2005:
Disney's Phil of the Future (which has aired on the Disney Channel in
the U.S. since June 2004) debuts in Canada on the Family Channel.
The Incredibles is nominated for best movie of the year by the Producers
Guild of America. (Animated features are seldom given this honor.)
The fourth season of the drama/adventure television series Alias premieres on ABC with the episode "Authorized Personnel Only (Part 1)." Created by J. J. Abrams, the series stars Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, a double agent for the Central Intelligence Agency posing as an operative for SD-6, a worldwide criminal and espionage organization.
1913:
Animator, director, writer and Disney Legend Jack Hannah is born in Arizona. At the
Walt Disney Studios he started as an inbetweener and clean-up artist on many early Mickey, Donald and Silly
Symphony cartoons. Hannah also helped Carl Barks (the man who drew the comic book adventures of Donald
Duck) create his first two comic book stories. Hannah later directed some 94 Disney animated shorts including Donald's Day Off, Bootle Beetle, and Hook, Lion and Sinker. He retired in 1959, and spent a number
of years creating and then heading the character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts.
1931:
Al Taliaferro (future Disney Legend) is hired at the Disney Studios on Hyperion
Avenue in California, as an animator. A month later he will move on to the comic strip department;
lettering the Mickey Mouse strips. In February 1938 he will begin working on the Donald Duck daily newspaper
strips - co-creating a number of characters, including Huey, Dewey and Louie, Bolivar, and Grandma Duck.
1932:
Disney's 26th Silly Symphony film The Bird Store is completed. Directed by Wilfred Jackson (who played an important role in synchronizing sound to the movements of animated characters) the film will be released January 16.
1935:
The Silly Symphony short The Tortoise and the Hare - a retelling of Aesop's fable
directed by Wilfred Jackson - is released. (It will win an Academy Award for Best Short Cartoon.)
1955:
The Disneyland television series presents part 1 of Disney's 1950 live-action adventure film Treasure Island. This adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson is Disney's first all live-action feature.
1957:
The eighth and final installment of "My Dad, Walt Disney," by Diane Disney Miller as
told to Pete Martin (a "celebrity friendly" writer) appears in the Saturday Evening Post.
The 8 articles will later be expanded into a hardcover book in 1957 by Henry Holt entitled "The Story of Walt Disney."
1964:
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs part 1 of "The Ballad of Hector the Stowaway Dog."
1986:
The Biscuit Barrel, a shop in the United Kingdom Pavilion at EPCOT Center, closes.
First opened with the rest of the park in 1982, it will become The Country Manor.
2002:
Atlanta Braves spring training tickets go on sale at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex. This will be the team's 5th season of spring training at Disney's Florida complex, which includes a 15-game home schedule starting in mid-February.
2003:
Cinderella's Gala Feast, a character buffet at the Grand Floridian's 1900
Park Fare (located in Walt Disney World) officially welcomes guests.
Television's animated family The Simpsons visit a Florida
theme park called EFCOT.
2004:
The 2003 Annie Award nominations, presented by the International Animated Film Society, are announced. Disney nominees include Disney/Pixar's Finding Nemo (with multiple nominations), Brother Bear, Jungle Book 2, 101 Dalmatians II, Destino, Piglet's Big Movie, and Stitch! The Movie. (Winners will be announced on February 7th.)
1999:
Disney's 1977 animated feature The Rescuers and the new short Pluto
Gets the Paper: Bubble Gum are released together on video.
In Autumn of 1998,
Cinderella Castle's lighting system was upgraded at
Disney World. It now has the power to illuminate in some
16 million colors!
JANUARY 5
2007:
A stage version of High School Musical premieres in Minneapolis at the Children's Theater Company's Cargill Stage. It is the first professional version of the show to ever be staged.
Annie nominations announced.
2009:
Disney World announces that it will offer free five-day multi-park passes to members of the U.S. military. Both active and retired military personnel are eligible for the “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute” promotion, which will run through December 23, 2009.
JANUARY 05
THIS DAY MADE
IN THE
USA
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The Tortoise and the Hare released
1941:
Hayao Miyazaki, prominent filmmaker of many popular animated feature films, is born in Tokyo, Japan. While Miyazaki's films have long enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan, he remained largely unknown to the West until Disney's Miramax released his 1997 film, Princess Mononoke. American fans also know his Howl's Moving Castle (distributed by Buena Vista
Entertainment in the U.S.) and the Oscar-winning Spirited Way (distributed by Walt
Disney Pictures in the U.S.).
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SEASON 1 EPISODE 11
"All during the early years of my youth, and a long time before I had given a career any thought, the Public Library has always held a tremendous interest for me. Needless to say, any book that offered information on drawing was likely to be found listed on my card, and over-due books were the chief reason for my usually depleted bank account." -Walt Disney (1937)
1945:
The Goofy short Tiger Trouble - directed by Jack Kinney - is released. It's tiger hunting time in Africa with Goofy as a reluctant Great White Hunter.
1951:
The Goofy short Lion Down is released. Directed by Jack Kinney, Goofy plans a relaxing day at rest ... but a mountain lion puts an end to that!
2011:
At the People's Choice Awards, Toy Story 3 wins Favorite Family Movie and
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam is awarded Favorite Family TV Movie.
1959:
Actor Clancy Brown is born in Urbana, Ohio. His long list of Disney voice credits include American Dragon: Jake Long, Recess: School's Out, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea, Phineas and Ferb, Atlantis: Milo's Return, Avengers Assemble, and Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. His voice credits for live-action films include Lady and the Tramp (2019), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Iron Man & Captain America: Heroes United (2014), and The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1998) . As of 2019, he is playing Edward "Ed" Sawyer on the ABC series Emergence. (Brown is perhaps best known for for his long-running role of Mr. Eugene H. Krabs in the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants and The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander.).
JAN
JAN
1997:
The Fourth Walt Disney World Marathon
takes place in Florida.
Dick Hooper from Reheny, Ireland, wins with a time of 2:31:19.
Other winners on this day include:
Women’s Overall: Larisa Zyuzko, Novosibirck, Russia, 2:41:13
Men’s Masters: Dave H. Elger, Port St. Lucie, Fla. 2:39:39
Women’s Masters: Mary Hanlon, Tampa, Fla., 2:54:26
Men’s Chair: Saul Mendoza, Col Ramos Milla, Mexico, 1:39:53
Women’s Chair: Chantal Petticlerc, Montreal, Canada 2:09:28
1914:
Actor George Reeves (best remembered as TV's Superman) is born in Woolstock, Iowa. He portrayed James Stephen in Disney's 1956 live-action Westward Ho, the Wagons!.
January 05
This Day in Disney History - THE FIRST - THE ORIGINAL
Traveling in time since 1999!
4
2016:
Christine Lawrence-Finney an animator and clean-up supervisor at Walt Disney
Animation Studios in Orlando, Florida, (and the wife of animator Trey Finney) sadly
passes away at age 47. For 15 years she worked on animated features and shorts such as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear. After the studio closed
in 2004, she and her husband moved to South Carolina to become successful painters.
1917:
Actress, singer, dancer and philanthropist Jane Wyman is born Sarah Jane Mayfield
in Saint Joseph, Missouri. Her Disney roles include Polly Harrington in Pollyanna and Katie Willard in Bon
Voyage! The first wife of actor Ronald Reagan (later the 40th President of the United States), Wyman won an
Academy Award in 1948 for her role in the film Johnny Belinda.
1996:
Capital Cities/ABC merge with The Walt Disney Company on this day and assume
The Walt Disney Company name and headquarters in California.
1946:
Actress, director & producer Diane Keaton is born in Los Angeles, California.
She starred in the Disney Channel film Northern Lights in 1997 and supplied the voice for Jenny (Dory's mom) in
Pixar's 2016 Finding Dory. Keaton also co-starred in Touchstone's Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II,
and directed the 1995 Hollywood Pictures release Unstrung Heroes. (The Academy Award winning Keaton has appeared in The Godfather series of films, and such Woody Allen productions as Play It Again, Sam and Sleeper.)
2019:
Season 2 of Milo Murphy's Law, an animated television series from the creators of Phineas and Ferb, debuts on Disney XD. The series revolves around the title character, Milo Murphy (voiced by singer-songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic), who is a descendant of Edward A. Murphy Jr., the namesake of Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
1975:
Actor and filmmaker Bradley Cooper is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His Disney film credits include the voice of Rocket Racoon for Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Between 2001-2006 Cooper portrayed Will Tippin on the ABC series Alias. (Films fans may recognize him as Phil Wenneck in The Hangover trilogy.)
2020:
Disney Legend and former Disney World Vice President Bob Mathieson passes away at age 85. Beginning as a Sound Coordinator at Disneyland in 1960, he was later chosen by Walt to manage the four attractions at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. One of the first Directors of Operations at Walt Disney World, Mathieson quickly rose through the ranks at the Florida resort assuming the position of Vice President of Operations in 1972, Vice President of both Magic Kingdom and Epcot in 1984, and Vice President of Walt Disney World in 1987. He retired from the company in 1994 and was inducted a Disney Legend just two years later.
"I got to work with people that believed in loyalty, camaraderie and sticking it out through good days and bad days. No one person could do everything by himself or herself. It was a team effort." -Bob Mathieson
Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic, an attraction at Walt Disney Studios Park, Disneyland Paris, closes. The attraction premiered with the grand opening of Walt Disney Studios Park in March 2002. It allowed guests to get a backstage look at the magic of Walt Disney Studios park while onboard a
high-tech tram and listening to the iconic voice of Jeremy Irons.
1998:
Take Flight, a Disney World attraction previously called Delta Dreamflight, closes. The Tomorrowland attraction (originally known as If You Had Wings and sponsored by Eastern Airlines in 1989) was a pop-up book version of the history of flight using simplistic sets.
1982:
Comic character actor Hans Conried, the voices of both Mr. George Darling and
Captain Hook in Disney's Peter Pan, passes away at age 64 in California. His Disney credits include the live-action films The Cat From Outer Space, The Shaggy D.A.,and Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and the animated shorts The Story of Anyburg U.S.A. and Ben and Me. Although he was replaced by Taylor Holmes for the voice role of King Stefan in Sleeping Beauty, he remained the live-action performance model for Stefan. (Conried was a cast member of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, voicing the character of Snidely Whiplash in the Dudley Do-Right shorts!)
