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Walt Disney Animation Units
aka: Walt Disney Animation Australia

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:

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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:

Adventures of the Gummi Bears: From mid season 4 until the series's end, replacing TMS Entertainment.
Aladdin And The King Of Thieves: Done with Disney Australia.
Aladdin: TV series. (15 episodes)
Bonkers (14 episodes)
Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (with Jade Animation and Pixar)
Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers: Replacing TMS.
Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True: A aborted TV series that became a direct to video movie.
Darkwing Duck (14 episodes; all had assistance by other studios)
Gargoyles (Several episodes; All with assistance*
including Jade Animation, Nakamura Productions and Wang Film Productions
)
Goof Troop (5 episodes)
Hercules: TV series.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2
Lilo & Stitch: The Series: The last TV production by Disney Japan. They did a number of episodes because of how popular Lilo & Stitch is in Japan.
The Little Mermaid: TV Series.
Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas: First short only, the rest of it is done by Disney Canada.
Mickey Mouse Works: Disney Japan's shorts were also re-broadcast on House Of Mouse, however, all content made for House Of Mouse was done by Wang and Toon City.
The Mighty Ducks: TV series; one episode.
Mulan 2 (With support by Jade and Wang)
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Replacing TMS.
101 Dalmatians: TV series.
101 Dalmatians 2: Patch's London Adventure
Piglet's Big Movie
Pocahontas 2: Journey To A New World
Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search For Christopher Robin
Pooh's Heffalump Movie: Disney Japan's last Production.
Raw Toonage
The Return Of Jafar: The first of the Direct-to-Video movies that Disney did, done with Walt Disney Animation Australia. Japan animated roughly the second half of the film.
Tale Spin (with Hanho, Jade and Tama)
The Tigger Movie: Done with TMS (Telecom unit), Tama and other studios.
Timon & Pumbaa

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:

Aladdin and the King of Thieves - Done with Disney Japan.
Aladdin: The Series - 9 episodes.
Bonkers - 12 episodes.
Cinderella III: A Twist In Time - The unit's final production, done with Toon City.
Darkwing Duck - 10 episodes. "Heavy Mental" was outsourced to Freelance Animators New Zealand.
Gargoyles - The episode "Seeing Isn't Believing".
Goof Troop - 25 episodes. "Meanwhile, Back at the Ramp" was outsourced to Freelance Animators New Zealand.
A Goofy Movie
House of Mouse - A few Mickey's Mouse Works shorts.
The Jungle Book 2 - Done with Wang.
Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp's Adventure
The Lion King 1½ - Done with Toon City.
The Lion King II: Simba's Pride - Done with the Canadian unit and Toon City.
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Return to Neverland - With the Canadian unit and Wang.
Return Of Jafar - Done with Disney Japan. Australia animated roughly the first half of the film, while Japan handled the second half.
Timon & Pumbaa

European Units

France: More active in the feature film department, but didn't do as much as the Japanese and Australian units when it came to their TV productions. France animated three episodes of Darkwing Duck, five episodes of Goof Troop, some Tale Spin episodes, and one Bonkers short, "Petal to the Metal".
United Kingdom: They worked on DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp and 3 episodes of Tale Spin under contract from the France unit.

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.

Visual 80

Producers

4Kids Entertainment

alternative title(s): Walt Disney Animation Japan; Walt Disney Animation France; Walt Disney Overseas Animation Studios; Walt Disney Animation Australia

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