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Walt Disney Feature Animation
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Walt Disney Animation Studios is a key element of The Walt Disney Company, and the oldest existing animation studio in the world. The feature animation studio was an integrated part of Walt Disney Productions from 1934 (the start of production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) until 1986, when, during the corporate restructuring to create The Walt Disney Company, it officially became a subsidiary of the company under the name Walt Disney Feature Animation.
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Walt Disney Animation Studios is a key element of The Walt Disney Company, and the oldest existing animation studio in the world. The feature animation studio was an integrated part of Walt Disney Productions from 1934 (the start of production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) until 1986, when, during the corporate restructuring to create The Walt Disney Company, it officially became a subsidiary of the company under the name Walt Disney Feature Animation. The division took on its current name in 2007.
History
Walt Disney began the move into features in 1934, pulling selected animators away from the short subjects division that had previously been the whole of Walt Disney Productions. The result was the first animated feature in English and Technicolor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White became an unprecedented success when it was released to theatres in February 1938, and it and many of the subsequent feature productions became film classics. These first features were presented as being made in 'multiplane technicolor', since both the multiplane camera and technicolor were still something new in the area of animation. Following the successes of these features, Disney expanded his company's operations, moving into live-action features, television, and theme parks. Beside successes like Snow White, Dumbo, and Cinderella, Disney also directed the Feature Animation staff create experimental and stylized films such as Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty which sustained losses and did not recoup their costs until decades after their original releases. In 1962, Walt Disney shut down the corporation's short subject department, focusing its attention mainly on television and feature film production (the next short subject was the widescreen Mickey Mouse cartoon Runaway Brain in the mid 1990s).
After Walt Disney's death in 1966, the animation department found itself without direction. The animators struggled to regain their footing but created films that were technically polished but told lackluster stories, even though most of them were successful. In 1973, lead animator Eric Larson began an experimental recruitment program to see if new young talent could be found to bring new blood to the industry. This began the training of a whole new generation of animators that would bring animation to new heights and greatly influence the world's popular culture. After honing their craft on a series of fairly modest pictures, these new artists finally found true success again with The Little Mermaid in 1989, which was known as the starting of the Disney Renaissance era. A string of successful films, such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Hercules, and The Lion King followed suit, and Disney expanded WDFA to a total staff of over 2,400 by 1999, including employees located at satellite studios in Orlando and Paris.
However, the expansion coincided with a decline in both revenue and quality of the department's output. Competition from other studios drove animator salaries to a high level, making 2D-traditional animated features a costly proposition, and beginning in 2000, massive layoffs brought staff numbers down to 600. Deciding that the reason for its unsuccessful box office draw was the fact that they still used 2D-traditional animation methods in a time when Pixar/20th Century Fox were producing highly successful live-action/CGI films, Disney converted WDFA into a live-action/CGI studio, performing more layoffs and selling off its 2D-traditional animation equipment. The Paris studio was shut down in 2003, and the Orlando studio followed suit in 2004. The Orlando studio was turned into an attraction at a Disney theme park.
With the 2006 Disney acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios, Feature Animation changed its name to Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2007. Meet the Robinsons was the first live-action/CGI feature film released under this banner. The film also debuted the studio's new production logo – the first time such a logo accompanied one of the studio's feature films – featuring Mickey Mouse as he was depicted in Steamboat Willie; the logo is different from the studio's corporate logo (featured at top).
Despite the acquisition, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios continue to maintain separate studios and release their films under separate banners, with former Pixar executives Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter serving as both studios' president and Chief Creative Officer, respectively. Both were brought in by Disney CEO Robert Iger to reinvigorate the Walt Disney Animation Studios, whose prestige had been flagging over the last several years after several films such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) only received modest success, while some such as Treasure Planet (2002) and Home on the Range (2004) were box office bombs.
Walt Disney Animation Studios once announced that Home on the Range would be the last 2D-traditional animated film, and from Chicken Little onwards, all future Walt Disney Animation Studios films would be live-action/CGI, however the studio will be returning to 2D-traditional animation with the 2009 release of The Princess and the Frog. It would also continue to develop live-action/CGI projects such as Rapunzel (2010), and King of the Elves (2011).
Management
From 1985 until his resignation in November 2003, Walt Disney Feature Animation was officially headed by Chairman Roy E. Disney, who exercised much influence within the division. Most decisions, however, were made by the WDFA President, who officially reported to Disney but who in practice also reported to the Disney's studio chairman as well as its corporate chairman and CEO, Michael Eisner. From 1985 to 1999, the President of WDFA was Peter Schneider.
As of 2007, Ed Catmull serves as president of the combined Disney-Pixar animation studios, and John Lasseter serves as the studios' Chief Creative Officer. Catmull reports to Walt Disney Company President & CEO Bob Iger as well as Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook. Lasseter, who has greenlight authority, reports directly to Disney's President & CEO Bob Iger.
Andrew Millstein has been named general manager of Walt Disney Animation Studios. In this new position, Millstein is in charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.
Locations
Walt Disney Animation Studios is headquartered in Burbank, California, across the street from the original Walt Disney Studios in a specialized building completed in 1995. Satellite studios once existed at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida (1989–2003) and at Paris, France (1995–2002), but those studios were closed in an effort to revive lagging profits by restructuring and recentralizing the division to produce fully computer-animated features solely in Burbank.
Collaborations
Walt Disney Feature Animation has occasionally joined forces with Walt Disney Imagineering to create attractions for various Disney theme parks around the world that requires the expertise of Disney animators. Among this select number of attractions are:
In the 1980s, WDFA collaborated with director Robert Zemeckis to create Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a film that combined traditional hand-drawn animation with live action footage.
WDFA did the Sprites and backgrounds for the Sega Genesis, Commodore Amiga and PC Video Game Disney's Aladdin (video game) and the SNES, PC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis & Amiga video game The Lion King (video game)
Achievements
The Animation studio is noted for creating a number of now-standard innovations in the animation industry, including:
- the multiplane camera (for Snow White, but first used in the Academy-award winning short "The Old Mill")
- the realistic animation of special effects and human characters (for Snow White)
- advanced composition processes to combine live-action and animated elements using color film (for The Three Caballeros)
- the use of xerography in animation to transfer drawings to cels as opposed to ink-tracing (developed for One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but first tested in a few scenes in Sleeping Beauty and first fully used in the Academy-award nominated short Goliath II)
- the use of all-digital methods for painting, compositing, and recording animated features CAPS (Computer Animation Production System)
Among its significant achievements are:
See also
External links
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