024, Debra O'Connell, a longtime executive at Disney, was appointed president of a new news division that would include ABC News and local stations. O'Connell is responsible for ABC News's signature properties, including "Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight". It will serve as an intermediary between Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment and Kim Godwin, the ABC News president. Other online news units have similar processes.[422] In February, Walt Disney and Reliance Industries announced the merger of their India TV and streaming media assets.....Legacy
The Walt Disney Company is one of the world's largest entertainment companies and is considered to be a pioneer in the animation industry, having produced 790 features, 122 of which are animated films.[448][449] Many of their films are considered to be the greatest of all time, including Pinocchio, Toy Story, Bambi, Ratatouille, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Mary Poppins.[450][451][452] Disney has also created some of the most influential and memorable characters of all time, such as Mickey Mouse, Woody, Captain America (MCU), Jack Sparrow, Iron Man (MCU), and Elsa.[17][453][454]
Disney has been recognized for revolutionizing the animation industry; according to Den of Geek, the risk of making the first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has "changed cinema".[455] The company, mainly through Walt, has introduced new technologies and more-advanced techniques for animating, as well as adding personalities to characters.[456][132] Some of Disney's technological innovations for animation include invention of the multiplane camera, xerography, CAPS, deep canvas, and RenderMan.[211] Many songs from the company's films have become extremely popular, and several have peaked at number one on Billboard's Hot 100.[457] Some songs from the Silly Symphony series became immensely popular across the U.S.[26]
Disney has been ranked number 53 in the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and fourth in Fortune's 2022 "World's Most Admired Companies".[1][458] According to Smithsonian Magazine, there are "few symbols of pure Americana more potent than the Disney theme parks", which are "well-established cultural icons", with the company name and Mickey Mouse being "household names".[459] Disney is one of the biggest competitors in the theme park industry with 12 parks, all of which were the top-25 most-visited parks in 2018. Disney theme parks worldwide had over 157 million visitors, making it the most-visited theme-park company in the world, doubling the attendance number of the second-most-visited company. Of the 157 million visitors, the Magic Kingdom had 20.8 million of the guests, making it the most-visited theme park in the world.[460][461] When Disney first entered the theme park industry, CNN stated: "It changed an already legendary company. And it changed the entire theme park industry."[462] According to The Orange County Register, Walt Disney World has "changed entertainment by showing how a theme park could help make a company into a lifestyle brand"." (wikipedia.)
"Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to stitch thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on hats, clothing, blankets, and handbags. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items.
Some of the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest embroidery are chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, and cross stitch.[1] Those stitches remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today....21st century
Since the late 2010s, there has been a growth in the popularity of embroidering by hand. As a result of visual social media such as Pinterest and Instagram, artists are able to share their work more extensively, which has inspired younger generations to pick up needle and threads.[citation needed]
Contemporary embroidery artists believe hand embroidery has grown in popularity as a result of an increasing need for relaxation and digitally disconnecting practices.[15]
Modern hand embroidery, as opposed to cross-stitching, is characterized by a more "liberal" approach, where stitches are more freely combined in unconventional ways to create various textures and designs....Classification
Embroidery can be classified according to what degree the design takes into account the nature of the base material and by the relationship of stitch placement to the fabric. The main categories are free or surface embroidery, counted-thread embroidery, and needlepoint or canvas work.[16]
In free or surface embroidery, designs are applied without regard to the weave of the underlying fabric. Examples include crewel and traditional Chinese and Japanese embroidery.
Counted-thread embroidery patterns are created by making stitches over a predetermined number of threads in the foundation fabric. Counted-thread embroidery is more easily worked on an even-weave foundation fabric such as embroidery canvas, aida cloth, or specially woven cotton and linen fabrics. Examples include cross-stitch and some forms of blackwork embroidery.
While similar to counted thread in regards to technique, in canvas work or needlepoint, threads are stitched through a fabric mesh to create a dense pattern that completely covers the foundation fabric.[17] Examples of canvas work include bargello and Berlin wool work.
Embroidery can also be classified by the similarity of its appearance. In drawn thread work and cutwork, the foundation fabric is deformed or cut away to create holes that are then embellished with embroidery, often with thread in the same color as the foundation fabric. When created with white thread on white linen or cotton, this work is collectively referred to as whitework.[18] However, whitework can either be counted or free. Hardanger embroidery is a counted embroidery and the designs are often geometric.[19] Conversely, styles such as Broderie anglaise are similar to free embroidery, with floral or abstract designs that are not dependent on the weave of the fabric.....Materials
Multi-colored crewel wool threads on a panel of linen warp and cotton weft, 18th century English
A needle is the main stitching tool in embroidery, and comes in various sizes and types.[28] The fabrics and yarns used in traditional embroidery vary from place to place. Wool, linen, and silk have been in use for thousands of years for both fabric and yarn. Today, embroidery thread is manufactured in cotton, rayon, and novelty yarns as well as in traditional wool, linen, and silk. Ribbon embroidery uses narrow ribbon in silk or silk/organza blend ribbon, most commonly to create floral motifs.[29]
Surface embroidery techniques such as chain stitch and couching or laid-work are the most economical of expensive yarns; couching is generally used for goldwork. Canvas work techniques, in which large amounts of yarn are buried on the back of the work, use more materials but provide a sturdier and more substantial finished textile.[30]
In both canvas work and surface embroidery an embroidery hoop or frame can be used to stretch the material and ensure even stitching tension that prevents pattern distortion.[31] Modern canvas work tends to follow symmetrical counted stitching patterns with designs emerging from the repetition of one or just a few similar stitches in a variety of hues. In contrast, many forms of surface embroidery make use of a wide range of stitching patterns in a single piece of work.[32]
Machine embroidery
The development of machine embroidery and its mass production came about in stages during the Industrial Revolution. The first embroidery machine was the hand embroidery machine, invented in France in 1832 by Josué Heilmann.[33] The next evolutionary step was the schiffli embroidery machine. The latter borrowed from the sewing machine and the Jacquard loom to fully automate its operation. The manufacture of machine-made embroideries in St. Gallen in eastern Switzerland flourished in the latter half of the 19th century.[34] Both St. Gallen, Switzerland and Plauen, Germany were important centers for machine embroidery and embroidery machine development. Many Swiss and Germans immigrated to Hudson county, New Jersey in the early twentieth century and developed a machine embroidery industry there. Shiffli machines have continued to evolve and are still used for industrial scale embroidery.
Contemporary embroidery is stitched with a computerized embroidery machine using patterns digitized with embroidery software. In machine embroidery, different types of "fills" add texture and design to the finished work. Machine embroidery is used to add logos and monograms to business shirts or jackets, gifts, and team apparel as well as to decorate household linens, draperies, and decorator fabrics that mimic the elaborate hand embroidery of the past.
Machine embroidery is most typically done with rayon thread, although polyester thread can also be used. Cotton thread, on the other hand, is prone to breaking and is avoided.[36]
There has also been a development in free hand machine embroidery, new machines have been designed that allow for the user to create free-motion embroidery which has its place in textile arts, quilting, dressmaking, home furnishings and more. Users can use the embroidery software to digitize the digital embroidery designs. These digitized design are then transferred to the embroidery machine with the help of a flash drive and then the embroidery machine embroiders the selected design onto the fabric." (wikipedia.)
"Minerva "Minnie" Mouse is an American cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a red or pink bow, blue (or pink or red) polka-dotted dress, white bloomers and yellow low-heeled shoes occasionally with ribbons on them. The Mickey Mouse comic strip story "The Gleam" (published January 19 â May 2, 1942) by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse, although this is seldom used.
The comic strip story "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers" (published September 22 â December 26, 1930) introduced her father Marcus Mouse and her unnamed mother, both farmers. The same story featured photographs of Minnie's uncle Milton Mouse with his family and her grandparents Marvel Mouse and Matilda Mouse. Her best-known relatives, however, remain her uncle Mortimer Mouse (Mortimer was almost the name of Mickey) and her twin nieces, Millie and Melody Mouse, though most often a single niece, Melody, appears. In many appearances, Minnie is presented as the girlfriend of Mickey Mouse, best friend of Daisy Duck[11] and a friend to Clarabelle Cow.
In honor of her 90th anniversary, on January 22, 2018, she joined the ranks of other animated celebrities by receiving her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[12] She was the sixth Disney character to receive this honor. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Tinker Bell and Snow White have already received this distinction.
History
Origins of the character
Minnie was initially created to be the love interest of Mickey Mouse, concept art for Mickey showed a female mouse alongside him.[13]
Minnie was designed in the fashion of a flapper girl. Her main outfit consisted of a short flapper girl dress that often revealed her distinctive patched knickers. In the 1929 cartoon The Karnival Kid, it was also revealed that she wears black stockings which were also fashionable among flapper girls. Her shoes are probably her most distinctive article of clothing. For comedic effect, she wears oversized high heeled pumps that are too big for her feet. Her heels often slip out of her shoes and she even loses her shoes completely in The Gallopin' Gaucho. When she walked or danced, the clip clop of her large pumps was usually heard clearly and often went with the rhythm of the music that was played in the background. Along with Mickey, she was redesigned in 1940. Her hat was replaced with a large bow and bows were added to her shoes as well. Her eyes were also given more detail. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, her look and personality became more conservative. Minnie almost always wears red or pink, but in her early appearances, she could be seen wearing a combination of blue, black or green (when not depicted in black and white).
Minnie's early personality is cute, playful, musical and flirtatious. She often portrays an entertainer like a dancer or a musician whose affection Mickey is trying to win. Part of the comedy of these early shorts is the varying degree of success Mickey has in wooing Minnie. Unlike later cartoons after the redesign, Minnie often becomes a damsel in distress whom Mickey tries to rescue. She is also subject to a lot of slapstick and rubber hose animation gags. Over the course of the 1930s, Minnie's and Mickey's relationship solidified and they eventually became a steady couple.
Minnie was first seen in a test screening of the cartoon short Plane Crazy.[14] Minnie is invited to join Mickey in the first flight of his aircraft. She accepts the invitation but not his request for a kiss in mid-flight. Mickey eventually forces Minnie into a kiss, but this only results in her parachuting out of the plane. This first film depicted Minnie as somewhat resistant to the demanding affection of her potential boyfriend and capable of escaping his grasp.[15]
Their debut, however, featured the couple already familiar to each other. The next film featuring them was The Gallopin' Gaucho.[16] The film was the second of their series to be produced, but the third to be released and was released on December 30, 1928. We find Minnie employed at the Cantina Argentina, a bar and restaurant established in the Pampas of Argentina. She performs the Tango for Mickey the gaucho and Black Pete the outlaw. Both flirt with her, but the latter intends to abduct her while the former obliges in saving the Damsel in Distress from the villain. All three characters acted as strangers first being introduced to each other.
But it was their third cartoon that established the definitive early look and personality of both Mickey and Minnie, as well as Pete. Steamboat Willie[17] was the third short of the series to be produced, but was released first, on November 18, 1928.[18] Pete was featured as the Captain of the steamboat, Mickey as a crew of one and Minnie as their single passenger.[19] The two anthropomorphic mice first star in a sound film and spend most of its duration playing music to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw".
Minnie's Yoo-Hoo
Her next appearance was arguably more significant. Mickey's Follies (June 26, 1929),[20] featured the first performance of the song "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo". "The guy they call little Mickey Mouse" for the first time addresses an audience to explain that he has "got a sweetie" who is "neither fat nor skinny" and proudly proclaims that "she's my little Minnie Mouse". Mickey then proceeds to explain his reaction to Minnie's call. The song firmly establishes Mickey and Minnie as a couple and expresses the importance Minnie holds for her male partner.
Damsel in distress
Her final appearance for the year was in Wild Waves,[21] carried by a wave into the sea. She panics terribly and seems to start drowning. Mickey uses a rowboat to rescue her and return her to the shore, but Minnie is still visibly shaken from the experience. Mickey starts singing the tune of "Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep", a maritime ballad, in an apparent effort to cheer her up. Minnie cheers up and the short ends. This is the second time Minnie is placed in danger and then saved by her new boyfriend. It wouldn't be the last.
In fact, this was the case with her next appearance in The Cactus Kid (May 10, 1930).[22] As the title implies the short was intended as a Western movie parody, but it is considered to be more or less a remake of The Gallopin' Gaucho set in Mexico instead of Argentina. Minnie was again cast as the local tavern dancer who is abducted by Peg-Leg Pedro (Black Pete in his first appearance with a peg-leg). Mickey again comes to the rescue. The short is considered significant for being the last short featuring Mickey and Minnie to be animated by Ub Iwerks.
The Shindig (July 11, 1930)[23] featured Minnie joining Mickey, Horace and Clarabelle in a barn dance. Among them, Clarabelle seems to be the actual star of the short. Director Burt Gillett turned in another enjoyable entry in the series, proving that production could go on without Iwerks. This was arguably the first time Minnie was upstaged by a female co-star.
In The Fire Fighters (June 20, 1930), Minnie is trapped in a hotel during a fire.[22] She spends the duration of the short in mortal peril but is rescued by firefighters under Chief Mickey Mouse. Horace Horsecollar is among the firefighters. An unnamed cow in the background is possibly Clarabelle making a cameo. The music of the short was, appropriately, the tune of "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight".
The next entry in the series is considered curious: The Gorilla Mystery (October 1, 1930).[24] The short starts with Beppo the Gorilla escaping from a zoo. Mickey learns of it and terribly panics. He phones Minnie to warn her about the dangerous gorilla wandering about. Minnie is unconcerned and plays tunes on her piano for Mickey to hear over the phone and know she isn't afraid. Her tunes are interrupted by her scream and Mickey rushes to her house to save her. Meanwhile, Beppo has wrapped up Minnie in rope and holds her hostage. Mickey confronts the gorilla and once again rescues the damsel in distress.
Introduction of a pet
Minnie Mouse along with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in a Halloween-themed parade at Disneyland Paris
In The Picnic (1930), Minnie introduces her boyfriend to her new pet dog, Rover. This is actually Pluto making his first appearance as an individual character. Two unnamed bloodhound guard dogs strikingly similar to him had previously appeared in The Chain Gang (August 18, 1930)[25] which featured Mickey incarcerated in prison without Minnie at his side. Otherwise, the short features a typical picnic excursion harassed by forest animals and brought to a premature end by a sudden rain.
The final appearance of Minnie during the year was Pioneer Days (November 20, 1930).[22]:â63â The short featured Minnie and her mate as pioneer settlers heading to the American Old West driving a covered wagon in a wagon train. They are unsurprisingly attacked by Native Americans on their way, this was a stock plot of Western movies at the time. While their fellows are either subjected to scalping or running for their lives, Minnie is captured by the attackers. Mickey attempts to rescue her, only to be captured himself. In a reversal of their usual roles, Minnie escapes her captors and rescues her mate. They then dress as soldiers of the United States Army. Their mere appearance proves sufficient to have the entire tribe running for the hills. The Mouse couple stands triumphant at the end. The short has been criticized for its unflattering depiction of Native Americans as rather bestial predators. The finale has been edited out in recent viewings for depicting the "braves" submitting to cowardice.
In several shorts, comics and TV shows, Minnie owns a black and white kitten named Figaro, who had originated in the Disney animated feature Pinocchio.
Waning years
During the second half of the 1930s, Minnie didn't appear as often in Mickey cartoons. This was mainly due to the growth in popularity of Mickey's new sidekicks, Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto, whose appearances in Mickey cartoons had more or less replaced Minnie's role. Minnie's appearances in Mickey cartoons thus became less numerous, but she did have a few major roles in some Pluto and Figaro cartoons during the 1940s. Minnie made a sort of comeback in the 1980s when she was re-introduced in Mickey's Christmas Carol and then got her own starring role in Totally Minnie.[26]Your best friends are Mickey, Daisy, Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Clarabelle and FĂgaro.
Contemporary appearances
She starred in a 1988 musical television special on NBC called Totally Minnie, it was the first film to feature Minnie in a lead role. She also appeared in a line of merchandise called Minnie 'n Me in the 1990s. On September 18, 1990, the CD Minnie 'n Me: Songs Just For Girls was released.
Minnie's return to animation came in Mickey's Christmas Carol (December 16, 1983).[27] She was cast as Mrs. Cratchit. As with most Disney characters, she was given a small cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) but doesn't have any lines in the latter movie, despite her voice actress being listed in the end credits.
Minnie Mouse makes an appearance in every episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Minnie ran a neighborhood in Disney's Toontown Online called Minnie's Melodyland. It was an intermediate area with access to Toontown Central, The Brrrgh and Donald's Dreamland.
Minnie is available to sign autographs and take pictures throughout the day in various locations at the different Disney Resort Theme Parks around the world. She also appears in all of the daily parades that take place at the Disney resorts.
In the 2013 Mickey Mouse television series, Minnie was restored to her classic 1930s look with the flowered bowler hat and flapper girl outfit. Minnie also gained more character quirks, and like the older cartoons, was subject to more slapstick and rubber hose cartoon gags.
On June 22, 2017, it was announced that Minnie, alongside "Weird Al" Yankovic, Zoe Saldana and Lin-Manuel Miranda, would be receiving her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018.[28]
In December 2019, both Minnie and Mickey served as special co-hosts of Wheel of Fortune for two weeks during Disney's Secret Santa Giveaway while Vanna White served as the main host during Pat Sajak's absence.[29]
On January 1, 2024, the copyrights of the first three animated Mickey Mouse cartoons and their portrayal of Mickey and Minnie Mouse expired, and they entered the public domain. They are the silent versions of the cartoons Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, and the sound cartoon Steamboat Willie.[a] Newer versions of Minnie Mouse will remain copyright protected.[30]
Television
In Mickey Mouse Works, she appeared in her own segments. Occasionally, she starred in Maestro Minnie[31] shorts, in which she conducts an orchestra of living instruments that she usually has to tame.
In House of Mouse, Minnie is in charge of running the nightclub, while Mickey primarily serves as the host. In one episode of House of Mouse, "Clarabelle's Big Secret", Minnie reveals that she has gone to the movies with Mortimer Mouse, although it isn't a date.
She appears in two children's shows on Disney Junior: the full-length educational Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and the spin-off series of shorts Minnie's Bow-Toons, where she runs a "bow-tique" selling bows like the ones she and Daisy wear. In season 2 of Bow-Toons, she displays high physical strength and balance at least twice, able to balance her entire bodyweight in a 1-finger handstand.[32][33]
In the 2013 Mickey Mouse television series and its 2020 spinoff The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, she exhibits the ability to survive her head coming off, doing a 360 degree flip and re-attaching itself, which can happen when she feels surprised.[34]
In 2017, as part of the launch of Mickey and the Roadster Racers, Minnie's Happy Helpers adventures appear in the second half of every new episode.
Minnie as a queen and princess
Minnie has had several appearances as a princess throughout the ages, including the Mickey Mouse short films Ye Olden Days (1933) and Brave Little Tailor (1938).
Kingdom Hearts series
Minnie appears in the Kingdom Hearts game series as the queen of Disney Castle, with Mickey serving as the king and her husband. She, at the suggestion of a letter left by the missing King, sends Donald Duck and Goofy on their mission to find Mickey and the Keyblade Master, Sora. During Kingdom Hearts II, when Pete's tampering of the past causes the Heartless to appear in Disney Castle, Minnie is forced to fall back to the library up until Sora and company arrive. While Donald and Goofy head out to get the other residents to safety, Sora serves as the Queen's bodyguard to get her to the Cornerstone of Light. During this time, Minnie shows powers as a sorceress of white magic, casting a holy light on the Heartless that attack. In the prequel Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, she oversees the annually held Dream Festival in Disney Town, where Pete causes mischief up until she banishes him to another dimension as a punishment. She appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance in a role mirroring that in the film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, where she is referred to as Princess Minnie and rules a world called the Country of the Musketeers. By this, it is inferred that she, not Mickey, is the rightful ruler of Disney Castle, which is why he leaves her in charge. She makes a brief appearance in Kingdom Hearts III, welcoming Mickey, Donald and Goofy back to Disney Castle.
Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers
In the 2004 direct-to-video film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Minnie plays the role of the princess of France, who continually daydreams about her true love, Mickey. She is also the only monarch getting in the way of the plans of Pete, who can't take over the kingdom if he can't get rid of her. For this particular film, Minnie is drawn with hair bangs, which do not appear in any later cartoons.
Wizards of Mickey
In the fantasy comic series Wizards of Mickey, Minnie is the sorceress princess of the kingdom of Dolmen whose people have been turned to stone, leading her to seek a magical Crystal to restore them. In her quest, she partners with her friends Daisy and Clarabelle as team Diamond Moon and eventually meets up with Mickey, the Supreme Sorcerer of Dolmen, and his group.
Voice actors
Minnie Mouse was first voiced by Walt Disney, who was also the original voice of Mickey Mouse.[35]
Marjorie Ralston, a Disney inker who joined the animation team as Disney's thirteenth employee, voiced her in the 1929 short Wild Waves, but didn't further pursue the role out of shyness. Then, from 1930 up until 1941, Minnie was voiced by Marcellite Garner. Then, in 1938 and on the radio program, The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air, she was voiced by Thelma Boardman. Boardman also voiced her in the short Mickey's Birthday Party in 1942. Shirley Reed voiced Minnie in Two-Gun Mickey expect the end.[36] Following this, from 1944 to 1952, Ruth Clifford provided the character's voice.[37] Leone LeDoux voices Minnie from 1937 to 1939 and again between 1946 and 1950. Janet Waldo voiced Minnie in the 1974 Disneyland record album, An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players.[8]
Minnie would go without any spoken dialogue up until 1986, when Russi Taylor inherited the role, which she performed up until her death in 2019 (her husband, Wayne Allwine, voiced Mickey from 1977 up until his death in 2009), Taylor's voice is used in various TV series and theme parks via archival and posthumous dialogue. Kaitlyn Robrock officially took over as the new voice of Minnie, beginning with two Disney Junior stop-motion Mickey Mouse shorts, Mickey Mouse and the Magical Snowy Holiday and Mickey Mouse and the Magical Holiday Bag, both released in November 2019.[38][39]
Robrock continues voicing Minnie in The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse on Disney+ and onward." (wikipedia.)
"The Mickey Mouse universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting for stories involving Disney cartoon characters, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Pluto and Goofy as the primary members (colloquially known as the "Sensational Six"), and many other characters related to them, being most of them anthropomorphic animals. The universe originated from the Mickey Mouse animated short films produced by Disney starting in 1928, although its first consistent version was created by Floyd Gottfredson in the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip. Real-world versions also exist in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, called Mickey's Toontown.
Since 1990, the city in which Mickey lives is typically called Mouseton in American comics. In modern continuity, Mouseton is often depicted as being located in the fictional U.S. state of Calisota, analogous to Northern California. This fictional state was invented by comics writer Carl Barks in 1952 as the location for Donald Duck's home city, Duckburg.
The most consistent aspect of the Mickey Mouse universe is the characters. The most well-known include Mickey's girlfriend Minnie, pet dog Pluto, friends Goofy, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and nemesis Pete. Some Disney productions incorporate characters from Disney's animated feature films, such as Bath Day (1946), in which Figaro from Pinocchio appears as Minnie's cat (becoming her recurring pet in several productions), Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), and â most extensively â House of Mouse (2001â2003).
Although crossovers between the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck universes have been infrequent, the two universes overlap. Characters from the Donald Duck universe make occasional appearances in the Mickey Mouse universe and vice versa.
The term "Mickey Mouse universe" is not officially used by The Walt Disney Company, but it has been used by Disney comics author and animation historian David Gerstein.[1] The Walt Disney Company typically uses terms such as Mickey & Friends[2] or Mickey & the Gang[3] to refer to the character franchise.
Continuity development
The Mickey Mouse universe essentially originated with the debut of Mickey himself in Plane Crazy (1928). Although Mickey's stories included the character Pete, who was created in 1925, the world in which Mickey lives holds a continuity largely independent from earlier films. An exception to this was the reintroduction of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in 2010 with the release of Epic Mickey.
In 1930, Disney began a Mickey Mouse comic strip which greatly expanded Mickey's world. The stories then became a work of collaborative fiction with writers working in different mediums and different countries. This sometimes caused continuity discrepancies. For example, while Mickey and his friends largely live in the same contemporary setting, they sometimes appear in exotic settings, including period pieces (Brave Little Tailor, The Nifty Nineties) and fantasy films (Fantasia, Fun and Fancy Free).
The comics writers explained this discrepancy was to present the characters as "real" cartoon characters who are employed by Disney as actors. Walter J. Ong in his cultural research of Mickey Mouse and Americanism also agreed with this opinion. In short, characters are more human-like, featuring fewer animal features in their characteristics.[4] This understanding of the characters leading separate lives was welcomed by Walt Disney. When asked whether or not Mickey and Minnie were married, Disney replied that the mice were indeed married in their "private lives", but that they sometimes appear as boyfriend and girlfriend for "screen purposes."[5] Also, in the World War II propaganda film The New Spirit (1942), Donald Duck fills out his income tax and lists his occupation as "actor", and the film The Three Musketeers (2004) includes a DVD bonus feature of the characters reminiscing on their experience filming the feature film.
Animation historian David Gerstein has noted that although the characters will appear in different settings and sometimes even change their names (Mickey's Christmas Carol), the characters are still themselves and behave in a way consistent with their natures.[6]
Initially, Disney comics were produced in the United States. Over the years, demand for these comics eventually became so intense that stories were created in the United States exclusively for foreign consumption. Disney licensed its characters to foreign publishers. As a result, many Disney comics stories have been created by European or Latin American authors, resulting in more continuity discrepancies and local variations of the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck universes. Some characters have become more popular abroad than in the United States, while some appeared and were used solely in foreign stories.
Generally, Mickey Mouse series films are for entertainment purposes. Unlike traditional stories like Aesop's Fables, Disney animation generally does not avoid adult or mature scenes. In Hawaiian Holiday (1937),[7] Goofy was in a scene of being in a grave. Disney arranged a laugh scene after that. Its choice of scene creation can be seen as a signature of the attention to entertainment effort.
Places
Mickey's farm
In Plane Crazy (1928), the first produced Mickey Mouse story, Mickey is seen at a farm. In his early films, Mickey is in a rural setting, but most commonly at a farm. This setting was succinctly presented in the first sentences of one of Mickey's first storybooks:
"This story is about Mickey Mouse who lives in a cozy nest under the floor of the old barn. And it is about his friend Minnie Mouse whose home is safely hidden, soft and warm, somewhere in the chicken house."
ââThe Adventures of Mickey Mouse: Book I (1931)
In the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, Mickey's farm was most likely located in the midwestern United States, as indicated by characters' comments to have arrived "out west" to Death Valley and to go "back east" to conduct business, etc. This rural setting reflected Walt Disney's own childhood in Missouri and like Disney, Mickey eventually moved to the city, although he never forgets his roots. Mickey sometimes makes references to his life "back on the farm."[8]
Mouseton
Mickey appeared in an urban setting as early as 1931 in the short film Traffic Troubles where he works as a taxi driver. Mickey's city was unnamed until 1932, when the comic story The Great Orphanage Robbery identified it as Silo Center.[9] Some Floyd Gottfredson stories simply called the city Hometown while other Gottfredson stories used the name Mouseville.[10] But the first consistent name for Mickey's city came in 1950s Italy, where it was called Topolinia (from Topolino or 'little mouse,' Mickey's Italian name).
In 1990, Disney Comics launched the new American comic Mickey Mouse Adventures and initially planned to use the name Mouseville there. But due to then-current Mighty Mouse cartoons' use of a city called Mouseville, the new name Mouseton was created for Mickey's town instead; both in Mickey Mouse Adventures and in Disney's contemporary reprints of vintage stories in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories (1991â93).[11] Later publisher Gemstone and the present Boom Studios have continued the use of Mouseton from 2003 onward. In-between licensee Gladstone (1993â99) usually left Mickey's city unnamed, orâvery rarelyâreferenced it as Duckburg, better known as Donald Duck's hometown.[12])
Mouseton's location in Calisota and its positioning with regard to Duckburg (the cities being not far from one another) were the subject of speculation early on, but have generally been treated consistently in American publications from 2003 onward.[13]
In Disney comics published by Egmont (Scandinavia) and Abril (Brazil), Mickey lives in Duckburgâeven though Mickey and Donald only rarely team up in shared comics adventures. The same tradition extends to Disney comics published in Germany by Egmont subdivision Ehapa (Duckburg is called Entenhausen in German), although the German comics have mentioned possible equivalents of Mouseton as neighboring towns or villages: Mausdorf (German for "mouse village") and MĂ€uslingen (German equivalent to "Mouseville").
In Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil and Scandinavia, local tradition has it that Mickey's hometown is simply a different district of Duckburg. In Disney theme parks, the Roger Rabbit-inspired Toontown, a district in Los Angeles specifically for cartoon characters, is presented as Mickey's home.
In animation, Mouseton is mentioned in the DuckTales reboot series, where one of the characters, Zan Owlson, graduated from Mouseton's School of Business, the place appearing briefly in the episode "The Ballad of Duke Baloney!" during Owlson's presentation.
Non-Mouseton continuity
In some 1920s and 1930s Disney press releases and magazines, Mickey was described as living in Hollywoodâeven though the rural setting of the actual cartoons and comics had little in common with the real Hollywood.
In the film Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip (1940) Mickey and Pluto live in the actual world city of Burbank, California, home of Walt Disney Studios.
In the Kingdom Hearts series, both the Mouseton and Duckburg characters live in a realm called "Disney Town."
The Walt Disney Parks and Resorts modeled Mickey's hometown and birthplace as Mickey's Toontown. Occasional modern animated projects reference Toontown as well.
In the TV series Goof Troop (1992â1993) Goofy and Pete live in the fictional town of Spoonerville. The town also appears in the 1993 video game of the same name and in the two films based on the series: A Goofy Movie (1995) and An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000).
In the TV series Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (2017-2021) the characters live in the fictional town of Hot Dog Hills.
Protagonists
Mickey Mouse
Main article: Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is an anthropomorphic mouse most often dressed in gloves, red shorts and yellow shoes. While typically given a modest and pleasant personality, he is often an enthusiastic and determined character, seeking new adventures, excitement and mysteries. He often serves as the de facto leader of his friends. He was introduced in the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie.
Minnie Mouse
Main article: Minnie Mouse
Minnie Mouse is Mickey's female counterpart, an anthropomorphic mouse usually portrayed as his girlfriend who first appeared in the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie. Originally characterized as a flapper, Minnie has often played Mickey's damsel in distress. Her most frequent profession in early cartoons was a musician and songwriter.
Donald Duck
Main article: Donald Duck
Donald Duck is Mickey's short tempered friend who was first introduced in the 1934 short film The Wise Little Hen. Donald is an anthropomorphic duck who gets angry when characters are mocking him. He dates Daisy Duck and is the uncle of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
Daisy Duck
Main article: Daisy Duck
Daisy Duck is Donald's female counterpart, an anthropomorphic Duck usually portrayed as his girlfriend who first appeared in the 1940 short film Mr. Duck Steps Out. She sometimes gets upset with Donald when he loses his temper. Daisy has an equally dangerous temper but a much more sophisticated mien. She is also best friends with Minnie Mouse.
Goofy
Main article: Goofy
Goofy (often also called Goofy Goof) is Mickey's clumsy, dim-witted and well-meaning friend who was first introduced in the 1932 short film Mickey's Revue. Goofy is an anthropomorphic dog who is accident-prone. In some stories he dates Clarabelle Cow while other times he is shown as a single parent. His original name was Dippy Dawg.
Pluto
Main article: Pluto (Disney)
Pluto is Mickey Mouse's pet dog who was first introduced in the 1930 short film The Chain Gang, later appearing in The Picnic as Minnie's dog Rover and in the 1931 short film The Moose Hunt under his current role as Mickey's dog. Unlike the anthropomorphic Goofy, Pluto is a normal dog who walks on four legs and rarely speaks.
Clarabelle Cow
Main article: Clarabelle Cow
Clarabelle Cow is a tall, anthropomorphic cow who is Minnie Mouse's friend and was introduced in the 1928 short film Steamboat Willie. She is prone to gossip and occasionally plays a well-meaning but ineffective parent figure to Donald Duck. She has been known to date both Horace Horsecollar and Goofy.
Horace Horsecollar
Main article: Horace Horsecollar
Horace Horsecollar is a tall, anthropomorphic horse who is Mickey Mouse's friend who first appeared in the 1929 short film The Plowboy. He is prone to bragging and practical joking. Before the appearance of Donald Duck and Goofy, Horace was Mickey Mouse's usual sidekick. He is often seen as the boyfriend of Clarabelle Cow.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Main article: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald is an anthropomorphic black rabbit who first appeared in Trolley Troubles (1927). He is described metafictionally as Mickey's older half "brother" in the video game Epic Mickey. This is a reference to the fact that Oswald was Walt Disney's primary cartoon star before the creation of Mickey Mouse, though he was owned by Universal Pictures at the time. Disney's removal from the Oswald series in 1928 led to Mickey's creation. In 2006, The Walt Disney Company acquired the rights to Oswald, and have since used him in the Epic Mickey video game franchise. The game is unclear whether Mickey and Oswald are brothers; Yen Sid's closing narration merely states that the wizard hopes the two heroes will come to think of each other as brothers.
Family relations
Mickey Mouse's family
Felicity Fieldmouse
Felicity Fieldmouse (née Mouse) is Mickey's older sister and the mother of Mickey's twin nephews Morty and Ferdie. The character first appeared in Morty and Ferdie's 1932 comics debut: there, she looks old and is not stated to be Mickey's sister. Indeed, Mickey calls her "Mrs. Fieldmouse" as if she were an unrelated acquaintance, implying that Morty and Ferdie call Mickey "uncle" as a form of courtesy. Danish editor Egmont Publishing used the character again in seven stories published between 2000 and 2008, reimagining some aspects while refraining from declaring the old and the new character the same one. This new incarnation looks younger and is identified as Mickey's sister. She is now named Felicity, a name that was kept in the American localization of these Danish stories. In Egmont production notes her husband is named Frank Fieldmouse, though the character has never appeared in a story.[14]
Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse
Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse
Mortimer "Morty" and Ferdinand "Ferdie" Fieldmouse are Mickey Mouse's twin nephews. They first appeared in Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse Sunday page storyline titled "Mickey's Nephews" (1932). Since then they have appeared in many comic strips and comic book stories starring Mickey Mouse and Pluto. Morty and Ferdy were first shown as wearing shirts, but no pants or underpants. Pants were later added to their wardrobe.
Ferdie disappeared from the Mickey Mouse comic strip in 1943 because Gottfredson thought the nephews were too much alike. He had plans to bring Ferdie back later as a bespectacled, intellectual, bookworm mouse with an Eton hat and coat with the explanation that he had been away at school. However, Gottfredson never got around to bringing Ferdie back and Morty remained in the strip alone. Morty was occasionally depicted with his best friend named Alvin and a sweetheart named Millie. Both were anthropomorphic dogs. Ferdie never vanished from comic book stories, however. In recent years, some of Morty and Ferdie's comic book appearances have portrayed them as (very talented) football players on the team Riverside Rovers. Their mother is depicted as a supportive "Soccer Mom." Morty & Ferdie are also occasionally pitted against their antagonists Melody, Minnie Mouse's niece and Pete's twin hellion nephews, Pierino & Pieretto. Morty should not be confused with Mickey Mouse's originally proposed name "Mortimer Mouse," or Mickey's ofttimes rival of the same name Mortimer Mouse, or Minnie's wealthy rancher Uncle Mortimer. Morty is a playable character on the PlayStation 2 game Disney Golf.
In pre-World War II children's books produced by Disney, the nephews were usually called Morty and Monty. Earlier books contain three or more nephews with various names, including Maisie and Marmaduke.
In animation, Mickey's nephews first appear in the 1933 Mickey Mouse film Giantland, although the film shows Mickey with as many as 14 nephews at the same time. The following year the nephews appear again in Gulliver Mickey. The following film, Mickey's Steam Roller, is the first to show Mickey with only two nephews, who can be presumed to be Morty and Ferdie, although they are unnamed in the film itself. This was two years after the twins debuted in the comic strip. Morty and Ferdie also make a cameo towards the end of 1938's Boat Builders and appear again in 1983's Mickey's Christmas Carol in speaking roles, albeit at different ages as one of the twins took on the role of Tiny Tim. In 1999 they make a cameo in the two-part Mickey Mouse Works segment "Around the World in Eighty Days", which was used again in House of Mouse. They also appear in the Mickey Mouse episode "The Scariest Story Ever: A Mickey Mouse Halloween Spooktacular!"[15]
Madeline Mouse
Madeline Mouse is Mickey's blonde city cousin who appeared in "Love Trouble", a strip serial that ran from April 14 to July 5, 1941. While referred to as blonde in the story itself, Madeline has also been coloured with straight yellow fur in some printings of the story.
Melinda Mouse
Melinda Mouse (original Italian name Topolinda) is Mickey Mouse's aunt, created by Romano Scarpa in 1960 for his story The Chirikawa Necklace.[16] Since 2004, she has become a regular recurring character in Italian Disney comics.
Melinda is a tall old lady with a long nose and she dresses in a very formal way. She wears a pair of earrings, but her ears are covered by hair. The colour of Melinda's hair changes according to the colourists, but in recent stories, they appear blond. In her debut story, young Melinda has black hair.
According to The Chirikawa Necklace, Melinda took care of Mickey when he was a baby. But one day, (taking advantage of a moment of distraction by Melinda) a young Big Bad Pete and his girlfriend Trudy Van Tubb kidnapped a baby Mickey Mouse and Melinda was forced to exchange Mickey for her Indian necklace. Years later, Mickey and his friend Atomo Beep-Beep discovered the truth and retrieved Melinda's necklace to her.
She is a lovely and cheerful person, and deeply attached to her nephew Mickey (with whom she shares a passion for mysteries and investigations) but the memory of baby Mickey's kidnapping caused her to develop feelings of guilt, and a too protective attitude towards her nephew.
Minnie Mouse's family
Marcus Mouse
Marcus Mouse is Minnie's father. He first appears as a farmer in the Mickey Mouse comic strip story line "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers," first published between September 22 and December 26, 1930. He has also appeared in some English stories from 1930s Mickey Mouse Annuals.
Marshal Mouse and Matilda Mouse
Marshal Mouse and Matilda Mouse are Minnie's grandparents.
Millie and Melody Mouse
Millie and Melody Mouse
Millie and Melody Mouse are Minnie Mouse's twin nieces. Minnie has had an inconsistent list of nieces. In Europe and Brazil, most often a single niece is depicted, consistently named Melodia (Melody). She is a Disney Studio creation by Jim Fletcher in the mid-sixties whose primary "task" seems to be to drive Morty & Ferdie crazy.
However, in at least one other Italian or Brazilian tale Minnie did have another niece named Zizi (whether this was the name of Melody's twin or just another name for Melody is unknown). In America, Minnie's twin nieces have appeared under two names: Millie and Melody and Pammy and Tammy. Although the writer of these comics is unknown, they were both drawn by Paul Murry, who rarely worked with characters that sported the same names even if they ostensibly were the same characters. In Italy, there is another set of twin nieces, Lily & Tiny, who are in their teen years. These teenage nieces have yet to appear in comics printed in the USA.
It is reported that another name is attributed in American comics giving Minnie's single niece the name of Molly. Another set of nieces appear in an early Mickey Mouse book from the 1940s as triplets calling themselves "Dolly, Polly & Molly," while a lone niece attributed to Mickey appears in the cartoon "Gulliver Mickey" (1934) named "Maisie" (listed in Mickey Mouse: His Life and Times (Harper & Row, 1986)).
The only possible film appearance of any niece is in 1983's "Mickey's Christmas Carol," where Mickey Mouse, as Bob Cratchit, has a daughter. In this film Morty & Ferdie are said to have played Cratchit's two sons (including one as Tiny Tim), and since Melody seems to be the most consistent name used for any niece attributed to Minnie, it is probable that it was Melody who played the role of Bob Cratchit's daughter.
Millie & Melody both appear in Minnie's Bow-Toons on Disney Junior, and are voiced by Avalon Robbins.
Uncle Mortimer
Uncle Mortimer, created by Walt Disney and Floyd Gottfredson for the comic strip, is Minnie's rancher uncle from whom she inherits an estate. He first appeared in the "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley" story line (1930). After that, he returned in several other Mickey Mouse comic strip adventures of the 1930s, in which Gottfredson gave him a markedly different appearance. He has occasionally appeared in more modern comics. He must not be confused with one of Mickey's antagonists, also called Mortimer Mouse.
Minnie's other nieces
Minnie Mouse has a variety of nieces besides Millie and Melody.
Angela Mouse (Minnie's best friend)
An unnamed baby niece (appeared in the 1944-02-26 strip by Bill Walsh)
Giselle (French niece who appeared in the 1956-11-24 strip by Bill Walsh)
Mildred (niece who appeared in the 1955-05-15 strip by Bill Walsh)
Donald Duck's family
Huey, Dewey, and Louie
Main article: Huey, Dewey, and Louie
Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck are Donald's mischief-making nephews who provoke Donald with his famous temper. They first appeared in 1937.
Scrooge McDuck
Main article: Scrooge McDuck
Scrooge McDuck is Donald's wealthy uncle. He lives in the city of Duckburg and is of Scottish descent. Scrooge first appeared in 1947. He is best known for diving into his pool of money, a recurring gag in the DuckTales series.
Ludwig Von Drake
Main article: Ludwig Von Drake
Ludwig Von Drake is Donald's eccentric uncle who is a resident scientist, lecturer, and psychiatrist. He was introduced in 1961, as part of Walt Disney's NBC television special.
Goofy's family
Max Goof
Main article: Max Goof
Max Goof (also known as "Goofy Junior" in 1950s short films) is Goofy's teenage son. He is a protagonist of the Goof Troop TV series (1992â1993) and of the feature film A Goofy Movie and its sequel An Extremely Goofy Movie. He has also made a few comics appearances, most of which were based on the TV series.
Gilbert Goof
Gilbert Goof is Goofy's nephew in Disney comic book appearances, and a smarter counterpart for Goofy. He was created by Bill Wright (plot and art) and first introduced in the Dell Four Color # 562 (1954). He made numerous comics appearances in the 1950s and 1960s. At one point, he became Super Goof's sidekick, calling himself "Super Gilly" ("Super Goof" #5 in "The Twister Resisters"). He has since appeared in various Italian comics stories.
Grandma Goofy
Grandma Goofy is Goofy's elderly but energetic grandmother, who first appeared in a 1944 Mickey Mouse Sunday page. She has made various appearances in American Mickey and Goofy stories, as well as in Italian stories.[17] Although Grandma Goofy has not yet made a true animated appearance, Goofy impersonated her in the episode "Goofy's Grandma" of the Mickey Mouse television series.[18]
Arizona Goof
Arizona Goof (original Italian name: "Indiana Pipps") is an archaeologist and a cousin of Goofy, being a clear parody of Indiana Jones, who appears exclusively in Italian comics. The character was created in 1988 by Bruno Sarda (plot) and Maria Luisa Uggetti (art) in the story Topolino & Pippo in: I predatori del tempio perduto (Topolino n° 1724). Arizona has a rare habit of not using beds, doors, or stairs. Instead, he sleeps in a tent, enters and exits houses through windows and climbs floors by a rope. Arizona is fond of a specific brand of liquorice candy (the brand is called Negritas in original Italian language version, Tuju in the Finnish language translation), which he never travels without and is addicted to the taste of, but which everyone else finds horrible. Arizona's car is an old jeep which he has named affectionately as Gippippa (Jeep + Pippo, Goofy's Italian name). Arizona has a rival archaeologist, Dr. Kranz, who is greedy and shameless and not above resorting to criminal behaviour. Arizona and Goofy look almost identical, which has been used as a plot device, when Goofy has masqueraded as Arizona to fool Dr. Kranz. For the readers' benefit, there is one small difference: Arizona has hairs dangling from his floppy ears, whereas Goofy's floppy ears are smooth.
Arizona Goof received his English name in his first American comics appearance (1991). In a couple of 2005â2006 appearances, the character was renamed "Arizona Dipp". But more recent uses (Disney Digicomics, 2009â2010) have restored his traditional English name.
Antagonists
Pete
Main article: Pete (Disney)
Pete (also called Peg-Leg Pete or Black Pete among other names) is a large, overweight anthropomorphic cat. He is the most recurring antagonist in Mickey Mouse stories. He was first introduced in 1925 as a bear. His character ranges from a hardened criminal to an ethical menace: depending on the context, he is either Mickey's archenemy or a simple nuisance. In the earlier comic strip storyline he was paired with Sylvester Shyster before evolving into the main villain. In the Goof Troop TV series and subsequent film adaptations, he is depicted as Goofy's exploitative friend and neighbor.
Kat Nipp
Kat Nipp (not to be confused with Harvey Comics character Katnip), his name a play on the word catnip, is a villainous anthropomorphic cat. Kat Nipp is an often-drunk countryside tough guy who is a rival of Mickey Mouse.
Nipp made his debut in the animated short The Opry House (1929), in which he posed as a snake for a snake-charming actâcontinuing to smoke his pipe all the while. Nipp's other two appearances in animation also came in 1929, with When the Cat's Away and The Karnival Kid. The latter film introduced Nipp's habit of physically abusing Mickey, here by stretching out Mickey's nose to a ridiculous length. Kat Nipp is often mistaken for Pete.
Kat Nipp reappeared in a 1931 sequence of the Mickey Mouse newspaper comic strip (in which his friend Barnacle Bill, a sailor who is an expert in untying knots, appears). Kat Nipp was also used in the strips produced in the United Kingdom for the Mickey Mouse Annual. The character quickly faded away and has made only a handful of comics appearances since the mid-1930s.
Kat Nipp appears in the video game Kingdom Hearts III (2018), appearing in the minigame "The Karnival Kid" with his appearance from the short film of the same name, among the characters who order menus from Sora.
Sylvester Shyster
Sylvester Shyster (not to be confused with Looney Tunes character Sylvester the Cat) is a crooked lawyer and evil criminal mastermind who generally teams up with Pete. The character has been described by some as a weasel or a rat (the latter being Gottfredson's own interpretation), but his ears suggest that he is rather an anthropomorphic canine.
He first appeared in the comic strip adventure "Mickey Mouse in Death Valley", the first real Mickey Mouse continuity, which was partially written by Walt Disney and drawn by Win Smith and other artists, before being taken over by Floyd Gottfredson (plot and art). In this story, Sylvester Shyster was a crooked lawyer who attempted, with the help of his henchman Pete, to deprive Minnie Mouse of her inheritance.
Shyster and Pete have been causing trouble for Mickey and his friends since then. Shyster is generally depicted as the duo's brain, with Pete acting as the brawn. After Shyster's first appearance, Gottfredson made no further references to his profession as a lawyer, apart from his name. Later creators occasionally referenced Shyster's role as a lawyer, with one story ("Trial and Error," 2007) forcing Shyster to defend Mickey himself in an overseas courtroom. After 1934, Shyster disappeared for a time, leaving Pete as Mickey's main recurring antagonists. He made comebacks in 1942, 1950 and again in various 1960s Italian-created stories. More recently, publisher Egmont Creative A/S (in Denmark) revived Shyster as a regular character, a capacity in which he continues today.
Although Sylvester Shyster has not made an animated appearance in any Disney production, he appears briefly in the episode "Who Ate Wally's Waffles?" of the series Paradise PD at the entrance of Disney World, being to date the only appearance in animation of the character.[19]
The Mad Doctor
Main article: The Mad Doctor (1933 film)
The Mad Doctor (also known as Dr. XXX) is a human mad scientist who serves as an infrequent antagonist of Mickey's. He first appeared in his self-titled short, in which he attempted to operate on Pluto by attaching his body to that of a chicken; this entire sequence turned out to be a dream.
The Mad Doctor makes a cameo appearance in the Roger Rabbit short Tummy Trouble, where photo of him can be seen on the hospital wall.[20]
He appear as an antagonist in some video games, being a boss enemy in Mickey Mania, a major antagonist in Epic Mickey and its sequel Epic Mickey 2, and an enemy in a mini-game of Kingdom Hearts III.
Professors Ecks, Doublex, and Triplex
Professors Eck, Doublex, and Triplex are the trio of ape mad scientists. The characters were created by Floyd Gottfredson (plot and art) in the Mickey Mouse comic strip in the Blaggard Castle storyline (1932-1933). Ecks is menacing black monkey, Doublex looks like him, but with light skin and wild black eyes, and Triplex is more monstrous looking ape with long messy hair and bare feet. Triplex is the leader of the trio, and Ecks and Doublex find him frightening. While Gottfredson didn't mention any familial relationship, most later comics have presented the trio as brothers.[21]
Gottfredson never featured the three professors in another story after Blaggard Castle, but they were memorable enough to return in stories under other authors in the 1970s.[21]
Professor Ecks was originally considered for the role of the mad scientist in Runaway Brain, but it was later changed to a new character, Doctor Frankenollie.[21]
Eli Squinch
Eli Squinch is an evil miser who first appeared as a villain in the Mickey Mouse comic strip in the Bobo the Elephant storyline (1934) as the abusive owner of an elephant which Mickey later forced Squinch to sell him. Squinch returned in several more storylines: originally depicted as an unscrupulous businessman, he evolved into an all-out criminal, playing alongside Pete a role similar to Sylvester Shyster's in earlier strips. He has reappeared sporadically in additional Disney comics stories up to the present day. His most recent United States appearance was in Mickey Mouse No. 321 (2016), published by IDW.
Doctor Vulter
Doctor Vulter is an anthropomorphic ape, resembling a gorilla. The character was created by Ted Osborne (plot) and Floyd Gottfredson (plot and art) in the story Mickey Mouse and the Pirate Submarine, published in the Mickey Mouse daily strip from September 1935 to January 1936. He is a megalomaniacal pirate captain and mad scientist, somewhat modeled after Jules Verne's Captain Nemo character. Using a futuristic submarine and a small army of henchmen, he plagues the seas by stealing various ships which he aims to use for his plans of world conquest. His principal weapon is a machine in the form of a large claw which gives off magnetic-like energy: by placing it against a ship's hull Vulter can turn the whole metal ship into one large magnet which sticks weapons to the wall, making them useless.
Vulter's Germanic-sounding name, his uniform and monocle, as well as his plans of world domination and militaristic gang, are obvious echoes of the Nazi menace of the time.
After being defeated by Mickey, Vulter never appeared again in American stories. He was later used by Italian authors, starting with the 1959 story Topolino e il ritorno dell'artiglio magnetico ("Mickey Mouse and the Return of the Magnetic Claw") by Guido Martina (plot) and Giulio Chierchini (art). The character was further elaborated in this story by the claim that he never drew plans of his inventions but kept it all in his mind; this proved a bit of a problem when he suffered from amnesia. He returned occasionally and is still used from time to time by European authors.
Mortimer Mouse
Mortimer Mouse â not to be confused with Minnie Mouse's uncle also named Mortimer Mouse â is introduced in the 1936 cartoon short Mickey's Rival, as Mickey's competitor for Minnie's affections. The year Mickey's Rival was produced, Floyd Gottfredson also used the character as an antagonist in one of the comic strip's storylines. In the comics, this Mortimer was briefly renamed Montmorency Rodent (pronounced "Ro-Dawn"), in an attempt to differentiate him from the pre-existing uncle, but the new name did not stick. Mickey's rival was once again called Mortimer in later comics â and in the animated series Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse, where he used the catchphrase, "Ha-cha-cha!".
In House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Works, Mortimer as Mickey's rival is voiced by Maurice LaMarche, doing an exaggerated impersonation of Jon Lovitz.[citation needed] As Minnie's boss in Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, he was voiced by Jeff Bennett. Mortimer Mouse also appeared in a non-speaking cameo in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode Minnie's Birthday, sitting beneath a tree, playing a guitar. He later appeared in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode "Super Adventure" as a villain where he intends to shrink the clubhouse. Bennett reprised his role as Mortimer in the 2018 Mickey Mouse short "A Pete Scorned". He also appeared in Mickey and the Roadster Racers as Morty McCool.
The Phantom Blot
The Phantom Blot
The Phantom Blot is a mysterious enemy of Mickey Mouse who wears a body-length black sheet. Created in 1939 in Floyd Gottfredson's comic strip, the Phantom Blot became a very recurring character in European comics where he is one of Mickey's archenemies, second only to Pete. He was also reused, to a lesser extent, in American stories.
The Phantom Blot prefers being an ominous mastermind in the background, pulling strings and organising schemes, to engaging in physical criminal jobs.
The Phantom Blot is a master of disguise. He uses disguises to fool Mickey Mouse and the police, sometimes even appearing right in front of them without being noticed. When escaping the scene, the Phantom Blot often leaves a trademark "business card" - a sheet of white paper with a black splodge of ink on it.
When unmasked, the Phantom Blot is an anthropomorphic dog. He has a gaunt face with a long nose and a long, thin moustache. Phantom Blot's unmasked look was reportedly based on the features of Walt Disney himself.[22]
The Phantom Blot and Pete are often bitter rivals, as both want to be recognised as the city's greatest criminal mastermind, and to get the most money out of the deal. However, some stories have shown them teaming up with each other.
The Phantom Blot made his animated debut in the DuckTales episode "All Ducks on Deck" voiced by Frank Welker. He is shown to be an agent of F.O.W.L.
The Phantom Blot appears as an antagonist in the TV series Mickey Mouse Works and its spinoff House of Mouse voiced by John O'Hurley.
An altered, monstrous version of the Phantom Blot, known as the "Shadow Blot", serves as the antagonist of the first Epic Mickey game. The Phantom Blot seemingly meets this creature in the city's museum when unlocking a dimensional portal, in the story The Blot and The Blob.[23]
The Phantom Blot made a cameo appearance in the episode "Sock Burglar" from the TV series Mickey Mouse.[24]
The Phantom Blot is a recurring antagonist during the third season of the DuckTales reboot, voiced by Giancarlo Esposito. While his history as a member of F.O.W.L. remains intact, this version came from a village that Magica De Spell attacked.
Willie the Giant
Willie in Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Willie is a giant who appeared in the Disney cartoons Mickey and the Beanstalk (from the film Fun and Fancy Free, voiced by Billy Gilbert) and Mickey's Christmas Carol (voiced by Will Ryan). He has also made cameo appearances in House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He is incredibly powerful, demonstrating amazing magic powers such as flight, invisibility and shapeshifting. Despite this, he is portrayed as immature and dimwitted, given his fondness for toys and inability to pronounce certain words, such as "pistachio". His favorite dish is implied to be chocolate pot roast with pistachios, given his overweight appearance. In other words, he is much dumber than the original giant that he is based on from Jack and the Beanstalk.
In Mickey and the Beanstalk, Willie serves as the primary villain. In Mickey's Christmas Carol, he is portrayed in a much more positive light, playing the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present who helps show Ebenezer Scrooge (Scrooge McDuck) the error of his ways. He makes a brief cameo in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit on a poster in a movie theater in Toontown. Willie is also a minor recurring character in the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse children's series. Here, he is friends with Mickey. Willie still lives in the sky, only this time in a giant farmhouse.
In Mickey Mouse Funhouse, Willie lives in the medieval location of Majestica where his farm is in the Cloud Kingdom. His Land of Myth and Legend counterpart is Woodsman Willie, a woodsman who lives in the forests of the Land of Myth and Legend. Will Ryan recorded some dialogue before his death with the last episode he voiced Willie in was "Witchy Worries". Starting in the episode "Tooth or Consequences", Willie was now voiced by Brock Powell.
The Rhyming Man
The Rhyming Man is a villain who debuted in a comic strip storyline, The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man (MayâOctober, 1948), written by Bill Walsh with art by Floyd Gottfredson.[25] His name derives from the fact that he always talks in rhymes. A spy working for an unspecified foreign nation, the Rhyming Man tried to steal Eega Beeva's anti-atomic invention but was ultimately foiled by Mickey Mouse and Eega Beeva. An unusually dark and violent character by Disney comics standards, he was shown to actually murder one of his underlings. He was also depicted as possessing near-superhuman strength, the origin of which was never explained. Though never used again by American authors, the Rhyming Man was reused in Italian comic books first in a 1994 story where he appeared to have reformed, then in 2008 as the central antagonist of the four-part science-fiction story Topolino e il mondo che verrĂ in which he returned to his villainous roots.[26]
Weasels
The Weasels are characters that originally appeared in the segment "The Wind in the Willows" of the film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949), where they act as antagonists of the story by deceiving the main character by selling him a stolen car. The first weasel is voiced by an uncredited Leslie Denison and the second weasel is voiced by an uncredited Edmond Stevens. After this appearance, they became recurring characters in Disney animated productions related to Mickey and his friends. Usually they are presented as thin brown Weasels who wear a sweater, pants and a cap.
A Weasel appears as a mugger in the Goofy short film How to Be a Detective (1952), voiced by Gerald Mohr.
In Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), two Weasels appear as gravediggers in the graveyard, burying Ebenezer Scrooge (Scrooge McDuck), and making fun of the fact that there weren't any mourners at his funeral, or for that matter any friends to bid him farewell. These weasels are voiced by Wayne Allwine and Will Ryan.
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), five Weasels partially based on those of "The Wind in the Willows", with different appearances and personalities, form the so-called "Toon Patrol", acting as the secondary antagonists of the story under the service of Judge Doom. The weasels consist of Smart Ass (voiced by David Lander), Stupid (voiced by Fred Newman), Wheezy (voiced by June Foray), Greasy (voiced by Charles Fleischer), and Psycho (also voice by Charles Fleischer). Each of them meets its demise at the end of the film, literally dying of laughter or being dissolved in Dip.
In The Prince and the Pauper (1990), the Weasels appear as royal guards, acting as the secondary antagonists under the orders of the Captain of the Guard (Pete). One weasel is voiced by Bill Farmer while other two weasels are voiced by Charlie Adler.
In the TV series DuckTales, two Weasels appear as henchmen of Flintheart Glomgold in the episode "Horse Scents". Two other Weasels from Australia appear in the episode "Back Out in the Outback" voiced by Will Ryan.
In the series Bonkers, a Weasel makes a cameo appearance in the episode "The 29th Page" as a suspect in a police lineup while in the episode "Get Wacky", a Weasel named Wacky (voiced by Rip Taylor) has a more prominent role as the main antagonist of the episode, having an appearance that more closely resembles the Weasels from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
In the series Mickey Mouse Works, a Weasel appears in the cartoon "Mickey's Mechanical House" as a realtor (voiced by Jeff Bennett) selling a modern mechanical house to Mickey. The Weasels make several appearances in the series House of Mouse. Some Weasels have appeared in the series with different appearances and professions, like one appearing in the episode "The Three Caballeros" working as Donald's lawyer (voiced by Jim Cummings) or another appearing in the episode "Rent Day" working as a cheese shop salesman (voiced by Jeff Bennett) during a flashback where Mickey paid him the rent money needed to pay the landlord Pete for some cheese. In the episode "Pete's House of Villains" after Pete began to take over the club, Pete put the weasels (all voiced by Jim Cummings) to work as waiters replacing the Penguins, but they robbed customers while doing so. As Pete fires a weasel among the other villains who were doing illegal stuff, he tells Pete "You can't fire me, I have friends in high places". Pete then gets crushed by a safe dropped by some other weasels.
In the series The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, the Weasels appear in the episode "Cheese Wranglers" as bandits working for Pete. They are voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos and Bill Farmer.
The TV series Mickey Mouse Funhouse features the Weasel Trio that is led by Wheezelene (voiced by Jenifer Lewis) and consisting of Cheezel (voiced by Richard Kind) and Sneezel (voiced by Brock Powell). Cheezel is the shortest of the trio and Sneezel is the largest of the trio. They appear on each of the Adventure Worlds and often cause all sorts of mischief and wrongdoing which always ends with Mickey and his friends thwarting them and setting them straight.
In the video game Mickey Mania, Weasels appear as enemies in the level based on "The Prince and the Pauper", with some throwing knives and others throwing arrows. A Weasel appears in the video game Mickey Mouse Kindergarten, where after stealing Chief O'Hara's cap, Mickey must find him hiding in an alley.
The Weasels act as the main antagonists in the video game Mickey's Speedway USA, kidnapping Pluto to steal the diamond-encrusted collar he is wearing, so Mickey and his gang embark on an adventure around the world to find the Weasels and rescue Pluto, until in the game's epilogue the Weasels are arrested.
In the video game Mickey Saves the Day, several Weasels appear as Pete's henchmen in his plan to become mayor of the town, working for him as policemen or security guards.
Scuttle
Scuttle, called Weasel or Catfoot in some stories, is the weasel sidekick and right-hand man of Mickey Mouse's nemesis Pete. He looks up to Pete and thinks of him as the greatest criminal mastermind ever. However, Scuttle himself is not very bright and usually fails to understand Pete's plans and orders, to the latter's annoyance. Physically, Scuttle is much slimmer than the overweight Pete: he has a long face and is generally depicted with a bushy beard. Some series have shown Scuttle as being more educated than Pete in some areas. For example, one comic book story where the two were stealing art objects showed that Scuttle is an educated art critic, unlike Pete who only cares for the monetary value. Scuttle has often teamed up with another sidekick-type criminal named Dum-Dum. The two have sometimes worked together as henchmen for Pete, or on their own. Scuttle was created by artist Paul Murry and an unidentified writer in 1951. He first appeared in the comic book story Donald Duck Captures the Range Rustlers.
Beagle Boys
Main article: Beagle Boys
The Beagle Boys are a family of thieves, mainly associated with the Donald Duck universe, although they have occasionally served as Mickey's enemies in some comics, and some animated productions such as the film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004), or the episode "Touchdown and Out" (2017) of the television series Mickey Mouse and the episode "Keep on Rollin'" (2020) of its spin-off The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse, or as Goofy's rivals in their animated debut in Sport Goofy in Soccermania (1987).
Trudy Van Tubb
Trudy Van Tubb is an obese anthropomorphic cat, the girlfriend of Pete, with whom she usually shares the profession of delinquent. She has a similar size and body shape to Pete, but her hair is depicted as grey or orange depending on the stories, while Pete's hair is black. Trudy is not very proficient as a criminal but she is a skilled cook and Pete enjoys her cooking.
Trudy is very devoted to Pete and often gets jealous of Minnie Mouse and other women Pete kidnaps for ransom. When the two get caught, Trudy often gets away with a more lenient sentence because of her lesser involvement.
Trudy was created by Romano Scarpa in 1960 for the story The Chirikawa Necklace. She has since appeared exclusively, though very regularly, in Italian comic book stories.
Emil Eagle
See also: List of Donald Duck universe characters § Emil Eagle
Emil Eagle is a mad scientist and, as his name suggests, an anthropomorphic eagle, who first appeared in 1966 in the Donald Duck universe as a rival for Gyro Gearloose. He has since appeared alternatively in the Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse universes. In the latter universe, he is a recurring antagonist for Mickey Mouse and, in particular, for Goofy in his Super Goof incarnation, in which case Emil Eagle becomes a kind of Lex Luthor.
Dangerous Dan and Idgit the Midget
"Dangerous" Dan McBoo and Idgit (sometimes spelled "Idjit") "the Midget" are a pair of criminals created by Paul Murry in the 1966 comics story Treasure of Oomba Loomba. The large and overweight Dangerous Dan is the brawn of the duo while the balding and diminutive Idgit is its brain. They appeared as recurring antagonists of Mickey Mouse in various comic book stories.
Professor Nefarious
Professor Nefarious (a parody of professor Moriarty; not to be confused with Doctor Nefario from Illumination's Despicable Me franchise) is a villain who origins in the 1975 comic book The Case of the Pea Soup Burglaries. He is the Sleuth's arch-enemy. A London-based criminal mastermind, Nefarious sees himself as a "teacher of crime" for his three henchmen-pupils Fliplip, Sidney and Armadillo. Their hideout is a rundown townhouse with the words "University of Criminal Sciences" written on its front door. While Nefarious is reasonably smart (although his own megalomania sometimes hinders his plans), his three accomplices are thoroughly inept comical villains. Mickey and the Sleuth imprison the gang at the end of each story, although Nefarious himself generally manages to escape. Nefarious never realizes that the Sleuth is totally clueless and that the Sleuth's assistant Mickey Mouse is the one who actually foils him.
Portis
Portis (original Italian name Plottigat) is an anthropomorphic cat, created by Romano Scarpa in the 1977 story Topolino e il Pippo-Lupo. He is Pete's "mad scientist" cousin. Depicted as an arrogant and megalomaniacal criminal mastermind, Portis is often Pete and Trudy's accomplice but he occasionally works on his own or with other villains such as the Phantom Blot. The character has appeared exclusively in Italian comics stories.[27]
Charlie Doublejoke
Charlie Doublejoke (original Italian name Vito Doppioscherzo) is a criminal genius with a penchant for elaborate jokes and pranks. An anthropomorphic dog, he was created in 2004 by Casty (plot) and Massimo de Vita (art) and has since been a recurring antagonist in Italian comics stories. Besides his signature laugh "Wah-wah-wah", a characteristic of his is the bowler hat that he does not only like to wear, but that also informs the shape of his transportation devices.
In a manner similar to the Joker, Charlie Doublejoke often not only pulls pranks on Mickey and the police, but betrays his own partners in crime as well, escaping alone with the booty.
He is so manipulative and charismatic that he managed to fool the entirety of Mouseton into thinking he was a good guy more than once, with Mickey usually being the only one skeptical of him (according to his debut story "The Magnificent Doublejoke", they were schoolmates until Charlie's habits of bullying others had gone so far that he was expelled from school).
Other supporting characters
Ortensia the Cat
Ortensia is the girlfriend of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. She appeared in the Oswald shorts starting with The Banker's Daughter (1927; Lost cartoon), replacing Oswald's former love interest, a much more feminine and sultry rabbit named Fanny in production materials. Ortensia's original name during the production of the Oswald shorts was Sadie, as referenced in the title of the animated short Sagebrush Sadie (1928; Lost cartoon). The names for Oswald's love interests were never widely publicized, which is likely the reason she was given a new name in Epic Mickey, following the alliteration pattern of Mickey and Minnie's mirrored relationship. Often in the original Oswald shorts, Oswald would compete with Pete for her affection. She also appeared in Oswald shorts produced by Charles Mintz and later Walter Lantz. In the Lantz shorts, she was called "Kitty". To add some confusion, copyright synopses of some Mintz and Lantz shorts erroneously refer to Ortensia/Kitty as Fanny.
Percy and Patricia Pigg
Percy and Patricia Pigg (sometimes the surname being written as "Pig") are a married couple of anthropomorphic pigs. Percy made his debut in 1929 in the short The Opry House, Patricia debuting that same year in Mickey's Follies, also Percy's second appearance, and the only short in which both characters appear together. After that, Percy appeared in the short films The Barnyard Concert (1930), The Chain Gang (1930) and Traffic Troubles (1931), while Patricia appeared in The Shindig (1930), Mickey's Revue (1932) and The Whoopee Party (1932).
After their appearances in short films, they started appearing in comics, but the two characters did not appear again in animation until 1983, in Mickey's Christmas Carol, briefly appearing dancing at Fezzywig's party.
Percy appears in the video game Kingdom Hearts III (2018) in the minigame "Taxi Troubles" (based on Traffic Troubles), where he is one of the characters that Sora must pick up in his taxi.
Butch
Butch is an anthropomorphic dog, Butch appeared as a gangster in "Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers".[28] A sympathetic criminal, he eventually reformed, became Mickey's friend and remained in the strip as a supporting character until June 1931.[29] He was revived in the 1990s as a member of Mickey's supporting cast in European Disney comics.[30]
Gideon Goat
Gideon Goat, or Giddy Goat, is an anthropomorphic goat, a supporting character in the Mickey Mouse comic strips of the 1930s. Gideon first appeared in the 1930 Mickey Mouse Book No. 1.[31] He appeared in various American and European printed Disney comics until 1938. He was usually characterized as a farmer or the local sheriff. Gideon is married to a female anthropomorphic goat named Gertie (presumably Gertrude) who appeared in many early Mickey Mouse comics, primarily as a background character.
Promotional materials for the 1935 animated short The Band Concert include Giddy Goat as one of the characters. In the released film, he was replaced by an unnamed trombonist dog character.[32]
Floyd Gottfredson made regular use of the character in his comic strips and later artists sometimes borrowed the character.
Clara Cluck
See also: List of Donald Duck universe characters § Clara Cluck
Clara Cluck debuted in 1934 in the Mickey Mouse cartoon Orphan's Benefit. Since then she has appeared as a semi-regular character in the Mickey Mouse cartoons. In the comic books she is shown in Duck universe as Daisy Duck's best friend. Clara has been a member of Mickey's original farmyard gang since the beginning of his career, although she is seen less often than Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar.[33] Originally voiced by Florence Gill and later Russi Taylor and Kaitlyn Robrock.[34]
Clara's singing is meant to be a caricature of the Bel canto style of Opera singing popular at the time of her appearance. Some of her arias are clearly modelled on those of Tosca. Her last major appearance was as one of the musicians in Symphony Hour. Curiously, although she is seen in the rehearsal scenes at the beginning, she is not seen in the performance scenes at the end.
In Disney comics she has been shown to date Gus Goose on very few occasions, and in the initial appearance of Panchito Pistoles she was the object of his affections.
As with other Disney characters, she was given small cameos in Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and Once Upon a Studio (2023).[35]
In television, she had some appearances in Mickey Mouse Works (1999), where she is presented as Daisy Duck's neighbor. She appeared occasionally in House of Mouse (2001). In one episode of that series, "Double Date Don", she fell in love with Donald Duck and aggressively pursued him by puckering her lips in front of him, forcing him to dance with her, wearing dresses and posing provocatively to lure him in. At one point she even grabs Donald and forcibly, yet passionately, kisses him full on the lips. She almost tricked Donald into marrying her but Daisy stopped the wedding in time. She also had appeared to put Minnie Mouse in jail for driving her car through Daisy's house to deliver an apple pie of hers. She also appeared as a recurring character in the series Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017), where she is the mother of two chicks named Cleo and Clifford.
Clara made a cameo appearance in the Timeless River world of Kingdom Hearts II with many other Disney characters like Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar as one of the world's citizens, being one of the rare media in which the character is seen speaking (her dialogue being seen in speech balloons.
She also makes an appearance in the Mickey's Boo to You Parade and for rare meet and greets at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
Doctor Einmug
Doctor Einmug is a scientist who was created by Ted Osborne (plot) and Floyd Gottfredson (plot and art) in the story Island in the Sky, published in the Mickey Mouse comic strip from November 1936 to April 1937. He is a large man who wears a big white beard and laboratory coat.
Doctor Einmug specializes in atomic physics and speaks in a German-like accent which was probably a nod towards Albert Einstein, "mug" also being a pun on "stein". His introductory story, Island in the Sky, raises many issues about the benefits and dangers of atomic physics just a few years before the first atom bombs were developed.
After that, Einmug did not re-appear in American comics for almost 50 years, but he was used in Italian ones, starting some 12 years later in 1959 when he appeared in Romano Scarpa's Topolino e la dimensione Delta ("Mickey Mouse and the Delta Dimension"). In this story, he discovered the means to travel to the Delta Dimension, which was effectively an infinite void of nothing, just space.
Setting his laboratory up in the Delta Dimension, Einmug pursued his work and discovered that atoms were living beings. He thus increased the size of one of them to that of a small boy and named him Atomo Bleep-Bleep (Italian: Atomino Bip-Bip).
Einmug himself has also appeared in numerous European Mickey Mouse comics. He is often shown as less secretive and paranoid than in his original appearance, though his discoveries are still coveted by the likes of Pete and the Phantom Blot.
Einmug reappeared in American comics in 1991 in the story A Snatch in Time! in which he had developed a time machine. It was written by Lamar Waldron and drawn by Rick Hoover and Gary Martin. More recently, Einmug has also appeared in American editions of The Delta Dimension and other European-made stories.
Detective Casey
Detective Casey (sometimes Inspector Casey) is Chief O'Hara's head detective, first appearing in the Mickey Mouse daily comic in the 1938 sequence The Plumber's Helper. The story was plotted and penciled by Floyd Gottfredson and written by Merrill De Maris. Casey disappeared from American comics in the 1950s, but was used frequently in Europe, especially in Italy, afterwards; from 2003, he returned as a frequent player in the American comics.
Despite his occupation, Casey is an impatient man of only average intelligence. Thus, while sometimes a successful detective, he is prone to bungling cases as well. Therefore, Chief O'Hara often recruits Mickey Mouse to help solve some of Casey's cases, much to Casey's general irritation.
Chief O'Hara
Chief Seamus O'Hara is the chief of police in the Mickey Mouse universe. He plays a supportive role in Mickey Mouse's comic-book mysteries, often relying on Mickey's help to solve crimes committed by criminals such as Pete, The Phantom Blot and others. Known fellow officers include his head detective, Detective Casey.
The character was conceived by Floyd Gottfredson and Merrill De Maris for Disney's comic strips as a stereotypical Irish cop. He first appeared in the newspaper strips in May 1939, in the serial Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot. He eventually became a recurring character in European comics stories. O'Hara also appeared on Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse, voiced by Corey Burton.
In the Brazilian version of the comics, he is known as "Coronel Cintra", in the Danish versions as "Politimester Striks", in the Finnish translation, he is known as "Poliisimestari Simo Sisu" (possibly named after the Finnish concept of sisu), in the French versions as "Commissaire Finot", in the German versions as "Kommissar Albert Hunter" (Kommissar means commissioner in German), in the Italian version as "Commissario Adamo Basettoni" (with "Basettoni" referring to his prominent sideburns, "basette"), and in the Swedish versions as "Kommissarie Konrad Karlsson".
In Italian stories, O'Hara has a wife called Petulia. Before her introduction, O'Hara frequently mentions his wife, with the first instance of this being "The Gleam" (1942).
The How-to Narrator
Main article: Goofy (film series) § The How-to Narrator
The How-to Narrator is a narrator that serves as a guide in short films starring Goofy where he shows how to do different types of activities. The How-to Narrator also has participation in the television series Goof Troop (1992), Mickey Mouse Works (1999-2000), House of Mouse (2001-2003), and How to Stay at Home (2021).
Pete Junior
Pete Junior, better known simply as P.J., is Pete's son. He appears for first time in the short Bellboy Donald, as a naughty little kid. Later, he appears in the TV series Goof Troop, this time as a kind pre-teen, and being Max Goof's best friend. After that he appeared in the film A Goofy Movie, also in the role of Max's best friend, and its sequel An Extremely Goofy Movie, where he, Max, and their friend Bobby go to college. He also makes a cameo in the DuckTales reboot episode, "Quack Pack", where he is seen in a photo from Goofy's wallet.
José Carioca
Main article: José Carioca
José "Zé" Carioca is a green, Brazilian parrot who first appears in the Disney film Saludos Amigos (1942) alongside Donald Duck. He returned in the 1944 film The Three Caballeros along with Donald and a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles. José is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (thus the name "Carioca", which is a term used for a person born in Rio de Janeiro). Zé Carioca comic books are still regularly published in Brazil to this day.
Panchito Pistoles
Main article: Panchito Pistoles
Panchito Pistoles is a red, Mexican rooster who was created as the third titular caballero (along with Donald Duck and JosĂ© Carioca) for the 1944 film The Three Caballeros. Later he appeared in several Disney comics, including a year-long run in the Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip (1944â1945), as well as Don Rosa's comic book stories The Three Caballeros Ride Again (2000) and The Magnificent Seven (Minus 4) Caballeros (2005).
Aracuan Bird
See also: List of Donald Duck universe characters § Aracuan Bird
The Aracuan Bird, also called the Clown of the Jungle, first appeared in the feature film The Three Caballeros (1944). The film's narrator introduces the Aracuan as "one of the most eccentric birds you have ever seen".
Eega Beeva
Eega Beeva, also known by his proper name Pittisborum Psercy Pystachi Pseter Psersimmon Plummer-Push, is a human from the future, although some translations refer to him as an alien. He was created by Floyd Gottfredson (art) and Bill Walsh (plot) and first appeared on September 26, 1947, in the Mickey Mouse comic strip storyline The Man of Tomorrow. The complete original run of Eega Beeva stories has been anthologised in The Floyd Gottfredson Library volumes 9 Rise of the Rhyming Man and 10 Planet of Faceless Foes, published by Fantagraphics Books in 2016. The story arcs are given the titles "The Man of Tomorrow", "Mickey Makes a Killing", "Pflip the Thnuckle-booh", "The Santa Claus Bandit", "The Kumquat Question", "The Atombrella and the Rhyming Man", "An Education for Eega", "Pflip's Strange Power", "Planet of the Aints" (alternate title "Be-junior and the Aints"), "Itching Gulch", "The Syndicate of Crime", and "The Moook Treasure". Eega's final appearance is a three day bridge between story arcs; for convenience, the anthology prints this event as the start of the story arc "Mousepotamia", in which Mickey is abducted to a foreign land, bereft of all his traditional companions.
In Eega's debut story, Mickey Mouse and Goofy seek shelter from a thunderstorm and get lost in a cave. There, Mickey suddenly encounters an unusual humanoid who only says "Eega" at first. When Mickey and Goofy find the cave's exit, Mickey invites the being to stay at his house, and the being identifies himself as "Pittisborum Psercy Pystachi Pseter Psersimmon Plummer-Push". Finding this name too cumbersome, Mickey gives him the name "Eega Beeva" (a corruption of the idiom "eager beaver"). At first, Goofy refuses to believe in the existence of Eega Beeva and ignores his presence. In a series of events, two scientists conclude that Eega Beeva is a human from 500 years in the future. At the end of the storyline, Eega saves Goofy from a skiing accident, causing them to become friends.[36][37]
In the next comic strip storyline starring Eega Beeva, Mickey Makes a Killing, his pet Pflip the Thnuckle Booh is introduced.[38] Eega continues being Mickey's sidekick in the American comic strips until July 1950.[39]
Eega Beeva is depicted as a humanoid with a wide head, mitten-like hands and a scrawny body. In The Man of Tomorrow, the name is given to him by Mickey, since Eega Beeva originally only said "Eega."[37] In the original conception of the character, Eega Beeva's look was attributed to him being a highly evolved human from 500 years in the future, namely from the year 2447. All humans would have Eega-like proportions.[37] He wears short, black trousers which have pockets of seemingly infinite size and can hold a multitude of objects sometimes much bigger than Eega Beeva himself (similar to Doctor Who's TARDIS), often helping Mickey Mouse and Eega in difficult situations. A running joke in the comic is that when Eega Beeva is searching for something in his pockets, he has to take multiple attempts, as he first finds completely unrelated objects.
Another trademark attribute of the character is his "alien" speech, adding a "p" at the beginning of most words. From his first appearance, he has been shown to prefer sleeping on top of narrow poles, such as on top of Mickey Mouse's bedpost. He eats pickled kumquats for food (changed to mothballs in Italian translations and stories produced in Italy) and is severely allergic to cash; these traits have sometimes been used as plot devices.
While a genius scientist by today's standards, Eega Beeva is also maladjusted to the contemporary world. Depending on the stories and writers, his behaviour ranges from naïve and eccentric (including being "primitive" and attacking radios as demons) to serious and rational (being able to recite complex scientific equations which leave Earth's best scientists baffled). Other members of Eega's species are glimpsed briefly. In his wallet he keeps a photograph of his fiancée (who is beautiful even by 20th century standards), and his farewell moments show additional snapshots of his father, mother, grandfather, and sister. He also has a brother, whose picture is obscured in the scene depicting the others.
Eega Beeva was a central character in the American newspaper Disney comic strips, for nearly three years. He was Mickey Mouse's main sidekick during this period, effectively replacing Goofy, whose appearances became few and far between. This lasted until July 1950, when Eega abruptly returned to his home in the future.[40] Walsh's stories are often wildly inconsistent in themselves as to what Eega Beeva's attributes and back story are, as pointed out in the editorial columns in The Floyd Gottfredson Library. During his first story "The Man of Tomorrow", Goofy declares that Eega is only a hallucinatory apparition because he casts no shadow, when in fact an earlier panel in the story showed Eega's shadow. In Eega's farewell appearance, he refers to his family as "the Beeva family". As he departs into the cave where Mickey first met him, he implies that his family live in there are eagerly awaiting his homecoming. This contradicts his first story, where "Beeva" is a name Mickey made up for him, and Eega's family were not yet to be born for another 400 or more years.
While Eega Beeva was still being featured in the American comic strips, he made his first appearance in a 1949 Italian comic story titled L'inferno di Topolino (lit. "Mickey Mouse's inferno," Topolino issue 7), in which Mickey plays Dante Alighieri in a theatre production of the Divine Comedy. The character was newly discovered and defined by Italian comics artist and writer Romano Scarpa with the comic Topolino e la nave del microcosmo (lit. "Mickey Mouse and the ship of microcosm"), published in Topolino 167 in July 1957; American translation published in BOOM's Mickey Mouse Classics 1 - Mouse Tails (2010). (Eega had previously appeared in stories which Scarpa drew but did not write, including Guido Martina's Topolino e il doppio segreto di Macchia Nera in Topolino 116-119, 1955 - Americanised in Gladstone's Mickey and Donald 6-8 [1988] and Fantagraphics' hardcover album Mickey Mouse: The Phantom Blot's Double Mystery [2018].) Rather than his whimsical attributes, the "microcosm" story focuses on the futuristic and fantastic aspects of Eega Beeva and his environment, as do later stories.[36] In Germany some of those stories star Eega Beeva without Mickey.[41] The character has since been used numerous times by European authors, mostly in Italy where more than half of all comics featuring him were produced.[36] He is referred to as Eta Beta in Italian and Gamma in German.
Older Italian stories often portrayed him as an alien from outer space. More recently (post-2000), Italian writers have generally reverted to Gottfredson's original conception of Eega as a future-man, though his precise year of origin is rarely mentioned. More recent Eega comics produced by Egmont, on the other hand, often refer to his hometown as being the Mouseton of 2447, just as in Gottfredson's original stories.
Ellsworth
Ellsworth started as Goofy's pet mynah bird, but in later stories, he became an independent anthropomorphic animal. His full name is Ellsworth Bheezer (occasionally misspelled Bhezerâ"beezer" is old English slang for a big nose or beak). He was created by Bill Walsh (plot) and Manuel Gonzales (art) for the Mickey Mouse Sunday pages, where he made his first appearance on October 30, 1949. Ellsworth remained for ten years a major character in the Sunday pages, sometimes stealing the spotlight from Mickey. In 1956 he started appearing in the daily pages, when these became gag-focused as well.[42] He has also been used in longer comics stories, especially the ones produced in Italy, France and Brazil. In France, he has been the protagonist of his own series, published from 1985 to 2009 in Le Journal de Mickey.
Ellsworth usually wears a red-orange shirt and a green cap or beret. Reflecting a trait of mynah birds who can imitate human speech, he is extremely vain and self-centered, which was originally the spotlight and center of jokes in his stories. On the other hand, Ellsworth is also a bonafide genius with awesome tech and scientific knowledgeâthe "Y" on his shirt in earlier stories stands for "Yarvard" (a parody of Harvard), his alma mater.
Despite being more or less entirely humanized in more recent stories, Ellsworth retains his ability to fly, a unique trait among the central Disney funny animal cast.
In manner, Ellsworth is often sarcastic and condescending, typically addressing others with statements like "Let's not [do X], shall we?" He is also quick to call others by insulting nicknames. But when push comes to shove, he is genuinely fond of and defensive of his pals Goofy and Mickey.
Atomo Bleep-Bleep
Atomo Bleep-Bleep (Italian: Atomino Bip-Bip, lit.â'"Little Atom Beep-Beep"') is a "humanized atom" created by Doctor Einmug, who used a gigantic meson accelerator to enlarge atoms to the size of a human child. The character was created by Romano Scarpa in the 1959 story Topolino e la dimensione Delta ("Mickey Mouse in the Delta Dimension"), published in Topolino No. 206. Bleep-Bleep is a good-natured, highly intelligent, hard-working blue creature with electrons constantly spinning around his large bald head. He was created at the same time as his "brother", a red atom named Bloop-Bloop, who was bad-tempered and lazy. Bleep-Bleep can spit mesons to alter or manipulate the attributes of physical objects and uses this ability to accomplish various feats such as turning metal into chocolate or estimating with absolute precision when an object was created. In their first adventure together, Atomo and Mickey manage to foil Pete, who has enlisted Bloop-Bloop as his accomplice.[43] Scarpa wrote and drew a further eight stories with Atomo that appeared in Topolino from 1959 to 1965. The character has been revived occasionally by other Italian authors.[44] In his appearance as well as his role in the stories, Atomo is very similar to Gottfredson's Eega Beeva, a short, friendly science-fiction character with unpredictable powers that drive the plot. In English-language translations, Atomo Bleep-Bleep speaks with a German accent identical to Einmug's, insofar as Einmug was presented as Atomo's language teacher.
Glory-Bee
Glory-Bee was Goofy's girlfriend who first appeared in a Mickey Mouse daily strip on June 19, 1969. She was first created by Bill Walsh, and appeared in some "Mickey Mouse" dailies by Floyd Gottfredson, and others written by Del Connell (drawn by Manuel Gonzales). Her predecessor appeared perhaps as early as 1946, in the form of Minnie Mouse's Aunt Marissa (from a multi-part story by Floyd Gottfredson printed in the Mickey Mouse dailies June 17â29, 1946, and reprinted twice in WDC&S No. 95 and No. 575, and later seen in a cameo one-page gag love story by Bill Walsh and Manuel Gonzales which also featured Mickey Mouse and Montmorency Rodent (Mortimer Mouse) (April 21, 1946) that has been dubbed "Spring, Love, Monty").
Glory-Bee is a slender, pretty, blonde, and young dognose lady who, while quite good-natured and likable, tends to be somewhat of an "airhead" (a stereotype of the "dumb blonde"), which may explain why she was dropped from Goofy's storyline altogether (though a better possibility is that Goofy will always be the consummate bachelor). While it might be difficult to imagine she had a very strong crush on Goofy, he hardly seemed to notice. Occasionally, however, he did try to impress her, even to the point of trying to reveal his Super Goof identity to her, to no avail. At one point Glory-Bee and Clarabelle Cow were even vying for Goofy's attention, but both failed to achieve their objective (WDS #8). Perhaps it was during this time that Clarabelle dropped her strange attraction to Goofy, and returned to her former paramour and fiancé, Horace Horsecollar.
Glory-Bee has disappeared from comics in the USA and has seldom appeared in foreign comics.
The Sleuth
The Sleuth, Sureluck Sleuth in full,[45] is an anthropomorphic canine. He is an English private eye operating in 19th century London and employing Mickey Mouse as an assistant. The character was created by Carl Fallberg (plot) and Al Hubbard (art) for the Disney Studio Program and intended solely for foreign publication. The first story in the series is "Mickey and the Sleuth: The Case of the Wax Dummy". Unusually for material created for the program, this story appeared domestically in the Procter & Gamble Disney Magazine giveaway and then was published by Gold Key in "Walt Disney Showcase" n°38 (1977). Mickey and the Sleuth stories were produced up until the late 1980s. Given their historical setting, these stories stand apart from other Mickey Mouse continuities. It is never explained if the "Mickey Mouse" working with the Sleuth is an ancestor of the present-day Mickey or if those stories are included in a totally different continuity. Adding to the muddle are the frequent humorous anachronisms which complicate the purportedly Victorian setting, and arguably place the stories in the genre of steampunk. Apart from Mickey, no other prominent Disney characters are featured in the stories. The Sleuth's recurring antagonists are Professor Nefarious and his three bumbling henchmen.
The Sleuth is a good-natured gentleman; wearing a deerstalker hat, smoking a pipe and using a magnifying glass, he is an obvious parody of Sherlock Holmes, Mickey basically playing the part of Dr. Watson. Like his literary counterpart, he also plays the violin (albeit horribly). Unlike Sherlock Holmes, he is totally hopeless as a detective, sometimes unable to figure out crimes committed right in front of his eyes. Nevertheless, he always manages to solve his cases â hence ensuring a reputation as a great investigator â either by sheer luck, or thanks to his foes' fecklessness or simply because Mickey Mouse does all the actual detective work for him. Apart from Mickey, no one seems to be aware of the Sleuth's utter incompetence.
The characters of The Sleuth and Professor Nefarious, complete with the University of Criminal Sciences and the henchman Fliplip, were portrayed in an extended sketch in an episode of The New Mickey Mouse Club in 1978. Two Mouseketeer cast members â Lisa Whelchel as the Sleuth's niece Lisa, and Scott Craig as Fliplip â performed alongside the two lead rivals, using puppetry and ventriloquism skills. The setting of the story was England, near the White Cliffs of Dover.
Ellroy
Ellroy (original Italian name Bruto Gancetto) is an anthropomorphic mynah bird and Ellsworth's adoptive son. He was created by Romano Scarpa in the story Topolino e il rampollo di Gancio (Topolino n°1048, 1975). After adopting Ellroy, Ellsworth entrusted him to Mickey Mouse. Ellroy went on to be Mickey Mouse's sidekick in numerous Italian comics stories by Scarpa and other authors. Like Ellsworth, Ellroy can fly by using his arms like wings. Ellsworth and Ellroy look very much alike â Ellroy being somewhat smaller â and have appeared together in relatively few stories : this has caused confusion between the two characters among readers and translators. Ellroy first appeared in American comic books in 2016.
Zapotec and Marlin
Professor Zachary Zapotec and Dr. Spike Marlin are two Italian dogface characters created by Massimo De Vita. They are scientists from the Mouseton science museum. They are the inventors of a time machine which sends Mickey and Goofy on adventures in the past. Zapotec first appeared in "Topolino e l'enigma di Mu" in 1979 and Marlin first appeared in "Topolino e il segreto della Gioconda" in 1985. They also frequently argue but always forgive each other by the end. So far, they have only appeared in a handful of stories in the US.
Zenobia
Zenobia is a character created by Romano Scarpa, first appearing in the 1983 story "The African Queen", being the ruler of an African state, and leaving the throne to follow Goofy to the United States after having fallen in love with him. Scarpa's intention was to create a new girlfriend for Goofy, capable of bringing out the best in him.
In her stories with Goofy, he seems "more serious" and less inclined to follow Mickey on his adventures. Perhaps this was the reason that would push Scarpa to abandon Zenobia's participation in the stories: in the story "Ciao Minnotchka" (1993), after a trip to France with Mickey's gang, Zenobia announces that she will stay in Paris to help the ex-king of Selvanja, Ilja TopĂČvich, to run a hotel, as there is an attraction between the former rulers, and Goofy can't help but agree. But Zenobia has never forgotten Goofy, as shown in "Miseria e nobiltĂ " (1993) by Lello Arena, Francesco Artibani and Giorgio Cavazzano; after having performed at the theater, Goofy finds in her dressing room a bouquet of flowers with the dedication: "You are always the best. Zenobia."[46]
Subsequently, Zenobia reappeared in various stories since 2013.[47]
Doc Static
Doc Static is an overweight, clean-shaven inventor with a lab coat, wavy hair and glasses who appears in Egmont comic stories. He serves the same role in Mickey stories that Gyro Gearloose or Ludwig Von Drake have for Donald and Scrooge.
Doc Static first appeared in Plastic Mickey! in 1995.
Brick Boulder
Brick Boulder[48] (original Italian name "Rock Sassi", which is a pleonasm as "sassi" means "rocks") is a plainclothes police officer who usually works together with Detective Casey. He first appeared in the story La lunga notte del commissario Manetta (English title: Casey's Longest Night) in 1997, written by Tito Faraci and drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano .[49]
Like Casey, Brick Boulder is a bumbling and incompetent policeman. Curiously though, his intelligence seems to vary, even between stories by the same writer. He is physically more robust than the overweight Casey and likes to dress flashily, often wearing cowboy boots, a stetson and a bolo tie. He has been said to be a parody of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the latter aspect being particularly obvious in his first appearance, but later toned down.
Brick Boulder is from Texas, United States. In one story, it was revealed that his entire family consists of criminals. Despite this, Brick Boulder is law-abiding and has wanted to be a policeman since his early childhood, much to the disappointment of his family. Another quirk is that he is afraid of alligators, as shown in the story "Topolino e lo strano caso di Jack Due di Cuori".
Duffy the Disney Bear
Main article: Duffy the Disney Bear
Duffy is a teddy bear available at Disney Parks. He was given a backstory in which Minnie Mouse sewed him for Mickey as he was leaving for a voyage at sea.
Eurasia Toft
Eurasia Toft ("Eurasia Tost" in Italian) is an adventurer and archaeologist, and a friend of Mickey and Goofy. Her first appearance happened in the 2003 story "The Lost Explorers' Trail", written by Casty (who also created the character) and drawn by Giorgio Cavazzano. She is a strong-willed character and can react very impulsively. Fans have likened her to Arizona Goof, though she has fewer personality quirks. Her name and character parody both Indiana Jones as well as Lara Croft (her Greek name is "Clara Loft"). Ever since the end of "Shadow of the Colossus", she has been obsessed with Atlantis; in her quest for the lost continent, she has repeatedly confronted a secret society called "Horde of the Violet Hare" (also created by Casty), who want to use Atlantean technology for their own goals.
Cuckoo-Loca
Cuckoo-Loca is a small yellow cuckoo from a cuckoo clock with a pink bow on her head and a tail in the shape of a clock key that serves her to fly by spinning it, introduced in the television series Minnie's Bow-Toons (2011) working in Minnie's boutique with her and Daisy.
After that, she became a frequent character in the series and productions derived from it, appearing in the series Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (2017) as one of the main characters in the stories centered on Minnie and Daisy, helping them with their orders. She subsequently appeared as a recurring character in the series Mickey Mouse Funhouse (2021). In 2021 she appeared in the Halloween TV special "Mickey's Tale of Two Witches", and in the same year in the Christmas special "Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas".
In the stop motion TV special Mickey Saves Christmas (2022), Cuckoo-Loca makes a cameo appearance, with a figurine of her emerging from the cuckoo clock in Santa's workshop.
Being "Loca" the Spanish word for "Crazy", her name is probably a reference to when people compare someone who is considered crazy to a cuckoo.
Non-anthropomorphic supporting characters
Chip 'n' Dale
Main article: Chip 'n' Dale
Chip 'n' Dale are two chipmunks who are often trouble-makers for Pluto and Donald. However, the chipmunks are often provoked, especially by Donald.
Beppo the Gorilla
Beppo is a gorilla who first appeared in the short film The Gorilla Mystery (1930), where he escapes from the zoo and kidnaps Minnie, finally getting Mickey to rescue her and returning Beppo to the zoo. He reappeared in the short film Mickey's Mechanical Man (1933) as "The Kongo Killer", where he faces Champ, the mechanical man created by Mickey, in a boxing championship. His third and final appearance in a short film was in The Pet Store (1933), as a gorilla in a pet store, where he kidnaps Minnie in King Kong style.
Beppo appears in the video game Epic Mickey (2010) fighting in a boxing ring against Champ just like in Mickey's Mechanical Man. In the video game Kingdom Hearts III (2019), Beppo appears as an enemy in the "Mickey's Mechanical Man" minigame, based on in the short film of the same name.
Tanglefoot
Tanglefoot is Mickey's broken-down but loyal horse, introduced in a 1933 comic strip storyline, Mickey Mouse and His Horse Tanglefoot.[50] The horse character returned in two more stories and was so popular at the time that in 1934 Western Publishing released six Big Little Books related to Tanglefoot.[51]
Fifi the Peke
Fifi the Peke is Minnie's "prize pooch" and Pluto's girlfriend. In one cartoon (Pluto's Quin-puplets) Pluto and Fifi even had five puppies together. One of them was eventually named Pluto Junior. Later on, Fifi was replaced as Pluto's girlfriend by Dinah the Dachshund. Fifi disappeared from animation but she appeared in the line of merchandise called "Minnie 'n Me" as Minnie's dog. She eventually returned to animation in the Mickey Mouse episode "You, Me and Fifi", and later appeared in Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life.
Bobo the Elephant
Bobo is a baby elephant who has appeared as a pet of Mickey Mouse in at least two stories. He was first featured in a self-titled storyline in the Mickey Mousenewspaper comic strip. In the story, Mickey mistakenly purchases Bobo at an auction. Eli Squinch, also making his first appearance in that story, convinces Mickey that he is Bobo's rightful owner. However, Eli actually intends to use Bobo to run his sawmill to save on electricity, using a treadmill which had already killed two horses. Mickey and Horace Horsecollar stall Eli's repossession of Bobo until the baby pachyderm discovers his mother is in a visiting circus. Bobo runs away and is reunited with his mother.
Bobo's only animated appearance was in 1936's Mickey's Elephant. He is given to Mickey by the Rajah of Gahboon. Disney had planned to make Bobo into a recurring character, but nothing ever came of the idea. Storyboard sketches of a planned cartoon featuring Bobo, titled Spring Cleaning, were printed in the book Mickey Mouse: The Floyd Gottfredson Library â Volume 3: Showdown at Inferno Gulch. Bobo returned in the Mickey Mouse episode "Safari, So Good".
Figaro
Figaro is Minnie's pet cat who first appeared in Disney's animated film Pinocchio. He sometimes gets along with Pluto.
Butch the Bulldog
Butch (left) along with Pluto in his debut in Bone Trouble
Butch the Bulldog is Pluto's nemesis. He first appeared in the film Bone Trouble (1940), where Pluto tried to steal his bone. Ever since then, Butch has been antagonizing Pluto. Sometimes, Butch competes with Pluto for the affections of Dinah the Dachshund. At one point, Butch even antagonized Figaro the Kitten (Figaro and Frankie, 1947).
The rest of his filmography includes T-Bone for Two (1942), Canine Casanova (1945), Pluto's Kid Brother (1946), The Purloined Pup (1946), Pluto's Housewarming (1947), Pluto's Purchase (1948), Pluto's Sweater (1949), Pluto's Heart Throb (1950), and Wonder Dog (1950).[52] His owner never appeared in the short films. Butch's vocal effects in these shorts are provided by Jimmy MacDonald.
Butch appears in the "Robocat" episode of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers voiced by Jim Cummings. This version can speak in a gangster accent and assists the Rescue Rangers when dealing with Fat Cat's gang.
Butch is also a recurring character in the television series Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse with his vocal effects provided by Frank Welker. He appears as a rival to Pluto in the cartoons starring him.
In Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures, Pete is shown as Butch's owner and is depicted with brown fur. Butch's vocal effects are also provided by Frank Welker here.
Butch appears in Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life with his vocal effects provided by David Gasman.
Salty the Seal
Salty the Seal is a seal who shows up in typical seal locations (the circus, the beach, the zoo, the Arctic) and annoys Pluto into chasing him, causing Pluto to get into dangerous predicaments. Salty typically saves him, leading Salty and Pluto to become best friendsâuntil Salty's next appearance, when the cycle begins again. Salty's debut was in Pluto's Playmate (1942), later returning in Rescue Dog (1947) and the particularly famous Mickey and the Seal (1948). Salty also has appearances in the television series Mickey Mouse Works, House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Dinah the Dachshund
Dinah the Dachshund appears as Pluto's girlfriend although she sometimes dates Butch the Bulldog as well. She first appears in The Sleepwalker. In Canine Casanova, when she winds up in the dog pound, Pluto saves the day, becomes Dinah's hero and the two start dating. In other cartoons such as In Dutch, Pluto's Heart Throb and Wonder Dog, the two engage in further romance, often with Butch the Bulldog as Pluto's romantic rival.
Dinah has more recently appeared in several cartoon shorts in the anthology series Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse, where Pluto's Arrow Error shows Dinah as Butch's girlfriend first with no serious interest in Pluto.
Dolores the Elephant
Dolores the Elephant is an Asian elephant belonging to Goofy. She debuted in the short film Tiger Trouble (1945), serving as a mount to Goofy during a tiger hunt. She appeared a second time in The Big Wash (1948), as a circus elephant that Goofy was trying to give a bath. Her third and last appearance in a short film was in Working for Peanuts (1953), as an elephant in a zoo from whom Chip and Dale try to steal her peanuts, and Donald, who was her caretaker, tried to stop the chipmunks.
Dolores was named after Walt Disney's secretary, Dolores Voght.[53]
Bent-Tail the Coyote
Bent-Tail the Coyote is a desert coyote and an opponent against Pluto. He always tries to get some food which Pluto is guarding (mostly livestock), but fails every time. He made his first appearance in The Legend of Coyote Rock trying to get at a flock of sheep. From the second short Sheep Dog onward he has a son who works with him. His last two starring shorts are Pests of the West and Camp Dog. An older version of Bent-Tail later appeared in the Walt Disney presents episode "The Coyote's Lament", where he teaches his grandson (who is the offspring of Bent-Tail's son) how humans and dogs have put a coyote's life in misery. Bent-Tail and his son also appeared in several Disney comics.
Pflip
Pflip is Eega Beeva's pet "thnuckle-booh", a mixture of dog, cat, hippopotamus, unicorn, llama, rabbit, and possibly other animals as well. He has a color warning system that turns red to warn Eega of certain danger.
Louie the Mountain Lion
Louie the Mountain Lion is a mountain lion who appears as an occasional antagonist of Goofy and Donald. He is usually depicted in Donald Duck and Goofy shorts, in which he often chases after the main characters in an attempt to eat them. Unlike most Disney cartoon characters, Louie does not speak, but instead makes grunting or growling sounds representing satisfaction, disapproval, or anxiety. He is also shown to care deeply about food and is rather intelligent when it comes to planning schemes to obtain things he wants, though his attempts to execute his plans often end in comical failures.
Louie's first appearance was in Lion Around where he attempts to eat Donald. In Hook, Lion and Sinker, he is revealed to have a son. He later rivals Goofy in Lion Down and Father's Lion. Louie again encounters Donald in Grand Canyonscope which reveals he is at least 90 years old (having been seen in the Grand Canyon during the US Civil War), in this short he acts as an antagonist towards both Donald and J. Audubon Woodlore.
He also appears as a recurring character in Mickey Mouse Works and House of Mouse.
His classification as a non-anthropomorphic character may be debated, as he speaks in some comics.
Milton the Cat
Milton the Cat[54] is a red ginger Siamese cat and a rival of Pluto. He often competes with Pluto for food. He made his first appearance in the short Puss Cafe (1950) with his pal Richard. He next appears in the short Plutopia (1951) where he talks in Pluto's dream, voiced by Jim Backus. He made a final appearance in the short Cold Turkey (1951) fighting with Pluto for a roast turkey but both of them ended up with nothing.
Clarice
Clarice is a chipmunk who appeared in the short film Two Chips and a Miss (1952), being the romantic interest of Chip and Dale, for whom they both compete for her attention, although she seems to love them both equally (at the end of the short film ending by giving both of them a kiss). She works as a singer in a night club.[55]
Despite her only appearance in a short film, she became a very popular character, appearing in Disney Parks as a meet-and-greet character or in live shows,[56] and appearing in the video games Disney Tsum Tsum (2014) and Disney Magical World 2 (2015).
Clarice did not have an animated appearance again since Two Chips and a Miss until she appeared as a recurring character in the television series Chip 'n' Dale: Park Life (2021-present), having a radical design change, being a tough chipmunk, wearing no clothes, and having for a hairstyle a crest with flowers shaved on the sides of the head. In the series she lives in the engine of a car that is on a tree. Her relationship with Chip and Dale is also simply friendship, although they admire her for her abilities, she being very constructive and being constantly fixing and repairing things.[57]
Characters from the Donald Duck universe
Main article: List of Donald Duck universe characters
See also: Duck family (Disney)
Donald Duck was a frequent supporting character in Mickey Mouse cartoons and comics until the 1940s. Since then, characters from the Duck universe have been making occasional appearances in Mickey Mouse stories.
Donald Duck
Mickey's temperamental, and often selfish friend who dresses as a sailor and speaks with a semi-unintelligible voice.
Daisy Duck
Donald's girlfriend, with an equally dangerous temper but a much more sophisticated mien. She is best friends with Minnie.
Scrooge McDuck
Donald Duck's wealthy uncle who is the richest duck in the world. He lives in the city of Duckburg and is of Scottish descent.
Ludwig Von Drake
Donald Duck's eccentric uncle who is a resident scientist, lecturer, and psychiatrist. He was introduced in 1961, as part of Walt Disney's NBC television special.
Huey, Dewey, and Louie
Mischief-makers to provoke Donald's famous temper, later appearances showed them to be heroes in their own right and valuable assets to him and Scrooge on their adventures." (wikipedia.)
"A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory.[1] Hats which incorporate mechanical features, such as visors, spikes, flaps, braces or beer holders shade into the broader category of headgear.
In the past, hats were an indicator of social status.[2] In the military, hats may denote nationality, branch of service, rank or regiment.[3] Police typically wear distinctive hats such as peaked caps or brimmed hats, such as those worn by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Some hats have a protective function. As examples, the hard hat protects construction workers' heads from injury by falling objects, a British police Custodian helmet protects the officer's head, a sun hat shades the face and shoulders from the sun, a cowboy hat protects against sun and rain and an ushanka fur hat with fold-down earflaps keeps the head and ears warm. Some hats are worn for ceremonial purposes, such as the mortarboard, which is worn (or carried) during university graduation ceremonies. Some hats are worn by members of a certain profession, such as the Toque worn by chefs, or the mitre worn by Christian bishops. Adherents of certain religions regularly wear hats, such as the turban worn by Sikhs, or the church hat that is worn as a headcovering by Christian women during prayer and worship." (wikipedia.)
"Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white gloves. He is often depicted alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Donald Duck and Goofy and his nemesis Pete among others (see Mickey Mouse Universe)
Mickey was created as a replacement for a prior Disney character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The character was originally to be named "Mortimer Mouse", until Walt Disney's wife, Lillian, suggested "Mickey". Mickey first appeared in two 1928 shorts Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho (which were not picked up for distribution) before his public debut in Steamboat Willie (1928). The character went on to appear in over 130 films, mostly shorts as well as features such as Fantasia (1940). Since 1930, Mickey has been featured extensively in comic strips (including the Mickey Mouse comic strip, which ran for 45 years) and comic books (such as Mickey Mouse). The character has also been featured in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955â1996). .
Inspired by such silent film personalities as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Mickey is traditionally characterized as a sympathetic underdog who gets by on pluck and ingenuity in the face of challenges bigger than himself. The character's depiction as a small mouse is personified through his diminutive stature and falsetto voice, the latter of which was originally provided by Walt Disney. Though originally characterized as a cheeky lovable rogue, Mickey was rebranded over time as a nice guy, usually seen as a spirited, yet impulsive hero.
Mickey also appears in media such as video games as well as merchandising and is a meetable character at the Disney parks. He is one of the world's most recognizable and universally acclaimed fictional characters. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1941. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Creation
Mickey Mouse was created as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, an earlier cartoon character that was created by the Disney studio but owned at the time by Universal Pictures.[3] Charles Mintz served as a middleman producer between Disney and Universal through his company, Winkler Pictures, for the series of cartoons starring Oswald. In a February 1928 meeting with Mintz to renew the Oswald contract, Disney was met by a disappointing budget cut proposal, along with Mintz's revelation that several of the most important Disney animators were coming over to his studio.[4] Among the few who stayed at the Disney studio were animator Ub Iwerks, apprentice artist Les Clark, and Wilfred Jackson.
A new character was workshopped out of necessity and in relative secret. Various myths exist of Walt Disney's inspiration for Mickey (including some which were likely ghostwritten), such as that the starving artist drew inspiration from a tame mouse (or pair of mice) at his desk at Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, or that he undertook a romantic search for inspiration on the train ride home from his disappointing meeting with Mintz.[5][6] At Disney's behest, Iwerks sketched new character ideas based on various animals such as dogs and cats, but none of these appealed to Disney. A female cow and male horse were rejected, as was a male frog.[a] In 1925, Hugh Harman drew some sketches of mice around a photograph of Walt Disney, reputedly based on Disney's own designs (similar to those he included on family birthday cards).[8] These inspired Iwerks to create a new mouse character for Disney.[7]
"Mortimer Mouse" had been Disney's original name for the character before his wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it.[9][10][b] It has been speculated that Disney saw the name on a similarly named Performo toy.[11] Additionally, actor Mickey Rooney claimed that during his time performing as the title character of the Mickey McGuire film series (1927â1934), he met Walt Disney at the Warner Bros. studio, inspiring Disney to name the character after him;[12] however, Disney Studios was located on Hyperion Avenue at the time, with Disney conducting no business at Warner Bros.
The first feature-length movie with dialogue sequences, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson, was released on October 6, 1927. Several additional talkies followed, and movie theaters began installing the necessary equipment. Walt Disney reputedly discussed making sound cartoons in late May 1928.[17] After composer Carl W. Stalling initially voiced Mickey for the 1929 talkie shorts The Karnival Kid and Wild Waves, Disney himself provided the shy, falsetto voiceâa large part of the character's onscreen persona.
Design
Walt Disney with a cutout of Mickey as he was drawn by the end of 1928
Mickey's original design strongly resembled Oswald the Rabbit, save for the ears, nose, and tail.[18][19][20] Ub Iwerks designed Mickey's body out of circles (distinctly, the ears) to make the character easy to animate.[21][e] Upon his creation, Mickey's features shared similarities to a number of his cartoon predecessors with large eyes and mouth on a black body[f] (e.g. Oswald and Felix the Cat). From early 1929,[24] Mickey also wore white gloves[g] (similar to those appearing on later characters, e.g. Bosko and Bimbo).[d] Several sources state that this scheme evolved from blackface caricatures used in minstrel shows.[27][28][h][i] Additionally, Mickey's original black hands could not be seen if they passed in front of his torso. This limitation encouraged animators to base their poses on silhouette, much in the manner of Charlie Chaplin films.[31][32][j]
Minnie Mouse was designed similarly to Mickey, with only superficial details being different.[35] In the 1930s, animator Fred Moore tried giving Mickey's body more of a pear shape to increase his acting range; Walt Disney liked this adaptation and declared, "that's the way I want Mickey to be drawn from now on."[21][k] Moore maintained that the character should always be drawn from a pleasing angle, ears included, as opposed to depicting Mickey as a realistic 3D character.[36]
Mickey's eyes were originally large and white with black outlines, with the tops able to deform like eyebrows; the pupil was circular (with a triangle cut out in poster close-ups to simulate reflected light).[37] Starting with Steamboat Willie, the bottom portion of the black outlines was removed, often making the pupil placement look strange. The pupils began to be treated as stationary, dotlike eyes, requiring the entire head to be moved to make Mickey look around.[23] During the production of Fantasia in the late 1930s, Fred Moore redesigned Mickey with small white pupilled eyes,[38][39][l] with the redefined facial area being given a light skin color.[37][m] Distinct, lined eyebrows were eventually added.[41]
Besides Mickey's gloves and shoes, he typically wears only a pair of shorts with two large buttons in the front. Before Mickey was seen regularly in color animation, Mickey's shorts were either red or a dull blue-green. With the advent of Mickey's color films, the shorts were always red. When Mickey is not wearing his red shorts, he is often still wearing red clothing.[n] Due to budgetary limits imposed by World War II, Mickey temporarily lost his tail, e.g. in The Little Whirlwind (1941).[37][42]
Appearances
Film
See also: Mickey Mouse (film series)
Debut (1928)
Duration: 7 minutes and 47 seconds.7:47Subtitles available.CC
Mickey's first appearance in Steamboat Willie (1928)
Mickey was first seen in a test screening of the cartoon short Plane Crazy, on May 15, 1928, but it failed to impress the audience and Walt could not find a distributor for it.[43] Walt went on to produce a second Mickey short, The Gallopin' Gaucho, which was also not released for lack of a distributor.
Steamboat Willie was first released on November 18, 1928, in New York.[44][45] It was co-directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. Iwerks again served as the head animator,[46] assisted by Les Clark,[47] Johnny Cannon, Wilfred Jackson and Dick Lundy.[citation needed] This short was a nod to Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.,[46][48] released earlier that year. Although it was the third Mickey cartoon produced, it was the first to find a distributor, and thus is considered by The Disney Company as Mickey's debut. It also featured some design refinements, and included the use of a bouncing ball on the film print to allow conductors and musicians to match the tempo of their music with the film.[45][46]
The cartoon was not the first cartoon to feature a soundtrack connected to the action. Fleischer Studios, headed by brothers Dave and Max Fleischer, had already released a number of sound cartoons using the DeForest system in the mid-1920s. However, these cartoons did not keep the sound synchronized throughout the film. For Willie, Disney had the sound recorded with a click track that kept the musicians on the beat. This precise timing is apparent during the "Turkey in the Straw" sequence when Mickey's actions exactly match the accompanying instruments. Animation historians have long debated who had served as the composer for the film's original music. This role has been variously attributed to Wilfred Jackson, Carl Stalling and Bert Lewis, but identification remains uncertain. Walt Disney himself was voice actor for both Mickey and Minnie and would remain the source of Mickey's voice through 1946 for theatrical cartoons. Jimmy MacDonald took over the role in 1946, but Walt provided Mickey's voice again from 1955 to 1959 for The Mickey Mouse Club television series on ABC.[citation needed]
Audiences at the time of Steamboat Willie's release were reportedly impressed by the use of sound for comedic purposes. Sound films or "talkies" were still considered innovative. Most other cartoon studios were still producing silent products and so were unable to effectively act as competition to Disney. As a result, Mickey would soon become the most prominent animated character of the time. Walt Disney soon worked on adding sound to both Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho (which had originally been silent releases) and their new release added to Mickey's success and popularity. A fourth Mickey short, The Barn Dance, was also put into production; however, Mickey does not actually speak until The Karnival Kid (1929). After Steamboat Willie was released, Mickey became a close competitor to Felix the Cat, and his popularity would grow as he was continuously featured in sound cartoons. By 1929, Felix would lose popularity among theater audiences, and Pat Sullivan decided to produce all future Felix cartoons in sound as a result.[49] Audiences did not respond well to Felix's transition to sound and by 1930, Felix had faded from the screen.[50]
Black and white films (1929â1935)
In Mickey's early films he was often characterized not as a hero, but as an ineffective young suitor to Minnie Mouse. The Barn Dance (March 14, 1929) is the first time in which Mickey is turned down by Minnie in favor of Pete. The Opry House (March 28, 1929) was the first time in which Mickey wore his white gloves. Mickey wears them in almost all of his subsequent appearances and many other characters followed suit. The three lines on the back of Mickey's gloves represent darts in the gloves' fabric extending from between the digits of the hand, typical of glove design of the era.
When the Cat's Away (April 18, 1929), essentially a remake of the Alice Comedy, "Alice Rattled by Rats", was an unusual appearance for Mickey. Although Mickey and Minnie still maintained their anthropomorphic characteristics, they were depicted as the size of regular mice and living with a community of many other mice as pests in a home. Mickey and Minnie would later appear the size of regular humans in their own setting. In appearances with real humans, Mickey has been shown to be about two to three feet high.[51] The next Mickey short was also unusual. The Barnyard Battle (April 25, 1929) was the only film to depict Mickey as a soldier and also the first to place him in combat. The Karnival Kid (1929) was the first time Mickey spoke. Before this he had only whistled, laughed, and grunted. His first words were "Hot dogs! Hot dogs!" said while trying to sell hot dogs at a carnival.[52] Mickey's Follies (1929) introduced the song "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo" which would become the theme song for Mickey Mouse films for the next several years. The same song sequence was also later reused with different background animation as its own special short shown only at the commencement of 1930s theater-based Mickey Mouse Clubs.[53][54] Mickey's dog Pluto first appeared as Mickey's pet in The Moose Hunt (1931) after previously appearing as Minnie's dog "Rover" in The Picnic (1930).
The Cactus Kid (April 11, 1930) was the last film to be animated by Ub Iwerks at Disney. Shortly before the release of the film, Iwerks left to start his own studio, bankrolled by Disney's then-distributor Pat Powers. Powers and Disney had a falling out over money due Disney from the distribution deal. It was in response to losing the right to distribute Disney's cartoons that Powers made the deal with Iwerks, who had long harbored a desire to head his own studio. The departure is considered a turning point in Mickey's career, as well as that of Walt Disney. Walt lost the man who served as his closest colleague and confidant since 1919. Mickey lost the man responsible for his original design and for the direction or animation of several of the shorts released till this point. Advertising for the early Mickey Mouse cartoons credited them as "A Walt Disney Comic, drawn by Ub Iwerks". Later Disney Company reissues of the early cartoons tend to credit Walt Disney alone.
Disney and his remaining staff continued the production of the Mickey series, and he was able to eventually find a number of animators to replace Iwerks. As the Great Depression progressed and Felix the Cat faded from the movie screen, Mickey's popularity would rise, and by 1932 The Mickey Mouse Club would have one million members.[55] At the 5th Academy Awards in 1932, Mickey received his first Academy Award nomination, received for Mickey's Orphans (1931). Walt Disney also received an honorary Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse. Despite being eclipsed by the Silly Symphony short the Three Little Pigs in 1933, Mickey still maintained great popularity among theater audiences too, until 1935, when polls showed that Popeye was more popular than Mickey.[56][57][58] By 1934, Mickey merchandise had earned $600,000 a year.[59] In 1935, Disney began to phase out the Mickey Mouse Clubs, due to administration problems.[60]
About this time, story artists at Disney were finding it increasingly difficult to write material for Mickey. As he had developed into a role model for children, they were limited in the types of gags they could present. This led to Mickey taking more of a secondary role in some of his next films, allowing for more emphasis on other characters. In Orphan's Benefit (1934), Mickey first appeared with Donald Duck who had been introduced earlier that year in the Silly Symphony series. The tempestuous duck would provide Disney with seemingly endless story ideas and would remain a recurring character in Mickey's cartoons.
Color films (1935â1953)
Mickey in The Band Concert (1935)
Mickey in Fantasia (1940)
Mickey first appeared animated in color in Parade of the Award Nominees in 1932; however, the film strip was created for the 5th Academy Awards ceremony and was not released to the public. Mickey's official first color film came in 1935 with The Band Concert. The Technicolor film process was used in the film production. Here Mickey conducted the William Tell Overture, but the band is swept up by a tornado. It is said that conductor Arturo Toscanini so loved this short that, upon first seeing it, he asked the projectionist to run it again. In 1994, The Band Concert was voted the third-greatest cartoon of all time in a poll of animation professionals. By colorizing and partially redesigning Mickey, Walt would put Mickey back on top once again, and Mickey would reach popularity he never reached before as audiences now gave him more appeal.[61] Also in 1935, Walt would receive a special award from the League of Nations for creating Mickey.
The second half of the 1930s saw the character Goofy reintroduced as a series regular. Together, Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy would go on several adventures together. Several of the films by the comic trio are some of Mickey's most critically acclaimed films, including Mickey's Fire Brigade (1935), Moose Hunters (1937), Clock Cleaners (1937), Lonesome Ghosts (1937), Boat Builders (1938), and Mickey's Trailer (1938). Also during this era, Mickey would star in Brave Little Tailor (1938), an adaptation of The Valiant Little Tailor, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
In 1940, Mickey appeared in his first feature-length film, Fantasia, with a new design including pupils.[38] His screen role as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, set to the symphonic poem of the same name by Paul Dukas, is perhaps the most famous segment of the film and one of Mickey's most iconic roles. The apprentice (Mickey), not willing to do his chores, puts on the sorcerer's magic hat after the sorcerer goes to bed and casts a spell on a broom, which causes the broom to come to life and perform the most tiring choreâfilling up a deep well using two buckets of water. When the well eventually overflows, Mickey finds himself unable to control the broom, leading to a near-flood. After the segment ends, Mickey is seen in silhouette shaking hands with conductor Leopold Stokowski. Mickey has often been pictured in the red robe and blue sorcerer's hat in merchandising. It was also featured into the climax of Fantasmic!, an attraction at the Disney theme parks.
After 1940, Mickey's popularity would decline until his 1955 re-emergence as a daily children's television personality.[62] Despite this, the character continued to appear regularly in animated shorts until 1943 (winning his only competitive Academy Awardâwith canine companion Plutoâfor a short subject, Lend a Paw) and again from 1946 to 1952. In these later cartoons, Mickey was often just a supporting character in his own shorts, where Pluto would be the main character.
The last regular installment of the Mickey Mouse film series came in 1953 with The Simple Things in which Mickey and Pluto go fishing and are pestered by a flock of seagulls.
Television and later films
A smiling cartoon mouse with round ears, red shorts with white buttons, white gloves, and yellow shoes
Mickey Mouse as he appears in the modern era
In the 1950s, Mickey became more known for his appearances on television, particularly with The Mickey Mouse Club. Many of his theatrical cartoon shorts were rereleased on television series such as Ink & Paint Club, various forms of the Walt Disney anthology television series, and on home video. Mickey returned to theatrical animation in 1983 with Mickey's Christmas Carol, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in which Mickey played Bob Cratchit. This was followed up in 1990 with The Prince and the Pauper.
Throughout the decades, Mickey Mouse competed with Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny for animated popularity. But in 1988, the two rivals finally shared screen time in the Robert Zemeckis Disney/Amblin film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Disney and Warner signed an agreement stating that each character had the same amount of screen time in the scene.
Similar to his animated inclusion into a live-action film in Roger Rabbit, Mickey made a featured cameo appearance in the 1990 television special The Muppets at Walt Disney World where he met Kermit the Frog. The two are established in the story as having been old friends, although they have not made any other appearance together outside of this.
His most recent theatrical cartoon short was 2013's Get a Horse! which was preceded by 1995's Runaway Brain, while from 1999 to 2004, he appeared in direct-to-video features like Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas.
Many television series have centered on Mickey, such as the ABC shows Mickey Mouse Works (1999â2000), House of Mouse (2001â2003), Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006â2016), Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures (2017â2021) and Mickey Mouse Funhouse (2021âpresent).[63] Prior to all these, Mickey was also featured as an unseen character in the Bonkers episode "You Oughta Be In Toons".
In 2013, Disney Channel started airing new 3-minute Mickey Mouse shorts, with animator Paul Rudish at the helm, incorporating elements of Mickey's late twenties-early thirties look with a contemporary twist.[64] On November 10, 2020, the series was revived as The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse and premiered on Disney+.[65] Furthermore, The creative team behind the 2017 DuckTales reboot had hoped to have Mickey Mouse in the series, but this idea was rejected by Disney executives.[66] However, a watermelon bearing Mickey's physical likeness appears in one episode as a ventriloquist dummy companion to Donald Duck.[67]
In August 2018, ABC television announced a two-hour prime time special, Mickey's 90th Spectacular, in honor of Mickey's 90th birthday. The program featured never-before-seen short videos and several other celebrities who wanted to share their memories about Mickey Mouse and performed some of the Disney songs to impress Mickey. The show took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and was produced and directed by Don Mischer on November 4, 2018.[68][69] On November 18, 2018, a 90th anniversary event for the character was celebrated around the world.[70] In December 2019, both Mickey and Minnie served as special co-hosts of Wheel of Fortune for two weeks while Vanna White served as the main host during Pat Sajak's absence.[71]
Mickey is the subject of the 2022 documentary film Mickey: The Story of a Mouse, directed by Jeff Malmberg. Premiering at the South by Southwest film festival prior to its premiere on the Disney+ streaming service, the documentary examines the history and cultural impact of Mickey Mouse. The feature is accompanied by an original, hand-drawn animated short film starring Mickey titled Mickey in a Minute.[72]
Mickey appeared in Walt Disney Animation Studios' centennial short film, Once Upon a Studio, in which he corrals the characters of Disney's animated features to take a group picture.
Comics
Main articles: Mickey Mouse (comic strip) and Mickey Mouse (comic book)
See also: Disney comics and David McKay Publications
Mickey first appeared in comics after he had appeared in 15 commercially successful animated shorts and was easily recognized by the public. Walt Disney was approached by King Features Syndicate with the offer to license Mickey and his supporting characters for use in a comic strip. Disney accepted and Mickey Mouse made its first appearance on January 13, 1930.[74] The comical plot was credited to Disney himself, art to Ub Iwerks and inking to Win Smith. The first week or so of the strip featured a loose adaptation of Plane Crazy. Minnie soon became the first addition to the cast. The strips first released between January 13, 1930, and March 31, 1930, have been occasionally reprinted in comic book form under the collective title Lost on a Desert Island. Animation historian Jim Korkis notes, "After the eighteenth strip, Iwerks left and his inker, Win Smith, continued drawing the gag-a-day format."[75]
In early 1930, after Iwerks' departure, Disney was at first content to continue scripting the Mickey Mouse comic strip, assigning the art to Win Smith. However, Disney's focus had always been in animation and Smith was soon assigned with the scripting as well. Smith was apparently discontent at the prospect of having to script, draw, and ink a series by himself as evidenced by his sudden resignation.
Disney then searched for a replacement among the remaining staff of the Studio. He selected Floyd Gottfredson, a recently hired employee. At the time Gottfredson was reportedly eager to work in animation and somewhat reluctant to accept his new assignment. Disney had to assure him the assignment was only temporary and that he would eventually return to animation. Gottfredson accepted and ended up holding this "temporary" assignment from May 5, 1930, to November 15, 1975.
Walt Disney's last script for the strip appeared May 17, 1930.[75] Gottfredson's first task was to finish the storyline Disney had started on April 1, 1930. The storyline was completed on September 20, 1930, and later reprinted in comic book form as Mickey Mouse in Death Valley. This early adventure expanded the cast of the strip which to this point only included Mickey and Minnie. Among the characters who had their first comic strip appearances in this story were Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar, and Black Pete as well as the debuts of corrupted lawyer Sylvester Shyster and Minnie's uncle Mortimer Mouse. The Death Valley narrative was followed by Mr. Slicker and the Egg Robbers, first printed between September 22 and December 26, 1930, which introduced Marcus Mouse and his wife as Minnie's parents.
Starting with these two early comic strip stories, Mickey's versions in animation and comics are considered to have diverged from each other. While Disney and his cartoon shorts would continue to focus on comedy, the comic strip effectively combined comedy and adventure. This adventurous version of Mickey would continue to appear in comic strips and later comic books throughout the 20th and into the 21st century.
Floyd Gottfredson left his mark with stories such as Mickey Mouse Joins the Foreign Legion (1936) and The Gleam (1942). He also created the Phantom Blot, Eega Beeva, Morty and Ferdie, Captain Churchmouse, and Butch. Besides Gottfredson artists for the strip over the years included Roman Arambula, Rick Hoover, Manuel Gonzales, Carson Van Osten, Jim Engel, Bill Wright, Ted Thwailes and Daan Jippes; writers included Ted Osborne, Merrill De Maris, Bill Walsh, Dick Shaw, Roy Williams, Del Connell, and Floyd Norman.
The next artist to leave his mark on the character was Paul Murry in Dell Comics. His first Mickey tale appeared in 1950 but Mickey did not become a specialty until Murry's first serial for Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in 1953 ("The Last Resort"). In the same period, Romano Scarpa in Italy for the magazine Topolino began to revitalize Mickey in stories that brought back the Phantom Blot and Eega Beeva along with new creations such as the Atomo Bleep-Bleep. While the stories at Western Publishing during the Silver Age emphasized Mickey as a detective in the style of Sherlock Holmes, in the modern era several editors and creators have consciously undertaken to depict a more vigorous Mickey in the mold of the classic Gottfredson adventures. This renaissance has been spearheaded by Byron Erickson, David Gerstein, Noel Van Horn, Michael T. Gilbert and CĂ©sar Ferioli.
In Europe, Mickey Mouse became the main attraction of a number of comics magazines, the most famous being Topolino in Italy from 1932 onward, Le Journal de Mickey in France from 1934 onward, Don Miki in Spain and the Greek Miky Maous.
Mickey was the main character for the series MM Mickey Mouse Mystery Magazine, published in Italy from 1999 to 2001.
In 2006, he appeared in the Italian fantasy comic saga Wizards of Mickey.
In 1958, Mickey Mouse was introduced to the Arab world through another comic book called "Sameer". He became very popular in Egypt and got a comic book with his name. Mickey's comics in Egypt are licensed by Disney and were published since 1959 by "Dar Al-Hilal" and they were successful, however Dar Al-Hilal stopped the publication in 2003 because of problems with Disney. The comics were re-released by "Nahdat Masr" in 2004 and the first issues were sold out in less than 8 hours.
Portrayal
Mickey is traditionally characterized as a sympathetic underdog who gets by on pluck and ingenuity in the face of challenges much bigger than himself.[77] As a mouse, an inherently vulnerable creature, Mickey is often depicted as having minimal resources and attributes at his disposal. Consequently, he must rely on sheer wit to overcome obstacles. The character is frequently pitted against larger-than-life villains to accentuate this idea; namely the hulking cat Pegleg Pete, and numerous one-shot antagonists such as the giants of Giantland (1933) and Brave Little Tailor (1938), the king of cards in Thru the Mirror (1936) and Mortimer Mouse in Mickey's Rival (1936). These adversaries were decidedly portrayed as overbearing figures of authority, thusly painting Mickey as a rebellious hero. When not facing an opponent, Mickey is oft placed in situations where his pursuits of grandeur or simple accomplishment lead to disastrous results, typically at the hands of his own impulsivity, as was the case in The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1940) among others. Mickey is not portrayed as a hero in the traditional sense, instead acting as a subversion of the stock archetype. He often fumbles his way through adventures; his small size and misplaced optimism serving as his dominating flaws. His manner of problem-solving is generally unorthodox to comedic effect; in Ye Olden Days (1933), Mickey's jousting horse was an infantile mule. In Shanghaied (1934), Mickey battled with a broadbill in place of a sword. The underdog nature of Mickey's character has been interpreted by historians as a symbolic reflection of Walt Disney's early struggles as a farm boy breaking into the imposing Hollywood industry in the 1920s.[78] It has also been perceived as an allegory for the Great Depression in the United States, with Mickey's unrelenting optimism symbolizing the "American endurance to survive" in the face of economic woes.[79]
Charlie Chaplin, known by audiences of the time for his role as the "Little Tramp", was identified by Disney as a source of inspiration for the Mickey character. Disney himself was a noted admirer of Chaplin's work, ascribing his development as a storytelling to the actor. In The American Magazine for March 1931, Disney explained, "I think we were rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea [of Mickey Mouse]. We wanted something appealing and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin ... a little fellow trying to do the best he could." American journalist Alva Johnston noted the similarities between the two figures, stating, "Chaplin was a kind of godfather to Mickey Mouse. It is now and always has been the aim of Disney to graft the psychology of Chaplin upon Mickey. The two universal characters have something in common in their approach to their problems. They have the same blend of hero and coward, nitwit and genius, mug and gentleman."[80]
Besides Chaplin, other notable figures of the silent era have been credited to Mickey's characterization. Chief among them was Douglas Fairbanks, whose swashbuckling screen adventures would inspire Mickey's animated epics. Ub Iwerks wrote in 1970, "He was the super-hero of his day, always winning, gallant and swashbuckling. Mickey's action was in that vein. He was never intended to be a sissy, he was always an adventurous character. I thought of him in that respect, and I had him do naturally the sort of thing Doug Fairbanks would do."[81] Disney was also noted to have been influenced by Fairbanks, along with other screen personalities including Harold Lloyd and Fred Astaire.[80]
An adaptive character, Mickey's personality lends itself to function within a multitude of situations, while retaining core elements of its design. He is not bound to a particular formula or motif, and as such, has been portrayed in a variety of settings and occupational roles. His film series, meanwhile, spans numerous genres besides the traditional musical comedy; The Mad Doctor (1933) and Runaway Brain (1995) parody the horror genre, whereas stories such as Mickey's Good Deed (1932) and The Prince and the Pauper (1990) are largely dramatic works. This versatility is said to have attributed to Mickey's popularity with audiences. As expressed by writer Chelsea Tatham, "From his beginnings, Mickey was able to appeal to a wide audience. He catered to neither the 'highbrow' nor the 'hick,' but the ordinary intelligent picturegoer."[79]
There are a number of catchphrases and colloquialisms associated with the character. Mickey's first spoken words, "Hot dog!" from The Karnival Kid (1929), has endured as a recurring phrase for the character, made especially recognizable to modern audiences for its extensive use in the preschool television program Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.[82] Mickey's signature closing line, "See ya real soon!", is derived from the "Mickey Mouse March" reprise from the original 1955 run of The Mickey Mouse Club ("M-I-C; see you real soon!").[82]
Other voice actors
Composer Carl W. Stalling was the first person to provide lines for Mickey in the 1929 shorts The Karnival Kid and Wild Waves. From this point on, Mickey was voiced by Walt Disney himself, being a job in which he appeared to take great personal pride.[83][84]
J. Donald Wilson and Joe Twerp provided the voice in some 1938 broadcasts of The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air,[85] although Disney remained Mickey's official voice during this period. However, by 1946, Disney was becoming too busy with running the studio to do regular voice work which meant he could not do Mickey's voice on a regular basis anymore. It is also speculated that his cigarette habit had damaged his voice over the years.[86] After recording the Mickey and the Beanstalk section of Fun and Fancy Free, Mickey's voice was handed over to veteran Disney musician and actor Jimmy MacDonald. Walt would reprise Mickey's voice occasionally until his passing in 1966, such as in the introductions to the original 1955â1959 run of The Mickey Mouse Club TV series, the "Fourth Anniversary Show" episode of the Walt Disney's Disneyland TV series that aired on September 11, 1957, and the Disneyland USA at Radio City Music Hall show from 1962.[87]
MacDonald voiced Mickey in most of the remaining theatrical shorts and for various television and publicity projects up until his retirement in 1976.[88] However, other actors would occasionally play the role during this era. Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck, provided the voice in three of Mickey's theatrical shorts, The Dognapper, R'coon Dawg, and Pluto's Party.[89] Stan Freberg voiced Mickey in the Freberg-produced record Mickey Mouse's Birthday Party. Alan Young voiced Mickey in the Disneyland record album An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players in 1974.[90][91]
The 1983 short film Mickey's Christmas Carol marked the theatrical debut of Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, who was the official voice of Mickey from 1977 until his death in 2009,[92] although MacDonald returned to voice Mickey for an appearance at the 50th Academy Awards in 1978.[93] Allwine once recounted something MacDonald had told him about voicing Mickey: "The main piece of advice that Jim gave me about Mickey helped me keep things in perspective. He said, 'Just remember kid, you're only filling in for the boss.' And that's the way he treated doing Mickey for years and years. From Walt, and now from Jimmy."[94] In 1991, Allwine married Russi Taylor, the voice of Minnie Mouse from 1986 until her death in 2019.
Les Perkins did the voice of Mickey in two TV specials, "Down and Out with Donald Duck" and "DTV Valentine", in the mid-1980s. Peter Renaday voiced Mickey in the 1980s Disney albums Yankee Doodle Mickey and Mickey Mouse Splashdance.[95][96] He also provided his voice for The Talking Mickey Mouse toy in 1986.[97][98] Quinton Flynn briefly filled in for Allwine as the voice of Mickey in a few episodes of the first season of Mickey Mouse Works whenever Allwine was unavailable to record.[99]
Bret Iwan, a former Hallmark greeting card artist, is the current official voice of Mickey. Iwan was originally cast as an understudy for Allwine due to the latter's declining health, but Allwine died before Iwan could get a chance to meet him and Iwan became the new official voice of the character at the time. Iwan's early recordings in 2009 included work for the Disney Cruise Line, Mickey toys, the Disney theme parks and the Disney on Ice: Celebrations! ice show.[100] He directly replaced Allwine as Mickey for the Kingdom Hearts video game series and the TV series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. His first video game voice-over of Mickey Mouse can be heard in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Iwan also became the first voice actor to portray Mickey during Disney's rebranding of the character, providing the vocal effects of Mickey in Epic Mickey as well as his voice in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and the remake of Castle of Illusion. An openly gay man, Iwan is the character's first LGBT+ performer.[citation needed]
In addition to Iwan, Chris Diamantopoulos was cast as Mickey for the Mickey Mouse 2013 animated series[101] developed by Paul Rudish, as the producers were looking for a voice closer to Walt Disney's portrayal of the character in order to match the vintage look of that series.[102] Diamantopoulos is the first voice of Mickey to be nominated for two Emmy Awards and two Annie Awards for his work in the series. He has reprised the role in the 2017 DuckTales reboot (in the form of a watermelon that Donald uses as a ventriloquist dummy), the Walt Disney World attraction Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, and the Disney+ revival of the series, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse.[103] He voiced Mickey once again for the 2023 short film Once Upon a Studio.[104]
Merchandising
Since his early years, Mickey Mouse has been licensed by Disney to appear on many different kinds of merchandise. Mickey was produced as plush toys and figurines, and Mickey's image has graced almost everything from T-shirts to lunchboxes. Largely responsible for early Disney merchandising was Kay Kamen, Disney's head of merchandise and licensing from 1932 until his death in 1949, who was called a "stickler for quality". Kamen was recognized by The Walt Disney Company as having a significant part in Mickey's rise to stardom and was named a Disney Legend in 1998.[105] At the time of his 80th-anniversary celebration in 2008, Time declared Mickey Mouse one of the world's most recognized characters, even when compared against Santa Claus.[106] Disney officials have stated that 98% of children aged 3â11 around the world are at least aware of the character.[106] Disney expected the Mickey Mouse & Friends brand to make $9 billion in retail sales in 2011.[107][108]
Disney parks
Minnie and Mickey at Hong Kong Disneyland
Mickey's house at Mickey's Toontown
As the official Walt Disney mascot, Mickey has played a central role in the Disney parks since the opening of Disneyland in 1955. As with other characters, Mickey is often portrayed by a non-speaking costumed actor. In this form, he has participated in ceremonies and countless parades, and poses for photographs with guests. As of the presidency of Barack Obama (who jokingly referred to him as "a world leader who has bigger ears than me")[109] Mickey has met every U.S. president since Harry Truman, with the exception of Lyndon B. Johnson.[20]
Mickey also features in several specific attractions at the Disney parks. Mickey's Toontown (Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland) is a themed land which is a recreation of Mickey's neighborhood. Buildings are built in a cartoon style and guests can visit Mickey or Minnie's houses, Donald Duck's boat, or Goofy's garage. This is a common place to meet the characters.[110]
Mickey's PhilharMagic (Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney California Adventure) is a 4D film which features Mickey in the familiar role of symphony conductor. At Main Street Cinema several of Mickey's short films are shown on a rotating basis; the sixth film is always Steamboat Willie.[citation needed] Mickey plays a central role in Fantasmic! (Disneyland Resort, Disney's Hollywood Studios) a live nighttime show which famously features Mickey in his role as the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mickey was also a central character in the now-defunct Mickey Mouse Revue (Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland) which was an indoor show featuring animatronic characters. Mickey's face formerly graced the Mickey's Fun Wheel (now Pixar Pal-A-Round) at Disney California Adventure Park, where a figure of him also stands on top of Silly Symphony Swings.
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disney's Hollywood Studios is a trackless dark ride themed to Mickey Mouse.[111]
In addition to Mickey's overt presence in the parks, numerous images of him are also subtly included in sometimes unexpected places. This phenomenon is known as "Hidden Mickeys", involving hidden images in Disney films, theme parks, and merchandise." (wikipedia.)