Walt Disney Feature Animation

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Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA) is the animation studio that makes up a key element of The Walt Disney Company. 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.

1 Locations
2 History
3 Criticisms
4 Collaborations
5 Achievements
6 See also
7 Notes

[edit] Locations

It is headquartered in Burbank, California, across the street from the original Walt Disney Studios in a specialized building that was completed in 1995. Satellite studios once existed at Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida (1989–2003) (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. From 1985 until his resignation in November 2003, WDFA 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 (then) head of the Disney studios and Disney chief Michael Eisner.

Today, 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 to Disney's President & CEO Bob Iger and consults with Disney Director Roy E. Disney.

[edit] 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.

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. 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, the Paris studio was located in Montreuil, at the city limits of Paris and was never associated with the theme park. An entire new Disney theme park was built on the site next to the old Paris 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. 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 merge 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 animated product.

On February 22, 2006, Jim Hill Media released a report that WDFA is making a slow, but steady return to traditional animation, with the release in 2007 of a new film called Enchanted, which is a blend of animation and live action. The animated portions are stated to be done in traditional animation. The report further stated that if they decide to return to traditional animation, WDFA would turn out a major film once every three and one-half to four years, compared to every six months to one year before. This is due to the fact that WDFA's workforce would be significantly reduced from the number of workers it had since the last traditionally animated production.^[1]

In July 2006, Disney announced the production of its first traditionally animated film in some time, to be titled The Frog Princess. ^[2] John Lasseter green-lit the project, hiring Ron Clements and John Musker to direct (Clements and Musker had resigned from Disney the year prior), and Randy Newman to provide the music. Clements and Musker had been among the key figures of Disney's late-1980s/early-1990s renaissance.

[edit] Criticisms

Disney has been criticized by many for making straight to video sequels to classic movies like Bambi and Lady and the Tramp.

[edit] 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;

Mickey's PhilharMagic at the Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom and Hong Kong Disneyland
Stitch's Great Escape at the Walt Disney World and Magic Kingdom

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.

[edit] Achievements

The Feature Animation studio is noted for creating a number of now-standard innovations in the animation industry, including:

the multiplane camera (for Snow White, but first used in the Academy-award winning short "The Old Mill")
the realistic animation of special effects and human characters (for Snow White)
advanced composition processes to combine live-action and animated elements using color film (for The Three Caballeros)
the use of xerography in animation to transfer drawings to cels as opposed to ink-tracing (developed for One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but first tested in a few scenes in Sleeping Beauty and first fully used in the Academy-award nominated short Goliath II)
the use of all-digital methods for painting, compositing, and recording animated features CAPS (Computer Animation Production System)

Among its significant achievements are:

the first animated feature in Technicolor (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
the first major motion picture in stereophonic sound (Fantasia)
the first large format animated film (the 70mm Sleeping Beauty)
the first film to use the APT process (The Black Cauldron)
the first feature film to be shot using an all-digital process (The Rescuers Down Under, which introduced Disney's CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) process)
the first animated feature to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (Beauty and the Beast),
the highest-grossing traditionally animated feature of all time (The Lion King).
the largest film premiere in history with over 100,000 viewers (Pocahontas).