Imagine DISNEYLAND without Disney characters. Does it seem impossible? It almost happened. In 1953, Roy Disney was completely against the idea of a theme park. In order to convince his brother to stop planning the park, Roy reminded Walt that Mickey and friends were owned by Walt Disney Productions, not Walt Disney. Therefore these characters would not be available to him.
After Roy realized that the company had never written up an official agreement to use his brother's name, he finally came on board with the idea for DISNEYLAND. An agreement was reached and the familiar Disney characters were forever linked with the Magic Kingdom of DISNEYLAND.
