furbooru.org · 516809

Disney might have been one of the first ever studios to pioneer the medium of television, but today marks the 40th anniversary of their division that helped them make some masterpieces made for television (too bad Disney doesn't see it that way), Disney Television Animation.

Disney Television Animation has started their career in 1985 pretty weakly with "The Wuzzles", only to finally starting to get good with nice shows from the 1980s and the 1990s that would go on to form the Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning (although some of them were quite stinkers, like The Shnookums and Meat "funny" cartoon show, their take on Doug, Quack Pack, Mighty Ducks: the animated series and the Disney version of Marsupilami (which resulted in Marsu Productions (who wasn't involved in the making of the series) filing a lawsuit against Disney (and won!)).

In the 2000s, they made some shows from  that, while some of them (like Phineas and Ferb, Lilo and Stitch: the series, Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long and, to an extent, The Emperor's new School, Yin Yang Yo, House of Mouse and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) reached worldwide acclaim, others didn't but became cult favourites overtime (like The Weekenders, Teacher's Pet, Teamo Supremo, Lloyd in space, Brandy and Mr. Whiskers, Dave the barbarian, Fillmore et cetera).

Then along came the 2010s and the 2020s, in which they tried to be more experimental with their shows, producing a bunch of shows that some received critical acclaim (except from Disney themselves) like Gravity Falls, Star vs. the forces of evil, Wander over Yonder (despite the low ratings), Amphibia, the DuckTales reboot, The Owl House, the Ghost and Molly McGee, Big City Greens, Kiff, Monsters at Work, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur et cetera, while others weren't very good, like Pickle and Peanut, Two More Eggs, Fish Hooks, Future Worm and Z-O-M-B-I-E-S: the reanimated series, while others didn't even get a chance to shine, like Primos (not saying it's amazing) and Hailey's on it (dear lord, was Hailey's on it treated harshly from both critics and Disney themselves).

Oh, I almost forgot. I can't talk about Disney Television Animation without mentioning their contribution for some of Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior's shows (I say "some" because not all of them are made by Disney Television Animation) with some amazing ones (like PB&J Otter, Special Agent Oso, Mickey and the Roadster Racers/Mickey Mouse Mixed-up adventures, Elena of Avalor), a few alright ones (like Firebuds and Alice's wonderland bakery) and a few guilty pleasures (like Sofia the first, My friends Tigger and Pooh, Jake and the neverland pirates and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).

There's also the fact that they made half of the Disney direct-to-video sequels (like Belle's magical world (not pictured here), The Little Mermaid: return to sea, Stitch: the movie, Leroy and Stitch, Return to Neverland, The Return of Jafar, Aladdin and the king of thieves, Atlantis: Milo's return et cetera) and we all know the history of those.

They also made Fluppy Dogs (a TV movie from 1986 that was meant to be a pilot for a series but never got made due to the low ratings), Redux Riding Hood (an Oscar winning 1997 short film directed by Steve Moore) and two shows that were greenlit but never got made: Maximum Horsepower (a show starring Horace Horsecollar) and an untitled show featuring Chip and Dale, Tigger, The Cheshire Cat and Lilo and Stitch.

So, I decided to celebrate their 40th anniversary with this drawing depicting characters from 99 of their shows (except Descendants: wicked world and, to an extent, Mickey and the Roadster Racers/Mickey Mouse Mixed-up adventures), one short film, one TV movie and three DisneyToon Studios sequels.

Happy 40th anniversary, Disney Television Animation.