Throwback Thursday - The Magic of Disney Animation/ Animation Academy

The Magic of Disney Animation was a show and tour as Disney Hollywood Studios. It opened on May 1, 1989 and closed permanently on July 12, 2015 as part of a major closing to make room for the Toy Story and Star Wars lands planned at the park. The building has now been transformed in the Star Wars Launch Bay.

When the park originally opened in 1989, the tour commenced with a short film, "Back to Neverland", featuring Walter Cronkite and Robin Williams followed by a tour of what was a real working animation studio. For more information on this film, check out our Throwback Thursday article HERE. Some of the productions created in this building include: The "Be Our Guest" sequence from Beauty and the Beast, the "I Just Can't Wait to be King" sequence from the Lion King, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear and more.

When production stopped at this location, the building remained open. The first part of the tour began in a small theater where a Disney animator would explain the animation process with the help of Mushu, from Disney's Mulan, on film. You can find many fan-made videos of this short movie on YouTube. Afterwards, guests were led to the gallery. Here guests could view various displays of original work from various Disney films. This area also included several interactive games to play with.
This building also became a popular spot to meet some favorite characters, including Sorcerer Mickey.

As time went on, this was generally a good place to also find the latest Pixar film characters such as the the Incredibles, Bolt and Wreck-it-Ralph. Occasionally, this area was also home to Characterpalooza, which provided a random, unscheduled meet with a wide variety of characters. 

The final stage, and most popular piece, of this attraction was known as the Animation Academy. Here, guests were treated to a 20-minute art lesson by a real Disney artist. A character would be chosen and the artist would give the class step-by-step instructions to draw it.

At the end of the class, guests were able to keep the
drawing they created to take home with them. They were a wonderfully fun, free keepsake.

Sometimes, you could have the artist autograph your drawing or they would autograph their own and give it out to one of the students.

Fans of the Animation Academy soon learned that you could "skip" over the movie intro by entering through the exit gift shop. You could take as many classes as you wanted all day long. These drawings were fun to collect through the years to see how your family's drawing skills improved over time. Since the removal of this attraction, drawing classes are now being given at Art of Animation resort. 



How did you feel about The Magic of Disney Animation? And, how did you feel when it closed? 

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