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With breakout hits like “Big City Greens,” “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” and “Phineas and Ferb,” Disney Television Animation has been setting the gold standard in kids’ animation for

40 years.

Dtva was formed on the heels of challenging outcomes with features “The Fox and the Hound” and “The Black Cauldron.” Initially, Dtva was restricted from using established Disney legacy characters, but nevertheless had huge successes with new shows like “The Wuzzles” and “Adventures of the Gummi Bears,” both of which became popular in syndication.

As time went on, Dtva was able to use its limited rights to create shows like “DuckTales” and “Tale Spin,” which featured Disney characters. Today, the slate has evolved to include shows that travel across Disney’s streaming, linear and digital platforms, including Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney Xd, Disney Junior and Disney Channel YouTube. Short-form programs like “Chibi Tiny Tales,” which re-creates a selection of...

Disney's Shnookums & Meat show lacked edgy humor and faced limitations, making it seem like a lesser version of Ren and Stimpy. Supporting characters Tex Tinstar & Pith Possum overshadowed the main duo due to strong voice acting, leading to dull moments for Shnookums & Meat. The lack of originality in Shnookums & Meat, with rip-offs from other shows, contributed to its cancelation after only 13 episodes.

Airing on Nickelodeon for over four years and releasing a total of 52 episodes in the '90s, John Kricfalusis Ren and Stimpy quickly became a staple for the children's television channel. Its no surprise why this show grew so quickly with the younger audience its quite hard to look away from the wacky and wild adventures surrounding a skinny, neurotic chihuahua and a giant, brainless cat. Their weekly skirmishes involved getting into tussles with psychotic circus workers, thinking that they gave birth (when it was actually just flatulence...

In the 1980s, Disney shifted to network TV with The Wuzzles, a mixed-animal show meant to engage and market to kids. The Wuzzles, part of the Disney TV renaissance, set the stage for the brand's future content creation like Disney+. Despite only lasting a season, The Wuzzles brought top talent, vibrant designs, and a step away from Scooby-Doo aesthetics.

It's hard to imagine that there was a time when Disney had almost no presence on network television. A company that was so well-known for its animated movies was not doing much with its properties in the 1980s. Sure, they had the Disney Channel, but they were ignoring what was, to them, an untapped resource.

At the time, Warner Bros. was going strong with its own crop of shows, many of them cartoons, on network television. But Disney had a plan for something new. They had something up their sleeve that other studios didn’t have.