Mitchell Stein- Once again, it's time for Hollywood's Biggest night. The night where millionaires stand up on stage and present tiny golden statues to other millionaires, people analyze what some celebrity is wearing, and why their favorite movie didn't win the award for "Sound Mixing".Today as we prepare for the 86th Academy Awards, we take a look back at Disney's most significant history at the Oscars and Disney's biggest and greatest wins, from the beginning up until today.
Even since his death in 1966, Walt Disney still holds the records for the person with the most Oscars won in a lifetime with 32 awards. Becuase it would take over a week to list every nominee, let's take a look at some of the Disney Company's biggest wins from the beginning.
The Three Little Pigs: This film won Walt his second Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, previously earning an award for Flowers and Trees the year earlier.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: While Walt's first animated
film did not actually win an Oscar, Walt received an honorary Oscar from the Academy for his first full-length feature film. The Oscar include one, full sized Oscar figure along with seven smaller Oscars, in honor of the film. This award was on display at Disney's Hollywood Studios for a short time and is now on display at the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Pinocchio: Pinocchio was Walt's first feature length film award, but not for best animated film, rather for Best Score and Best Original Song ("When You Wish Upon A Star"), as did Dumbo the year later.
The beloved film, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea won the significant awards of Best Art Director and Best Visual Effects, along with The Vanishing Prairie, which won an award for best Documentary Feature. The Vanishing Prairie was a part of the nature documentary features that Walt produced in the 50s and 60s.
Then, in 1964, Mary Poppins flew in and swooped up five Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Julie Andrews) Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (Chim-Chim Cher-ee) and Best Special Effects! Mary Poppins remains a legendary film for the Disney Company until today, and more info about the film can be found in Saving Mr. Banks, available on Blu-Ray on March 18th
2014!
Another very important film in Disney history was of course, Who Framed Roger Rabbit which took in Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects, which it clearly deserved. The movie was unlike anything else seen at the time, blending live-action with hand-drawn animation. The movie was released under Disney's Touchstone Pictures banner, but the award of course went to the Disney Company.
Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature to ever be nominated for the Best Picture category, but sadly did not take home the little golden statue in that category, but it did win Best Song and Best Original Score. Other winners in that category for that decade include The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, and Tarzan.
Pixar then stepped into the picture and snagged a whole bunch of awards for their short films, Tin Toy, Geni's Game and For the Birds. Pixar won awards for Best Animated Feature throughout the years for their work on Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3.
Finally, in 2011 The Muppets won their first Oscar for Best Original Song for "Man or Muppet". The Muppets have been nominated for various different categories since the 1966, but always got snagged, finally they got the honor they always deserved.
Last year, Pixar's Brave took home the award for Best Animated Feature, other Disney nominees included Wreck-It Ralph and Frankenweenie. Disney's Paperman was awarded for Best Animated Short Film as well, which was well deserved once again.
Now we reached the 86th Academy Awards hosted by Ellen Degeneres. Watch it all tonight to cheer on Frozen, Saving Mr. Banks, The Lone Ranger, Iron Man 3, and The Wind Rises for those awards. Go Disney!
