Disney CEO Bob Iger celebrated the last day of the company’s 100th Anniversary on social media this week. Disney posted a video chronicling different moments from across their history. In a short statement on Twitter, the CEO talked about this milestone and thanked various people for their contributions to the company. Disney has been putting on different events all year, and they have also debuted an animated short to celebrate the occasion. Once Upon a Studio featured a ton of actors coming back for the 100th Anniversary celebration in animation. One of the most surprising inclusions was Robin Williams’s Genie. (His family gave approval for that.) Check out Iger’s statement for yourself down below!
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Iger wrote, “Thanks to everyone who made this possible, from Walt and Roy Disney, to generations of wonderful creators, to guests and audiences and customers…to the thousands and thousands of cast members and employees who have worked for The Walt Disney Company and enabled it to thrive for 100 years. Thank you!”
Once Upon A Studio Surprises Fans
For Disney fans, some of the biggest news of the week has been Once Upon a Studio. Directors Dan Abraham and Trent Correy managed to corral a ton of animation talent for the new short. But, in a massive nod to Disney’s history, they managed to get songwriter Richard Sherman back to re-record “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins. During ComicBook.com‘s interview with the duo, they talked about their goals for this short and how much fun it was to dive into Disney’s history.
“You know what we kind of said early on that we wanted it to be like a family reunion that you would actually want to go to,” Abraham told us. “It was very, very important to us that the characters look and sound exactly like they did in their films. You get such a short amount of time with each one of them that we wanted people to be reunited with their friends. These characters mean a lot to people, and they have their favorites, and they kind of have ownership of who they relate to and why, and a core memory from their childhood and all that. So we just really wanted to do service to all the fans out there that we wanted to reunite with their friends.”
Honoring Disney’s Past With Animation
ComicBook.com also had the chance to speak with producers Yvett Merino and Brad Simonsen about their creative approach to celebrating 100 years of Disney. The producers explained that with Once Upon a Studio and Wish, the goal was to honor what came before through voice ad technique. But, there is still an element of needing to carve out a path for something new as well!
“I think it’s honoring the legacy, and there’s so much that kind of goes into making any film, an animated film, and so knowing how much work has gone into everything over the years is really a moment to honor our characters,” Merino shared. “And then the voices behind them, our artists who created it, and really everyone who has worked in the studio over the past hundred years. I mean, there was a moment where the question was asked,’Can we credit everyone who’s ever worked at the studio?’ ‘Like, we’d love to, but that would be a 10-minute credit roll. So I don’t think so.’”
Did you enjoy the 100th Anniversary celebration this year? Let us know in the comments down below!
