Disney logo

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Walt Disney wordmark.svg
Walt Disney wordmark
Walt Disney 1942 signature.svg
Walt Disney's signature

The Disney logo is the corporate logo of The Walt Disney Company since 1956. It is based on a stylized autograph of Walt Disney. Aside from being used by The Walt Disney Company, various Disney divisions and products use the same style/font in their logos, although with some differences depending on the company. The D in the Disney logo makes use of the golden ratio three times. [1]

Contents

Variations

The Walt Disney Company

The name of "The Walt Disney Company" has changed several times, and so has the logo. [2]

Walt Disney Productions

In the international trailers of the co-produced 1980 film Popeye, there was a dark blue Mickey head with waves in sky blue and in blue background, the words "Walt Disney" in the original signature script are on the top and the word "PRODUCTIONS" is on the bottom. [3] [4]

The trailer was considered lost media until when the trailer and the logo were rediscovered on the Greek VHS release of Donald Duck Goes West. Also, the Popeye trailer that had this logo was rediscovered again on the Australian VHS release of Summer Magic.

Walt Disney Pictures

Until 1985, instead of a traditional production logo, the opening credits of Disney films used to feature a title card that read "Walt Disney Presents", and later, "Walt Disney Productions Presents". [5] In Never Cry Wolf , and the pre-release versions of Splash , it showed a light blue rectangle with the name "Walt Disney Pictures" and featured a white outline rectangle framing on a black screen.

Beginning with the release of Return to Oz in 1985, Walt Disney Pictures introduced its fantasy castle logo. The version with its accompanying music premiered with The Black Cauldron . [5] The logo was created by Walt Disney Productions in traditional animation and featured a white silhouette of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle against a blue background, with the studio's name in Walt Disney text and underscored by "When You Wish Upon a Star", in arrangement composed by John Debney. [6] A short rendition of the logo was used as a closing logo as well as in the movie Return to Oz , although the film was released months before The Black Cauldron was released. A computer-animated RenderMan variant appeared before every Pixar Animation Studios film from Toy Story until Ratatouille , featuring an original fanfare composed by Randy Newman, based on the opening score cue from Toy Story, called "Andy's Birthday". Beginning with Dinosaur (2000), an alternative logo featuring an orange castle and logo against a black background, was occasionally presented with darker tone and live-action films, though a few animated films such as Brother Bear , the 2003 re-release of The Lion King and The Wild (the final film to use this logo) used this logo. The original incarnation of this logo resurfaced in 2021 for a merchandising line by ShopDisney, based on its original incarnation.

Effigy of Sir William D'Isney in the parish church of Norton Disney, Lincolnshire. The three lions family crest can be seen flying on the flag at the top of Sleeping Beauty's castle at the beginning of a Disney film. Sir William D'Isney - geograph.org.uk - 1395506.jpg
Effigy of Sir William D'Isney in the parish church of Norton Disney, Lincolnshire. The three lions family crest can be seen flying on the flag at the top of Sleeping Beauty's castle at the beginning of a Disney film.

In 2006, the studio's vanity card logo was updated with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at the behest of then-Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook and studio marketing president Oren Aviv. [6] Designed by Disney animation director Mike Gabriel and producer Baker Bloodworth, the modernized logo was created completely in computer animation by Wētā FX and yU+co and featured a 3D New Waltograph typography. The final rendering of the logo was done by Cameron Smith and Cyrese Parrish. [8] In addition, the revamped logo includes visual references to Pinocchio , Dumbo , Cinderella , Peter Pan and Mary Poppins , and its redesigned castle incorporates elements from both the Cinderella Castle and the Sleeping Beauty Castle, as well as fireworks and Walt Disney's family crest. [9] Mark Mancina wrote a new composition and arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" to accompany the 2006 logo. [6] It was co-arranged and orchestrated by David Metzger. In 2011, starting with The Muppets , the sequence was modified to truncate the "Walt Disney Pictures" branding to "Disney", which has mainly been used originally in home media releases since 2007. [10] The new logo sequence has been consistently modified for high-profile releases including Tron: Legacy , Maleficent , Tomorrowland , The Jungle Book , Beauty and the Beast , The Lion King , Mulan , Hocus Pocus 2 , and Disenchanted .

In 2022, a new production logo was introduced for the studio's 100th anniversary in 2023, which premiered at the 2022 D23 Expo. The new castle logo features an updated opening sequence in computer animation at sunrise created by Disney Studios Content and Industrial Light & Magic and an arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star", composed by Christophe Beck and conducted by Tim Davies. The magical arc that usually flies from right to left above the castle now flies from left to right, a subtle reference to several arc appearances since 2005, including the 2005 Hong Kong Disneyland logo, drawing the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures print logo and most recently, the animated Disney+ logo. [11] A byline appears below the Disney100 logo during the studio's 100th anniversary in 2023, reading "100 Years of Wonder", which was later removed starting with Chang Can Dunk but returned with international theatrical prints of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . While containing the same visual references as the previous logo, new references added to it include Pocahontas , Up , Hercules , The Hunchback of Notre Dame , Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , The Little Mermaid , Tangled , Brave and Beauty and the Beast , with the addition of the Matterhorn from Third Man on the Mountain and its Disneyland attraction and Pride Rock from The Lion King in the background beyond the castle. Its first film appearance was with the release of Strange World . [12] The logo received widespread praise from critics and audiences and won Gold in the "Theatrical | Film: Design" medium at the 2023 Clio Entertainment Awards in November 2023. The standard version was unveiled on the "Disney" hub of the Disney+ app on December 23, 2023, and made its official debut in 2024 on the second trailer for Inside Out 2 . [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)</span> Walt Disney Corporate HQ

The Walt Disney Studios, located in Burbank, California, United States, serves as the corporate headquarters for The Walt Disney Company media conglomerate. The 51-acre studio lot also contains several sound stages, a backlot, and other filmmaking production facilities for Walt Disney Studios's motion picture production. The complex also houses the offices for the company's many divisions, with the exception of Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Studios, which remains on its namesake lot in nearby Century City as tenants of Fox Corporation.

<i>A Goofy Movie</i> 1995 US animated film by Kevin Lima

A Goofy Movie is a 1995 American animated musical comedy-adventure film produced by Disney MovieToons and Walt Disney Television Animation. Directed by Kevin Lima, the film is based on The Disney Afternoon television series Goof Troop created by Robert Taylor and Michael Peraza Jr., and serves as a standalone follow-up to the show. It features the voices of Bill Farmer, Jason Marsden, Jim Cummings, Kellie Martin, Rob Paulsen, Pauly Shore, Jenna von Oÿ, and Wallace Shawn. Taking place three years after the events of Goof Troop, the film follows Goofy and his son, Max, who is now in high school, and revolves around the father-son relationship between the two as Goofy embarks on a misguided mission to bond with his son by taking him on a cross-country fishing trip around the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walt Disney Pictures</span> American film studio and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios

Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit, and is based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios are also released under the studio banner. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributes and markets the films produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

<i>One Hundred and One Dalmatians</i> 1961 animated film by Walt Disney

One Hundred and One Dalmatians is a 1961 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions with distribution by Buena Vista Distribution. Adapted from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel of the same name, the film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wolfgang Reitherman from a script by Bill Peet. It features the voice talents of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer, Dave Frankham, and Fred Worlock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disney anthology television series</span> Anthology television series

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<i>The Black Cauldron</i> (film) 1985 film by Ted Berman and Richard Rich

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 American animated dark fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Productions in association with Silver Screen Partners II and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the first two books in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, a series of five novels that are in turn based on Welsh mythology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleeping Beauty Castle</span> Castle at Disneyland

Sleeping Beauty Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of Disneyland and formerly at Hong Kong Disneyland. It is based on the late 19th century Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany. It appeared in the Walt Disney Pictures logos from 1985 to 2006 before being merged with Cinderella Castle, both familiar symbols of The Walt Disney Company. The version at Disneyland is the only Disney castle whose construction was overseen by Walt Disney.

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<i>Sleeping Beauty</i> (1959 film) Animated Disney film

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, the production was supervised by Clyde Geronimi, and was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, and Les Clark. Featuring the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson, the film follows Princess Aurora, who was cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent to die from a prick from the spindle of a spinning wheel. She is saved by three good fairies, who alter the curse so that the princess falls into a deep sleep and is awakened by true love's kiss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Floyd Norman</span> American animator and cartoonist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Hahn</span> American film producer and director (born 1955)

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References

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