The Real Reason You Rarely See Disney's Sensational Six In Movies

In 1940, Disney followed up Snow White with an impressive one-two punch of classic animation: Pinocchio and Fantasia, an anthology film in which Mickey played his most iconic role, the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Unfortunately, World War II was raging in Europe, drastically limiting their releases. Walt Disney was able to keep his studio running by making training and propaganda films for the U.S. Army, but production of animated features ground to a halt.

By the time the war ended, Disney was hungry for a hit and simply telling a feature story with characters from his shorts — even beloved ones like the Sensational Six — was just not Walt's style (when asked why he didn't produce a sequel to his Academy Award-winning short, "The Three Little Pigs," Walt replied, "You can't top pigs with pigs"). Walt's first post-war effort was the problematic Song of the South, which did little to help his bottom line. By necessity, he would move into cheaper live action production for features.