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In early 1923, Kansas City, Missouri, animator Walt Disney created a short film entitled Alice's Wonderland, which featured child actress Virginia Davis interacting with animated characters.
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Release of first Alice Comedy – “Alice’s Day at Sea.”
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The name of the company is changed from “The Disney Brothers Studio” to “Walt Disney Studios”.
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Release of first “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit” cartoon.
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Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney produced films.
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First appearance of Pluto, is released. He did not receive the name Pluto until The Moose Hunt .
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Mickey Mouse Book
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First full-color cartoon and first Academy Award winner, is released.
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Academy Award winner, is released.
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First Mickey Mouse watch is sold by Ingersoll
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Deciding to push the boundaries of animation even further, Disney began production of his first feature-length animated film in 1934. Taking three years to complete, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in December 1937 and became highest-grossing film of that time.
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First feature-length animated film, at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
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With limited staff and little operating capital during and after the war, Disney's feature films during much of the 1940s were "package films," or collections of shorts, such as The Three Caballeros (1944) and Melody Time (1948), which performed poorly at the box-office. At the same time, the studio began producing live-action films and documentaries.
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In 1954, Walt Disney used his Disneyland series to unveil what would become Disneyland, an idea conceived out of a desire for a place where parents and children could both have fun at the same time. On July 18, 1955, Walt Disney opened Disneyland to the general public.
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On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of complications relating to lung cancer,and Roy Disney took over as chairman, CEO, and president of the company.
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While Walt Disney Productions continued releasing family-friendly films throughout the 1970s, such as Escape to Witch Mountain and Freaky Friday, the films did not fare as well at the box office as earlier material. However, the animation studio saw success with Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound.
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With the Sid Bass family purchase of 18.7 percent of Disney, Bass and the board brought in Michael Eisner from Paramount as CEO and Frank Wells from Warner Bros.
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Up, from Pixar, is released, which would win two Oscars
