Disney Animation Art

The Walt Disney Company revolutionized the world of animation in the 20th century, not only producing cherished animated films but also pioneering the preservation, archival, and reproduction of its company’s works.

In 1923, animator Walt Disney and his businessman brother Roy Disney founded the Walt Disney Company, originally called the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. After creating a number of successful Mickey Mouse short films, the company produced the world’s first fully animated feature film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” followed by nearly 30 more using traditional animation techniques. After 1989, studio crews adopted computer animation almost exclusively, and the last film Disney produced using hand-inked and hand-painted production celluloid (cels) was “The Little Mermaid.”

For vintage Disney art collectors, original production cels are becoming rare and highly collectible, particularly anything produced from the 1920s through the 1950s. Also revered are original backgrounds, drawings, concept sketches, and storyboards. Any pieces signed by a Disney artist or Walt Disney himself will hold high values.

Aside from original production art, Disney has produced and marketed a variety of limited-edition prints, including hand-painted cels, lithographs, and sericels. Although these pieces are not considered vintage, some have recorded high earnings in the art marketplace.

Quick Facts

• Disney’s Animation Research Library (ARL) holds 65 million pieces of animation artwork; over 200,000 of these are original production cels. The library is open to employees and designated members of the press, and its exact location is not publicly disclosed
• Walt Disney jokingly called his group of supervisory animators the “Nine Old Men.” These individuals assisted Disney in creating and producing films from the 1960s through the 1970s
• Heritage Auctions held a record-breaking animation art auction in April 2015. Several top-sellers included production cels from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” ($47,800), “Pinocchio” ($23,900) and “The Little Mermaid” ($15,535)