Walt Disney Animation Units

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Sometime a company's work load can be quite large, and you don't want your best staff members (Disney's Los Angeles unit) to waste their time on TV shows when said staff members are best off working on Major Movies, and that's why the other studios are here.

Units of Disney:

North American Units

  • Los Angeles Features/Shorts unit: Founded in 1924, when Walt Disney moved out to Los Angeles after his Laugh-O-Grams shorts bombed. For more info about this unit, see the Classic Disney Shorts page and the Disney Animated Canon page.
  • Los Angeles TV/DTV Unit (Walt Disney Television Animation and Disney Toon Studios, respectively): The unit was founded in 1984 but did not boom until 1989 when they stop relying on TMS Entertainment, This is Disney's TV and Direct to Video unit.
  • Florida: Disney's other US animation studio; located inside Walt Disney World's Studios park and affectionately nicknamed the Fishbowl for the windows that allowed guests to peer into some of the studio; it went down in 2003.
  • Canada: It was not too big a unit, providing most of Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas and a number of episodes of Mickey Mouse Works (Some of the shorts have been re-broadcast on House of Mouse. However, all content made for House of Mouse was done by Toon City and Wang Film Productions).


Walt Disney Animation Japan

The biggest of the non-North American units, WDAJ was founded by Motoyoshi Tokunaga (a Ex-TMS producer) in 1988 after Disney bought out Pacific Animation Corp. (a studio mostly known for doing Rankin Bass's Thundercats). However, the studio was shut down in 2004 as Disney was getting rid of their non-CGI animation units (yet the Los Angeles units were saved). After that most of their staff members went to work for Madhouse, Studio Pierrot or Production I.G. the ones that went with Tokunaga went with him when he formed The Answer Studio.

See also Tama Productions, Nakamura Productions, and Hanho Heung Up, three studios often used by Disney Japan; Also see Spectrum, Disney Japan's non-Disney based unit that lasted until 1998.

Productions by Disney Japan:


Walt Disney Animation Australia

Founded in 1989, the |Australian unit is often known among the animation community for having very cartoonish and expressive animation, which they are still praised for.

Unlike the Japanese unit, however, the studio lasted longer-it became the main hub for Disney's Direct to Video sequels, a role originally fufilled by the Japanese unit.

The unit came to an end in 2006, due to rising costs for animation in Australia. Its role was once again succeeded by other studios used by Disney.

Productions by Disney Australia:


European Units


Tropes associated with Walt Disney's various animation units:

  • Animation Bump: The Los Angeles, Japan and Australia units are the biggest examples, but all are known for this. This is Disney, after all.
  • Medium Blending: The North American units are known for this.
  • Off-Model:
    • Return of Jafar is frequently accused of this.
    • "Seeing Isn't Believing" is also guilty of this.
    • As well as any of the Freelance Animators New Zealand sub-contracted episodes.
  1. ↑ including Jade Animation, Nakamura Productions and Wang Film Productions
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