Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters is a 1987 Disney non-fiction book featuring information on all of Disney's animated characters up to the most recent animated feature at the time, The Great Mouse Detective. The book was later updated in 1993 and 1998 to include characters from later films, up to Aladdin and Hercules, respectively.
The original 1987 edition had two sections, with the first section covering the characters in the shorts (plus The Wuzzles and Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Disney's only animated television series at the time), listed in order of their first or only appearance, and the second section covering the characters in the feature films, in the order of each film's release. For the 1993 and 1998 editions, a third section devoted to the television shows was added. Also, in the 1998 edition, the entry for Aladdin was expanded to list the characters introduced in The Return of Jafar and Aladdin and the King of Thieves. (The section for One Hundred and One Dalmatians also received a similar expansion, but was much smaller due to 101 Dalmatians: The Series having not yet aired at the time of writing.)
Recurring characters in the "Shorts" section (such as the Sensational Six and the Three Little Pigs) have a full filmography list at the end of their respective entries. Multiple one-shot characters who appeared together in certain shorts (such as Elmer Elephant) are grouped together under one entry. Similarly, the package films have each segment's characters described together.
Errors[]
- Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar's filmographies both include Pluto's Christmas Tree, which neither of them actually appeared in. Ironically, The Shindig, which they did appear in, is not listed on either character's filmography.
- In Goofy's entry, Princess Esmeralda from A Knight for a Day is referred to as "Princess Penelope".
- Donald Duck's entry mentions his Disney Channel show, Donald Duck Presents, which was accurate at the time of the original edition's publication; however, by the time of the 1993 edition, the show had been rebranded as Donald's Quack Attack, but this particular text was not updated.
- In Daisy Duck's entry, a picture from Donald's Dilemma is accompanied by a caption mistakenly saying that it is from Donald's Dream Voice.
- In the Fluppy Dogs entry, the Fluppies are listed by just their colors instead of their actual names.