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Disney and his company were shaken by the war, as well as by the damaging labor strife earlier in the decade. In addition, the declining film markets at the end of the 1940s were taking their toll on the entire industry. Watts summarizes the postwar period, observing that “Creativity was blunted, profits disappeared, and the old spirit of joyful innovation nearly evaporated.”⁵³

To gain some quickly needed revenue, the studio released a few “packaged” features, such as Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948), consisting of recycled bits from previously released cartoons. Live-action productions also became more profitable than animation, although the first one – Song of the South (1946) – included some animation. Another economic move was the production of nature films in the True-Life Adventures series, beginning with Seal Island (1948), which made as much money at the box office as many of the company’s animated features.

Finally, the studio returned to animated interpretations of fairy tales with Cinderella (1950), the first new animated feature since Bambi in 1942. Other successes followed, with the live-action feature Treasure Island (1950), the first of 63 live-action films produced by Disney over the next 16 years. The late 1940s were a transitional period as the company recovered from the war and made necessary adjustments to a changing entertainment market. The changes that the Disney company made ultimately allowed them not just to survive but to prosper during the next few decades.