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Disney Music Collection

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: DTF
Date: 8 May 2024

Biographical History

The Walt Disney Company was founded as Disney Brothers Studio on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt and Roy Disney. In 1928, the film studio released Steamboat Willie, an animated film with sound, which revolutionized the animation industry. In 1937, the studio released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length animated film. The movie was a resounding success and established Disney as the leading animated film studio.

By the 1950s, Disney had diversified into live-action films, television, and theme parks. The company continued to release animated films, however, including Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), 101 Dalmatians (1961), and The Jungle Book (1967). The Disney animation division struggled in the years following Walt Disney's death in 1966 but had a resurgence in the late 1980s and 1990s with such films as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and The Lion King (1994). Recently the company (which is now named The Walt Disney Company and includes Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Pixar, and a handful of others) has released a number of popular animated films, including Frozen (2013), Moana (2016), Frozen 2 (2019) and Encanto (2021).

Thomas MacDougall is the President of Walt Disney Music. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1992, joined Disney in 1993 in the Buena Vista International's character voices department and moved to Disney's animation division in 1995. In 2005 he was appointed to lead the creative strategy and production of music for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar, which he continued to do so until his appointment as President in 2021.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Disney Music Collection contains three platinum records and five custom-bound music scores. The platinum records are for the soundtracks for the Disney films Moana, Frozen 2, and Encanto. The awards commemorate the multi-millon dollar-selling soundtracks from all three films. The music scores are for five Disney films. Each score has the movie title and the name of the writers on the cover.

Arrangement of the Collection

Arranged alphabetically by movie title.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advance notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Platinum records are not available for retrieval, but can be viewed in the Belfer Audio classroom.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

MacDougall, Thomas.

Corporate Bodies

Pixar (Firm)
Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Subjects

Motion picture music -- Scores.
Motion picture music -- United States.
Music -- Awards.

Genres and Forms

Commemorative plaques.
Scores (documents for music)

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Disney Music Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gifts of Thomas MacDougall, 2023, 2024.

Table of Contents

Platinum records

Scores

Inventory