SNEAK PEEK At NEW Animation Classes At Disney's Hollywood Studios

There has been A LOT of change recently around Disney World, from building new lands and attractions to refurbishing restaurants and hotels. And one of those places that has been FULL of change is Hollywood Studios!

The Magic of Disney Animation

On September 14th, The Magic of Disney Animation at Walt Disney Studios will open with four new experiences! One of those experiences pulls inspiration from a previously closed attraction, and we got to experience it for ourselves EARLY! Let’s dive into what we thought about the new animation classes, Olaf Draws!

If you’ve been missing the chance to put your drawing skills to the test at Animal Kingdom, we have some exciting news! Following the transition from Rafiki’s Planet Watch to Bluey’s Wild World, the Animation Experience at Conservation Station closed its doors. But after a few months without the popular drawing experience, guests will soon have a brand-new way to grab a pencil and get creative with some familiar Disney favorites!

The Animation Experience at Conservation Station

We got to experience Olaf Draws! a few days early and are here to share ALL of our thoughts with you! This new animation class brings your favorite Disney characters to life, led by Disney animators themselves alongside an Audio-Animatronic of Olaf!

Olaf Draws!

In this experience, Olaf welcomes guests into the new space. Inspired by one of Olaf’s sweetest moments in Once Upon A Studio, you’ll find him sitting at an animator’s desk, happily discovering the magic of bringing characters to life through drawing!

It’s Olaf!

And that’s not all… Josh Gad himself returned to record brand-new dialogue for the Olaf Audio-Animatronic! That means guests will get to hear the original voice of Olaf bringing new lines to life just for this experience.

He’s just asking for warm hugs!

The best part? No two experiences are the same! Throughout the day, the experience switches up the character you’ll be drawing, meaning you can come back again and again and get a totally new sketch each time, which just means MORE souvenirs! The lineup of Disney characters and animators you can find is:

Mickey Mouse, with Dan Abraham, director (Once Upon A Studio, Baymax!)
Minnie Mouse, with Hyun Min Lee, animator (Frozen 2, The Princess and the Frog)
Donald Duck, with Austin Traylor, animator (Once Upon A Studio, Moana 2)
Genie, with Eric Goldberg, animator (Aladdin, Hercules)
Moana, with Samantha Vilfort, story artist (Encanto, Zootopia 2)
Stitch, with Fawn Veerasunthorn, director and head of story (Wish, Raya and the Last Dragon)
Olaf, with Trent Correy, director (Once Upon A Studio, Frozen 3)
Ursula, with Michael Woodside, animator (Big Hero 6, Encanto)
Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde, with Byron Howard, director (Zootopia, Zootopia 2)

We drew Mickey!

This experience officially opens on September 14th, so get your pencils ready (or just get ready because they’ll provide the pencils and paper) because you definitely don’t want to miss this! Stay tuned to DFB for more on The Magic of Disney Animation!

Ignore the Haters and Do This First in Hollywood Studios

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Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney to attend their media preview of The Magic of Disney Animation. Note that when we attend events as media, we are 1) not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ