NOV 25 Disney History

2002:

The Disneyland Resort officially kicks off its holiday season with a Christmas

Tree Lighting Ceremony featuring the manager of the World Champion

Anaheim Angels Mike Scioscia.

2005:

Epcot's Holidays Around the World 2005 kicks off for the season

(running through December 30). The season's first Candlelight Processional

also takes place with guest narrator actress Rita Moreno.

Disney Channel debuts "Save the Last Dance," the 75th episode of That's So Raven.

1911:

Illustrator Paul Murry is born in Missouri. He will go on to draw Disney comic books; especially the adventurous 'Mickey Mouse' stories from the 1950s-1970s.

1919:

Director Norman Tokar is born in Newark, New Jersey. Arriving on the Disney lot in the early

1960s, his first feature film assignment was the Western adventure Big Red which was followed in quick

succession by the Old Yeller sequel Savage Sam and Those Calloways. Tokar went on to direct The Apple

Dumpling Gang, Snowball Express, Rascal, and The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. (Also a writer and

producer of serial television and feature films, Tokar directed many of the early episodes of Leave it to Beaver.)

1933:

Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon Giantland is released. (It is a forerunner to the

Mickey and the Beanstalk segment of Fun and Fancy Free.)

1938:

Disney's Ferdinand the Bull is released. (It will win an Academy Award for Best Cartoon.)

1955:

The Mickey Mouse Club Circus opens as the first major addition

to Disneyland since its grand opening.

The Mickey Mouse Club airs on ABC-TV. Today is Talent Round-Up Day.

1962:

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color airs part 2 of "The Magnificent Rebel."

1971:

Thanksgiving Day

"America the Beautiful," a CircleVision 360 film, debuts in Tomorrowland at Disney World. (A film technique, refined by The Walt Disney Company, the system uses nine cameras for nine huge screens arranged in a circle.)

1973:

The Wonderful World of Disney features part 1 of "Run, Cougar, Run."

1992:

The 31st Disney animated feature film, Aladdin is generally released in U.S. theaters. It relates a version of the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp from The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. (The film's music will earn 2 Academy Awards and 6 Grammy Awards.)

The Toontown Railroad Station, located outside of Toontown next to the Fantasyland Theater, opens in Disneyland.

1996:

Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade comes to an end.(It is estimated that

some 75 million people have marveled at the bright lights of the parade since its introduction in 1972.)

1998:

Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life is generally released. The second full-length computer-animated feature produced by the partnership of Disney and Pixar Studios, it features an all-star voice cast

including Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Denis Leary, David Hyde Pierce, Brad Garrett, Kevin Spacey, Phyllis Diller, John Ratzenberger, and Roddy McDowall. Directed by John Lasseter, the plot of the film is loosely based on Aesop's fable "The Ants and the Grasshopper."

2003:

Walt Disney Records releases the CD "The Haunted Mansion Haunted Hits" (a soundtrack from and inspired by their newest feature film The Haunted Mansion).

Disneyland's annual Holiday Lighting Ceremony

takes place in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

2004:

Thanksgiving Day

Disney's Chicken Little (the star of next year's animated film Chicken Little)

debuts in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. The giant helium

balloon measures in at 60.5 feet tall, 26 feet wide and 68.5 feet long. Also performing is Raven-Symoné of Disney

Channel's That's So Raven.

2006:

Italian cartoonist Luciano Bottaro, the highly prolific creator of numerous original

series as well as a significant body of work with Disney Comics, passes away in Italy

days after celebrating his 75th birthday. Besides his work with Disney characters, he created many

characters such as Pepito, the comical adventures of a 17-century buccaneer.

Radio Disney is a radio network

with on air studios in Burbank,

California. The network

primarily uses AM stations, but

it is also available on XM

Satellite Radio and Sirius

Satellite Radio, as well as via

Music Choice on most digital

cable-TV systems.

2007:

Mickey and Minnie Mouse take part in the Hollywood Santa Parade (originally known as Hollywood Christmas Parade) in California.

An epic of miniature proportions.

2008:

Burning Up: On Tour with the JONAS Brothers book release and signing takes place at the Golden Vine Winery Patio inside Disney's California Adventure Park. Kevin, Joe, and Nick make an appearance to promote their very first book (published by Disney's Hyperion).

Walt Disney Records releases Disney Box Office Hits, a collection of the

best songs from Disney's biggest movies.