What was the first Disney movie?

For almost a century, Disney has been colouring people’s lives with gorgeous animations, bringing to life countless iconic characters and stories which have had an irreversible impact on popular culture and cinema. The pioneering animation company has now expanded to become one of the biggest conglomerates in the world, producing many movies, television shows, games, merchandise, toys, and even theme parks and hotels.

Watching Disney movies is an intrinsic part of most people’s childhoods, whether you prefer the classic Princess films or are more into Pixar titles like Toy Story. Before Disney became a mammoth corporation, the animation studio started out as two brothers, Roy and Walt Disney, whose cartoons turned into animations, with the pair working on pioneering techniques to give their creations life and movement.

Mickey Mouse was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks and served as the Disney mascot. Many of Disney’s early experiments with animated short films featured Mickey as the lead character, defining the early days of the company’s animation with his loveable smile and oversized features. Just the outline of the character is recognisable enough, regardless of where a person is from—Mickey Mouse is simply iconic.

As the company expanded, it began to produce feature-length movies, which were impressive feats for the world of animation. But what was the first Disney movie?

So, what was the first Disney movie?

The first short film released by Disney was Steamboat Willie, which debuted in 1928. It is considered one of the earliest examples of an animated film with synchronized sound, with the invention of sound cinema being a very new concept. The movie was just eight minutes long, but it marked the start of Disney’s reign over cinema as one of the most innovative companies in the world.

However, in 1937, Disney released its first feature-length movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, complete with plenty of musical numbers, classic tropes like evil queens and helpful animals, and an emphasis on the power of love. The film was inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairytale, although Disney made the story considerably more family-friendly.

Snow White was the first cel-animated feature film ever made, making it an incredibly important piece of cinema history. However, the company would soon go on to make countless more pioneering animations while also expanding their business to include live-action movies.

What was the first live action Disney movie?

It wasn’t until 1950 that Disney made their first fully live-action feature film. Treasure Island, directed by Byron Haskin, was reviewed positively, showing that Disney could do more than just animation. This wasn’t the first time they’d experimented with live-action, though. Disney had previously made movies partially featuring live-action, such as 1946’s controversial Song of the South.

The racist movie is hard to find these days, but it demonstrated Disney’s experiments with mixing animation and live-action before fully taking the leap to fully live-action cinema. After Treasure Island, Disney also made other endeavours into live-action in the form of The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men and Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier.

…and the first R-rated Disney movie?

While we have long associated Disney with being child and family-friendly, the company made their first R-rated movie in 1986 with Down and Out in Beverly Hills. The movie was made under the Touchstone Pictures banner, which was owned by Disney. Directed by Paul Mazursky, the film starred Richard Dreyfuss, Bette Midler, Nick Nolte and Little Richard.

The movie features themes such as suicide, anorexia, sex, and marital affairs, making it very different from your average Disney movie. Since then, Disney has released other R-rated movies via studios like Touchstone, such as The Color of Money, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Pretty Woman, to name just a few.

Related Topics

This post was originally published on here