1984: Touchstone Films is created after the studio narrowly escapes a buyout attempt by Saul Steinberg, and releases their first film Splash. Roy Edward Disney and his business partner, Stanley Gold, remove Ron W. Miller as CEO and president, replacing him with Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. The Walt Disney Classics and Masterpiece video collection starts up.
1985: The studio begins making cartoons for television beginning with Adventures of the Gummi Bears and The Wuzzles. The Black Cauldron, the studio's first PG-rated animated film, is released, but is a box office failure. The home video release of Pinocchio becomes a best-seller.
1986: The company's name is changed on February 6 from Walt Disney Productions to The Walt Disney Company. Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, is released under the Touchstone banner.
1987: The company and the French government sign an agreement for the creation of the first Disney Resort in Europe: the Euro Disney project starts.
1989: Disney offers a deal to buy Jim Henson's Muppets and have the famed puppeteer work with Disney resources; the Disney-MGM Studios open at Walt Disney World; The Little Mermaid sparks a Disney animation renaissance.
1990: Jim Henson's death sours the deal to buy his holdings; the anthology series is canceled for the second time.
1991: Beauty and the Beast is released, becoming the first animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
1992: The controversial Euro Disney Resort opens outside Paris, France.
1992: The Disney Company is granted permission for a National Hockey League expansion franchise. The team is named the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to co-incide with the release of The Mighty Ducks.
1993: Disney acquires independent film distributor Miramax Films; Winnie the Pooh merchandise outsells Mickey Mouse merchandise for the first time; the policy of periodic theatrical re-issues ends with this year's re-issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but is augmented for video.
1994: Frank Wells is killed in a helicopter crash. Jeffrey Katzenberg resigns to co-found his own studio, DreamWorks SKG. Plans for Disney's America, a historical theme park in Haymarket, Virginia, are abruptly dropped. No explanation is given, and Disney announces a search for an alternate location. Euro Disneyland is renamed Disneyland Paris. The Lion King, the highest-grossing traditionally animated film in history (unadjusted for inflation), is released.
1995: In October, the company hires Hollywood super agent, Michael Ovitz, to be president. The world's first computer animated feature film Toy Story, produced by Pixar Animation Studios, is released by Disney, and becomes the year's top-grossing film.
1996: The company takes on the Disney Enterprises name and acquires the Capital Cities/ABC group, renaming it ABC, Inc. To celebrate the pairing, ABC's first Super Soap Weekend is held at Walt Disney World. Disney makes deal with Tokuma Shoten for dubbing and releasing of Studio Ghibli films in the U.S. In December, Michael Ovitz, president of the company, leaves "by mutual consent."
1997: The anthology series is revived again; the home video division releases its first DVDs. The Southern Baptist Convention votes to boycott The Walt Disney Company over opposition to the latter offering equal health and other benefits to gays and lesbians, as well as Disney allowing outside organizers to have "Gay and Lesbian Days" at Walt Disney World. Disney ignored the boycott, which failed and was withdrawn by the SBC on June 22, 2005.[2]
1998: Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World. Kiki's Delivery Service, the first Studio Ghibli film under the Disney/Ghibli deal, is released on video.
2000: Disney-owned TV channels are pulled from Time Warner Cable briefly during a dispute over carriage fees; Robert Iger becomes president. Disney begins their Gold Classic Collection and Platinum Edition DVD line, replacing their Classic and Masterpiece Collection series.
2001: Disney's California Adventure and Tokyo DisneySea open to the public; Disney begins releasing Walt Disney Treasures DVD box sets for the collector's market. Disney buys Fox Family for $3 billion in July, giving Disney programming and cable network reaching 81 million homes.
2001: Ft Worth billionaire Sid Bass is forced to sell his Disney holdings due to a margin call caused partially by the stockmarket fall that followed the 9/11 attacks. That Bass didn't own his shares outright but had bought them on margin was unknown and a shock when it was revealed. Losing Bass is a blow to Eisner - Bass had been a major backer of Eisner - he had recruited Eisner to Disney.
2002: Walt Disney Studios open near Disneyland Paris (renamed Disneyland Park). The entire area is now called Disneyland Resort Paris. Disney finishes negotiations to acquire Saban Entertainment, owner of children's entertainment juggernaut Power Rangers. Subsidiary Miramax acquires the USA rights to the Pokémon movies starting with the fourth movie.
2002: Disney teams up with famous video game company Squaresoft (later known as Square-Enix) to release their first ever role-playing game with various Disney characters, Kingdom Hearts. Disney begins joint venture business with Sanrio for Sanrio's greeting cards.
2003: Roy E. Disney resigns as the chairman of Feature Animation and from the board of directors, citing similar reasons to those that drove him off 26 years earlier; fellow director Stanley Gold resigns with him; they establish "SaveDisney" to apply public pressure to oust Michael Eisner. Pixar computer animated film Finding Nemo is released by Disney, becoming the highest-grossing animated film in history until 2004's DreamWorks film Shrek 2. Live-action film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is released, becoming the first film released under the Disney label with a PG-13 rating.
2004: Comcast makes an unsuccessful hostile bid for the company. CEO Michael Eisner is replaced by George J. Mitchell as chairman of the board after a 43% vote of no confidence. Disney turns down distributing controversial documentary film Fahrenheit 9/11, which ends up making $100 million. On February 17, Disney buys the Muppets (excluding the Sesame Street characters).
2005: On July 8 Roy E. Disney rejoins the company as a consultant with the title of Director Emeritus. Disneyland celebrates its 50th anniversary on July 17. Hong Kong Disneyland officially opens on September 12.
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