The word describing how Disney will celebrate its 100th anniversary – wonder
During the kick-off of Disney’s largest fan event, D23 Expo 2022, Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek announced that Disney will kick off its 100th-anniversary celebration during New Year’s Rockin broadcast on ABC (which Disney owns).
Disney is called the celebrationg 100 Years of Wonder. And on Jan. 1, 2023, Disney100.com will go live and highlight the past, the present, and the future of The Walt Disney Company—and chronicle the yearlong celebration.
“Throughout Disney 100 Years of Wonder, the Company will celebrate with new 100th anniversary content, experiences, and programming—including a brand-new traveling exhibition visiting locations around the world, Disney100-themed park experiences, a new feature film from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and much more,” Chapek said.
Chapek then introduced a sizzle reel showing highlights from the company with a narration focusing on the idea of wonder.
Wonder, as defined by the dictionary, is “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.”
This seems applicable. When company was started by Walt and his brother Roy Disney, on Oct 16, 1923, as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, California, the company strived to create shorts that were beautiful, unexpected and unfamiliar. Disney spent his life innovating, pushing the envelope, and growing his business from shorts to feature length to television and theme parks.
The word will also leave the company and detractors of the current CEO Bob Chapek, who received some boos when he took the stage to kick off D23 Expo 2022, with a lot of fodder to ridicule the company.
But Chapek came out strong to the crowd on Friday about Disney’s future. “I know I’m preaching to the choir, but Disney truly is the world’s most magical entertainment company with stories and experiences that are unmatched anywhere else,” he said. “We are in a league of our own, and I can’t tell you what an honor it is to lead this legendary company at such an exciting moment in its history. And that moment of course, is our year-long celebration of Disney’s 100th anniversary.”
“We’re going to be pulling out all the stops to honor a century of groundbreaking Disney storytelling, experiences, and magic—along with all the dreams they’ve inspired and the memories that they’ve created for countless families and fans… As we begin a second century of telling stories and creating magic—of connecting people from all walks of life, and making magic that will endure for the next 100 years—this is a historic and unprecedented milestone.”
