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Touchstone Pictures

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File:Touchstone8.jpg
The Touchstone "lightning" logo, used from 1986 to 2003.

Touchstone Pictures (formerly Touchstone Films) is a film division of The Walt Disney Company. Its releases are typically more adult than those under the Disney label, although some of its features, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) strayed to some extent onto Disney territory thanks to the inclusion of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and many other Disney and non-Disney characters in the former and the inclusion of the latter in the Kingdom Hearts series. Touchstone also has a television production arm, Touchstone Television.

The origins of Touchstone Pictures can be traced to the 1979 release of The Black Hole, a science fiction film that sparked controversy due to the fact that it was the first Disney production to receive a PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed its first PG-rated film, a non-Disney production - almost a year before the release of "Black Hole.") Over the next few years, Disney experimented with more PG-rated fare, such as the 1981 film Condorman, 1982's Tron and 1983's Never Cry Wolf and Trenchcoat. The latter film attracted major criticism for including adult themes that were considered inappropriate for a Disney film. The controversy over Trenchcoat is generally considered the catalyst that sparked the creation of Touchstone Pictures. One title considered for the new company was "Hyperion Pictures," named after the location of the studio in the 1930s before the move to Burbank. Eventually, Hyperion would become the name of Disney's publishing arm.

Some critics felt that the creation of Touchstone side-stepped but did not address the view that mature content was inappropriate for Disney. The Touchstone name was taken from a character in William Shakespeare's As You Like It.

Founded by Disney CEO Ron W. Miller in 1984, Touchstone's first release was Splash, a huge hit for the studio. The film included brief nudity on the part of star Daryl Hannah and adult language.

The unit became a top source of income for Disney during the 1980s. Touchstone/Disney's first R-rated film, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, came in January of 1986 and was another smash. Ruthless People followed in April of 1986 and was also huge. One example of a recent release is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). Touchstone is still an active unit of the company today. The studio's sister company, Touchstone Television, currently produces the smash hits Desperate Housewives and Lost, as well as Scrubs.

List of notable Touchstone features

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