2. Examine the links between one animation institution and another institution.
Walt Disney Company is one of the worldʼs largest media conglomerates; it owns other
companies such as ESPN, Pixar, Miramax and Disney Records. Disney is an animation
institution that traditionally produce many cell animations targeted at young children such
as Cinderella and is recently producing CGI animations such as Bolt and Wall-E, not only
targeting at young children, but also teenagers and adults.
Walt Disney Company is able to work with other institutions that it owns through vertical
integration, enabling them to reduce cost and maximize profit by accessing a wide
audience with advertisements and product placements. Walt Disney works with Pixar to
produce its very first CGI animation rather than their traditional cell animation, Wall-E. This
link between the two companies shows clearly that Disney is trying to follow the trend as
technology advances and attract a wider audience rather than just young children. This
horizontal integration of Walt Disney and Pixar will attract aficionado fans for each
institution to watch Wall-E, ultimately increasing the revenue of them in order to earn
money for the shareholders. Walt Disney also works with its subsidiary Disney Records in
order to promote their media product. For example in another recent CGI animation that is
produced by Disney, Miley Cyrus, who is in Disney Records, voice for one of the main
character as well as sing for the soundtrack in order to reduce cost. This synergy between
Disney Records and Disney enables them to attract aficionado fans for Disney as well as
using star appeal to attract Miley Cyrusʼs fans. This again enables Disney to maximize
their profit as more people watch the animated film, Bolt and buy the soundtrack due to
star appeal. This will also allow Disney Records to promote Miley Cyrus by having
interviews and events promoting Bolt, this will maximize her appearance on other media
forms such as newspaper to increase her popular