Animation Is Coming Back to Hollywood Studios After Eleven Years

The Magic of Disney Animation opens at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on 14 September, restoring a name the park retired in 2015 when the original attraction of that title closed. The new version is not a revival so much as a rebuild: four distinct experiences gathered under one roof, anchored by a drawing class taught by an Audio-Animatronic Olaf, a dedicated theatre showing work inspired by the Emmy-winning short Once Upon A Studio, and character meet-and-greets. Guests can also watch portraits of Disney characters come to life around them, the central conceit of the short film the whole thing is built from.

The building is doing a lot of the storytelling. Its exterior is modelled on the Roy E. Disney Animation Building at the studio’s Burbank headquarters — including the Sorcerer Hat on the roof, which the real building wears too. Inside, guests move through interpretations of the different departments of an animation studio. The conceit is that you are visiting the place where the films get made rather than watching a show about it, which is a meaningfully different pitch from the walkthrough-and-film format the original attraction used two decades ago.

There is a strategic story underneath the nostalgia. Hollywood Studios spent the 2010s converting itself from a working-studio theme park into a franchise park — Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land between them absorbed most of the acreage the animation and production tours once occupied. Animation Courtyard has spent years as the least defined corner of the park. Bringing animation back gives the area a purpose again, and does it with an attraction type — low-capacity, high-interaction, no ride system — that is far cheaper to build than another E-ticket.

For anyone planning an Orlando trip this autumn, the practical read is that mid-September is normally one of the quietest windows of the year at Walt Disney World, between the summer crowds and the Halloween build-up, and a new opening will erode some of that. The opening-week queues will be for the drawing class rather than the whole complex, since the theatre and the meet-and-greets absorb people faster. If you are visiting in the first fortnight, treat that one component as the rope-drop priority and see the rest at leisure.

Sources: Disney Parks Blog, WDWMagic