DHS Disney Animation-Inspired Experience Coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios

[TrainsOfDisney]

Olaf as an AA is a plus btw. Mushu on the screen was hilarious but Olaf will be great. Olaf and a live CM would have been a real plus. For me this is possibly lateral move, possible downgrade.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

the entire core of the park is still very much supposed to feel like a studio.

Which core parts are supposed to?

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Which core parts are supposed to?

I imagine the old Hollywood + soundstages sections

 

[sedati]

Bringing back "clips on screens" might be the greatest tribute to the original Disney/MGM there could be.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I imagine the old Hollywood + soundstages sections

Old Hollywood is supposed to be old Hollywood.

 

[HMF]

It still has a studio theme. It's called Hollywood Studios. It's no longer a working studio, and the concept is now that the lands and attractions allow you to step into worlds from film or television, but the entire core of the park is still very much supposed to feel like a studio.

TSL and soon Monsters Inc. don't strike me as part of a studio. Why did they rip out the park's thesis statement with the Great Movie Ride being replaced with a random Mickey ride? It doesn't have to be a working studio to keep the studio theme. They no longer have any overriding vision for what they want DHS or really any of the parks anymore to be other than the way current management sees them which is basically glorified advertising for the company brands.

 

[James Alucobond]

Which core parts are supposed to?

The literal park core, which is styled as Hollywood dotted with tons of studio buildings.

TSL and soon Monsters Inc. don't strike me as part of a studio.

I explicitly said they weren't part of the studio. I said the lands and attractions allow you to visit worlds from television/film but that the park core (Hollywood & Sunset) is still supposed to read as having tons of studio buildings incorporated into it.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Old Hollywood is supposed to be old Hollywood.

Yes, which is full of various theaters and Studios around the lands.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

TSL and soon Monsters Inc. don't strike me as part of a studio. Why did they rip out the park's thesis statement with the Great Movie Ride being replaced with a random Mickey ride? It doesn't have to be a working studio to keep the studio theme. They no longer have any overriding vision for what they want DHS or really any of the parks anymore to be other than the way current management sees them which is basically glorified advertising for the company brands.

Its a CELEBRATION of Hollywood. That does not mean that everything has to be a studio. The park as it stands is celebrating the art of moviemaking and everything that comes with it from the worldbuilding, to Hollywood itself, to the movie making process...

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The literal park core, which is styled as Hollywood dotted with tons of studio buildings.

I’m not trying to argue - what makes you believe this area is supposed to be a studio and not actual vintage Hollywood?

 

[James Alucobond]

I’m not trying to argue - what makes you believe this area is supposed to be a studio and not actual vintage Hollywood?

That the Chinese Theatre is flanked by tons of studio buildings, one of which houses a studio commissary?

 

[BrianLo]

Watching a video tutorial of how to draw a character is literally something you can just do right now. There’s a magic to someone creating right before your eyes.

I must admit my baseline expectancy for this thing was the DCL learn to draw; which is just the video that a CM plays. Perhaps that’s setting a too low bar, but the animatronic is definitely significantly higher effort than what I expected.

The magic is more about your own drawing and your friend and family, not the sample.

 

[Fox&Hound]

What I appreciate about this is that it is a new approach to an older concept. They could have simply brought the exact same experience back but they chose not to do so. And they added a popular AA, so that is a bonus.

My interactions with the in-studio artists were never memorable because, well, I never had any. I will have to see for myself when this becomes available.

And I definitely don’t see this as a downgrade. It’s a lower key set of experiences that are definitely geared towards kids: meet and greets themed towards animation, an Alice in Wonderland play area, a short film, and now an animation studio lead by Olaf. This park SO needed this addition. This park needs more charm added to it. Don’t get me wrong, I love big additions. But smaller, softer additions are also needed in these parks.

Exactly! It doesn’t need another E-ticket. Some could argue it doesn’t need Monsters Door Coaster. It needs all-ages stuff like this that has charm and, because of the different drawing experiences, repeatability.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I must admit my baseline expectancy for this thing was the DCL learn to draw; which is just the video that a CM plays. Perhaps that’s setting a too low bar, but the animatronic is definitely significantly higher effort than what I expected.

The magic is more about your own drawing and your friend and family, not the sample.

I’m guessing that the overwhelming majority of families visiting Walt Disney World can play YouTube videos on at least one TV.

This whole experience is supposed to be a celebration of a craft, and they’re putting in the effort to not have to do the requisite training to have a live instructor.

 

[DisneyHead123]

And I definitely don’t see this as a downgrade. It’s a lower key set of experiences that are definitely geared towards kids: meet and greets themed towards animation, an Alice in Wonderland play area, a short film, and now an animation studio lead by Olaf. This park SO needed this addition. This park needs more charm added to it. Don’t get me wrong, I love big additions. But smaller, softer additions are also needed in these parks.

Yeah I’ll be curious to see if this is more a fun little activity for kids vs. the old drawing classes on a screen. If it’s the former I think fan reaction just stems from confusion over what this attraction is supposed to be. If it’s the latter I get why some fans are upset (Sort of. Me and my crippling social anxiety over don’t fully understand anyone going “Yaaay! Now I can have an unscripted social interaction with a person I don’t know and maybe even make awkward conversation while trying to make eye contact in a way that doesn’t look like staring through their soul, hurray!” But in theory I guess.)

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

That the Chinese Theatre is flanked by tons of studio buildings, one of which houses a studio commissary?

I’ve never really thought the ABC commissary was a core part of the design of the park. But up for interpretation I suppose!

 

[BrianLo]

I’m guessing that the overwhelming majority of families visiting Walt Disney World can play YouTube videos on at least one TV.

This whole experience is supposed to be a celebration of a craft, and they’re putting in the effort to not have to do the requisite training to have a live instructor.

You are being slightly overly critical in your analysis. It’s clearly not “just a video”. It’s unexpectedly the most complicated way of approaching this when they had two other models that could have been more easily plugged into the space. Either the live instructor or the cruise/youtube videos.

I understand the preference for the live instructor, but not the implication that this was the lowered effort solution. Unless I’m horribly misunderstanding how well this will be integrated and it’s mostly just a stagnant Olaf that chirps a few quips.

As per the celebration of the craft, it’s also somewhat of a positive it’s the highlighting the real artists. I think this can be spun however one wishes to spin it.

 

[Ayla]

Use the ignore feature and this board is much better, literally block out 4-5 posters and the entire board changes

I totally agree.

 

[Tha Realest]

I just heard this. This is terrible. The live animator is so much part of this experience!

The first thing I thought of was that Disney did not want to pay a person to do a job.

I was excited to see this return but now I am just disappointed.

I will attend this to get out of the heat but it wont be the same.

I’m still catching up. But there is an interesting through line here. It was part of the now defunct studio tour and housed numerous actual animators and, as late as the early 00’s, was still actively being used to produce Disney animation. You could actually see real animators animating! It later became that teaching thing they do in a few other parks, and is now apparently a museum of sorts with a decent AA showcasing a passive recording with negligible human input. If that is not a microcosm of the current state of corporate art creation in 2026 then nothing is!

 

[GenChi]

Again, anything was better then what was there and still remains so.

And it is not going to be the same live animator & what it was in the 90s-2000s when there is not an entire animation studio in the building anymore. You cannot really complain when their hand drawn animation department was gutted to thunderous applause from everyone. And ironic enough like this Olaf, they will cheer if they replace animators with ai