The JOY and The Magic of Disney Animation

I have a link here to how the magic of Disney animation first came to Disney MGM Studios.

We did that podcast much earlier in the year.

And I share in that what that experience looked like.

I wanted to share more about how it evolved over the years, but suffice to say the experience slowly went downhill over several decades until it finally was made into Star Wars Cargo Bay in advance of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

Part of that was the evolution of the art form itself, which went from being largely hand-drawn to mostly computer-drawn.

This ended the film Return to Neverland with Lost Boy Robin Williams and was instead replaced by an experience with Mushu tied to the Florida studio's work with Mulan.

It was nice, but it wasn't Return to Neverland.

At the same time, with improved photo, video, and mobile devices, guests were taking and sharing imagery that hadn't formally gone to the screen yet much less to the attorneys and this was driving lawyers crazy so much of the work was suddenly couldn't be done in view of the guests because you were giving away characters of a future film and so forth and there was a lot of issues particularly as DreamWorks and other animation films animation film studios became a part of the landscape in fact actually It came to a time where much of the work was actually done in trailers out behind the building and then subsequently in a beautiful building that was created and attached behind this one.

But other than having a chance to see the lobby, you saw very little of this building.

And so to attract anyone toward it, substitutions to the experience were made to include meet and greet experiences as well as how to draw classes operationally Over time, the net effect was lessened as guests were much more interested in other parks or in other attractions in the park and operations ultimately kind of dummied down the experience.

So I was really surprised at the announcement of this attraction coming back, especially since Disney had left the studio tour business.

And when details came out about what this attraction might hold, I began to anticipate that this might be the best thing coming to Walt Disney World, in 2026 at least, especially as bigger projects were still well behind it.

When the Courtyard reopened about a month or two ago, it was even more of the kind of detail and effort than I had ever really expected.

And then when I visited the morning of its official opening, I was so blown away.

I want to share with you my best effort to kind of describe why I love this.

And I've identified it under five reasons, but I probably will bounce off of all sorts of things as I go through it because it's just such a big experience.

But there are five things that I think really work for this new attraction.

I have a link here to how the magic of Disney animation first came to Disney MGM Studios.

We did that podcast much earlier in the year.

And I share in that what that experience looked like.

I wanted to share more about how it evolved over the years, but suffice to say the experience slowly went downhill over several decades until it finally was made into Star Wars Cargo Bay in advance of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.

Part of that was the evolution of the art form itself, which went from being largely hand-drawn to mostly computer-drawn.

This ended the film Return to Neverland with Lost Boy Robin Williams and was instead replaced by an experience with Mushu tied to the Florida studio's work with Mulan.

It was nice, but it wasn't Return to Neverland.

At the same time, with improved photo, video, and mobile devices, guests were taking and sharing imagery that hadn't formally gone to the screen yet much less to the attorneys and this was driving lawyers crazy so much of the work was suddenly couldn't be done in view of the guests because you were giving away characters of a future film and so forth and there was a lot of issues particularly as DreamWorks and other animation films animation film studios became a part of the landscape in fact actually It came to a time where much of the work was actually done in trailers out behind the building and then subsequently in a beautiful building that was created and attached behind this one.

But other than having a chance to see the lobby, you saw very little of this building.

And so to attract anyone toward it, substitutions to the experience were made to include meet and greet experiences as well as how to draw classes operationally Over time, the net effect was lessened as guests were much more interested in other parks or in other attractions in the park and operations ultimately kind of dummied down the experience.

So I was really surprised at the announcement of this attraction coming back, especially since Disney had left the studio tour business.

And when details came out about what this attraction might hold, I began to anticipate that this might be the best thing coming to Walt Disney World, in 2026 at least, especially as bigger projects were still well behind it.

When the Courtyard reopened about a month or two ago, it was even more of the kind of detail and effort than I had ever really expected.

And then when I visited the morning of its official opening, I was so blown away.

I want to share with you my best effort to kind of describe why I love this.

And I've identified it under five reasons, but I probably will bounce off of all sorts of things as I go through it because it's just such a big experience.

But there are five things that I think really work for this new attraction.