Walt Disney Background Feature
The Walt Disney Company is the third largest media conglomerate in the world today. The company is also privately owned. It was set up way back in 1923 when Mr Walter Disney signed a contract with M.J Wrinkler to produce a series of Alice comedies. The original name of the company was ‘Disney Brothers cartoon studios’ as Walt’s brother Roy had shared ownership. Disney started as, and continues to be, a privately funded company. Rather than being funded through the taxpayer (the public), ruling it out of the public service media category, unlike the BBC for example which is funded by and for the public.
As time went on Disney has become a very diverse family entertainment and media enterprise with five business sections: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment, consumer products and interactive media. These businesses have given Disney different ways to find sources of income and have made Disney able to become a multinational company.
Back in the 20’s when Disney began, the animations being produced didn’t do as well as first thought with Disney having some financial concerns, making this the era where not much money and success was made. Then Disney designed a new character, "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" and sold rights to Mintz distribution but then costs became too high to produce animations in theatre. So Walt thought it would benefit the company to end distribution with Mintz and use the income they were receiving on a new character. Mintz then took full rights of “Oswald” and also took Disney’s best animator which was a big blow to Disney.
Then on the train home one day Walt created Mickey Mouse, audiences fell in love with mouse straight away which made Walt go to New York to get sound for the mouse and this became the first animation to ever have sound. It got rave reviews.
Mickey Mouse changed everything making Disney be able to fund the first full colour cartoon ‘Flowers and Trees’ from then on all their cartoons were in colour as that was the trend at the time with films production. In that decade classics like Pinocchio, Dumbo and Snow White and The Seven Dwarves which was the first animated film was produced.
On September 29, 1938, Walt Disney Enterprises, Disney Film Recording Company, Liled Realty Investment Company and Walt Disney Productions, Ltd are merged into Walt Disney Productions. This made Disney a lot more powerful as they had larger income, therefore Disney were able to carry on producing more feature films like Snow White.
As world war two was taking place it was Disney’s duty to produce moral boosting propaganda films, the most famous being ‘Saludos Amigos’. Some animators thought this was the right thing to be doing however some animators disagreed and even went on strike.
That was the least of Disney’s concerns as in 1944 the company was short of money but the theatrical re-release of Snow White regenerated much needed money and kept the company releasing animated feature films.
1950 was a big year for Disney as they completed their first all live action feature ’Treasure Island’. Big seller Cinderella was also created. The company seemed to be heading in the right direction.
In 1954 Disney went ahead with plans to create Disneyland. The thought came about because Walt loved taking his daughters to amusement parks and zoo’s he felt it would be a successful investment, the following year the theme park opened in California and Kids loved it there. Even today it’s a kid’s dream to visit Disneyland.
The 60’s was dramatic, there was the beginning and ending of an era as Enchanted Tiki Room opens at Disneyland, using the first Audio-Animatronics. There was also Mary Poppins which was produced which was the first Disney film to receive a Best Picture Academy Award nomination. All the joy was overshadowed by the sad death Walt Disney in 1966.
Walt Disney’s death did not stop the company from making further classics as the Jungle book was released a year later. The company carried to get supervised by Walts brother Roy.
After the success of Disneyland, The Company felt it was right to purchase more land, this time in Florida to build a new park. The park covered nearly 28000 acres of land and was pronounced open on October 1, 1971. It was definitely an improvement from California, this park included; a theme park, hotels, campgrounds, golf courses, and shopping villages, this was now the holiday vacation everyone wanted to go too, not just the children either. Sadly Walt’s younger brother Roy passes away that year.
The company was now led by a new team which featured - Card Walker, Donn Tatum and Ron Miller. They had a tough task ahead of them creating Disneyland in Tokyo, the country loved everything about Disney having one of Disney’s largest fan base.
One of Disney’s largest income sources was about to get created in 1983 as Disney channel was made. Disney channel has had smash hits with a series of programs such as Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place. Disney has created so many stars because of these programs the most notably being Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron. Children today dream to be on this channel.
As video cassette was now taking place Disney films were wanted, so they got re-released and this got Disney classics reaching the top of the all-time best seller lists beating national and global competition from DreamWorks films.
Disney continue franchising abroad. They sign an agreement with the French government and build a Disneyland in Paris, it fully opened in 1992. Disney continued to has a diverse way of making money by going to interactive media, buying 25 percent of the baseball team California Angels, taking over capital cities and renaming it ABC, Inc. Disney also felt it would benefit working on crossing all media fronts for sources of income. Disney also profit from using vertical integration. They produce, market and distribute their movies.
Currently all of Disney’s parks bring in a combined $27 billion in revenue each year. Disney is recognised all over the planet for making the greatest animation films of all time and in 2006 used horizontal integration and bought another animation producing company ‘PIXAR’. This will mean Disney gain a larger share of the animated film market and won’t have to compete against PIXAR anymore. It will also help create more amazing stories. Children are now inspired watching these films making them want to become actors, singers or both. Even in this difficult financial climate, Disney won’t be suffering as much as other companies because of their huge fan base. Expect more from Disney as the time goes on.
Overall Disney being one of the largest media conglomerates in the world will mean they can increase prices as they won’t have as much competition as a conglomerate controls large parts of media. This is a good thing for Disney, as The Guardian has noted, however conglomerates get hugely criticized because they restrict opportunities by being in control of much of what the public hear and see. According to The Guardian in 2002: “The current cross-media restrictions prevent owners of national newspapers with a national market share of 20% or more from controlling a license or owning more than 20% of a regional or national television broadcaster and a local or national radio service.” These restrictions have prevented a UK media based company similar to Disney from developing.
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