Universal Studios

Universal City Studios
General information
Type	Subsidiary of NBCUniversal
Industry	Film
Founded	April 30, 1912
Headquarters	Universal City, California, United States
Founder(s)	Carl Laemmle Pat Powers Mark Dintenfass William Swanson David Horsley Charles Baumann Adam Kessel Jules Brulatour
Key people	Donna Langley (Chairman) Jimmy Horowitz (President)
Products	Motion pictures
Parent	NBCUniversal (Comcast)
Website	universalpictures.com

Universal City Studios LLC (also known as Universal Studios, Universal Pictures, or simply Universal) is a major film company owned by NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. Universal was the distributor and owner of the Disney-animated Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons since February 9, 2006, but Universal still owns the rights to all of the post-Disney-animated Oswald cartoons.

Its massive backlot at its Universal Studios Hollywood studio and theme park has served as a former filming location for Disney films. Universal has resorts in California and Florida, which are those states' primary competitors against Disneyland and Walt Disney World, respectively. Additionally, Universal has owned two animation studios, Illumination and DreamWorks Animation (with the latter being co-founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg alongside Steven Spielberg and David Geffen and being acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016), which are also meant to compete against Disney's current animation studios Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios respectively, as well as Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Animation.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

On March 4, 1927, Winkler Pictures head Charles Mintz signed a contract with Universal within the presence of its vice president at the time, R. H. Cochrane. The contract stated that Winkler would produce 26 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons for Universal during the 1927-28 season. Universal had been negotiating deals with cartoon producers for the past three months; they wanted to get back into the cartoon business after ten years of no cartoons from the company.

The Oswald character was designed and the cartoons were animated at the Walt Disney Studio, under the direct supervision of Walt Disney and under a contract with Winkler Pictures. The titular character's name had reportedly been chosen by P.D. Cochrane, the head of Universal's publicity department. He gathered suggestions from the staff around the office, put them all into a hat, and drew out a name. Universal released the first cartoon, Trolley Troubles, to theaters on September 5, 1927.

In February 1928, Winkler signed a contract with Universal that would guarantee three more years worth of Oswald cartoons. The following month, the Walt Disney Studio's contract with Winkler to animate the Oswald cartoons would be terminated following the departure of several animators to Winkler and budget disputes. Ub Iwerks would be one of the few animators who stayed with Disney, and the two would go on to create Mickey Mouse.

Winkler Pictures would go on to produce an additional 26 Oswald cartoons for Universal, and they would be released from 1928 to 1929. During the production of the cartoons, animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising went to Universal to try and convince the studio to put them in charge instead of Mintz. Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Pictures, got tired of the internal politics and terminated Winkler Pictures' contract. He decided to produce the series in-house with director Walter Lantz taking charge. Walter Lantz would go on to direct and produce 142 cartoons with Oswald.

In February 2006, The Walt Disney Company obtained the rights to the Oswald character and the animated short films made by the Disney Studio from NBCUniversal as part of a deal which sent sportscaster Al Michaels from ESPN to NBCUniversal's NBC Sports. The rights to the Winkler/Mintz and Lantz/Universal-produced Oswald films would stay with NBCUniversal.

Relationship with Marvel

On August 31, 2009, Disney announced that it would acquire Marvel Entertainment for approximately $4 billion. Universal announced that Marvel Super Hero Island, a themed land at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park at the Universal Orlando Resort, would not be affected by the deal and would continue to operate as long as the contract allowed. Disney CEO Robert Iger acknowledged that Disney would honor all of Marvel's contracts with competitors, but that Marvel characters would simultaneously be able to appear in some Disney parks. Marvel properties and characters are not permitted to appear in Walt Disney World Resort theme parks, as Universal holds the rights to use the characters east of the Mississippi River. As such, Disney has taken other measures to promote its Marvel properties within the Resort. For example, monorail trains have been wrapped in advertisements promoting films such as The Avengers and Iron Man 3. As these monorail trains featured Marvel characters, they were operated only on the Resort and Express lines of the Walt Disney World Monorail System, which run entirely outside the theme parks, unlike the Epcot line, which enters and loops through its namesake park. The resort does have a Marvel-themed store, Super Hero Headquarters, which is located outside of park gates in Disney Springs.

Marvel characters and properties are featured more prominently in other Disney park resorts, specifically at the Disneyland Resort in California, where Universal has long since abandoned its rights to use the Marvel characters in its own California park. The Disneyland Resort has featured meet-and-greets with Captain America and Thor, has featured the Avengers Half Marathon as part of RunDisney, features Iron Man, Thor, and Spider-Man (and formerly Captain America when the attraction operated as part of Innoventions) at its upcoming Super Hero HQ attraction in Tomorrowland, has hosted film sneak peeks for Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, and has run Marvel Cinematic Universe movie marathons at the Magic Eye Theater during its 24-hour events. The first Marvel attraction at a Disney park, the Iron Man Experience, is now open in Tomorrowland at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons

#	Title	Release date
1	Trolley Troubles	September 5, 1927
2	Oh Teacher	September 19, 1927
3	The Mechanical Cow	October 3, 1927
4	Great Guns	October 17, 1927
5	All Wet	October 31, 1927
6	The Ocean Hop	November 14, 1927
7	The Banker's Daughter	November 28, 1927
8	Empty Socks	December 11, 1927
9	Rickety Gin	December 26, 1927
10	Harem Scarem	January 9, 1928
11	Neck 'n' Neck	January 23, 1928
12	The Ol' Swimmin' Hole	February 6, 1928
13	Africa Before Dark	February 20, 1928
14	Rival Romeos	March 5, 1928
15	Bright Lights	March 19, 1928
16	Sagebrush Sadie	April 1, 1928
17	Ride 'Em Plowboy	April 15, 1928
18	Ozzie of the Mounted	April 30, 1928
19	Hungry Hobos	May 14, 1928
20	Oh What a Knight	May 28, 1928
21	Poor Papa	June 11, 1928
22	The Fox Chase	June 25, 1928
23	Tall Timber	July 9, 1928
24	Sleigh Bells	July 23, 1928
25	High Up	August 6, 1928
26	Hot Dogs	August 20, 1928
27	The Sky Scrapper	September 3, 1928

Disney productions filmed at Universal

As Universal Studios Hollywood has such a massive and versatile studio backlot, many other movie studios tend to use the backlot as a filming location. Disney is not an exception to this. Some Disney films and shows that have been shot or co-produced at Universal include:

Films

• The Devil and Max Devlin (1981, Walt Disney Productions)
• Dick Tracy (1990, Touchstone Pictures)
• Raising Helen (2004, Touchstone Pictures)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007, Walt Disney Pictures)
• The Muppets (2011, Walt Disney Pictures)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011, Walt Disney Pictures)
• Saving Mr. Banks (2013, Walt Disney Pictures)

Television series

• Monk (USA Network, 2002-2009, ABC Studios and Universal Media Studios) - Co-produced with Universal.
• Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004-2012, ABC Studios) - Wisteria Lane is filmed on the Colonial Street residential set.
• Ghost Whisperer (CBS, 2005-2010, ABC Studios and CBS Paramount Network Television) - Grandview is filmed on sets such as Courthouse Square, which is famous for its use in Back to the Future until an accidental fire destroyed much of the set in June 2008.

Connections

• Jeff Bennett voiced Peter Puppy in the Earthworm Jim cartoon.
• Dan Castellaneta voiced Dr. Emmett Brown in Back to the Future: The Animated Series and the title character in the Earthworm Jim cartoon.
• Jim Carrey portrayed the title character in the How the Grinch Stole Christmas! live-action film.
• Jim Cummings voiced Psycrow in the Earthworm Jim cartoon.
• Michael J. Fox portrayed Marty McFly in the Back to the Future films.
• Christopher Lloyd portrayed Dr. Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future films.
• Kath Soucie voiced Princess What's-Her-Name in the Earthworm Jim cartoon.
• Eric Bauza voices the title character in the modern Woody Woodpecker cartoons.

External links

• Universal Studios on Wikipedia
• Universal Studios on Facebook
• Universal Studios on Instagram
• Universal Studios on 𝕏
• Universal Studios on YouTube