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
Walt Disney Pictures first of the "True-Life Adventures" series and a subsequent Academy Award winner for Best Live-Action Short Film. Walt Disney Productions had its first fully live-action film in 1950 with the release of "Treasure Island""," considered by Disney to be the official conception for what would eventually evolve into the modern-day Walt Disney Pictures. By 1953, the company ended their agreements with such third-party distributors as RKO Radio Pictures and United Artists and formed their own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution. The division was incorporated as Walt Disney Pictures on April 1, 1983 to diversify film subjects and expand audiences for