Category: Disney News

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A revamped dining plan at Walt Disney World is launching this year, giving visitors a chance to substantially save while visiting the park.

The newly announced Disney Dining Promo Card — which will replace the Disney Dining Plan that was suspended in March 2020 — will give guests who book 5-night, 4-day ticket and room packages at select Disney Resort hotels an allotted $750, according to a Disney Parks Blog post shared this week.

While the former plan required strategy and planning to break even on cost, the new program takes the guesswork out of dining by offering guests a gift card to use freely at participating dining locations. The Disney Dining Promo Card can be used at quick-service venues, food carts, table-service restaurants, and more throughout theme parks, resorts, and at Disney Springs.

This new offer is for guests who are visiting most nights between July 1 and Sept. 14, 2023 and who have booked at least a 4-night stay with at least 4 days of accompanying theme park tickets. The Disney Dining Promo Card is available for bookings beginning today and there is only one card offered per reservation. Modifications are available to existing reservations but there may be a price increase.

At Value Resorts — such as Disney’s All-Star Resorts — guests will receive cards valued up to $50 per night stay. At Moderate Resorts — like Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort — guests will receive cards valued up to $100 per night. The greatest value will be experienced at Deluxe Resorts – like Disney’s Contemporary Resort — where guests will receive cards valued up to $150 per night stay.

With most lunch entrees priced between $10-$15 at quick service locations, such as Woody’s Lunch Box at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Satu’li Canteen at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park, significant savings is possible by cutting down out of pocket expenses. Guests can use the Disney Dining Promo Card at coveted table dining locations, like Magic Kingdom Park’s Be Our Guest. The Disney Dining Promo Card can also be used to purchase popular snacks and treats, like DOLE Whip.

The promo card arrives via email to guests and the value is dependent on arrival date, length of stay, and resort selection. The Disney Dining Promo Card can also be used to mobile order at select dining locations via the My Disney Experience app.

Along with the Disney Dining Promo Card, Disney World also announced that guests visiting this Spring and Summer can save up to 25% on rooms at select resort hotels.

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Walt Disney Co. Archives director Becky Cline has spent the past several months shuttling between the studio’s Burbank lot and Philadelphia, where a sprawling exhibit is debuting in February as part of the conglomerate’s yearlong 100th anniversary celebration in 2023. After Philly’s famed Franklin Institute, Disney100: The Exhibition will embark on a global five-year tour. The 15,000-square-foot spectacle will showcase more than 250 items, including Mickey Mouse sketches through the years, the storybook seen in 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the snow globe from 1964’s Mary Poppins, not to mention Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and Pixar paraphernalia.

None is more important than the contract signed by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney on Oct. 16, 1923, to make a series of six Alice in Wonderland-themed cartoons for distributor M.J. Winkler, who booked animated shorts to play before silent movies. The pact marked the founding of the Disney Brothers Studio, which would go through several name and company changes, beginning with Walt Disney Studio in 1926, before resting at its current Walt Disney Co. conglomeration in 1986. “It’s just a contract from the 1920s, but historically and culturally, it is probably the company’s most precious asset,” says Cline. “That’s why we are celebrating its signing as the 100th anniversary.”

Walt and Roy Disney’s studio struck gold when Mickey Mouse in the 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie became an overnight sensation. Mickey, who was first sketched by Walt and then refined by animator Ub Iwerks, spawned merchandise, Mickey Mouse clubs and a comic strip, allowing an ambitious and restless Walt Disney to focus on storytelling and creating lasting kid-friendly characters that would become part of the public consciousness. He revolutionized the theme park business by creating Disneyland, another passion project born from making model trains in his backyard when the by-then entertainment visionary was ordered by his doctor in the early 1950s to find a hobby.

A century later, The Walt Disney Co. is Hollywood’s leading entertainment corporation and among the world’s best-known companies with a portfolio that includes a marquee film stable, television, stage plays, theme parks, cruise ships and a streaming service, among other ventures. Its brand is part public consciousness; many remember a Disney memory from their childhood. That includes Disney movie studios chief Alan Bergman. As a kid, he could see the fireworks show at Disneyland from his family’s home in Orange County. Today, Bergman oversees all of the various film labels as chairman of Disney Studios Content, as well as theatrical stage productions. “We always aim to deliver great stories that resonate with people around the world and that stand the test of time. Every new film or series is a chance to create a connection that audiences can carry with them for a lifetime,” he says.

Filmmaker Justin Simien, who directed the upcoming live-action film Haunted Mansion, was obsessed with Disney cartoons that he watched as a kid on his favorite toy, a Fisher-Price Movie viewer. “When I started school, education become significant only when a teacher reached into a stack of those giant Disney clamshells for a ‘movie day.’ By the time I was taking a first-grade field trip to see The Little Mermaid for a music class, I was thoroughly indoctrinated,” says Simien. And he was 8 when he went to Disney World, where he was “traumatized for life by two events: 1) Riding Space Mountain with my mother while she screamed to God to save us; 2) The part at the end of Haunted Mansion where a ghost in a mirror appeared to be riding with me out the exit. I wasn’t ever sure that was just a trick.”

Disney has endured its own fair share of ups and downs through the decades, including a long, bleak period after Walt Disney’s death in December 1966 (the era known as the Disney Renaissance began when Michael Eisner was named CEO in 1984). There’s also has been plenty of C-suite drama, including the recent, unexpected return of Bob Iger as chairman and CEO after the Disney board ousted Bob Chapek in November. The company suffered its worst stock decline in years in 2022 as it grappled with changing CEOs, the high cost of streaming and most recently, a lower-than-expected Avatar: The Way of Water global opening weekend in mid-December (the sequel made up ground over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays).

Animation historian Don Hahn, who produced such Disney hits as Beauty and the Beast, believes Walt Disney would be pleased that Iger is back at the helm in time for the 100th anniversary. “Bob Iger is an unusual mix of creativity toward the artistic side and responsibility toward the board. He has been a great steward of the company. It’s hard to replace that,” he says. After succeeding Eisner in 2005, Iger engineered the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox. The movie studio’s standing began to soar: In 2019, Disney made history after a record $13.2 billion in global ticket sales. “We are incredibly grateful to the generations of people all over the world who have invited our stories and characters into their lives over the past 100 years,” Iger said in a statement to THR. “Creativity has always been the essence of who we are as a company, and Walt Disney’s boundless imagination and his relentless pursuit of excellence continue to propel the company forward today. We are honored to reach this historic milestone.”

Such milestones include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hollywood’s first animated feature with sound. The film became a cultural sensation and profit monster after premiering in 1937. Walt was vastly ahead of his time, not only in selling Snow White merchandise a year before the movie even hit theaters, but in using the characters for comic strips and other ventures. He even considered a stage play but dropped the idea out of concern that theater owners would consider it direct competition. Still, he created a road map for exploiting his movies, as well as how to market a title.

He used the profits to build a studio on Burbank’s Buena Vista Avenue — where the company remains today — and to hire more animators to work on Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi, all released between 1940 and 1942. “Snow White did something not only for the company but also for the motion picture industry. It’s part of that idea that they had to diversify,” says Hahn. “Walt Disney and his brother saw that doing six- or eight-minute shorts for the rest of their lives would be not too challenging.”

The burst of energy took its toll. By the end of 1941, a year after relocating from Hyperion Avenue to the Valley, the company was facing a financial crisis. The golden age was over. “They did so much between 1937 and 1941, when the war broke out, and then it just stopped completely for a variety of reasons. They ran out of money, and, more importantly, the animators went on strike,” says Hahn. By all accounts, the strike left Walt Disney embittered and fiercely anti-communist.

He ignored concerns that Song of the South had racist overtones. The live-action/animated movie, upon which the ride Splash Mountain was later based, met with protesters and picket lines upon its 1946 release for its distorted, positive view of the lives of enslaved people; it has never been released on home video.

Shortly after its release, Walt diversified again, turning his attention to making the first of many nature documentaries, Seal Island. The 1948 film is among the features, docs and shorts earning Walt Disney 26 Oscars, a record for an individual. (That includes honorary Oscars. His first was an honorary statuette awarded in 1932 for the creation of Mickey Mouse.) Walt also decided to partner on British live-action films, including Treasure Island, after he was unable to extract Snow White earnings from England because of World War II. Later, the studio would pivot into live action, including Mary Poppins.

The studio reestablished itself in animation with Cinderella and Peter Pan, which opened in 1950 and 1953, respectively. The two films provided a treasure trove of new characters to exploit across various divisions — including Disneyland, which was an instant success when it opened in 1955. (Walt Disney funded the theme park with money from the TV networks in exchange for programming.)

Yet Walt couldn’t shake the reputation in the post-War era that he had become a corporate suit only interested in making a dollar, particularly after the creation of Disneyland. Whereas once intellectuals had praised him for his creativity and revolutionizing animation — he was even compared to such creative forces as Charlie Chaplin — now they took aim, saying he had become a mass artist, according to biographer Neal Gabler’s definitive book, Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.

“That’s not at all what he was after. This is a company that has made its entire career out of bringing you into the fold in your childhood,” says Hahn. “We have all these memories of cartoons and Disneyland. There’s a psychological and emotional response to Disney that others, Warner Bros. or Apple, don’t have. You grow up with it, so you’re going to have strong opinions about it, much more than any other company.”

Snow White’s Road Map of Success

Walt’s first animated feature with sound made history after premiering in December 1937.

The premiere for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was as star-studded as any red carpet for a live-action film. Walt Disney knew the event, staged on Dec. 21, 1937, at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles, had to be big. Lore has it that Clark Gable and Carole Lombard wept during the movie, which marked Disney’s first animated feature with sound, as well as Disney’s first feature-length movie. Charlie Chaplin and Judy Garland also were among the notable names who attended.

“It was a turning point. Before that, animation was just a novelty and a parlor trick,” says Hahn. “There had been concern among some studios and audience members that you couldn’t sit and watch a cartoon that long.”

The worry was for naught. The musical fantasy — which earned an Oscar nomination for its score — would go on to garner more than $6.7 million in North America, a huge sum that made it the highest-grossing sound film at that time, a record it handed over to Gone With the Wind two years later. (It earned another $7 million-plus overseas.) Including rereleases, Snow White is one of the top 10 highest-performing films of all time when adjusted for inflation, according to Box Office Mojo.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, was the first in a long line of Disney animated titles that keep on giving across various divisions of the company (another example is The Lion King‘s release in 1994, which led to a Broadway version in 1997 and a live-action update in 2019). In March 2024, the studio will release a live-action iteration of the 1937 Snow White film that’s to be directed by Marc Webb, starring Rachel Zegler in the titular role and Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen.

“Walt found stories that were timeless. Then he applied the best technology and the best talent, as well as working to make them relevant and thrilling and entertaining for the time,” says Sean Bailey, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, home of the many live-action reimaginings of classic films and theme park attractions; in May, Bailey’s live-action division will release The Little Mermaid.

Bailey says he and his team discuss the idea of making films relevant for modern-day audiences on a daily basis. Both Snow White and Cinderella are more empowered in the live-action versions, as was Jasmine in Aladdin, says Bailey. Angelina Jolie as Maleficent is another strong female character.

Bailey recalls how Walt Disney seemed to bristle during a radio interview when asked why he would make the 1954 live-action movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when his specialty was producing animated movies for kids.

“He got seemingly semi-offended and said, ‘I don’t make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be 6 or 60,’ ” says Bailey, who adds that he can relate. “That is our biggest North Star when we’re going to make a Little Mermaid or a Jungle Book. We’re making big movies. We want kids to love them, but we don’t ever think we’re making them for kids.”

Another Movie From Haunted Mansion Attraction

Walt Disney directed his Imagineers to begin designing the popular attraction in the early 1950s, but it didn’t open until 1969, three years after the studio founder died.

There is nothing more precious to a Hollywood studio than IP — of which Disney has plenty.

Just as characters from Disney movies are featured at the company’s theme parks, so do the attractions cross-pollinate and become movies. Many were dubious when the studio announced plans to make a movie based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The Johnny Depp-led franchise transformed into a giant box office success following the first movie’s release in summer 2003.

Later that year, The Haunted Mansion, starring Eddie Murphy, also hit theaters. The film earned a so-so $182 million at the global box office against a $90 million budget (the film has since become something of a home entertainment Halloween classic). Disney will have another go this summer, when Simien’s star-packed Haunted Mansion opens. Rosario Dawson plays a mother who discovers her new home is haunted and stars opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto and Owen Wilson.

Simien worked closely with Walt Disney Imagineering, which is responsible for creating, designing and building all theme park attractions. The creative division, founded by Walt Disney in 1952 to assist with Disneyland, also is responsible for keeping an eye on cruise ships, merchandise product development, games and publishing.

“Our whole focus is putting [park] guests in the middle of a story,” says Mark LaVine, a writer and executive of story development at Imagineering.

The Imagineers also assisted filmmakers on the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and the 2021 Jungle Cruise movie. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise stars Dwayne Johnson as a riverboat captain who takes a scientist, played by Emily Blunt, in search of the Tree of Life. LaVine says it’s important for films to have Easter eggs and props people will recognize from the ride.

“Some of the jokes that Dwayne Johnson tells are jokes that you’ll hear our skippers say in the parks,” says LaVine. “There are a lot of park original stories that have this kind of potential, which is exciting.”

Encanto: Another Step Forward in Storytelling

The Oscar-nominated feature broke records with its “Bruno” hit and has drawn praise for its cultural representation.

Like many others, Jennifer Lee remembers watching reruns of The Wonderful World of Disney as a kid growing up in the 1970s and feeling inspired by “Uncle Walt,” as he was known on the show. She dreamed of becoming an animator at the company — which she eventually did. Lee, who joined Walt Disney Animation as a writer in 2011, was named chief creative officer of the storied studio in 2018.

“It felt like home. We have a portrait of Walt by the front entrance, and every time I pass it, I think of his legacy, innovative spirit, dedication to artistry and his commitment to ever-evolving storytelling. It drives everything we do,” says Lee, the first female director of a Walt Disney Animation film (Frozen).

Walt Disney Animation’s Oscar-nominated Encanto, which is praised for representing Latinos and Colombian culture, is an example of how the studio is continuing the legacy, as part of a progression that has included Mulan, The Princess and the Frog, Coco and Raya and the Last Dragon. “Telling stories from around the world is a privilege. The care, respect and love that went into making Encanto inspires us as a studio and propels us forward,” says Lee. Encanto‘s soundtrack, which included eight original songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, went viral after the film was released in theaters over Thanksgiving 2021 and on Disney+ a month later. In particular, Miranda’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” was a massive hit and became the biggest Disney song of all time, a record once held by songs like Frozen‘s “Let It Go.”

Says Lee, “Walt had a deep respect for music and for those who created it, including the great Sherman Brothers,” who wrote such iconic tunes as “It’s a Small World (After All)” for Disneyland.

On Nov. 22, Walt Disney Animation will release Wish, an original story with new music from Julia Michaels. The movie, which opens amid the company’s yearlong 100th anniversary celebration, explores the story of the star that many Disney characters wish upon. Lee and her fellow Frozen director Chris Buck wrote the script. Buck is directing Wish with Fawn Veerasunthorn, a storyboard artist who likewise worked on Frozen.

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2023 marks the 17th anniversary of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, and it has a lot of experiences planned for the New Year, from participating in the company-wide “100 Years of Wonder” to the opening of Disney’s first ever “World of Frozen.”

Ready to see what the park has in store for Guests? Let’s take a look

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100 Years of Wonder celebration

The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary celebration of The Walt Disney Company, which was founded in 1923.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, this memorable milestone event will run through October, and include spectacular events from Lunar New Year to Halloween, with appearances from fan-favorite characters like Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Chip ‘n’ Dale in all-new 100th anniversary outfits.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, one of Walt Disney’s original cartoon creations, will be making his debut in the park at long last too.

The excitement continues with the unveiling of Hong Kong Disneyland’s long-awaited Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue near Cinderella’s Carousel.

And a rich lineup of 100th anniversary merchandise will be available in store for fans to take home, too.

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World of Frozen

As announced at D23 Expo 2022, “World of Frozen,” the first highly immersive Frozen-themed land inspired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios hit film franchise, is coming to Hong Kong Disneyland by the end of the year.

Guests will be able to visit the kingdom of Arendelle, and be fully immersed in all its sights, sounds, cuisines, and traditions.

“World of Frozen” will be home to two exciting attractions:

• The first Frozen-themed coaster, “Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs,” where guests will embark on a scenic ride designed and built by Wandering Oaken, and powered by his buddies Olaf and Sven.
• “Frozen Ever After,” the attraction where guests are invited to go on a whimsical journey to visit Elsa’s Ice Palace on the special occasion of “Summer Snow Day,” and meet all their beloved friends from Frozen.

Later this month, the resort will celebrate 2023, which in the Chinese zodiac is the Year of the Rabbit.

Duffy’s friend StellaLou will be the ambassador, and there will also be meet-and-greets with LinaBell, Mickey and friends in festive outfits, and seasonal blessings in the hotels, shops and restaurants for a magical Lunar New Year. The celebration will run through February.

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Duffy and Friends

A brand-new immersive Duffy and Friends-themed experience will magically transport guests into the world of Duffy and all his friends at Plaza Grounds from March through June 2023.

It will feature more themed play, shop, and dine experiences on Main Street, U.S.A. that will create refreshing memories for guests with the beloved Duffy and Friends.

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Heroes: Avengers and Future Heroes Assemble

In May and June, Marvel fans will be recruited as the “next generation of heroes” and invited to a series of Heroic Encounters.

The Avengers will take the Tomorrowland stage with an epic arrival. Fans can also gear up with a series of Marvel-themed merchandise assortments, and fuel up with hero-friendly dining options.

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Summer Splash!

From June to August, as the summer sun shines down on Hong Kong Disneyland, splash into the coolest party ever with the beloved Disney and Pixar friends.

A series of summer surprises await guests, including the much-loved “Pixar Water Play Street Party!” and a summer edition of the “Follow Your Dreams” live outdoor party.

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Disney Halloween Time

Guests will be invited to the most wicked and spookiest Halloween celebration only at Hong Kong Disneyland in September and October.

Disney Villains will transform the park with different evil delights, awaiting everyone to unleash their wicked side.

Plus, the delightfully evil and much-loved musical stage show, “Let’s Get Wicked,” is a not-to-be-missed item during the Halloween extravaganza. The show won a prestigious IAAPA Brass Ring award this year for “Most Creative Halloween Haunt, Show, or Experience.”

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A Disney Christmas

The resort will end 2023 with “A Disney Christmas” in November and December. It will once again feature Disney friends, magical snowfalls, and festive experiences at the resort.

You can experience videos of this year’s festivities, which included weekend themed concerts, in our Christmas Day round-up.

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Looking Ahead

In talking about the year ahead, Michael Moriarty, managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, said:

“2023 will bring to guests magic and surprises like never before as we celebrate having grown and evolved across 17 fantastic years so far.

Join in as we celebrate ‘100 Years of Wonder’ with Mickey and Friends and our cast members in a year of many firsts, with the ‘World of Frozen’ opening in the second half of 2023, a brand-new Duffy and Friends-themed experience, and our very own Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue on the way! The excitement will be set to one hundred in 2023!”

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Both Disneyland and Walt Disney World updated their websites with sections warning parkgoers to show respect to all other guests and cast members.

Disney is warning guests to be on their best behavior at the California and Florida resorts after an uptick in fights at the parks.

Both Disneyland and Walt Disney World added courtesy sections to the “Know Before You Go” section on their website reminding guests that inappropriate behavior can result in being kicked off the property.

For California parkgoers, Disneyland’s warning reads, “We ask all who come to this happy place to treat others with respect, kindness and compassion. To help guests have a safe and enjoyable experience, we regularly update our Disneyland resort rules.”

Additionally, in the property rules section, the park asks that guests show “common courtesy” to other guests and cast members (employees) by “not using profanity or engaging in unsafe, illegal, disruptive or offensive behavior, jumping lines or saving places in lines for others.”

Walt Disney World in Florida shares a similar message encouraging guests to “be the magic you want to see in the world” and to always treat others with respect, kindness and compassion. The park warns those who can’t live up to the “simple wish” will be asked to leave the resort.

According to WDW News Today, fights have broken out at the Florida resort in multiple places over the past year and a half including Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom, Toy Story Land in Hollywood Studios, Living With The Land in EPCOT, and on the ferryboats to and from the Magic Kingdom.

In July of this year, a large fight between two families took place in front of Peter Pan’s Flight just months after a woman suffered a head injury after an altercation during a fireworks show.

The California park has experienced similar altercations, most recently with a brawl during Memorial Day weekend that resulted in the removal of several guests.

At the time, a spokesperson for Disneyland issued the following statement to Fox 11 LA:

“We do not condone this type of reprehensible behavior. Disneyland Resort security intervened swiftly, deescalated the situation and removed the guests from the park.”

In 2019, a fight involving at least four relatives broke out in the Mickey’s Toontown section of Disneyland. In a then-viral video of the incident, children could be heard screaming and crying in the background.

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The return of the Walt Disney World Railroad at the Magic Kingdom over the weekend is a bigger deal than you think.

I wasn’t looking to make history.

I was at Walt Disney‘s (DIS -0.34%) most visited theme park on the planet last week, enjoying Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on a promising Friday morning. Walking through Frontierland, I saw a locomotive pull into the station.

The Walt Disney World Railroad making the rounds wasn’t a new sight. The attraction, which had been closed since 2019, had begun making test runs in recent weeks. A day earlier, Disney employees — cast members, as the media giant calls them — were invited to go for a ride. Was the iconic vintage steam train actually starting to carry guests around the park as passengers?

The train had been sitting idle and empty at the Main Street station by the park’s entrance when we tapped in an hour earlier, the attraction entrance roped off. It didn’t seem as if it would be running that day. But — lo and behold — the Frontierland station cast members were no longer blocking access to the ride. The locomotive arrived, fairly full of passengers who had left the Main Street station just a few minutes earlier. I was about to board the first train to cycle through the perimeter of the Magic Kingdom carrying actual park guests in more than three years.

It was nostalgic. It was the return of a classic attraction. It was a partial but important solution to the capacity problem that has held the theme park operator in check since it reopened after a four-month COVID-19-related closure in 2020.

IMAGE SOURCE: DISNEY.

The train event

The return of one of the original Magic Kingdom attractions might not seem to have much significance outside of theme park enthusiast circles, but this is a great thing for shareholders on the other side of the turnstile, too. When Disney World reopened in the summer of 2020, it did so with the introduction of park reservations. Having a ticket or an annual pass isn’t enough anymore; potential visitors also have to secure a park reservation.

This was necessary early in the reopening process, when social distancing safeguards had Disney World and rival park operators in the state of Florida initially limiting attendance levels to roughly 30% of a gated attraction’s capacity. Those statewide restrictions are long gone, but staffing, expansion, and economic challenges have kept them in place at the House of Mouse.Collapse

Disney is the only major theme park operator clinging to the reservations system. It might argue that it’s about not disappointing a family traveling all the way to Orlando for a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, but that’s just the thin caramelized crust of a creme brulee. It’s easy to crack through to get to the pudding. Park reservations are presumably a gatekeeper, largely to keep annual pass holders who pay $2 to $5 a day for year-round access from taking away spots that could be filled by guests paying as much as $189 for a one-day admission. And that’s not the only distinction being checked. Guests who are also paying to stay at a Disney resort will naturally be more lucrative than local residents or visitors who choose to stay off-site.

The math is cruel but undeniable. Revenue per capita is up 40% at Disney World since the rollout of the park reservations system.

The long-overdue return of the Walt Disney World Railroad over the weekend brings back one of the park’s highest-capacity offerings — it can reportedly take on more than 3,000 visitors an hour. The timing couldn’t have been better, and not just because the steam team’s arrival came during the peak holiday travel season. Disney World plans to close its Splash Mountain log flume ride next month, and it will be refurbished before reopening as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure with a Princess and the Frog update in late 2024. Parkgoers who might have logged on, so to speak, can take the train instead.

Thankfully, the Magic Kingdom is also just months away from debuting the Tron-themed roller coaster it announced five years ago. Tron Lightcycle Run is slated to open in the spring. But it’s been in testing for months, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t open before the end of March, sometime during the resort’s 18-month celebration of turning 50 years old.

Annual passholders hoping that the return of Bob Iger as CEO would put an end to the reservations system will need to be patient. The only ways to make that feasible anytime soon are by tightening annual pass restrictions (if not eliminating them entirely), raising prices, or increasing capacity. A global recession could also relax availability, but let’s not go there just yet.

Increasing capacity at the parks is the best way to make all parties happy when it comes to the leader of travel and tourism stocks. The addition of a vintage transportation attraction is pulling into the station just in time to make that possible.

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There is nothing soft and cuddly about the way Disney protects the characters it brings to life.

This is a company that once forced a Florida day care center to remove an unauthorized Minnie Mouse mural. In 2006, Disney told a stonemason that carving Winnie the Pooh into a child’s gravestone would violate its copyright. The company pushed so hard for an extension of copyright protections in 1998 that the result was derisively nicknamed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.

For the first time, however, one of Disney’s marquee characters — Mickey himself — is set to enter the public domain. “Steamboat Willie,” the 1928 short film that introduced Mickey to the world, will lose copyright protection in the United States and a few other countries at the end of next year, prompting fans, copyright experts and potential Mickey grabbers to wonder: How is the notoriously litigious Disney going to respond?

“I’m seeing in Reddit forums and on Twitter where people — creative types — are getting excited about the possibilities, that somehow it’s going to be open season on Mickey,” said Aaron J. Moss, a partner at Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles who specializes in copyright and trademark law. “But that is a misunderstanding of what is happening with the copyright.”

The matter is more complicated than it appears, and those who try to capitalize on the expiring “Steamboat Willie” copyright could easily end up in a legal mousetrap. “The question is where Disney tries to draw the line on enforcement,” Mr. Moss said, “and if courts get involved to draw that line judicially.”

Only one copyright is expiring. It covers the original version of Mickey Mouse as seen in “Steamboat Willie,” an eight-minute short with little plot. This nonspeaking Mickey has a rat-like nose, rudimentary eyes (no pupils) and a long tail. He can be naughty. In one “Steamboat Willie” scene, he torments a cat. In another, he uses a terrified goose as a trombone.

Later versions of the character remain protected by copyrights, including the sweeter, rounder Mickey with red shorts and white gloves most familiar to audiences today. They will enter the public domain at different points over the coming decades.

“Disney has regularly modernized the character, not necessarily as a program of copyright management, at least initially, but to keep up with the times,” said Jane C. Ginsburg, an authority on intellectual property law who teaches at Columbia University.

The expiration of the “Steamboat Willie” copyright means that the black-and-white short can be shown without Disney’s permission and even resold by third parties. (There may not be much sales value left, however. Disney posted it for free on YouTube years ago.) It also means that anyone can make use of the film and the original Mickey to further expression — to create new stories and artwork.

Winnie the Pooh, another Disney property, offers a window into what could happen.

This year, the 1926 children’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh,” by A.A. Milne, came into the public domain. An upstart filmmaker has since made a low-budget, live-action slasher film called “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” in which the pudgy yellow bear turns feral. In one scene, Pooh and his friend Piglet use chloroform to incapacitate a bikini-clad woman in a hot tub and then drive a car over her head.

Disney has no copyright recourse, as long as the filmmaker adheres to the 1926 material and does not use any elements that came later. (Pooh’s recognizable red shirt, for instance, was added in 1930.) Fathom Events will give “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey,” directed by Rhys Waterfield, a one-day theatrical release in the United States on Feb. 15.

Here is where it gets tricky: Disney also holds trademarks on its characters, including the “Steamboat Willie” version of Mickey Mouse, and trademarks never expire as long as companies keep submitting the proper paperwork. A copyright covers a specific creation (unauthorized copying), but trademarks are designed to protect against consumer confusion — to provide consumers assurance about the source and quality of a creation.

Boiled down, any public domain use of the original Mickey cannot be perceived as coming from Disney, Ms. Ginsburg explained. This protection is strong, she added, because the character, even in his early form, has such close association with the company. People glance at those ears and smile and “automatically associate it with Disney,” she said.

In 2007, Walt Disney Animation Studios redesigned its logo to incorporate the “Steamboat Willie” mouse. It has appeared before every movie the unit has released since, including “Frozen” and “Encanto,” deepening the old character’s association with the company. (The logo is also protected by a trademark.) In addition, Disney sells “Steamboat Willie” merchandise, including socks, backpacks, mugs, stickers, shirts and collectibles.

“Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” most likely does not run afoul of Disney’s trademarks because “no reasonable person would ever believe that Disney would authorize that kind of story,” Mr. Moss said. Pooh’s face is also slightly distorted in the film.

“Ever since Mickey Mouse’s first appearance in the 1928 short film ‘Steamboat Willie,’ people have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences and authentic products,” Disney said in a statement. “That will not change when the copyright in the ‘Steamboat Willie’ film expires.”

It added, “We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey and our other iconic characters.”

The topic of Mickey Mouse and copyright has loomed in the public consciousness since the late 1990s, when Disney and other entertainment companies — and, notably, the estates of composers like George Gershwin — successfully lobbied Congress to extend copyright protections. In many ways, Mickey has become the ultimate symbol of intellectual property, a character more well known than even Santa Claus, market researchers have said.

The 1998 copyright extension prompted a court fight, with detractors arguing that Congress disregarded the Constitution, which holds that copyright protection be given for a “limited” time. “Free the Mouse” bumper stickers began appearing, according to Paul Goldstein, a professor at Stanford Law School and the author of a five-volume treatise on U.S. copyright law.

“Disney was no more active in pushing for the extension than anyone else, but they made for a convenient villain,” he said.

In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 to uphold what Congress had done. But the justices did so while holding their nose. “We are not at liberty to second-guess congressional determinations and policy judgments of this order, however debatable or arguably unwise they may be,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion.

Disney lawyers and lobbyists likely determined long ago that pressing Congress for another extension would fail. “That last one is held in such bad, bad odor,” Mr. Goldstein said. “I don’t think there was any option to try and extend further.”

That means early versions of Popeye, King Kong, Donald Duck, Flash Gordon, Porky Pig and Superman will enter the public domain at various points over the next decade.

If there is anything that Disney takes more seriously than intellectual property, it is public image. In 2020, a Disney affiliate charged an elementary school $250 for showing “The Lion King” without permission at a P.T.A. fund-raiser. The media storm that followed was so intense that Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, apologized and said he would make a personal donation.

Our company @WaltDisneyCo apologizes to the Emerson Elementary School PTA and I will personally donate to their fund raising initiative.— Robert Iger (@RobertIger) February 6, 2020

In the last decade, Disney has also had to contend with the rise of “creator culture,” Mr. Moss noted. Digital technology has allowed creativity and expression to flourish online, with YouTube vloggers, Instagram influencers, TikTokers and Twitter rabble-rousers incorporating intellectual property into new works.

That could pose a challenge for Disney when “Steamboat Willie” comes into the public domain. “They won’t be able to go after everyone,” Mr. Moss said. “Battle lines will have to be drawn.”

Ms. Ginsburg said she was watching closely to see if Disney and other entertainment companies tried to apply trademark law as a substitute for or extension of copyright — as she put it, “apply a separate protection to get to the same place.” In a Supreme Court intellectual property case from 2003 involving 20th Century Fox, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, warned of using trademarks to generate “a species of mutant copyright law.”

“This is a looming area,” Ms. Ginsburg said. “We’re on the cusp of a time when copyrights in a range of visual works will expire.”

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Bob Iger had been out of Walt Disney Co. DIS -0.45%decrease; red down pointing triangle for nearly a year, but as most people around him knew, he had never really let go. Acting almost as a shadow CEO, he had undermined his successor and provided an ear for unhappy Disney executives, some of whom he had mentored.

When the call to return as chief executive came, it was from someone on his old team. Mr. Iger later told people he had an inkling of how the script would go.

For nearly three years, Mr. Iger’s chosen successor at Disney, Bob Chapek, had faced one crisis after another: a pandemic that closed theme parks and movie theaters, a bitter fight with Florida’s governor and a previously unreported boardroom clash with his chief financial officer.

One by one, Mr. Chapek had lost support of Disney fans, studio talent, executives, employees, Wall Street and, finally, the company’s board.

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The troubles boiled over in a Nov. 8 earnings call. During the 56-minute presentation, Mr. Chapek glossed over a $1.47 billion loss in Disney’s streaming division and focused instead on such successes as Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, one of Walt Disney World’s live attractions.

In a text exchange with Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy, CNBC’s Jim Cramer called the results “devastating.”

The next day, Disney shares plummeted 13.2%, one of the largest one-day drops in company history. Nelson Peltz, the second activist investor to challenge Disney this year, started buying shares. Mr. Cramer on his show called for Mr. Chapek’s head.

Other chief executives might have weathered the setbacks. But none had Mr. Iger breathing down their neck.

The Walt Disney Co. logo displayed on a screen at the New York Stock Exchange.PHOTO: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES

The former Disney chairman and CEO, who ran the company for 15 years, stuck around long after Mr. Chapek assumed the top job in February 2020. That Mr. Iger was unhappy with Mr. Chapek is well established. Less well known is the depth of his antipathy and the lengths he went to deflate Mr. Chapek behind the scenes.

Mr. Iger, then still under contract as executive chairman, didn’t move out of the office he kept at Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, Calif. He called strategy meetings with Mr. Chapek’s underlings without inviting the new CEO.

Mr. Chapek told friends that Mr. Iger’s attitude seemed to be: “They work for me, not for you.”

Mr. Iger, 71 years old, felt slighted that Mr. Chapek didn’t lean on him for advice. He told confidants that Mr. Chapek, 63, was doing a terrible job and that he was incompetent. As Mr. Chapek struggled to find his footing, Mr. Iger hovered in the wings. In a podcast interview, he said the Disney character he would most like to be was Thor, the Norse god who is coaxed out of retirement to help the superheroes conquer the villain Thanos in “Avengers: Endgame.”

At the end of 2021, Mr. Iger finally departed Disney after postponing his retirement four times over the years. His return began with a phone call 11 months later, on Nov. 16.

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Ms. McCarthy, the Disney CFO, was fed up with Mr. Chapek’s performance and leadership, and she turned to the one person she believed could dislodge him. She and Mr. Iger had worked together for more than 15 years and had stayed in touch, including meeting for lunch last summer at the annual gathering of media executives in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Ms. McCarthy called to ask Mr. Iger if he would consider returning. He said he would. Two days later, Board Chair Susan Arnold offered him the job, knowing he would likely accept.Disney’s weekly market capitalization, by CEOSource: FactSetChapekIger2015’20125150175200225250275300325350$375billion

The move completed a bruising, yearslong power struggle worthy of a company known as the entertainment industry’s foremost storyteller.

Disney’s challenges are now Mr. Iger’s to tackle. The stock hovers at a nearly three-year low. The company’s market capitalization has fallen by more than half since last year, erasing hundreds of millions of dollars from shareholders’ portfolios.

In discussions with investors following Mr. Iger’s return, Disney investor-relations executives have described the company’s status as weak, a remarkable low point for creators of the happiest place on Earth.

This account of how Mr. Iger succeeded his successor is based on firsthand accounts of current and former Disney executives, as well as people close to the company who are familiar with the events, actions and conversations leading to Mr. Chapek’s ouster.

Hawkish helper

From the beginning of Mr. Chapek’s tenure, there was tension with his predecessor. When the Covid-19 pandemic forced theme parks to close early in 2020, the two men fought over a plan to furlough more than 100,000 Disney parks employees.

Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy during a 2019 conference.PHOTO: KYLE GRILLOT/BLOOMBERG NEWS

Mr. Iger wanted to delay staff cuts until Congress approved legislation to blunt the economic impact of the pandemic. Mr. Chapek sought to move quickly to cut costs and preserve cash. Mr. Iger won, persuading the board that it was better to wait.

Mr. Chapek complained privately to his deputies that he wasn’t fully in control. Soon, everybody heard why.

Mr. Iger told the New York Times in April 2020 that his plan to take a back seat was undone by Covid-19. “A crisis of this magnitude, and its impact on Disney, would necessarily result in my actively helping Bob [Chapek] and the company contend with it, particularly since I ran the company for 15 years!” he said.

Mr. Chapek was livid. Any hope Mr. Chapek would seek out Mr. Iger for counsel went from unlikely to out of the question.

In August, Disney reported its first full quarter in the pandemic and delivered its first quarterly loss since 2001, nearly $5 billion.

The Covid-19 lockdowns had one silver lining. Disney+, the company’s newly launched streaming service, gained 21 million subscribers in its first quarter of 2021. With people stuck at home, Disney+ became Mr. Chapek’s top strategic priority. It was a point of rare harmony between Messrs. Chapek and Iger.

Left, an employee at the Mad Hatter Tea Cups ride in 2020 at the Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong. The gated entrance of Shanghai Disneyland in China, right.LAM YIK/BLOOMBERG NEWS; QILAI SHEN/BLOOMBERG NEWS

In April 2019, seven months before Disney+ launched, Mr. Iger had told investors the company projected that the new streaming service would sign up 60 million to 90 million users in its first five years.

In December 2020, Mr. Chapek announced he was raising the Disney+ targets that Mr. Iger set. By 2024, Mr. Chapek said, Disney+ could reach 260 million subscribers. Privately, Mr. Iger questioned the eye-popping prediction, saying it wasn’t smart to offer such an ambitious goal. Mr. Iger’s leadership style leaned to underpromising and overdelivering.

By early 2021, Mr. Chapek’s push started to bear fruit. In February that year, Disney reported a quarterly profit of $17 million—paltry compared with $2.1 billion a year earlier but moving in a positive direction.

The next month, the company announced that Disney+ had reached 100 million subscribers in its first 16 months. Disney stock hit an all-time high closing price of $201.91 a share on March 8. The milestone was especially significant given that two core elements of Disney’s business, movie theaters and theme parks, remained hobbled by Covid-19.

Separate paths

Disney+ offered a solution for the conundrum of how to release movies when many movie theaters were closed. Several would-be theatrical releases premiered on the platform, helping goose subscriptions and the stock.

The company decided its 2021 Marvel Studios movie “Black Widow” would premiere simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+. The film’s star, Scarlett Johansson, asked to renegotiate her contract to compensate for the potential loss of box-office bonuses.

After weeks of back-and-forth, the actress sued Disney, setting off one of the highest-profile talent fights in many years.

Disney’s communications staff issued a statement, reviewed and approved by Mr. Chapek, saying that Ms. Johansson had already been paid $20 million and that her lawsuit was “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Scarlett Johansson, who starred in the Marvel Studios movie “Black Widow,” on stage at the Comic Con in San Diego.PHOTO: CHRIS DELMAS/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

It drew a harsh public response from Hollywood insiders and Ms. Johansson’s fans. Critics of Mr. Chapek cast it as an example of the pitfalls of having a Hollywood outsider as chief executive of an entertainment company.

Mr. Chapek, a self-described latchkey kid from Hammond, Ind., was the son of a machinist who traveled to Walt Disney World during summer vacations with his family. He joined Disney in 1993 in its home-entertainment division, making direct-to-video movies. He moved up to lead the consumer products division, overseeing retail and licensing deals and, later, ran the parks division. Earlier, he worked at H.J. Heinz Co., in the seafood and pet food divisions.

Mr. Iger, who grew up in a middle-class Long Island suburb, spent his working life around show business. He climbed the ranks at the ABC broadcast network for nearly two decades before Disney bought it in 1995.

As Disney CEO, Mr. Iger was known for his deft touch with movie stars, agents and creative executives. He lives in Brentwood, a tony Los Angeles neighborhood bisected by Sunset Boulevard.

Mr. Iger had previously announced but failed to leave Disney. After saying in 2011 he would retire in 2015, Mr. Iger extended his contract several times, most recently after Disney’s $71.3 billion acquisition of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox. Potential successors didn’t stick around, and the company’s bench of CEO candidates dwindled.

Mr. Chapek, who lives in Westlake Village, an upscale San Fernando Valley suburb at the far western edge of Los Angeles County, had worked under Mr. Iger for more than a decade. The two men appeared collegial.

Months before Mr. Chapek was named CEO, Mr. Iger wrote him a letter of recommendation in support of an honorary degree from Indiana University, Mr. Chapek’s alma mater.

“Bob is celebrated for his business acumen and his proven ability to repeatedly deliver historic performance,” Mr. Iger wrote, praising Mr. Chapek’s work in developing Shanghai Disneyland, one of Mr. Iger’s signature projects.

“But, what I have always admired most about him—and what truly defines him as a leader and drives his success—is his humanity,” Mr. Iger wrote, “the fundamental decency at the core of his character.”

Lean left

At the start of 2022, Mr. Chapek’s lieutenants were describing him as a big-idea executive whose imprint on the company would soon be clear. Mr. Chapek ordered division chiefs from Disney’s movie studios, parks and other segments to brainstorm about how metaverse technology could boost business.

In February, Disney hired a theme-park executive to head a new metaverse-focused division, and the company hinted at new projects involving fantasy sports and theme-park innovations.

Then the real world intervened. Many Disney employees, fans and activists called on the company to oppose a Florida state bill that would prohibit classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation for children through grade three and set limits for older students.

Disney employees in Glendale, Calif., staging a protest in March against Florida’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill.PHOTO: RINGO CHIU/REUTERS

Mr. Chapek declined to take a position on what opponents had labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. “As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds,” he said in a company message. His lieutenants rushed to calm workers in emails, noting the company’s support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender causes.

Disney films had featured LGBT characters and story lines in such productions as “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” and Marvel Studios’ “The Eternals.” Theme parks held “Gay Days.”

Mr. Iger, who had embraced Disney’s progressive politics, tweeted what many in the company had wanted to hear from Mr. Chapek. “If passed, this bill will put vulnerable, young LGBTQ people in jeopardy,” he wrote.

Mr. Chapek quickly reversed course. “You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry,” he said in a companywide letter. Angry employees staged walkouts.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, was displeased. “You’re a corporation based in Burbank, California, and you’re going to marshal your economic might to attack the parents of my state?” he said at a public event.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signing the “Parental Rights in Education” bill into law on March 28 in Shady Hills, Fla.PHOTO: DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD/TAMPA BAY TIMES/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The governor later pushed Florida’s legislature to pass a bill eliminating a special tax district that allowed Disney to essentially self-govern the land where the theme parks are located.

The conflict alienated progressives, who had wanted Disney to take a strong stand against the bill, but also conservative fans, who complained that Mr. Chapek’s response indicated the company’s capitulation to left-wing activists. Ironically, while Mr. Iger embraced liberal causes, Mr. Chapek has a more conservative view. He hired former members of President George W. Bush’s administration to staff his government-relations office.

PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGESSee more…

In late March, while the controversy was still raging, Mr. Iger told TV interviewer Chris Wallace that “one of the things that CEOs accept as a responsibility is that they’re going to have to weigh in on issues, even if voicing an opinion on those issues potentially puts some of your business in danger.”

Some company directors began talking informally among themselves about whether Mr. Chapek was still capable of steering the ship.

One option they considered was replacing Mr. Chapek with board member Mark Parker, a former longtime head of Nike Inc., as an interim CEO while the board hunted for a successor.

Fan fatigue

In June, Disney’s board instead renewed Mr. Chapek’s contract through 2024 in a unanimous vote. Two directors, Mr. Parker and Mary Barra, General Motors Co. CEO, had been reluctant to go along. Others persuaded them that support of the full board would boost Mr. Chapek’s confidence and shore up his performance.

The sniping continued. Soon after the contract announcement, Mr. Iger told a friend he believed Mr. Chapek was a failure in the most important measures of success for a CEO: internal satisfaction, investor relations and consumer support.

An internal survey of Disney employees had found low morale. And, according to a survey of consumer confidence by the Harris Poll, which Mr. Iger followed closely, fans were falling out of love with the Disney brand.

Despite the troubles, the contract renewal seemed to embolden Mr. Chapek. He held court at Disney’s D23 convention in September, showing off a new beard. He visited backstage with stars who were there to entertain some of Disney’s biggest fans.

Bob Chapek, former CEO of the Walt Disney Co., speaking at WSJ Tech Live in Laguna Beach, Calif., in October.PHOTO: NIKKI RITCHER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Mr. Chapek drew a few boos, a sign of how some of the Disney faithful had turned on the CEO. Some customers were upset by a theme-park reservation system that Mr. Chapek had championed. Park visitors could pay a surcharge to skip long lines at popular attractions—on top of rising admission prices—which seemed to turn the quintessential American middle-class vacation into a pastime for the affluent.

Even casual Disney theme-park fans blamed Mr. Chapek for changes they disliked. Park visitors posted videos on TikTok and Instagram, saying rides closed for repair were “Chapek’d.” “Bob Cheapek” became a meme on fan sites and message boards, referring to the CEO’s reputation for cost-cutting and higher prices.

Inside Disney, creative leaders stewed over what they saw as dilution of their authority. Tension with Disney’s TV and film executives had started in his first year, when Mr. Chapek reorganized the company to empower business-side executives to decide content budgets and determine whether a movie or TV show premiered on a network, streaming platform or in theaters. Kareem Daniel, who had served as Mr. Chapek’s deputy in Disney’s parks division, took charge of the new group making distribution decisions.

Mr. Chapek defended the changes in a Wall Street Journal interview this year, saying that leadership required “the courage to do the right things, given all the forces that want legacy.”

Between the end of 2021 and the summer, funds managed by Fidelity Investments had cut their Disney holdings by 30%, and the Sequoia Fund Inc., a $5 billion mutual fund with about 46% of its assets in tech and media stocks, had sold its entire 2.8 million-share position in Disney.

Sequoia said in a letter to investors that proceeds from the Disney stock sale went to boost its position in Netflix Inc., Disney’s biggest streaming rival.

By the numbers

Disney shares were down about 40% for the year when the company’s board met at the end of September. The meeting quickly became a referendum on Mr. Chapek’s leadership.

Ms. McCarthy told directors Disney would likely miss analyst expectations for revenue and profit in the coming quarter by a wide margin, catching Mr. Chapek off guard. Streaming losses were growing, she reported, and theme-park margins were shrinking.

Board members Safra Catz, Amy Chang, Calvin McDonald and Derica Rice grilled Mr. Chapek over the company’s poor performance. Ms. McCarthy addressed most of the questions, later telling associates that her boss had fumbled his answers.

Mr. Chapek complained to colleagues that Ms. McCarthy gave numbers that they hadn’t previously discussed, making him look bad. The board and executives had been given briefing materials, including the results Ms. McCarthy presented, before the meeting.

Ms. McCarthy, 67, is known as a Disney devotee who during a battle with cancer often returned to the office straight from chemotherapy sessions.

In an interview with the alumni magazine of Smith College, Ms. McCarthy described overcoming life’s obstacles, including anorexia in her youth and sexism in the workplace. “What I learned at Smith was I had the confidence to speak up,” she said.

Some of Mr. Chapek’s recent moves weighed on her, including a programming strategy that also served as a way to shield losses in Disney’s streaming division. “Cute,” she said disparagingly of the move during a conference call with colleagues.

By October, relations between Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Chapek were so frayed that he didn’t include her in a board meeting. He also told executives that she had lost focus, distracted by her husband’s ailing health, and had become unstable, comments repeated to some Disney directors. Ms. McCarthy learned about it from colleagues.

People who know Mr. Chapek said such language would be out of character for him.

As the environment inside Disney’s C-suite worsened, more executives voiced concerns in phone calls to Mr. Iger. Some worried Alan Bergman, the studio chief, and Josh D’Amaro, head of the parks division, might quit. In June, Mr. Chapek had abruptly fired Peter Rice, Disney’s highest-ranking TV content executive, a move that remained on the minds of many creative leaders at the company.

Crowds of visitors passing through Main Street at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., this summer.PHOTO: ZACK WITTMAN FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Cracks showed in the parks business, which for the past year had been Disney’s most reliable moneymaker. Profit margins shrank in the fourth quarter. Bloggers and social-media influencers amplified visitor complaints about rising ticket prices. Market research by Disney found white visitors 55 and older souring on the parks because they viewed the company as “too woke.”

At the end of October, Mr. Chapek traveled to New York for meetings with investors. He gave the bankers a rosy report. With his top deputies, Mr. Chapek was also optimistic about the coming quarterly report. Some of his executives described Mr. Chapek’s demeanor as out of touch—as though Disney was killing it, one said.

On Nov. 8, Mr. Chapek gave a presentation in a fourth-quarter earnings call.

Disney+ had added 12.1 million net new accounts, beating analysts’ predictions and bringing its global total to 164.2 million subscribers. Yet its losses were 38% more than what Wall Street expected, approaching $1.5 billion.

Analysts from MoffettNathanson zeroed in on Disney’s projections for future profits. They had expected the company to forecast 34% growth in one significant income measure. Instead, Disney projected it would be in the high single digits. “Rarely have we ever been so incorrect in our forecasting of Disney profits,” the analysts said.

Before the call, Ms. McCarthy suggested Mr. Chapek address the grim news head-on. He instead wrote a script that spent more time praising the return of in-person events, such as live attractions at theme parks.

The next day, Disney stock had one of its largest drops ever. Over the course of 20 months, prices had fallen from $201.91 a share to $86.75.

Activists pounced. Trian Fund Management LP bought more than $800 million worth of Disney stock in the days following the earnings report. Mr. Peltz, the fund’s co-founder, called Mr. Chapek to say he was acquiring a stake. He wanted a seat on Disney’s board, and to see the company cut costs.

In a matter of days, Mr. Chapek found himself standing between a panicked workforce and an investor community sensing blood in the water. On Nov. 11, he issued a memo to senior executives banning all but essential work travel and freezing new hires. Layoffs were likely, he added.

Curtain falls

On Nov. 16, Ms. McCarthy took matters into her own hands. Without having confronted her boss or seeking board approval, she called Mr. Iger to gauge his interest in returning as CEO. She caught Mr. Iger at a low point—he had been telling friends he was more concerned over the direction of the company than ever.

Now-CEO Bob Iger greeting Disney employees at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., on April 30, 2021.PHOTO: JEFF GRITCHEN/ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/ZUMA PRESS

He also told them he was frustrated with the idleness of his post-Disney life. In early October, Mr. Iger had taken a trip aboard the Aquarius, his 150-foot yacht, around the Fijian islands and complained to friends that his wife, Willow Bay—too busy with her job as dean of the communications and journalism school at the University of Southern California—couldn’t join him.

Mr. Iger had an offer to be an adviser at private-equity firm RedBird Capital. On Friday, Nov. 18, Ms. Arnold called with her offer.

That day, Mr. Cramer, who is a close contact of Ms. McCarthy’s, said on CNBC that he had heard Mr. Peltz had taken a position in Disney: “Disney needs his help. This current crew just isn’t cutting it.”

On Sunday, Nov. 20, Ms. Arnold called to tell Mr. Chapek his services were no longer needed.

The news broke as a group of Disney executives gathered at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for Elton John’s final U.S. concert, which was being streamed live on Disney+. Mr. Chapek, a big fan of the singer-songwriter, had planned to attend. He never made it.

A week later, Mr. Iger held a town-hall meeting in the Burbank headquarters that was live-streamed to far-flung employees. He pledged that storytelling and creativity would be at the heart of Disney’s mission.

The returning CEO inherits a set of big problems: Empty rooms at theme-park hotels, the long closure of Shanghai Disney and movie theaters in China, and Wall Street demands to see profits in the streaming division. On top of that, Mr. Iger has told the board he has another focus—finding a successor, again.

Winning back disgruntled fans might be his easiest chore.

On a Saturday afternoon in December, Mr. Iger walked Main Street in Southern California’s Disneyland, flanked by executives, his wife and security guards wearing earpieces.

“I love you!” passing fans yelled. Some stopped for selfies and autographs.

Mr. Iger looked ecstatic, leaving associates to wonder if he ever plans to leave.

Sarah Krouse, Suzanne Vranica and Lauren Thomas contributed to this article.

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One of the most notable companies in the world is The Walt DisneyDIS -0.5%DIS -0.5%DIS -0.5% Company (TWDC). With a dozen theme parks, five cruise ships, multiple movie studios, and more under its umbrella TWDC had a big year in 2022, with multiple executive-level shake-ups, new attraction openings at its theme parks, and of course chart-topping movies and streaming series. With 2023 coming quickly, it’s hard not to see how 2022 will affect the company going forward.

The big change at CEO

The biggest change to TWDC was the late season change in CEO. 2022 started with former CEO Bob Chapek at the helm—whom most Disney fans did not like—and is ending with the return of Bob Iger as CEO of the company. Iger will be the CEO for two years while he hand-selects and trains the next chief executive.

The big move was a shock, but a welcome surprise to most Disney fans, who believe Iger will recalibrate the parks to their former glory as well as slow the increase in prices that have skyrocketed over the past few years at the parks. In a company-wide email, Iger sought to bring Disney employees back to the “mission” of the company, which he says is “to bring joy to people through great storytelling.”

In 2023, it’s many fan’s hope hope that Iger will continue to listen to their voices, not just at the parks, but with movie studios and other Disney-owned properties. Disney has already started to make the parks more inclusive with the addition of animatronic dolls in wheelchairs at Disneyland’s it’s a small world attraction. On both coasts, Disney will be adding an entirely new attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure which will replace Splash Mountain at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, and Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. The attraction is based on Disney’s first African-American princess, Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.

Is reserving everything at the parks in advance the new normal?

One of the biggest gripes Disney fans have had in 2022 is the need to reserve every single thing they want to do at the domestic Disney Parks in advance. From securing park pass reservations to getting up just before 7:00 a.m. at Walt Disney World to purchase Disney Genie+ or individual lightning lanes, going to the Disney Parks is more of a challenge than ever.

But is this the new normal for the Disney Parks? Many don’t don’t think so. Iger is keen on making the park experience more user-friendly and in turn that may mean getting rid of or simplifying the park reservation system. There has been no official word from Disney about this, but there is hope that getting into the parks in 2023 will be easier, and in turn, allow families to have less stress first thing in the morning before their first cup of coffee.

Do we think that Disney Genie+ is going to go anywhere? Well, no. But with the almost weekly changes to the system based on consumer feedback, Disney is trying to make the paid skip-the-line service more user-friendly, even if the price is on a sliding scale now instead of a fixed cost. It will also be interesting to see if annual pass holders at Walt Disney World and Magic Key holders at Disneyland will be able to add Disney Genie+ to their tickets for the entire year at a fixed cost, much like how MaxPass was able to be added to a year-long pass at the Disneyland Resort before the pandemic.

With 164.2 million subscribers as of October 1, 2022, Disney+, TWDC’s direct-to-consumer streaming service continues to grow and add millions of new fans every year. Overall, TWDC’s entire portfolio of streaming services, which includes Disney+, Disney+ Hotstar, Hulu and ESPN+ have over 235 million global subscribers. In 2023, it’s expected that Disney+ will continue to add new subscribers, even if it’s at a slower pace than at the streaming service’s initial launch in 2019.

Disney fans waited anxiously for new Star Wars and Marvel series like Andor and She-Hulk, respectively, to drop new episodes every week in 2022. Fans also returned to familiar places within these worlds with series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Marvel Studios Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. trending on social media throughout the year.

2023 will bring a slate of returning series to the streaming service, including the second season of the animated Star Wars series The Bad Batch and the docu-series Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. New shows debuting on Disney+ next year include The Muppets Mayhem and the highly anticipated Agatha: Coven of Chaos, a spin-off of the popular WandaVision series.

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Disney’s Strange World is heading to Disney+ on December 23, the streamer announced Monday.

The animated family film has been a disappointment at the box office, grossing $30.4M domestically since its weak opening over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, and $50.4M worldwide.

The Walt Disney Animation Studios pic centers around a legendary family of explorers, the Clades, as they attempt to navigate an uncharted, treacherous land alongside a motley crew that includes a mischievous blob called Splat; Legend, the family dog; and a slew of ravenous creatures.

The A-list voice cast is led by Jake Gyllenhaal as Searcher Clade, a family man who finds himself out of his element on an unpredictable mission, and Dennis Quaid as Searcher’s larger-than-life explorer father, Jaeger, along with Jaboukie Young-White as Searcher’s 16-year-old, adventure-seeking son, Ethan, Gabrielle Union as Meridian Clade, an accomplished pilot and Searcher’s partner in all things; and Lucy Liu as Callisto Mal, Avalonia’s fearless leader who spearheads the exploration into the strange world.

Strange World is helmed by director Don Hall (Big Hero 6, Raya and the Last Dragon) and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen (co-writer Raya and the Last Dragon), with Roy Conli (Big Hero 6, Tangled) producing.

Disney and Amazon have partnered to create “Hey Disney!”, a new voice assistant that will soon be available to guests staying in rooms at Walt Disney World Resorts. The device, which is an Amazon Echo-style device adorned with Mickey ears, will allow guests to access Alexa services with a Disney twist, including cameos from over 25 Disney characters. In addition to providing access to Disney content, “Hey Disney!” will also be able to perform everyday tasks such as setting timers and alarms, and checking the weather.

The device is expected to officially launch next year and will offer access to interactive Disney storytelling experiences and entertainment. It will also be able to perform everyday tasks like setting timers and alarms and checking the weather.

Last week, Walt Disney World Resort began installing Amazon Echo Show 5 smart displays equipped with the Disney-branded version of Alexa. Guests at the resort will be able to request amenities, ask for directions or park events, and engage in other interactive activities using the voice assistant. The devices will be placed in a limited number of rooms at the resort, and will eventually be extended to additional hotels across Disney World. However, guests are not required to use the voice assistant and can choose to mute it during their stay. Because the device operates with the hotel room, it will not be automatically connected to any Disney accounts.

While many are excited about the prospect of using “Hey Disney!” to enhance their resort property stay, others have expressed mixed feelings about the technology. Some have criticized the name of the device, arguing that it lacks creativity and that the syntax of “Hey corporate entity” is odd. Others have pointed out that Toodles, the robot assistant from “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, would have been a more suitable character for “Hey Disney!” to get kids involved in their Disney trip.

Another concern raised by some is the lack of privacy associated with “Hey Disney!”. As the device is a microphone-enabled device, some are worried about the implications of having such devices in hotel rooms. However, Disney has confirmed that “Hey Disney!” is completely opt-in for hotel guests and that the device will be muted when guests enter their rooms, only activating after being manually unmuted.

Additionally, some have questioned the usefulness of “Hey Disney!” in terms of enhancing the park-going experience. The device cannot link to a Disney account, so asking it to book reservations or tickets will not work. For those looking to make dining reservations or book tickets to signature events, it is recommended that they use the My Disney Experience app on their phone instead.

While the digital assistant has the potential to enhance the experience of guests staying at Walt Disney World Resorts, it has also sparked some controversy and raised questions about its effectiveness and potential privacy concerns.

Amazon and Disney announced their collaboration in September 2021, and explained that Alexa and Hey Disney would coexist on Echo devices. According to Amazon, the Disney version of Alexa has “1,000 magical interactions to discover” and a custom guide called the Disney Magical Companion that acts as its own character.

Disney fans who have Alexa at home will be able to access the “Hey Disney” experience by paying an add-on fee for supported Amazon Echo devices via the Amazon Alexa Skills Store when it becomes available on supported devices in the future. “Hey, Disney!” will allow users to interact with their favorite Disney characters, listen to stories, and even ask Olaf about the weather. Additionally, MagicBand+ will reportedly pair with supported Amazon Echo devices to enhance certain “Hey Disney!” experiences.

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