Walt Disney Studio History

Disney’s company started in 1923 in Los Angeles. Walt started his company in a small office in the back of the Holly-Vermont Realty building. They payed only 10 dollars a month in rent. They created the Alice Comedies in this office and got so big they moved into a larger office in just four months. In 1925 the company moved into the Hyperion Avenue lot in the Silver Lake district.

In 1928 Mickey Mouse was born shortly followed by Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Daisy and the rest of the gang. In 1937, Disney released their first full length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

To cope with the extreme growth of the company, Disney purchased a 51 acre lot called Burbank which he designed specifically for the nature of his company. Burbank was set up in a campus like setting. There were many buildings connected by underground tunnels so their work would never be disturbed by the weather. In the 1940s and 1950s they made movies like Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan in Burbank.

At the beginning of the 1940s Disney began filming live action.

In the 1950s, Burbank was expanded to add sound stages.They produced many movies in these stages like Mary Poppins, The Love Bug, Pete’s Dragon, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, National Treasure, and Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3. Across the street now stands the Feature Animation Building.

Walt originally wanted to build Mickey Mouse park, but soon realized he need much more space. He purchased 200 acres of orange tree orchards in Anaheim, California.

The back lot of Burbank was full of exterior sets. Golden Oak Ranch was made in 1959. The ranch is 700 acres of a variety of natural settings. It had many different settings such as farm houses, barns, fields, tree groves, forest areas, creek beds, and waterfalls. The ranch was used by the entire industry for many different movies like Princess Diaries 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Old Yeller, The Shaggy Dog, and The Santa Clause.

The Imaging building was originally called the Process Lab and was a motion picture laboratory. It was primarily used as photo and visual effects facilities. 1950s was paramount in combining complex optical effects with miniatures and matte painting. In the 1960s and 1970s the building was renamed Photo Effects and then Visual Effects. In the 1980’s it was renamed Buena Vista and the Motion Controlling Stage. Today it's photo-optical and digital-imaging services with a black and white lab, digital work stations, film recorders and scanners, optical printers and title graphics.

The next building was Post Production Sound building. This building is a mock movie theater. The theater has extra padding in the seats as to make the simulation as close as they can to the environment when the film is finally released. In this building they blend together the dialogue, music, and sound effects and ensure each is at the right levels. This theater was first used to mix the sound for Fantasia. There are then three stages within the building.

Stage A was originally used for scoring. Music for innumerable films were recorded in this stage. In 1985 the stage was converted to a dubbing stage and theater.

Stage B is the dialogue stage. This is where each of the characters voices are recorded. This stage was used for many films like Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Toy Story, Monsters Incorporated, Beauty and the Beast, Bugs Life, and Lion King.

Stage C was originally used for creating sound effects. Many of the sound makers were invented by Disney technicians. Today the stage is used as a dubbing stage for films and television.

All of the stages are state of the art high quality equipment. Disney never settled for anything less than the best.
Source: http://studioservices.go.com/disneystudios/history.html