June 9th

On this day - June 9th 1934 -  Donald Duck made his debut 

Donald Duck, the famous Walt Disney cartoon figure, made is debut in "The Wise Little Hen", a 7 minute long movie. The story is about Donald Duck and his friend Peter Pig who tried to avoid work by faking stomach aches. The cartoon was published in the US on June 9th. Donald rose to his fame for the next two decades and the cartoon was a part of over 150 theatrical movies. He got his own film series in 1937 and it was in those films that Daisy Duck was introduced. The name Donald Duck might have come from the Australian cricket player "Donald Bradman" who were touring the US at the time Walt Disney created Donald Duck. Clarence Nash voiced Donald from the first movie and until his death in 1985. He has also voiced Tom in Tom & Jerry and convinced Walt Disney to pick him for Donald's voice after an audition. Donald Duck has been voiced by Tony Anselmo since Nash's death.

Copyright: Walt Disney Studios 

April 12th

On this day - April 12th 1992 - Disneyland Paris opened 

Disneyland Paris is a theme park 32 km outside of Paris in France. The plans for a European theme parked emerged in 1972. Construction started in 1988 and it took four years to finish the park. It was the fourth Disney park to be built after California, Florida and Tokyo. When the park opened in 1992 was the name "Euro Disney Resort", but Disneyland soon discovered that "Euro" didn't sound as exciting for Europeans as for Americans, and the name was changed. As many people as 90 thousand was expected to visit the par on the first day of its opening. Only 25 thousand actually did and the park struggled financially in the beginning. It was able to adjust to the European market in the next few years after its opening and the park is one of Europe's most visited theme park today.

December 21st

On this day - 21st of December in 1937 - The premiere of Snow White 

Snow White and the seven dwarfs is the first full length animated feature film. The movie is based on the fairy tale by the German brothers Grimm and the movie was made by Disney. The movie was awarded an honorary Oscar and nominated for Best musical score. Disney's take on the fairy tale was such a success that it was turned into a broadway musical, theme park attractions and even a video game. The initial budget was 250,000 USD. It is easy to see now that making the movie was a good idea, but both Walt Disney's wife and brother tried to convince him not to make the movie. Hollywood wrote the movie off and described it as "Disney's folly" when it was in production. Walt Disney had to take out a mortgage on his house to finance the movie which eventually had a cost of 1,488,422 USD. This was a massive amount for movies in 1937 and almost six times the budget. So it was with great anticipation when the movie was released and it was a major box-office success. The initial run ended up with 7,846,000 USD in ticket sales and a 380,000 USD profit. With numerous re-releases Snow White is considered a massive money maker, the lifetime gross is estimated to 418,2 million USD. Snow White paved the way for Disney to invest in a 4,5 million dollar studio. The success led to more classic movies such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, and Peter Pan. 

November 22nd

On this day – 22 November 1995 – Toy Story was released

Toy Story , the movie about Andy’s toys, were released in the US exactly 20 years ago. It was the first full feature computer animated movie to be released. It was produced by Pixar and released by Walt DisneyPictures. Disney Pictures had approached Pixar after they had published a short movie from a toys perspective in 1988 and that’s how the cooperation between the two started. In 1993 was the first half of the movie pre-screened for Disney executives. This was a huge failure and the production was shot down and halted for a period of time. During this time contributed Steve Jobs to the continuation of the movie with his own personal founding. He was involved in the movie through his involvement and ownership in Pixar.

The main characters in Toy Story, Woody and Buzz Lightyear, were voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. Toy Story Made earned over 361 Dollar worldwide and the story has later been developed into two sequels as well (released in 1999 and 2010). A third sequel is in the planning and might be released by 2018. We are looking forward to it, are you?  

“To Infinity and Beyond”  

Toy Story

November 13th

On this day – November 13^th  1940 – The movie Fantasia was released

The animated movie was produced by Walt Disney. The movie was intended as a elaborate Silly Symphony(a whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music), but as production cost grew higher than what the movie could earn it was turned into a feature film. The movie was also a comeback for Mickey Mouse that had declined in popularity. Fantasia was released in thirteen cities across the United States, but were unable to make a profit since it was not possible to distribute to Europe because of world war II. The movie has since been reissued and when adjusting for inflation it is the 22nd highest grossing US movies of all time. Fantasia has been adapted to other media such as video games, Disneyland attractions, a live concert and a theatrically released sequel.