If you are reading this then you probably have some sort of connection with Disney. For the last 100 years Disney has created magic and wonder that has captivated us and formed countless memories that will last another 100 years. Whether it’s the movies, the parks, the music or the magic, we have been enthralled by the stories Disney imagineers and creators develop and bring to us. This past Monday, October 16th, 2023 marked 100 years since Walt & Roy Disney officially started making magic for everyone to enjoy! This week we are going to reflect on some of the most magical Disney moments over the last 100 years.
October 16th, 1923
On this day, Walt and Roy Disney signed an agreement to produce the Alice Comedies in Hollywood, CA out of the back room of a real estate office. Imagine that moment and then think about the Walt Disney Companies offices now! At this time the company was called the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio but Roy Disney suggested that it be changed to the Walt Disney Studio. Although Walt and Roy were equal partners in the company, Roy always felt it should be Walts name immortalized with the company.
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
In 1927 Walt created 26 cartoons featuring his new character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! These were successful cartoons and when Walt went to his distributer for money to create a second year of these cartoons he was given a major blow. The distributer had taken Walt’s animators from underneath him and Oswald as well since in their contract, Walt had no ownership over Oswald. At this point the Disney Studio had moved from the back room in a real estate office to a full fledged studio on Hyperion Avenue in Hollywood! But what would he do now with no animators and no featured character?
Mickey Mouse is Born!
You have probably heard the story of Walt being on a train back from NYC with his wife Lillian stressed about what they were going to do without Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Walt originally named Mickey….Mortimer but thankfully, Lillian talked him out of that and suggested Mickey! With his chief animator Ub Iwerks, Walt developed Mickey Mouse. They created a personality in this cute little mouse that everyone could love and relate to on some level. Magic happened in 1928! But at this time no one wanted to distribute these cartoons because they were silent and the talkies had started to take over the movies.
We may all think of Steamboat Willie as the first Mickey Mouse cartoon but it was actually the third! Plane Crazy and The Gallopin’ Gaucho were the first two but were not distributed at the time. So what did Walt do? He revolutionized the cartoon industry and made the first cartoon with synchronized sound! Steamboat Willie opened to excited reviews on November 18th, 1928 at the Colony Theater in New York City and the star we know as Mickey Mouse was born!
Silly Symphonies
Next up were the Silly Symphonies cartoons. These were the first full color cartoons and Flowers and Trees won the Academy Award for Best Cartoon in 1932, this was the first year this category was offered. Personally, the Skeleton Dance is my favorite Silly Symphonies. A Disney cartoon would go on to win an Oscar every year for the rest of that decade! The Silly Symphonies would be the way Walt Disney prepared his animators for full length cartoons.
Disney Merchandising Begins
The Disney staff soon figured out that putting the characters on products people could buy could be an additional form of income for the company and a way to fund the bigger projects Walt had planned. The first product to bear Mickey’s likeness were pencil tablets. Soon after that you could buy Mickey dolls, dishes, toothbrushes, radios, figurines, watches and more! 1930 would also be the year we saw the first Mickey Mouse book and newspaper comic book.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
In 1934 Walt Disney announced to his staff that they would produce the first full length cartoon feature film! It would be Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Walt acted out the whole thing for his animators and writers and although there were skeptics, they couldn’t deny Walt’s enthusiasm for the project! It would take three years for this film to come to fruition but finally, on December 21, 1937 and soon after became the highest grossing film of all time! It held this title until Gone with the Wind came out in 1940.
The 1940’s
The Walt Disney Company would produce Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi in the 1940’s. But with World War II underway and no foreign market to contribute to the studio’s revenue feature animated films were put on hold at the Disney Company. Instead Walt made the short fils Saludos Amigos and The Three Cabelleros at the request of the State Department. Walt Disney, his wife Lillian and the Walt Disney Company staff were all sent to South America as good will ambassadors. You can actually watch a documentary about this trip on Disney+ called Walt & El Grupo, I highly recommend this!
Walt would also create propaganda and training films for the military during this time. After the war packaged films were created with multiple short cartoons put together like Make Mine Music and Melody Time. This would also be when Walt moved to live action movies with animation included in them like So Dear To My Heart and would start the award winning True Life Adventure series featuring nature photography in a never seen before way.
The 1950’s
This would be a huge decade for the Walt Disney Company! There were movies like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Shaggy Dog and with the success of the live action film Treasure Island and the animated feature film Cinderella, Walt began to branch out! The Walt Disney Company began producing Christmas specials for television and then the Disneyland anthology series that would change names many times but would stay on air for 29 years, making it the longest running primetime series ever! The Mickey Mouse Club debuted in 1955 and is still to this day one of the most popular children shows of all time.
Walt always had more ideas and more imagination he wanted to share with the world and leveraging off the success of the movies and television series he was ready to take on his next big idea! On July 17, 1955 Disneyland would open to the public! This was something Walt dreamed up sitting on a park bench watching his daughters riding the park carousel. He dreamed up a place where parents could enjoy these kinds of things WITH their kids instead of just watching them enjoy them. Disneyland would be something the world had never seen and would start the theme park industry as we know it today.
The 1960’s
This decade would be another exciting one with movies like The Jungle Book, The Love bug and many educational films. The invention of Audio Animatronic technology would be a huge part of the 1960’s as well. But this decade would also be a devastating one. Audio Animatronic technology was pioneered while Walt Disney and his imagineers were developing the enchanted Tiki Room for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. We would also get to see Mary Poppins come to life which was one of Walt Disney’s proudest moments as it was truly a passion project for him. You can see a little about that in the movie Saving Mr. Banks. Walt’s favorite song was Feed the Birds from this movie, written by the Sherman Brothers who would come into his office and play it on the piano for Walt.
But the 1960’s would also bring devastation when Walt Disney died of complications from lung cancer on December 15, 1966. Walt had begun planning for Disney World in Florida, he called it the Florida Project. The land had been acquired and all Walt’s dreams had been drawn out and made into models before his passing but who would make sure it came to life? Roy of course, as he always did!
The 1970’s
Roy Disney pushed forward and not only realized Walt’s dreams in Florida but he also changed the name to Walt Disney World and forever immortalized his brothers name in the place he would have loved! Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971 and has been going strong ever since. Sadly, Roy Disney had put his retirement on hold after Walt passed so he could realize this dream for his brother and never did get to retire as he passed away on December 20, 1971 just over two months after Walt Disney Worlds opening. Walt may have been the one with the imagination and all the big ideas but he never would have been able to realize them without Roy’s unwavering support and encouragement. Walt’s biggest dream was the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or EPCOT as we know it today. This was tabled for a while but ground was broken in 1979 for the second park in Florida.
The 1980’s
This decade would bring the opening of EPCOT on October 1, 1982, the opening of Tokyo Disneyland on April 15, 1983 as the first international Disney park. The Disney Company also started a separate movie label called touchstone in the 80’s to make movies that were not necessarily on brand for the family friendly Disney Company. We saw movies like Splash, Dick Tracy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit released by Touchstone. Did you know the Golden Girls were Disney?? Yup…released by Touchstone! The 80’s would bring us The Disney Channel, Disney VHS tape sales of the original movies, Disney Sunday Movies or the Wonderful World of Disney. In the parks this decade would bring Star Wars collaborations, Captain EO, Disney MGM Studios in 1989 (Hollywood Studios), Splash Mountain, Typhoon Lagoon and Pleasure Island!
The 1990’s
The 90’s would bring the golden era of Disney feature animation! The Little Mermaid, the Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Milan, Tarzan all the movies we grew up with. Disney would also begin a publishing company for children books, and even started the Anaheim Mighty Ducks NHL team. Disneyland Paris would open in 1992. New resort hotels would open in Disney World as well as Tower of Terror. Disney would take over Broadway in 1994 with the release of Beauty and the Beast on stage, The Lion King on Broadway would follow in 1997.
There were 725 Disney stores worldwide by the end of this decade and Disney had sold the first home sites in Florida’s new Disney owned neighborhood Celebration. Disney bought the Angels MLB team, opened the Wide World of Sports at Walt Disney World. They bought out ABC television company which was the second largest transaction in US history. Live action movies like Flubber, Mr. Hollands Opus as well as the release of computer animated films like A Bug’s Life and Toy Story. Animal Kingdom would open in 1998 and realize another one of Walt’s dreams of providing experiences with live animals to his guests. He wanted to have live animals on the original Jungle Cruise but at the time that was not an option. 1998 would also bring DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney (Disney Springs) and the first sailing of the Disney Cruisline on the Disney Magic. And Test Track would come to EPCOT as the longest and fastest Disney attraction to date!
The 2000’s
A new millennia means new things for the Walt Disney Company too! Fantasia 200 would release in the new IMax theaters, The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis, Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet and Brother Bear would all be released. Pixar would continue to collaborate with Disney to create Monsters, Inc. and live action movies would give us Remember the Titans, The Princess Diaries and more. DVD releases became larger and included the classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In 2001 Disney California Adventure park would open as well as Tokyo DisneySEA . 2002 would bring Disneyland Paris and ground was broken for Hong Kong Disneyland in 2003.
The company celebrated Walt’s 100th birthday in MGM Studios with 100 years of magic in 2001 which brought us the giant Mickey Sorcerer hat! Pirates of the Caribbean would gross over $300 million in 2003 and so did Finding Nemo from Pixar. Disney would then be the first studio in history to gross over $3 billion in global box office sales. Mission: Space would open in EPCOT, the 75th anniversary of Mickey Mouse would be celebrated and yet another new resort would open in Walt Disney World. Disney acquired the Muppets, the Incredibles would be released and the popular TV series Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy would debut.
Disneyland celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2005 with the Happiest Celebration on Earth that was celebrated in all the Disney parks. Hong Kong Disneyland opened in September of 2005 and Bob Iger took over on October 1st as Michael Eisner retired. We saw more movie blockbusters released like High School Musical, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest, Cars and Ratatouille! Disney parks celebrated the Year of a Million Dreams. This would also be the decade of Hannah Montana and Club Penguin for the Disney kids. Nemo got his own attraction in EPCOT and Disneyland and even a musical show in Animal Kingdom that is still there today!
In 2008 MGM Studios was renamed to Hollywood Studios, I’m still calling it MGM though! Toy Story Mania opened, Wall-e and Bolt were released and the most important thing form this decade……Phineas and Ferb debuted! I don’t know about you but this is the best animated series to ever exist in my opinion! In 2009 Disney acquired Marvel, D23: The official Disney fan Club launched, the Princess and the Frog was released and the first D23 Expo was held in California.
The 2010’s
This era saw Toy Story 3 that won two Oscars that year, Tangled, Tron: Legacy, a new Disney Cruiseship called the Disney Dream and Aulani opened in Hawaii. We got to meet Wreck It Ralph and Merida in Brave and the Avengers from the MCU. Cars Land opened in California Adventure, Newsies opened on Broadway (I got to see this on Broadway and it was FANTASTIC!), and Disney acquired Lucas Films to now own the Start Wars universe. We also got to go back and see how Mike and Sully became the dynamic duo they are throughout their backstory in Monsters University. We stepped into the world of Frozen on the big screen and got to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the New Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom.
Live action Cinderella hit the big screen as well as Inside Out. Probably the most exciting movie to come out in this decade was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you either loved it or hated it as a Star Wars fan . Ground would be broken on Star Wars: Galaxies Edge as well although it would be a long time before we would get to visit! We did get to finally visit Pandora: World of Avatar in Animal Kingdom in 2017! we got to go for the first time in 2018 and it blew us away! It is still so beautiful and Flight Of Passage will always take your breath away and leave you smiling. In 2018 Minnie Mouse got her star on the Hollywood Walk of fame joining Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.
Frozen opened on Broadway, Pixar Pier opened in California, we got Disney+, Maleficent and Guardians of the Galaxy! There were lots of Star Wars films including Rogue One and Solo and we met Miguel in Coco. We saw The Last Jedi and fought the Infinity War and saw more additions to the Disney World hotels with the Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. We even got to ride on the Disney Skyliner here in Florida, join the resistance in Hollywood Studios and explore the Riviera as well.
The Present
And then here we are at the 2020’s, 100 years later and still going strong. Of course this decade has seen it’s fair share of upheaval and “scandal” if you will within the Disney Company but we have had a lot of exciting things happening too! I am going to focus on all of those things and leave the pandemics and the political feuds for someone else. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World, got the first ever Mickey Mouse ride in Mick and Minnies Runaway Railway in Hollywood Studios and joined the Family Madrigal in Encanto.
Bob Chapek was named CEO and also ousted from being CEO (I may have done a happy dance) and Bob Iger returned. Disney+ gave us lots of great original shows like the Imagineering Story and Prop Culture. We lost Happily Ever After, I cried, we got (dis)Enchantment which I was not a fan of and then we got Happily Ever After back, I cried again!! Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure opened in EPCOT and we got the Stargate and water tacos in World Showcase lagoon for Harmonious…..I wasn’t a fan of those either although the show itself was beautiful, looking at those things all day was not. Now we are celebrating 100 years of Disney magic in 2023!
Conclusion
Obviously this is not an exhaustive list of all the things that the Walt Disney Company has created, achieved or inspired over the last 100 years. That would take a lot longer post! But I hope it has been a stroll down memory lane for all of you Disney fans out there like it has been for me. I have literally grown up with Disney. For 40 years now I have been visiting the parks and watching the movies and making the most magical memories. You can read more about that here. This last year brought our move to Disney and although we are right down the street and go as often as possible, it’s still just as magical. Walt Disney’s life and story has always inspired me. He tried, he failed, he tried, he failed but he kept moving forward and knew the world needed what he had dreamed up. I wonder sometimes if he and Roy even realize what they created and how much people love and connect to Disney 100 years later.
As always, thank you for reading along with me and running through 100 years of Disney! I had a really good time writing this one and hope you enjoyed reading. Have the most magical day!