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Walt Disney Animation Studios is the Animation studio that makes up a key element of The Walt Disney Company , and the oldest surviving 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. The studio was named '''Walt Disney Feature Animation''' ('''WDFA''') until 2007, when it was renamed to reflect its change of direction under new management. {Link without Title} 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 it's attention mainly on television and feature film production and 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 which 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 . A string of successful films, such as '' Beauty And The Beast '', '' Aladdin '', 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 animated features a costly proposition, and beginning in 2000 , massive layoffs were done to bring the staff back down to 600. Deciding that the reason for its failing box office draw was the fact that they still used Traditional Animation methods in a time when Pixar and DreamWorks were producing highly successful Computer-animated features, Disney converted WDFA into an all- CGI studio, performing more layoffs and selling off its traditional animation equipment. The Orlando studio was shut down in 2003, and the Paris studio followed suit in 2004. The Orlando studio was turned into an Attraction At A Disney Theme Park . As of 2004 , WDFA's last traditional film was '' Home On The Range ''. Its first all-computer animated film was '' Chicken Little '' in 2005 which reversed the slump the company was facing. Disney continued to release lower-budget traditional films produced by the DisneyToons studio in Australia until 2005 , when that studio was shut down as well. In January 2006 , Disney purchased Pixar and began plans to synergize Pixar's studio with WDFA. The collective works of both WDFA and Pixar from 2006 will be overseen by former Pixar president Ed Catmull and Walt Disney Studios head Dick Cook, with Pixar guru John Lasseter appointed chief creative officer of all Disney animation endeavors. Under the new management, WDFA was renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios. Walt Disney Animation Studios will be returning to traditional animation, with the release in 2009 of '' The Princess And The Frog ''. All films between '' Home On The Range '' and this one have been and will be done in CGI. It is unknown at this time if WDAS will continue with traditional animation beyond 2009 or not. MANAGEMENT From 1985 until his resignation in November 2003 , Walt Disney Animation Studios 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 . 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 Disney's President & CEO Bob Iger and Roy E. Disney now serving as Senior Executive Director Emeritus of Disney. 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 . There has also been talk that they are planning to build a completely new studio in the future. Satellite studios once existed at Disney-MGM 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 WDFA has occasionally joined forces with Walt Disney Imagineering to create an attraction for a Disney theme park which has required the expertise of Disney animators. Among this select number of attractions are:
WDFA and WDI also collaborated with the in-house entertainment studios at Disneyland and the Disney-MGM Studios to develop the night-time '' Fantasmic! '' show. 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. ACHIEVEMENTS The Animation studio is noted for creating a number of now-standard innovations in the animation industry, including:
Among its significant achievements are:
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