| History of The Walt Disney Company |
 |
|
| The New Millennium: 2000 till now |
| * 2000: Disney's third musical, Aida, premiered on Broadway. This time it's an original musical. Elton John provided the music and Tim Rice the lyrics. Aida wins four Tony Awards. * January 1, 2000: Fantasia/2000 premieres on selected IMAX-theaters. * December 10, 2000: The Emperor's New Groove premieres. * February 8, 2001: Disney's California Adventure is opened, next to Disneyland. This makes Disneyland a multi-day experience. The park is themed after the golden state. * June 15, 2001: Atlantis: the lost empire is released. It's for the first time that Disney released an animated action adventure. * September 4, 2001: Tokyo DisneySea opens next to Tokyo Disneyland. The resort welcomes 22 million visitors that year. * October 24, 2001: The Walt Disney buys Fox Family Worldwide for $ 5.3 billion. This deal includes the Fox Family Channel (now renamed ABC Family), Fox Kids International (Europe, Latin America and Australia) and Saban Entertainment. * October 28, 2001: Monsters, Inc. premieres, the fourth Disney/Pixar film. It becomes a monster-hit entering the top twenty of all time best films. * February 10, 2002: The sequel to Peter Pan, Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, is released in theaters. For the first time a classic moviesequel gets a theaterdebut. * March 16, 2002: Walt Disney Studios are opened at the Disneyland Resort Paris. It's a European version of the Floridian Disney/MGM-Studios. * April 12, 2002: Disneyland Resort Paris celebrates its 10th aniversary. * June 21, 2002: Lilo & Stitch, Orlando's animation unit second picture, is released and becomes a huge succes. * November 27, 2002: Treasure Planet opens. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
| * November 5, 2003: Brother Bear premieres. But a dark shadow falls over the animation studio in Orlando as it's closed. Soon Roy Disney and Stanley Gold quit the Disney Board and start SaveDisney.com to try and oust Michael Eisner. * February 17, 2004: The Walt Disney Company and the Jim Henson Company agree to sell the rights to the Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House to Disney. * April 2, 2004: Home on the Range, which is probably the last hand-drwan animated movie made by Disney, is released. |
 |