Portal:Disney

Introduction

The Walt Disney Company (TWDC), commonly known as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Founded on October 16, 1923, as an animation studio by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Disney operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before adopting its current name 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, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a 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 sector, 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 from 1989 to 1999. In 2005, under the new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Pixar in 2006, Marvel Entertainment in 2009, Lucasfilm in 2012, and 21st Century Fox in 2019. 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. Josh D'Amaro became CEO of Disney in 2026.

Disney operates the largest television and film studio in Hollywood. Walt Disney Studios 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 operating 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+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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"Be Our Guest" is a song written by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken for Walt Disney Pictures' 30th animated feature film Beauty and the Beast (1991). Recorded by American actor Jerry Orbach and English actress Angela Lansbury as Lumière and Mrs. Potts, respectively, "Be Our Guest" is a large-scale Broadway-inspired musical number that takes place during the first half of Beauty and the Beast, performed by the castle's staff of enchanted objects in an elaborate attempt to welcome Belle. Menken initially intended for the melody of "Be Our Guest" to be temporary but was ultimately unable to compose a satisfying one with which to replace it. The song had originally been intended for Belle's father Maurice. However, "Be Our Guest" had to be entirely re-written as the story evolved in order to return its focus to Belle.

"Be Our Guest" has garnered universal acclaim from both film and music critics who, in addition to dubbing the song a show-stopper, praised its catchiness and Orbach's vocal performance while applauding the scene's unprecedented use of computer-generated imagery. "Be Our Guest" has since been extolled as one of Disney's most celebrated and popular songs, establishing itself as one of the studio's greatest and most iconic. "Be Our Guest" received nominations for both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song, being performed by Orbach live at the 64th Academy Awards, ultimately losing both to the film's title song. "Be Our Guest" has been ranked highly on several "best Disney song" countdown lists, garnering recognition from IGN, M and the American Film Institute. Disney has further used the song in the Broadway musical adaptation and the 2017 live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. The song's title has been used for the Be Our Guest Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom, and as a tagline for promoting the 2017 film. The song has been parodied in an episode of The Simpsons and the film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

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Credit: Protostar

The entrance to Disney California Adventure at Anaheim, showing the large letters spelling CALIFORNIA

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These are images of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney in their respective articles.

Image 1Disney in 1954 with Wernher von Braun (from Walt Disney)
Image 2Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 3A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 4Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 5Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 6Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 7Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) (from Disneyland)
Image 8Hollywood Studios' Park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 9Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland in 2008. (from Disneyland)
Image 10Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 11Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 12Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney)
Image 13Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 14Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 15Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 16Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 17The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 18Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 19One of Disney's first animated characters, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney regained the rights to in 2006. The initial run of Oswald shorts by Disney entered the public domain in 2024. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 20Characters from Disney Animation's Alice in Wonderland host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist in 2005. (from Disneyland)
Image 21Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 22Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 23alt=The Disney Treasure at Grand Cayman (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 24Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 25Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 26Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 27Mickey's Toontown
(Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway) (from Disneyland)
Image 28Disney Wish docked at the pier at Castaway Cay, August 2022 (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 29New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion) (from Disneyland)
Image 30Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 31Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 32The Sherman Brothers in 2002. They composed many Disney songs in the 1960s. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 33Disney with film roll and Mickey Mouse on his right arm in 1935 (from Walt Disney)
Image 34Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 35Bayou Country
(Tiana's Bayou Adventure) (from Disneyland)
Image 36View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 37Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 38Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 39An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 40Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 41Disney receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 from President Lyndon B. Johnson. (from Walt Disney)
Image 42Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run) (from Disneyland)
Image 43Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 44Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 45Adventureland entrance
(from Disneyland)
Image 46Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 47The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 48Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 49The original animation building at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 50Main Street, USA
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 51The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s. This logo is still used on retro merchandise. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 52Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 53Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of the Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 54One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 55The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 56Disney's childhood home in Chicago (from Walt Disney)
Image 57Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 58An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 59The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo (from Walt Disney World)
Image 60Disney Magic, the first vessel in the fleet, sailing along Tallinn Bay in 2017 (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 61Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)

Selected biography

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana. Cyrus recorded music for the soundtracks, Hannah Montana (2006) and Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (2007), released by Walt Disney Records. With the success of the Hannah Montana franchise she established herself as a teen idol. In 2007, Cyrus signed to Hollywood Records to pursue a solo career. She embarked upon the Best of Both Worlds Tour the same year, in which she performed as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana. The tour was eventually turned into a high-grossing concert film titled Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008). In July 2008, Cyrus released her first solo album, Breakout (2008), which was commercially successful. She began her foray into film by providing the voice of "Penny" in the animated film Bolt (2008). Cyrus earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her performance of Bolt's theme song, "I Thought I Lost You". She also reprised her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009). The Hannah Montana: The Movie' soundtrack introduced her to new audiences within country and adult contemporary markets.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Disney+ released a promotional poster for the Doctor Who Christmas special "Joy to the World" with the title spelled incorrectly?
... that cameraman Bob Broughton, who later became a Disney Legend, was first hired there by mistake?
... that the horses pulling the Disneyland Main Street Vehicles' streetcars include Belgians, Brabants, Clydesdales, Percherons, and Shires?
... that the Miller House in Indiana opened to the public in 2011, drawing high visitor numbers that were likened to the opening of a new Disney ride?
... that Nine Inch Nails wrote the soundtrack to a Walt Disney World ride?
... that the art of Villains Are Destined to Die was said to be "almost in-between the Disney happy-ending fairy tales and the original Grimm's stories"?

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Why, oh why couldn't that woman have a fetish for rutabagas, or something?

— Scrooge McDuck

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More Did you know...

...that the Phineas and Ferb episode "Are You My Mummy?" originally aired as part of "Phineas and Ferb-urary," a special event which showed episodes of the series every night in February 2008 on Disney Channel?

...that when Sonny with a Chance actor Demi Lovato bowed out of season three, show-within-a-show So Random! was spun-off into its own sketch comedy series?

...that Walt Disney had long wanted to make a film based on the Uncle Remus storybook, but it wasn't until the mid-1940s that he had found a way to give the stories an adequate film equivalent, in scope and fidelity.
...that the structure of the Epcot's Mexico pavilion was designed by architect and structural engineer Arturo Dulzaides in 1984.
... that in 1989, a black-and-white drawing from Walt Disney's "Orphan's Benefit" (USA 1934), depicting Donald Duck being punched by an orphan, raised $280,000 at Christie's London, England.

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