Touchstone Pictures is one of several alternate
film labels of
The Walt Disney Company, established in 1984. Its releases typically feature more mature themes than those that are released under the
Walt Disney Pictures banner.
Touchstone Pictures is merely a brand and does not exist as a separate company: the two
de facto companies behind it are the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group and Walt Disney Pictures and Television.
[The Walt Disney Company SEC filing Form 10-K For the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2006, page 15]
Background
In late
1979, Walt Disney Productions released
The Black Hole, a
science-fiction film that was the studio's first production to receive a
PG rating (the company, however, had already distributed its first PG-rated film,
Take Down—without the Disney name visible—almost a year before the release of
The 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.
