DISNEY'S ANIMATED VOICES,
ETC. - CRITERIA
It has been with much debate and decision that the following criteria
have been arrived at. The purpose in
establishing it has been to provide clear and defined parameters for what is a Disney Animated Movie, and what isn’t.
It hasn’t been easy, and the main challenge has been to keep boundaries
which are as inclusive as possible while still having boundaries. Please read the following, and let me know if
you think there should be changes.
The
Criteria for DISNEY ANIMATED MOVIES
that I use is right here:
Disney
- Disney,
Inc. - Walter E. Disney and Roy O. Disney formed the Disney Brothers
Studio on October 16,
1923. Since then, it has undergone several name changes,
including this one - the most recent. Of course, it's
subsidiaries, such as Walt Disney Home Video and Buena Vista International
(among others) are automatically included.
- Touchstone
Pictures -
Created in 1984, Touchstone Pictures was created to allow Disney to
produce non-G-rated movies, and get away with it. The first film
released under this company was Splash, on March 9, 1984.
- Hollywood Pictures - Created on February 1, 1989 in
order to help cope with the heavy load of pictures that Touchstone was
dealing with. Arachnophobia is the first movie released, on July 18, 1990.
- Miramax
Films - On June 30, 1993, Disney purchased this art-house company.
- Miramax
Family Films – A subsidiary of
Miramax Films.
- Dimension
Films - This was Miramax's genre division from the time that Disney
bought Miramax on June 30, 1993 through to when the founders, Harvey &
Bob Weinstein, started The Weinstein Company on March 10, 2005. Dimension Films is now a subsidiary of
The Weinstein Company.
- DiC
Entertainment, L.P. - ABC/Capital Cities, Inc. owned this animation
production company when Disney acquired it on July 31, 1995. However, on November 17, 2000,
DiC bought itself out from under Disney, and became its own independent
non-Disney related company.
- Jumbo
Pictures, Inc. - Disney bought this company on February 29, 1996 in
order to acquire its hit TV show, Doug.
- Fox
Family Worldwide -
Purchased on October
24, 2001, Disney received as part of the deal: "The
Fox Family Channel, currently available in more than 80 million U.S.
homes. A cable channel that is available to almost all cable subscribers
rarely comes on the market. The Family Channel has a low share of
the crucial 18-to-49-year-old audience, but Disney is expected to try to
raise ratings in part by adding Disney shows and re-airing some of its
most popular ABC programs - rerunning the late-night Nightline news show
early the next day, for example. It's not an untested strategy: Disney's
SoapNet cable channel has done well by re-airing daytime soaps at night. Fox
Kids International channels in about 50 countries in Latin
America and Europe. This
would give Disney another 34 million cable subscribers abroad and a big
presence in international basic cable - its Disney international channels
are premium cable. The Saban Entertainment library of about 6,500
half-hour TV show episodes, which include Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,
Digimon, Goosebumps and Spiderman." "As
part of the transaction, Disney will acquire the Fox Family Channel,
a fully distributed cable channel reaching 81 million U.S. homes; Saban
Entertainment Inc., a production, distribution and merchandising
company with one of the world's largest libraries of children's programs
at over 6,500 half hours; a 76% interest in Fox Kids Europe
(Amsterdam Exchange: FKE), which has dedicated cable and satellite
channels reaching 25 million subscribers in 54 countries and 15 languages;
and Fox Kids Latin America, the second most widely distributed
satellite/cable network in the region. Excluded from the transaction
is the Fox Kids Network, a leading children's broadcast television network
in the U.S. News Corp. will separately acquire Haim Saban's interest in
this asset. Terms were not disclosed."
- Sensation Animation - Disney
has since changed the company name of Saban to Sensation Animation, that of Fox Family to ABC Family, and that of Saban
International N.V. to BVS
International N.V..
- Studio
Ghibli - While Disney has never had any ownership into this company,
they did purchase an interest in Ghibli productions. The copyright
credit in these movies usually includes a group of companies listed by
their companies' initials, one of which is either for Disney or Buena
Vista Home Distribution.
- The
Baby Einstein Company - On November 6, 2001, Disney acquired the Baby
Einstein company.
- ImageMovers
Digital LLC – In February of
2007 Disney signed an agreement to purchase ImageMovers, a motion-capture
company; the new company was named ImageMovers Digital and began
production on April 2, 2007.
- Marvel
– Disney is currently in talks
to purchase Marvel Entertainment.
For a movie to be included on the list, it needs to be owned
or jointly owned by Disney, or a subsidiary. For this, I check the
credits. If it's copyrighted to a Disney company, it goes on the
list. I used to count some exceptions to this rule (movies distributed by
Disney), but rather than subjectively include movies based on opinion, this
rule brings it right down to the fact: Does Disney hold copyright (i.e.
ownership)?
Animated
- Everybody
seems to have his or her own criteria for what constitutes
"animated". For me to include a movie on this list, at a
movie has to fit one of the following criteria:
- Entirely
animated in any medium (ex. Beauty And The Beast, The Nightmare Before Christmas,
Toy Story)
- Animated
characters interacting with a live-action world (ex. Pete's Dragon, Dinosaur)
- Live-Action
characters interacting in an animated world with animated characters (ex.
Tron, Bedknobs
And Broomsticks)
- A
mixture of segments, some animated, some live-action (ex. Saludos Amigos, Belle's
Tales Of Friendship)
- To
be fair, there also needs to be animation in every feature film that is
original and new to that feature film. This means that it is not
entirely comprised of animation from other feature films or of television
programs. This eliminates such
films as Music Land which contained only scenes previously released
in Melody Time
and Make Mine Music, and especially direct-to-video
releases of television show compilations such as the Little Einsteins and
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse compilations. However, films
with new animation or bridging material that links segments of old
animation together (such as The Many Adventures Of
Winnie The Pooh and Inspector Gadget:
Gadget's Greatest Gadgets) are included, as they include new
material.
Movie
- It would
seem that the defining factor in the term 'movie' (as opposed to
“featurette” or “short”, is length. Unfortunately, a Feature Length
Film is a sketchy thing to define. Saludos Amigos is only 43 minutes, but is
considered by Disney to be a Disney Classic Masterpiece. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(the Academy Award people) didn’t previously consider a movie for its Best
Animated Feature Award unless it was 70 minutes in length or more, but new
rules allow for movie consideration after 40 minutes. This means that a 1 hour television
special clocking in at 44 minutes (after commercials are removed) would be
of movie length.
- It
should also be noted that the term "Movie" implies that it has
either been Theatrically released, or is a Direct-To-Video release fitting
the above requirements. I also include made-for-television movies
that are shown as movies on television, and television multi-parters that
either play on television on the same date (i.e. as a television movie) or
where all episodes of the multi-parter are subsequently released on home
video as a complete movie. This is
not meant to include episodes of a television series that play in order on
separate days, and then are released on video in order of airing date. This is a dicey area, as a season finale
of a television show may be an hour (44 minutes) long, but that doesn’t
mean inclusion should be mandatory – however a lot of television series
started with a 2 hour pilot movie which likely should be included. I’m aiming for consistency. Hopefully I’ll get there.
Agree or
disagree with my terms? Let
me know!
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