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Introduction

The Walt Disney Company is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Disney as Disney Brothers Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing its name to the Walt Disney Company in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.

After becoming a major success by the early 1940s, Disney diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks in the 1950s. However, following Walt Disney's death in 1966, the company's profits, especially in the animation division, began to decline. In 1984, Disney's shareholders voted Michael Eisner as CEO, who led a reversal of the company's decline through a combination of international theme park expansion and the highly successful Disney Renaissance period of animation in the 1990s. In 2005, under new CEO Bob Iger, the company continued to expand into a major entertainment conglomerate with the acquisitions of Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios. In 2020, Bob Chapek became the head of Disney after Iger's retirement. However, Chapek was ousted in 2022 and Iger was reinstated as CEO.

The company is known for its film studio division Walt Disney Studios, which includes Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Animation, and Searchlight Pictures. Disney's other main business units include divisions in television, broadcasting, streaming media, theme park resorts, consumer products, publishing, and international operations. Through these divisions, Disney owns and operates the ABC television network; cable television networks such as Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX, and National Geographic; publishing, merchandising, music, and theater divisions; direct-to-consumer streaming services such as Disney+, Star+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Hotstar; and Disney Experiences, which includes several theme parks, resort hotels, and cruise lines around the world. (Full article...)

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Test Track is a high-speed slot car thrill ride located in World Discovery at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The ride is a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that General Motors uses to evaluate its concept cars, culminating in a high-speed drive around the exterior of the attraction. The attraction soft-opened to the public on December 19, 1998, after a long delay due to problems revealed during testing and to changes in design. As a result, the attraction officially opened on March 17, 1999. Test Track replaced the World of Motion ride, which closed three years earlier in 1996.

Originally, guests rode in "test vehicles" in a GM "testing facility" through a series of assessments to illustrate how automobile prototype evaluations were conducted. The highlight of the attraction is a speed trial on a track around the exterior of the building at a top speed of 64.9 miles per hour (104.4 km/h) making it the fastest Disney theme park attraction ever built. Test Track closed for refurbishment on April 15, 2012, and re-opened on December 6, 2012. It is now sponsored by the Chevrolet brand instead of General Motors as a whole. Guests now design their own car in the Chevrolet Design Studio. Then they board a "Sim-Car" and are taken through the "digital" testing ground of the "SimTrack". Throughout the ride, guests see how their designs performed in each test. After the ride, guests can see how their car did overall, film a commercial, race their designs, and have a picture taken with their own virtually designed vehicle with a chosen backdrop in the background.

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Credit: Coolcaesar

A headquarters of Disney Channel in Burbank, California.

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These are images of Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, The Walt Disney Company, and Walt Disney in their respective articles.

Image 1Grave of Walt Disney at Forest Lawn, Glendale (from Walt Disney)
Image 2Disneyland Railroad Engine 2 at the New Orleans Square station. (from Disneyland)
Image 3Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then Governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World (from Walt Disney World)
Image 4Main Street at Disneyland, as seen from a horseless carriage (from Disneyland)
Image 5Hollywood Studios' park icon, the Chinese Theatre (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 6Walt (center) showing the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 7A Disney Cruise Line bus which takes guest to and from Terminal 8 from Orlando International Airport; as well as around Walt Disney World. (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 8One of four arches welcoming guests to the resort (from Walt Disney World)
Image 9Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
(Star Wars: Millennium Falcon – Smugglers Run in 2019) (from Disneyland)
Image 10The "Happiest Homecoming on Earth" celebrated the 50th anniversary of the theme park. Sleeping Beauty Castle was altered for the occasion. (from Disneyland)
Image 11Tomorrowland
(Space Mountain in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 12A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968 (from Walt Disney)
Image 13An aerial view of Disneyland in 2004 (from Disneyland)
Image 14Jeffrey Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1995. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 15Fantasmic! finale on July 4, 2010 (from Disneyland)
Image 16Main Street, U.S.A.
(2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 17The original logo of Walt Disney World from 1971 to the mid-1990s (from Walt Disney World)
Image 18Disney's video streaming subscription service Disney+ was launched in 2019, which has a total of over 135 million subscriptions as of June 2022. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 19Disney shows the plans of Disneyland to officials from Orange County in December 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 20Disneyland aerial view, 1963, which includes the new Melody Land Theater at the top of the photo (from Disneyland)
Image 21Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida (from Walt Disney World)
Image 22Frontierland
(Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 2008) (from Disneyland)
Image 23View of Disney Springs (from Walt Disney World)
Image 24One of Disney's first animated characters Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Disney lost the rights to until 2006. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 25Adventureland entrance
(2006) (from Disneyland)
Image 26Walt, Florida Governor W. Haydon Burns, and Roy announcing the plans for Disney World in November 1965 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 27An aerial shot of Walt Disney World in 1982 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 28Disney's promotional logo for its centennial. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 29Disney in 1954 (from Walt Disney)
Image 30Disney security vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot (from Walt Disney World)
Image 31Map of the resort as of May 2015 (from Walt Disney World)
Image 32Walt Disney's business envelope featured a self-portrait, c. 1921 (from Walt Disney)
Image 33Team Disney – The Michael D. Eisner Building, the main building at the Walt Disney Studios, which houses the offices of Disney's CEO and several other senior corporate officials. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 34Disney Magic at Port of Venice (from Disney Cruise Line)
Image 35Disney drawing Goofy for a group of girls in Argentina, 1941 (from Walt Disney)
Image 36Overlay of Walt Disney's original 1966 plans for Disney World and the proposed EPCOT city (orange) and contemporary situation (blue) (from Walt Disney World)
Image 37The original animation building at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, which they fully moved into in 1940 (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 38Disneyland fireworks from Sleeping Beauty Castle (from Disneyland)
Image 39Fantasyland
(Peter Pan's Flight in the foreground and the Matterhorn Bobsleds in the background) (from Disneyland)
Image 40New Orleans Square
(the Haunted Mansion in the background and Fantasmic! viewing area in the foreground in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 41Alice and characters from her movie host "Disneyland Musical Chairs" at Coca-Cola Refreshment Corner, accompanied by a ragtime pianist. (from Disneyland)
Image 42Michael Eisner replaced Ron Miller as CEO. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 43The 1996 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 44Mickey's Toontown
(pictured in 2010) (from Disneyland)
Image 45Excerpt of Steamboat Willie (1928), the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 46The Sherman Brothers, who composed many of the Disney songs throughout the 1960s (pictured in 2002) (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 47Walt Disney introduces each of the seven dwarfs in a scene from the original 1937 Snow White theatrical trailer (from Walt Disney)
Image 48Disney bought The Muppets from the Jim Henson Company in 2004. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 49Walt Disney (center) showing Orange County officials plans for Disneyland's layout, December 1954 (from Disneyland)
Image 50Disney's childhood home (from Walt Disney)
Image 51The 2018 version of The Walt Disney World logo. (from Walt Disney World)
Image 52Critter Country
(Splash Mountain; 1989–2023) (from Disneyland)
Image 53Bob Iger became CEO of Disney in 2005, expanding the company's properties (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 54The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.
Image 55Walt (right) dressed as a gaucho next to Donald Duck in Argentina while on the company's South American goodwill trip in 1941. (from The Walt Disney Company)
Image 56Wedding Pavilion at the Seven Seas Lagoon (from Walt Disney World)
Image 57Disney family at Schiphol Airport (1951) (from Walt Disney)
Image 58Monorail Red travels over the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage in Tomorrowland. (from Disneyland)
Image 59Roy E. Disney, Roy O. Disney's son, was head of the animation department until 2003. (from The Walt Disney Company)

Selected biography

Alan Cyril Wagner (October 1, 1931 — December 18, 2007) was an American television executive, radio personality, writer, and opera historian and critic. He served as the East Coast vice president of programming at CBS from 1976 until 1982, when he became the first president of the Disney Channel. Born in Harlem, New York City, Wagner grew up in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Columbia University. He served in the United States Navy during the mid 1950s, notably appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 performing a stand-up comedy bit with a group of fellow seamen. A passionate advocate for opera, Wagner became the host of the WNYC radio program Living Opera in 1957 after his contract with the Navy came to an end. The program aired for two-hours every Sunday morning, featuring excerpts from opera recordings and interviews with performers and other personalities from the opera world. Wagner would also often relate humorous and interesting backstage stories that he had experienced or had heard about. He left Living Opera in 1968 after hosting the program for eleven years.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that in response to Disney's stance on Florida's House Bill 1557, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, Pixar employees stated that Disney removes LGBT references from the studio's films?
... that the ferry General Joe Potter at Walt Disney World is named in honor of Major General William Everett Potter?
... that before Foster City was built on Brewer Island, unsuccessful proposals included a hog farm, two military air bases, two civilian airports, and an entertainment complex larger than Disneyland?
... that John Oliver dared Disney to sue him over his version of Mickey Mouse?
... that Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company alleging that the release strategy for Black Widow breached her contract?
... that Encanto's Mirabel is the first Disney heroine to wear glasses?

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It is difficult to classify the characteristics of the Goof into columns of the physical and mental, because they interweave, reflect and enhance one another. Therefore, it will probably be best to mention everything all at once. Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a halfwit and a shiftless, good-natured hick.

— Goofy

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More Did you know...

...that Dan Povenmire was at a Wild Thyme restaurant in South Pasadena, California, when he first drew the character Phineas Flynn?

...that Michael Eisner credited research economist Harrison Price with being "as much responsible for the success of the Walt Disney Co. as anybody except Walt Disney himself"?

...that Walt Disney had long wanted to make a film based on the Uncle Remus storybook, but it wasn't until the mid-1940s that he had found a way to give the stories an adequate film equivalent, in scope and fidelity.
... that Elsa the Snow Queen, a protagonist in Walt Disney's Frozen, was originally written as a villain?
...that when Walt Disney was looking for a new character following Oswald, he rejected a female cow and male horse who later turn up as Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar?

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