As the Walt Disney Company celebrates its centenary, John Wills traces the story of the ‘House of Mouse’ through 10 milestones…
Alice’s Wonderland, 1923
One of Walt Disney’s early silent films is a delightful mix of live action and cartoon. Starring child actor Virginia Davis, it features a range of Disney staples including a Disneyland-style train and a cartoon mouse.
Steamboat Willie, 1928
Disney’s first animated film with synchronised sound – a technical breakthrough of the time – also introduced the world to Mickey Mouse. Just 8 minutes in length, the film is packed with visual humour.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
The company’s first animated feature film was initially dubbed ‘Disney’s folly’ because of its spiralling costs and three-year production time. Yet it proved hugely successful, and introduced the first ‘Disney princess’.
Der Fuehrer’s Face, 1943
Watch Donald Duck get caught in ‘Nutzi Land’, a fascist world of strangely manicured swastika shrubbery and bayonets, in this Chaplin-esque Second World War government propaganda piece.
The Living Desert, 1953
Disney’s 1950s attempts to break into nature documentaries weren’t without controversy: for White Wilderness (1958), film-makers hurled lemmings off cliffs as evidence of that species’ mass suicides. Yet nature has never been more entertaining than scorpions square-dancing to the ‘Stingeree’ in The Living Desert.
Read more Disney history:
- Cartoon century: a history of 100 years of Disney
- The history of Disneyland: How Walt Disney created the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’
- On the podcast | Disney at 100
Mary Poppins, 1964
This charming musical, featuring blended live-action and animation sequences, cast Julie Andrews as the extraordinary titular nanny. Disney’s version of Edwardian London is romantic, colourful, dreamlike and class-conscious. Some classic Sherman Brothers tunes make up for Dick Van Dyke’s mockney accent.
The Little Mermaid, 1989
Marking the dawn of the ‘Disney Renaissance’, this animated feature – based on a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale – is classic Disney, with its traditional hand-painted animation, catchy tunes and story of mermaid princess Ariel.
Toy Story, 1995
Created by Pixar and distributed by Disney, the first wholly computer-animated feature film is technologically sophisticated, yet awash with nostalgia for lost childhood and beloved toys, and proved a perfect vehicle for mass merchandising.
Frozen, 2013
With their ice-set story of sisters Elsa and Anna, directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee updated a classic fairy tale for the 21st century – and Disney had its biggest hit in decades.
Black Panther, 2018
This superhero movie with both a big heart and a powerful message is a spectacular celebration of African history, culture and artistry, and highlights the strengths of the Disney–Marvel relationship
John Wills is a professor of American culture at the University of Kent, and author of Disney Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2017)
This timeline was first published in the December 2023 issue of BBC History Magazine