Disney Company, U.S. entertainment corporation. It was founded by Walt Disney and his brother Roy as Walt Disney Productions in 1929 to incorporate their cartoon animation studio. It produced short and full-length animated cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s, then expanded in the 1950s to make nature documentaries and live-action films as well as television programs. The opening of the amusement parks Disneyland (1955) and Walt Disney World (1971) strengthened the company’s dominance of the family entertainment industry in the U.S. The company declined after Disney’s death in 1966 but was revitalized by new management in the 1980s.
Under Michael Eisner, Disney expanded its production units to include Touchstone Pictures and Miramax, makers of films for more mature audiences, and revitalized its animation division, producing films such as The Little Mermaid (1989) and Toy Story (1995), the first full-length computer-animated film. The company took an active role in reviving and commercializing New York City’s Times Square during the 1990s, including the re-creation of some of its animated films, such as The Lion King (1994), as Broadway musicals. In 1994 it opened Celebration, a planned community in central Florida. Disney completed its acquisition of the ABC television network in 1996, which also gave it control of the sports network ESPN, and it became the world’s largest media and entertainment corporation.
Disney continued to expand during the first decades of the 21st century, acquiring Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox, and it entered streaming media via Hulu and Disney+.
