DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
The pencil
behind the picture.
On animation, curiosity
and the pleasure of trying.
ROB URBAN
In the Animator’s Office at The Magic of Disney Animation, there is a desk preserved from Hollywood Studios’ original Animation Academy.
Disney’s account of the new experience places it in a room arranged as though an animator has just stepped away. Artwork and personal objects surround the working space.
Of all the details a park could preserve, I like that choice very much.
A desk suggests a person doing the work. It makes room in our appreciation of a finished film for the sketches, decisions and ordinary hours that helped bring it into being.
That is one reason Disney’s Hollywood Studios interests me. The stories offer pleasure, and the park also gives people ways to become curious about their making.
A place to begin.
The same experience includes a chandelier of paintbrushes individually named by members of Disney Animation’s Ink and Paint Department. Small character sculptures, or maquettes, offer another connection to the artists’ process.
These objects help make the work visible. A brush has a use. A sculpture gives an artist a way to study a character’s form. A desk provides somewhere to sit down and begin.
I appreciate seeing creative work through objects on that scale. They bring an enormous undertaking closer to the size of one person’s hands.
As a writer, I recognize the appeal of a working space. The books, notes and small keepsakes around someone can suggest a continuing conversation with the things they love. An imagined animator’s office gives visitors a gentle way to think about that relationship.
Pick up the pencil.
Olaf Draws! takes the invitation a step further. Guests use pencil and paper to draw Disney characters, following recorded guidance from Disney Animation artists, with Olaf as their companion.
There is something generous about making the process approachable. A person who admires a character can spend a little time considering its shapes and trying to make them.
The page may hold an unexpected result. It can also hold the memory of paying closer attention than usual.
I like experiences that give curiosity something to do. Drawing asks the eye and hand to work together. A familiar face becomes a series of choices, and the artist’s achievement becomes easier to appreciate.
The surrounding Magic of Disney Animation also includes a playground inspired by Mary Blair’s Alice in Wonderland concept art. There, an artist’s visual imagination offers younger children a setting to explore with their whole bodies.
Hello,
Gertie.
The park’s affection for animation reaches back beyond Disney’s own characters.
Its 35th-anniversary history identifies the large Gertie dinosaur as a tribute to the animated character created by Winsor McCay. Imagineers built the park’s tribute in 1989.
I admire that acknowledgment. A place celebrating animation can help people become curious about the wider history of the art.
Gertie gives that curiosity a memorable shape. Someone may first enjoy the sight of a large dinosaur and only later learn why she belongs there.
That order feels natural to me. Affection often arrives before research. A playful encounter can leave a question in the mind, and the answer can introduce an artist whose work a person might otherwise never have found.
A different size.
A different way to see.
Toy Story Land invites another change in how people look. Its oversized objects place visitors at the scale of toys in Andy’s backyard.
Disney’s June 2026 guide to its hidden details points out large footprints in the pavement and a Tin Toy book at the end of Toy Story Mania. The book refers to Pixar’s early animated short.
One detail establishes the fiction’s scale; another remembers part of the creative history behind it.
I enjoy how those two kinds of storytelling can share a place. A child can understand the enormous footprint immediately. Another visitor may be delighted by the reference to an earlier film.
Both reward looking. The setting gives people permission to slow down and notice what an object might be doing in the story.
Let the question
take you somewhere.
The act of making can also become a lesson in science.
In a Disney Imagination Campus profile, guest talent coordinator Conner describes teaching students about the physics behind attractions at Hollywood Studios. Tower of Terror and Slinky Dog Dash provide examples for discussing motion, gravity and the technology of launches and braking.
Conner first visited Walt Disney World with his high school choir and band. That trip helped him imagine working there. In the role described in the profile, he then hosted and taught other students.
I appreciate that connection between wonder and explanation. Understanding something about how an experience is made can give admiration another direction.
A student can enjoy the sensation, ask a question about it and discover a subject worth learning more about. The question itself is a promising beginning.
The next wonderful thing.
A dinosaur can introduce an animator. A toy-sized view can make a familiar world feel different. A drawing lesson can turn watching into trying.
Those possibilities are what I admire about Hollywood Studios. Alongside the pleasure of entering stories, there are invitations to notice the people and disciplines that create them.
I keep thinking about the preserved desk. It suggests that the next wonderful thing may begin with someone sitting down, picking up a pencil and seeing what happens.
Explore the wider Walt Disney World story or Orange County Stories. If your organization helps people discover what they might create, I would enjoy hearing about it.
Rob Urban
A few details before you go.
Is The Magic of Disney Animation open?
Disney’s official attraction listing checked September 29, 2026, identifies The Magic of Disney Animation as open. Check the current listing and park app for operating hours and availability.
Does Olaf Draws! feature a live Disney animator teaching each class?
Disney describes guidance through recorded tips, techniques and stories from its animation artists, with Olaf as a companion. This article does not promise an in-person animator at each class.
Is the physics workshop part of an ordinary park visit?
It is an educational offering through Disney Imagination Campus for student groups. Contact Disney Imagination Campus for current program details and booking requirements.