Walt Disney Animation Studios

Walt Disney Animation Studios, often shortened to Disney Animation, is the oldest continuously operating animation studio in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt and Roy O. Disney, it began as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Angeles. The studio has produced 64 feature films, starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, the first hand-drawn animated feature ever made, and continuing through to Zootopia 2 in 2025. Its current logo features a scene from Steamboat Willie (1928), the first synchronized sound cartoon, a nod to its pioneering roots.

Today, the studio operates as a division of Walt Disney Studios and is headquartered at the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California. Over the decades, it has defined the art of traditional animation, developing techniques like storyboarding and the multiplane camera that are now industry standards. The studio's characters, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, have become global icons, representing the Walt Disney Company itself. While the studio shifted to computer animation in the 2000s, with hits like Frozen (2013) and Moana (2016), it has kept the door open for hand-drawn projects, confirming in 2022 that it plans to return to the medium. [edit]