The Magic of Disney Animation

The drawing class in this pavilion is my favorite attraction in all of Disney. Learn for 30 from a Disney animator how to draw famous characters, and you get to take your artwork home!

The Magic of Disney Animation is located in Hollywood Studios. It’s a pretty neat spot to explore some of the roots of Walt Disney’s dream before everything came to life. Over here, you’ll see some early drawings of numerous Disney characters and the best part is, they have a free drawing class! When we went, the line was fairly short. The Disney illustrator taught us all how to draw Fantasia Mickey which was a lot easier than I anticipated. I enjoy drawing but never drew anything the proper way like the way you see in those «How to Draw» books. It’s not new to me but I have the tendency of just eying everything and not draw light circles or shapes to form the character’s proportions correctly. But this time, I decided to listen to the instructor and followed every step of the way and the result of my drawing turned out better than I expected. It’s really fun and you don’t have to be a super artistic person to draw. The instructions from the illustrator is moderately slow pace and clear for everyone to understand. I do wish that this drawing classroom would be a bit bigger or if they can make better use of the space they’re currently in now. Everyone in each row were spread so far apart. Each row could of fit at least 3 – 4 more people and still draw comfortably. When all of the seats are filled, you have no choice but to sit on the ground and draw from an awkward upward angle that may strain your neck. I still highly recommend it for people of all ages. It’s easy to remember and you can teach it or redo it when you go home.

Like to draw? Do you like art? Good for you because I hate it and I hated the idea of doing this attraction even more after I figured out that it’s more or less a glorified speed drawing class.
The basic premise is that you are herded into a small seating area that holds maybe 25 people while you wait for the next «class» to start which is usually at the top and bottom of the hour.
The doors open and you go into a dark artist studio type environment where the instructor is up front with his pad of paper shown on a large screen to the class via a camera sort of like taking a large college lecture class.
The hard part comes next and that would be to figure out who you are going to draw. Our instructor (he looked about twenty but spoke amazingly like John O’Hurley) was hell bent on doing a character that no one had done but what he didn’t expect was the large contingent of art dorks present who apparently had done this several times so every character that he would call out would garner multiple hand raises indicating that someone had already done it.
Finally after maybe fifteen or sixteen different characters we went with Wreck-​It Ralph since only one or two had previously drawn him. After that it’s simply a matter of just trying your best to mimic what he’s doing to make the best possible character sketch that you can. Several people though were ticked that since so much time was wasted figuring out who we were going to draw our instructor was blitzing along at a pace that no one short of da Vinci could have get kept up with which led to a lot of stick figures and shapes that neither words nor science can describe.
Overall the «class» was enjoyable and with a more time managed instructor it could have been great. If we go back would I do it again? Probably, as long as the same guy isn’t the instructor.

Although I’ve never been impressed with this theatre show since I visited it last a few years ago, along with a few other visits well before then, I can say that it is a good show to take in, if you are looking at trying to stay cool, or wanting to learn how certain comics draw their strips without actually teaching you yourself how to draw one (Disneyland in California presents this theater with the «how-​to» technique on drawing!) Yes, you do get into how the animators of Disney magic, bring their characters to life. Not much more than that! I’ll try to pass, the next time I’m there.

Mickey himself and lots of Pixar’s animation stars waiting to meet the little (and not so little) ones.

A good magician never reveals his tricks.
Well, Disney has no problem sharing the secrets to their magic. A very nice tour.
However, I don’t see why you can’t bring strollers in. I went into the gift shop, and then started wandering/​reading backwards from there. I ended up meeting my husband and daughter and was told that I needed to come back the way I came, that no strollers were allowed.
There is plenty of room for strollers, even a crowd of parents with strollers, to walk and listen to this tour.