The Magic of Disney Animation officially opened today, September 14, 2026, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, giving guests an entirely new collection of animation-inspired experiences housed inside a building modeled after the real Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank. All 65 Walt Disney Animation Studios feature films are represented somewhere inside, including early artwork from next year’s “Hexed.”
For the full character cavalcade Disney assembled outside the building for opening day, including a new Baymax Sipper and three debut pins, check our companion breakdown here. And for the running tally across the whole Walt Disney Studios Lot, our interactive checklist and complete character count are both updated as new characters are confirmed.
A Building Built Around “Once Upon a Studio” – The whole experience takes its inspiration from Disney Animation’s Emmy-winning short “Once Upon a Studio,” and it shows. Portraits come to life, characters pop out of artwork, and the entire building is designed to feel like guests have wandered into the real animation studio’s different departments. Director Dan Abraham worked directly with Walt Disney Imagineering’s Daniel Handke to build it out, and the result leans hard into authenticity over just theming for theming’s sake.
The experience is made up of four main areas, plus a few extras Disney hasn’t fully detailed yet:
- Drawn to Wonderland
- Off the Page!
- Olaf Draws!
- Once Upon a Studio Theater
Drawn to Wonderland Is Built for Little Ones – This is an indoor playground pulled straight from Mary Blair’s original “Alice in Wonderland” concept art, and it’s aimed squarely at younger kids. Guests can climb and explore through the Mad Tea Party, the Mad Hatter’s house, the Queen of Hearts’ rose garden, and the Cheshire Cat’s Tulgey Wood, all done up in Blair’s bold, whimsical color palette.
It reads less like a themed play space and more like a genuine rest stop for families. Disney specifically built this one for recharging in the middle of a long park day, not just photos.
Off the Page! Is Where You’ll Meet Characters – This is the section built for character encounters, and it’s organized around the stages of the animation process itself. Confirmed meet-and-greets include:
- Mulan in Story
- Rapunzel in Layout
- Chip ‘n Dale in Hand-Drawn Animation
- Donald and Daisy in Computer Animation
- Goofy in Lighting
- Stitch in Effects
That Goofy in Lighting encounter is worth calling out. He’s in a completely different costume here, a blue mechanic-style overall look you won’t see anywhere else at Walt Disney World.
Olaf Draws! Teaches Guests to Sketch – Olaf gets his own dedicated space here, brought to life as a brand-new Audio-Animatronics figure sitting at an animator’s desk. Guests join him to learn character drawing basics through recorded tips from real Disney Animation artists and filmmakers, and the class rotates through a genuinely impressive list of pairings:
- Mickey Mouse, with Dan Abraham (“Once Upon a Studio,” “Baymax!”)
- Minnie Mouse, with Hyun min Lee (“Frozen 2,” “The Princess and the Frog”)
- Donald Duck, with Austin Traylor (“Once Upon a Studio,” “Moana 2”)
- Genie, with Disney Legend Eric Goldberg (“Aladdin,” “Hercules”)
- Moana, with Samantha Vilfort (“Encanto,” “Zootopia 2”)
- Stitch, with Fawn Veerasunthorn (“Hexed,” “Lilo & Scratch”)
- Olaf, with Trent Correy (“Once Upon a Studio,” “Frozen 3”)
- Ursula, with Michael Woodside (“Big Hero 6,” “Encanto”)
- Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, with Byron Howard (“Zootopia,” “Zootopia 2”)
Disney Legend Josh Gad, the voice of Olaf, recorded original dialogue for the experience. Gad said the hope is that a “whole new generation of kids can dream of becoming animators” after walking through it.
Once Upon a Studio Theater and the Enchanted Gallery – The theater is a dedicated home for the “Once Upon a Studio” short itself, now enhanced with new effects and brand-new animation made exclusively for this space, and characters occasionally show up within the artwork along the theater walls as the film plays.
Next door, the enchanted art gallery looks like a standard collection of Disney Animation artwork at first glance. A closer look reveals new animation hidden inside the pieces, bringing the gallery to life.
The real story here isn’t any single room, it’s how specific Disney got with the crediting. Naming the actual animators and directors behind each Olaf Draws pairing, right down to which films they worked on, is a level of detail Disney usually saves for D23 panels, not a walk-up attraction. It signals this was built by people who wanted Disney Animation’s actual artists to get some daylight, not just the characters they made.
