A trailer for the live-action “The Little Mermaid,” introduced by Melissa McCarthy and Halle Bailey, was included in the Disney tribute as the two great companies honored a century of filmmaking.
Disney and Warner Brothers, two of the biggest companies in the entertainment industry, were honored for their 100th year of operation at the 2023 Oscars event on Sunday night.
The anticipation began when Disney’s new live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid clip was unveiled to thunderous applause by stars Melissa McCarthy and Halle Berry. The tribute to Warner Brothers’ 100th anniversary was then introduced by Morgan Freeman and Margot Robbie. It included a video montage showcasing important movies from the studio’s history, including A Streetcar Named Desire, The Matrix, The Dark Knight, The Shining, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, and A Star Is Born, as well as a sneak peek at the upcoming Barbie.
The Academy Awards have a lengthy relationship with both studios, who each have impressive personal collections of golden statuettes. Walt Disney is the only person in history to have received 26 prizes in total, including honorary ones.
Disney and Warner Bros both have storied filmographies. Standouts in Warner’s body of work among its 18 best picture triumphs are Casablanca, An American in Paris, and Ben-Hur, which shares the record with Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (all Warner Bros.) for the most Oscars won in a single night: 11. Disney is well-known for both its live-action and animated productions. Together with Pixar, they have dominated the animated feature category since its inception in 2001, and their 1991 film Beauty and the Beast was the catalyst for the first-ever animated best picture nomination. Up and Toy Story 3 repeated the feat, making them the only studio to date to bring animated films into that category.
Warner Bros has 11 nominations for the 2023 Academy Awards, including eight for Elvis and three for The Batman. Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are just a few of the 22 nominations that Disney Studios, 20th Century Studios, and Searchlight have received.
