Disney Television Animation

The Walt Disney Company first ventured into the television industry as early as 1950, beginning with the one-hour Christmas special, One Hour in Wonderland. This was followed by the 1951 Christmas special, The Walt Disney Christmas Show, the long-running (1954–2008) anthology series, The Wonderful World of Disney (which was Disney's first regular series as a whole), the children's variety show The Mickey Mouse Club, and the 1957-1959 adventure series, Zorro. However, one element was missing from Disney's expansion into television: An original animated television series. Until the early '80s, the studio had never produced its own original animated shows in-house, because Walt Disney felt it was economically impossible. Nearly all pre-1985 TV animation was wrap-around segments made to bridge the gaps on existing theatrical material on The Wonderful World of Disney. Osamu Tezuka met Walt at the 1964 World's Fair, at which time Disney said he hoped to "make something just like" Tezuka's Astro Boy someday, but unfortunately, nothing came of it.

The hiring of a new CEO for Disney Production in 1984, Michael Eisner, lead him to push to expand Disney into new areas thus the establishment of a television animation division that year. The cartoon would be shopped to all markets: networks, Disney Channel and syndication. Eisner held a meeting at his home in which he brought up the concept of doing a series on Gummi bear as his kids like the candy. Originally, the staff was told that they could not use the principal Disney cartoon characters in the new shows.[5]

The Walt Disney Television Animation department was started in November 1984 with Gary Krisel as president[6] and Michael Webster as senior vice president.[7]

This was considered a risky move because animated TV series was generally considered low-budget investments for most of the history of TV cartoons up through the 1980s. Many critics say that Disney's own animation studio had lost most of its luster during the period from Walt Disney's passing through the 1980s. However, the studio took several risks that paid off handsomely. The studio successfully gambled on the idea that a substantially larger investment into quality animation could be made back through both network television and over-the-air in syndication, as well as cable. The final result is a string of higher budgeted animated television productions which proved to be profitable ventures and raised the standard for the TV medium.

The first productions to make it to air from the studio arrived in 1985, with Eisner's concept fleshed out into Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, joined by an original concept The Wuzzles,[5] both which are based upon funny animal-based conceptions. The third series in a similar vein, Fluppy Dogs, was produced as a single hour-long TV movie pilot that aired on ABC on Thanksgiving 1986 and was loosely based a series of children's books and line of toys about a race of anthropomorphic pastel-colored dimension-hopping alien called "fluppy dogs." Dismal viewership ensured the project never made it to series.[8]

In 1987, Disney finally unveiled the newest series yet in its cycle, and the first in their successful long-time line of syndicated animated shows, DuckTales. Though forbidden from using the star characters, minor characters such as Scrooge McDuck and Huey, Dewey and Louie were allowed, and Disney did concede to allow for a brief appearance by Donald Duck to establish the series, allowing them to adapt the Duck universe adventure serials by Carl Barks into animation.[5] The show was successful enough to spawn a feature film, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, and two spin-off series: Darkwing Duck and Quack Pack. 1990 release Treasure of the Lost Lamp was the first movie from TV Animation's Disney MovieToon unit.[9] Disney Television Animation hired a director of specials, Sharon Morrill, in 1993.[10]

The success of DuckTales also paved the way for a new wave of high-quality animated TV series, including Disney's own The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1988. Later, early that spring, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers debuted on March 4, 1989, and was paired with DuckTales in an hour-long syndicated show through the 1989-1990 television season. In the 1990–1991 season, Disney expanded the idea even further, to create The Disney Afternoon, a two-hour-long syndicated block of half-hour cartoons, which premiered much later on September 10, 1990. DuckTales was one of the early flagship cartoons in the block.

On August 24, 1994 with Jeffrey Katzenberg's resignation, Richard Frank became head of newly formed Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications (WDTT), which included WDTA, from units of The Walt Disney Studios.[11] Morrill was in charge of the first Aladdin DTV film launching Disney Video Premiere/Direct to Video unit.[12]

Three overseas Disney studios were set up to produce the company's animated television series.[13] Disney Animation Australia was started in 1988.[14] In 1989, the Brizzi brothers sold Brizzi Films to Disney Television Animation and was renamed Walt Disney Animation France.[15] Also that year, Disney Animation Japan was started.[16] Walt Disney Animation Canada was opened in January 1996 to tap Canada's animator pool and produce direct-to-video.[17] As direct-to-video increased in importance, the overseas studios moved to making feature films.[13]

WDTT chair Frank left Disney in March 1995. With Krisel expecting to be promoted to head up WDTT but passed over, Krisel left WDTA at the end of his contract in January 1996.[18] At the time the Walt Disney Company merged with Capital Cities/ABC, TV Animation was a unit of Walt Disney Television within the Walt Disney Television and Telecommunications group (WDTT).[19] With the retirement of WDTT group president Dennis Hightower in April 1996 and ongoing post-merger reorganization, the unit (along with its Disney TV parent) was transferred to the Walt Disney Studios.[20] By April 1998, Movietoons was folded in with Disney Video Premiere films and network TV specials of Disney TV Animation as Morrill was promoted to executive vice president over her existing unit of Disney Video Premiere films, network TV specials and Movietoons. At the same time, Barry Blumberg was elevated to the executive vice president for network and syndicated animated TV series. Both reported to Disney Television president Charles Hirschhorn.[10]

In the second quarter of 2000, due to weak financial performance, Disney Animation Canada was closed.[17] David Stainton took charge of the company as executive vice president in January 2000 then as president in February 2002 under Thomas Schumacher.[21]

In January 2003, Disney initiated a reorganization of its theatrical and animation units to improve resource usage and continued focus on new characters and franchise development. TV Animation was transferred to Disney Channels Worldwide.[22] In this reorganization, the Disney MovieToons/Disney Video Premieres unit was transferred from Television Animation to Feature Animation.[23][24] While Stainton took over as President of Disney Feature Animation from Schumacher, while Blumberg returned to DTA as president.[24]

In July 2019, Disney TV Animation signed 17 creators and animators to overall deals. This follows a trend in kids programming started by Netflix.[25] On December 10, 2020, Walt Disney Animation Studios - Disney's longtime feature animation arm - and sister studio Pixar announced they would expand into television programming. It is currently unknown whether this will have any impact on Disney TVA or not.

• Jetix Animation Concepts
• Disneytoon Studios
• Walt Disney Television
• 20th Animation
• List of Disney television series
• Walt Disney Animation Japan
• Cartoon Network Studios
• Cartoon Network Studios Europe
• Williams Street
• Warner Bros. Animation
• Nickelodeon Animation Studio
• DreamWorks Animation Television

• Cotter, Bill, The Wonderful World of Disney Television: A Complete History, California: Disney Editions, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7868-6359-4

• Disney Television Animation on Twitter
• Disney Television Animation on Instagram
• Disney Television Animation at IMDb
• Walt Disney Studios Television Episode Guides at the Big Cartoon DataBase