Criticism of The Walt Disney Company Some critics disapprove of the marketing strategy made by Anne Sweeney, the former President of the Disney-ABC Television Group from 2004 to 2014 (1996-2014 as the President of Disney Channel), in which Disney Channel's programming has pulled away from the characters of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, that the company founded itself upon, and now mostly consists of programming geared mainly towards preteens and teenagers.. Longtime fans condemned the company for removing almost all Walt-era and pre-1990s material from the channel in 2002 with the removal of the late-night "Vault Disney" block devoted to this material, which used to
The Walt Disney Company Ed Catmull took over as President of Pixar Animation Studios. Former Executive Vice-President of Pixar, John Lasseter, became Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, its division Disneytoon Studios, and Pixar Animation Studios, as well as assuming the role of Principal Creative Advisor at Walt Disney Imagineering. In February 2006, Disney acquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal (including the character's intellectual property and the 26 Oswald cartoons produced by Walt Disney) as part of an exchange of minor assets. In return, Disney released sportscaster Al Michaels from his contracts with ABC Sports and ESPN,