On September 14, 2026 the Magic of Disney Animation has returned to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and in some ways, it’s like it never left.
Watch Tom’s Honest Review of The Magic of Disney Animation
The Magic of Disney Animation Is Truly Back at Walt Disney World
The original Magic of Disney Animation closed in 2015, although even that wasn’t really the original. When Disney-MGM Studios opened in 1989, there was an actual animation tour where you watched Back to Neverland with Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite and then got to see real animators at work inside the Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida facility. After hand-drawn animation died and Feature Animation Florida closed, the space became more of a celebration of animation, with meet and greets, the “Mushu show”, and eventually the Animation Academy drawing class.
Animation Academy became a runaway hit beloved by guests. The relatively small investment up front but slightly higher operational costs made it a show replicated all around the Disney properties worldwide, and eventually resurrected at Conservation Station in Disney’s Animal Kingdom for a period. The move was necessary as shortly after Disney bought Star Wars, Star Wars Launch Bay took over the Magic of Disney Animation space.
Star Wars Launch Bay was a collection of lies. You had all of these artifacts that looked like they might be real props or spaceship models used for production, but none of them were. There were meet and greets that people really loved, but the rest of it felt like a fake history museum. It was a big space that existed largely because Disney needed somewhere to put Star Wars promotional materials that didn’t fit within the story of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Disney could have easily made the new Magic of Disney Animation another excuse to throw current intellectual property into the park. Instead, what has been created is a loving tribute to the over-100-year legacy of Disney animation, from the most obscure movies to the box office smash hits often celebrated in a larger way in the parks.
That is the biggest difference between this and the era we are just coming out of. It is already clear that Imagineers are being allowed to do their job again. They’re being given an adequate budget and are given the space to come up with the right idea, with passion and sincerity behind it. All of that equals a product that everyone loves: the people behind the scenes, the fans, and the everyday guests. That’s what we have on our hands with the Magic of Disney Animation.
Animation Courtyard
When Disney announced that a Monsters Inc. land was going to replace Muppets Courtyard, we all cried, and we’re still crying. The bright side was that Disney then announced they were bringing back the Magic of Disney Animation and reimagining the courtyard in front of it.
The immediate response to the mostly-finished courtyard back in May was incredibly positive. I have been in this community for 19 and a half years, and I can count on one hand the number of times nearly everyone has agreed that something was good or bad. This was one of those occasions.
The courtyard is incredibly charming. There are adorable photo-ops, much needed green spaces, and wonderful character statues representing beloved and some very obscure movies. If you’re a fan of Oliver & Company or Mulan, you don’t get a lot of moments at a Disney park to interact with or feel something about those movies. Sir Hiss from Robin Hood is out there. Who would have ever thought that would happen?
The background music loop made for the area is delightful, adding to the atmosphere that makes it such a great vibe to hang out in. The entire area has a very positive, uplifting atmosphere.
Most importantly, they’ve added capacity to Hollywood Studios with no height requirement. That’s incredibly important in a park that has so many attractions that exclude younger guests.
The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live show is a very pleasant version of the Disney Junior shows that have existed through the years, and the Little Mermaid show was a really nice refresh that brought that space back to life. They’ve done a lot up front to make this a vibrant area once more, and maybe more than it ever has been.
When they showed us that they were going to take down the Animation Courtyard arch, one of very few recognizable icons from the park’s opening day still standing, I had many doubts. While I will always have nostalgia for that icon of the then-Disney-MGM Studios, it is clear that the space you walk through today is far more well thought out than what was rushed into existence to get the place open before Universal Studios many decades ago.
And I think that was the driving force: an air-conditioned indoor space for families to enjoy that also speaks to children at heart, not just actual children.
Building Entrance
This project probably didn’t have the biggest budget ever, but there seems to be a great focus on spending money where it matters and not spending it where it doesn’t. There are still budget constraints, but I think Walt Disney World is getting better at giving money when it’s needed to make something right.
The facade is the original building, but they did a very thoughtful job turning it into something that looks like the animation building in Burbank. They did it with just paint and a big metal hat, and they accomplished it. The hat draws your attention, it looks great, and you don’t really take the time to think, ‘Well, that’s not actually the shape of the animation building.’ The money didn’t need to be spent on the outside; it needed to be spent inside.
I also love the Tinker Bell pixie-dust effect, the lighting package on the sign, and the gorgeous marquee underneath. Those are the little things that make it work. Even the exterior lobby area was shown some love. This was originally where you queued and loaded the Backlot Studio Tour before its moved to a space further back in the park. The wall segments are now with animated character pictures. That entire space is now stroller parking, and yes, it is crazy that an entire former queue for a ride is needed for stroller parking, but that’s how much the park’s attendance has grown since then.
Beyond this area are attraction posters for the offerings inside, followed by an open air courtyard with a series of character statues welcoming you to the “open house” at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Once Upon a Studio Theater
The entire Magic of Disney Animation is built around Once Upon a Studio, and if you haven’t seen that short, stop what you’re doing and go watch it. Grab a box of tissues first.
The Disney 100 celebration happened when, at least for me, we were at the lowest point in the last 40 years of the entire company. The studio was tanking, the parks were putting out a poor product yet finding new ways to milk more money out of guests, and there was very little about the celebration that felt like it represented 100 years of the most influential, important, incredible entertainment company to ever exist. But there was one thing that made the entire celebration worth it: this short.
Once Upon a Studio captured all the heart and emotion of anyone who’s ever loved this product, this company, and these movies. It’s a lovely tribute to Walt Disney and to everyone who worked on Disney animation for a hundred years. It was the highlight of the entire event for me.
Bringing that short into this space makes tremendous theme park sense. The characters in the short leap off the page and off the walls into the real world, and now you’re creating a place where that can happen in real life.
I love that the theater gives people a chance to see it in the parks. Usually I’m Mr. “You could just watch that at home. Why would you watch it here?” But a lot of people still don’t know this short exists.
The theater adds just enough to make it special if you’ve seen it before. There are a couple of new animated moments on the sidewalls (including some new 2D animation, rare in this day and age), but those effects fade away for the big emotional moments, which is perfect. The short is so perfect that I wouldn’t want them to add a bunch of lighting effects and too many special effects. It is one of the coolest things the company has ever done for fans.
The Lost Boy
The main addition that shows the love and passion for this project from the creatives behind it is the heavy inclusion of the Lost Boy.
Robin Williams’ Lost Boy from Back to Neverland was the character most associated with the original animation experience at Walt Disney World. To see him recognized so specifically, not only as part of the history of the films made at the studio, but as part of the history of this particular building, is truly magical. Now he has a physical statue welcoming you to the open house.
What I love most about this project is how it has a reverence for the past but is an offering well intended for today’s audiences. There is love and admiration for the past, a respect and reverence for the history of the company, while also understanding that we can move things forward. That is the key to a great Walt Disney Imagineering project in the modern era.
I love that the Lost Boy isn’t just fan service for people like me. A new generation is going to see that character, ask who he is, go down that rabbit hole, watch Back to Neverland, and fall in love with it. That’s how these things can be necessitated to be passed down from generation to generation.
I was told Disney had to work with the Robin Williams estate to use the Lost Boy again, and that the family was overjoyed at his inclusion. That is truly wonderful and warms my heart.
Hallway Galleries
The gallery space is another example of surprise and delight. There are living portraits throughout the first room that come to life completely at random. You don’t trigger them by walking up to them.
I was in there for quite a while and still haven’t seen all of them have their moment yet. That’s important because they understand what guests need. Guests need a place to sit, relax, recharge, and be entertained in air conditioning. There’s a big bench in the middle of the gallery, and you can sit there for a while and have these little things happening around you and your family while you relax from the rigors of an Orlando theme park day.
There are also interactive portraits where you can use a MagicBand or physical ticket to play little games that ultimately culminate in a PhotoPass photo with the character using augmented reality. They’re fun, but perhaps a little too long to handle the guests who want to see them at 2 minutes per experience.
As you proceed through the hallway galleries, which have a lot of homages to where things were in the old Magic of Disney Animation. They brought back the animator desk area and put it back where it was, but altered it to fit the Once Upon a Studio story. The office is now inhabited by Stitch, Pascal, Mushu, and Hei Hei.
What shocked me most about these character statues and figures is that they are not from previously-used molds. There must have been a healthy budget here because I couldn’t find any repeated characters other than the Pascal in the office which also appears in Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival at Tokyo DisneySea.
But Figaro is a completely different style from the existing animated figure of him at Disneyland. Stitch and Mushu appear to be new, and statues in the courtyard all look to be different from anything seen elsewhere previously.
Off the Page! Meet & Greets
Off the Page is where the meet and greets live, with characters placed into different animation departments.
This is the most obvious place where Disney could have taken the usual route. They could have said, “Here’s another place to meet Moana, here’s another place to meet the characters from the newest movie,” and used the space simply to promote the most current intellectual property. Instead, we have Mulan, which is awesome because segments of Mulan were animated here in Florida. You can meet her at the China Pavilion in EPCOT, but she’s not ubiquitous, so it’s nice to see a little variety. Sadly, Rapunzel and the usual Fab 5 (minus Mickey and Minnie who have the Red Carpet Dreams location across the park) plus Chip & Dale make up the rest of the lineup, but I’m sure guests will appreciate these more common offerings. However, some rarer characters will also appear randomly throughout the building and the courtyard.
The backdrops are beautiful, especially the lighting backdrop with Goofy with the animation studio changing from day to night. The Rapunzel backdrop is particularly pretty, and I love the multiplane camera reference.
What I don’t love are the automated PhotoPass cameras. I really hate them and several malfunctioned during the media preview. Perhaps we should just put some human PhotoPass Cast Members here?
The media event did give us something I absolutely loved, though: Alice, the White Rabbit, and the Mad Hatter roaming around and playing with children in the Wonderland playground. This is the kind of stuff you might see at Disneyland, but rarely is ever provided at Walt Disney World. I thought for sure this would never be a reality for regular guests, but alas, Alice has been spotted in the playground during previews and other characters are roaming all around the nearby areas. If anything signals a significant change in Walt Disney World management, it’s spending money on something like this that would be neglected in many previous eras.
We had that in the courtyard before the building opened, and those organic character encounters were some of the most memorable things. I had a great interaction with Chip and Dale when they tried to stick their giant acorn into my Lightning McQueen popcorn bucket. That memory will stick with me for the rest of my life. That’s how powerful those moments are and I’m glad WDW is embracing it.
Drawn to Wonderland Playground
Drawn to Wonderland is a Mary Blair-inspired Alice in Wonderland play space, and Hollywood Studios desperately needed something like this. The park simply does not have a play space just for kids, and certainly not an air-conditioned one.
Some of my favorite memories as a kid at Disney World are in the uber- themed playgrounds. I have vivid memories of the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground, of climbing around, getting sprayed by the Super Soaker, and sliding down the Kodak film slide. Those memories are as vivid to me as riding Pirates of the Caribbean or the original Journey Into Imagination.
What I like about Drawn to Wonderland is that they picked the Mary Blair style and worked from original storyboards and concept art, but they didn’t use that as a cop-out. There is plenty of dimensional propping. The giant Queen of Hearts castle could have been flat. They could have slapped a decal on the wall. Instead, it’s raised from the wall.
And then there’s this little miniature vignette of Alice falling down the rabbit hole that I almost missed. It’s absolutely gorgeous. It gave me this very nostalgic classic Disney feeling. I thought back to all the miniature vignettes I’ve seen in the parks throughout my childhood that became a lost art. This didn’t need to be there. It’s just a ramp to the playground. They could have themed it enough and moved on. Instead, there’s this weird little vignette hidden in the wall with show lighting for everyone to discover and be delighted by.
This is what makes Disney, Disney: the attention to detail. I can’t believe this happened in 2026. This makes me quite optimistic for what’s ahead.
Reception
The reception area is another place to sit, relax, get some air conditioning, and charge up. But what’s really cool is that it preserves a piece of Disney parks history and Disney animation history. These are the actual windows where guests used to look down into the pit and watch animators working. Think about the number of people who were inspired to become animators because they came here and watched that work happen.
The most meaningful thing I heard was the story of Dan Abraham, director of Once Upon a Studio. Dan used to work at Walt Disney World. He worked at Superstar Television and Monster Sound Show. He would go over to the animation building on his time off or after his shift and watch the animators work because he was so inspired by them.
How amazing is it that Dan was inspired by that attraction, went and became what he wanted to be, and then gave back to the company in such a meaningful way by making Once Upon a Studio—and that short now brings life back into the space that began Dan’s career.
That is one of my favorite stories I’ve heard in all my time covering Disney Parks. And that’s what this space can do again: inspire another generation of artists.
There is still a part of me that wishes someone was actually drawing here. I wish there was a little more human art happening live in this building. My deepest, darkest desire was for them to bring back the Ink and Paint program. It’s thematic to the space, it’s meaningful, and i’s a unique handmade souvenir. If this reaches the number crunching managers at Disney: it also makes a profit and promotes intellectual properties because they’re drawing characters from films.
Olaf Draws!
Olaf Draws brings this space back to its Animation Academy roots, and I think they did a tremendous job with what they were given.
The real shame is that there isn’t a live animator. People are rightfully disappointed that there’s no human sitting there drawing with you. Disney says there will be people in the room to help guests who need it, but we didn’t really see that during the media preview.
I think this was a decision driven by park operations. They wanted an animation show, but they didn’t want live humans. That’s a money thing, and there’s also the consistency-of-show argument Disney has used for years.
The prerecorded format does make the show tighter. It moves people through more quickly, which is important because there will be high demand. There are nine different characters, each taught by a different Disney animator, director, or producer, and they rotate.
How do you make people not hate the fact that there’s no live animator? The answer was Olaf.
They could have made Olaf a screen. Instead, they spent the money on a state-of-the-art modern Olaf animatronic. And it adds so much charm and whimsy.
As I was sitting there, all I could think about was that there is no other theme park company that would build an attraction this small in capacity and scale and put a cutting-edge animatronic in it. Universal would never do this in a million years. No one else would spend this kind of money on this particular thing. And that’s what makes it such a great surprise and delight. You walk in and Olaf’s alive. Olaf is living and sitting there with you.
Yes, the animator is on screen, but you’re still getting a personalized animation class with people who actually work in Disney animation. In the case of Eric Goldberg, you’re being taught to draw the Genie by the animator of the Genie. All nine shows are different, and Olaf has a different comedy routine for each one.
I think it’s the perfect blend of heart and fourth-wall-breaking comedy. It makes the whole thing a show rather than simply a drawing class, which is important for people who may not have wanted to be there in the first place. There are also heartfelt moments at the end where Olaf asks the animator to give advice to aspiring animators, and then Olaf puts a nice button on the whole thing.
The writing is very good. I’m sure some of it was ad-libbed by Josh Gad, and there are some moments that had me howling.
The Olaf figure is fantastic. He’s moving throughout the entire show, and all I can think about is, man, is he going to be hard to maintain!
It’s a thoughtful, well-done show. It should just be a drawing class, but instead it’s a full-blown attraction with an animatronic, great writing, and a fully thought-out experience.
Given the parameters they had to work in, Imagineering and the Disney Feature Animation folks took a problem and found a very creative solution. They were given the budget to make that creative solution work.
Olaf Draws! punches very much above its weight, despite the reduction of human animators.
Studio Store
We’ve talked a lot about the de-theming of hotels and stores during the Chapek regime. Think about World of Disney: the brick warehouse, very little story or detail, standard fixtures that don’t feel unique or special. I always talk about how Imagineers of an earlier era designed custom fixtures that spoke to the space they were in and added story and fantasy. That’s the extra magic.
I was stunned when I walked into this exit shop There’s a somewhat unique Mickey statue in the center, and then I noticed something even more exciting: there are custom store fixtures.
There’s a big pencil rack with 1923 on it. There’s another fixture with actual Disney animation sketches incorporated into it. These aren’t just things ordered from a catalog. They’re custom, or at least customized, for this store. All I can say is: thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to everyone who’s had this complaint for the last several years. This perfectly encapsulates the Disney Experiences direction in 2026, one informed by guest feedback.
Final Thoughts
As I said after D23, I have not been this optimistic probably since very early in my time doing this as a profession.
We hit a real rough patch for a while, and honestly, I kind of gave up. I thought maybe this thing was just lost and maybe I had to go to Japan to keep experiencing the thing I remembered loving. It’s been really refreshing this summer to be reminded how much I love Walt Disney World, how Walt Disney World is home.
There is a long road to recovery. There are a lot of things I would like to see improved, but we’re seeing Walt Disney World come back to life. The most important thing is the sincerity. A great Imagineer once told me, “You can tell, Tom. You can tell when a project is sincere.”
People can feel that sincerity, they can feel that human touch, and they can feel that love and care when they walk into a space or experience something.
I think the last few projects at Walt Disney World have felt very sincere, with the obvious exception of Zootopia: Better Together, but everything else has felt very much like a love letter to the audience. That means a lot and I’m hoping and praying that this continues.
I hope that sincerity, that level of quality, that level of care, and that level of commitment from Walt Disney World management continues at this level. I hope we see it in Piston Peak, Villains, and Monstropolis. I hope we see it in Spaceship Earth, Carousel of Progress, and the new Figment and Dreamfinder attraction.
My overall review is simple: this is the perfect blend of nostalgia and modernity. It’s nostalgic and wonderful for those who experienced the Magic of Disney Animation before, but it’s also fresh, new, and exciting for a guest who had never been there. It fulfills a lot of guests’ needs, and they absolutely nailed this project.
The Magic of Disney Animation is truly back. And the magic of Walt Disney World seems to be on the return as well.
See our full tour of The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
What parts of The Magic of Disney Animation are you most excited about? Let us know on social media.
For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
The post Tom’s Honest Review of The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios appeared first on WDW News Today.
